Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

North Korea On War Footing As Crisis Deepens
AFP ^

Posted on 02/06/2003 5:39:35 PM PST by RCW2001

North Korea said it was preparing for total war with the United States and threatened a preemptive strike if Washington sent extra forces to the region.

The North's top general, Kim Yong-Chun, a close adviser to supreme leader Kim Jong-Il, urged the Stalinist nation's million-strong army to prepare for a final showdown with US "imperialists".

According to North Korea's official media, Kim, chairman of the North Korean army's joint chiefs of staff, told military top brass Wednesday to prepare for battle.

"He called for increasing the capability of the people's army in every way ... so as to win a brilliant victory in the final showdown with the US imperialists," said Rodong Sinmum.

In response, the White House warned Thursday of its "robust plans for any contingencies" tied to its nuclear row with North Korea.

"We've heard much talk from North Korea before. Obviously the United States is very prepared, with robust plans, for any contingencies," spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters.

"This type of talk and the type of actions North Korea has engaged in -- or says it's engaging in -- only hurt North Korea."

US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who on Wednesday presented a case for military action against North Korea's co-member of the "axis of evil" Iraq to the United Nations, said the United States was looking for the "right formula" to deal with the increasingly-isolated Stalinist North.

"We're still looking for the right formula to move forward to give them the security guarantees they say they'd like to have, and they say they must have," Powell said.

"But at the same time, however, we are not going to just say you've got these guarantees and then hope they will satisfy our concerns and the world's concerns about what they have been doing with respect to plutonium activities and uranium enrichment."

US officials have said the Pentagon has put 24 long-range bombers on alert for possible deployment to the Pacific to back up US forces in South Korea.

Pyongyang has repeatedly accused Washington of planning to launch a nuclear strike against it. Those plans were now in the last phase of implementation, according to the official media.

Rodong said the call for a US troop buildup suggested "a new war will inevitably break out on the Korean peninsula and it will develop to be a nuclear war."

A top foreign ministry official told visiting British journalists that Pyongyang was prepared for a preemptive strike if Washington did reinforce its firepower in the Pacific.

"The pre-emptive attack is not something only the United States can do. We can also do that when it is a matter of life or death," North Korea's foreign ministry deputy director Ri Pyong-Gap said according to the BBC.

"We are fully ready to have a conversation with the United States. At the same time, we are fully ready to have war with the United States."

Ri said his government would regard any such buildup as an invasion or attack against it.

Tension over North Korea's nuclear ambitions mounted Thursday after Pyongyang official media said a nuclear plant frozen for the past eight years under an arms control accord with Washington had been restarted.

The North maintains its decision to restart the Yongbyon nuclear plant announced late Wednesday was to ease its energy crisis, though experts say the experimental five megawatt reactor that can produce plutonium has negligible power generation capacity.

South Korea's president-elect Roh Moo-Hyun, a champion of peaceful dialogue with North Korea who takes office in 19 days, responded to the deepening crisis by vowing to preserve peace.

"I am going to assure peace in this nation. That's the commitment I make and at any rate I am going to prevent a war on this peninsula," Roh told a business meeting at Incheon airport west of the capital.

In Tokyo, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Japan would continue to urge the Stalinist state to ease its confrontational stance.

"As before, we want North Korea to stop what it is doing with regard to the nuclear problem, while maintaining contact with South Korea and the United States," he said.

Under a now defunct 1994 accord with Washinton, Pyongyang agreed to freeze the Yongbyon complex in return for the supply of heavy fuel oil and the construction of two light-water reactors.

Washington cut off fuel shipments late last year after revealing in October that Pyongyang had admitted running a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of the 1994 agreement.

As the confrontation hardened, with Washington refusing dialogue until the programme was dismantled, North Korea announced on January 10 it was withdrawing from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-83 next last
To: RCW2001
A squadron of stealth fighters are fragged to deliver tactical nuke and neutron bomb ordinance. Target the nuclear facilities and major depots with the tactical nucs. Pare down the 1 Million man army with the neutron bombs.

Direct the C-5 fleet to deliver sufficient shovels to France and Germany since they're gonna be knee deep in crap. Advice Goddam Hussein that he has 24 hours to get off the planet or he'll receive the same!

Ask the UN to perform a gluteus maximus osculation!

Case closed.

61 posted on 02/06/2003 8:04:50 PM PST by Young Werther
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RCW2001
North Korea is a SIDE SHOW and we can go in there at any time with conventional Bombs and waste their military industrial complex.

It would be a hard air campaign but a nice object lesson for China and the rest.

China better sit still and wait this one out.

We got plenty of Tridents to keep china covered.

Their not quite ready for Tiawan yet.

62 posted on 02/06/2003 8:15:40 PM PST by agincourt1415 (First 3 to 4 days of War a Living Hell for the Enemy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 60 | View Replies]

To: Billy_bob_bob
North Korea has pulled off a whole lot of scammin' over the years with their patented "crazy uncle in the attic" routine. Unfortunantly, its starting to look like the crazy ol' uncle is not only all likkered up again, but this time he's gotten a hold of dad's .44 and he's waving it out the window at the neighbors while ranting incoherently.

Usually we keep Uncle Crazy quiet enough so that the neighbors don't hardly notice. This time it looks like the friendly local SWAT team is on the way, and it's starting to look like a big mess is about to go down. Sure hope dad has the fire insurance paid up.

/ / / / / / / / / / / /
LOL. Terrific post.

63 posted on 02/06/2003 8:34:56 PM PST by BenR2 ((John 3:16: Still True Today.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: BenR2
Agreed re the crazy uncle posts.

Freepers . . . we've constantly entertained in here with articles from European media outlets - what is the Japanese media - and yes, the Chinese media - saying about all of this mess? I mean, this is really more of THEIR problem than ours. If we get too concerned about NK dealing with terrorists, they is a LOT of ground/water between them and the Middle East for us to track them. I mean really, how much traffic does NK really get?

China and Japan, on the other hand, live next door to the crazy uncle with the gun. Shouldn't they be the ones that are most concerned? While we could presumably keep paying them off indefinitely, if we just cut the spigot, got the troops out (aren't the troops really more of a liability now than a deterrent?), and said "see you at the next olympics" . . . I don't think they're going to shoot at us. Japan and China, now, I don't know. Besides, to the extent any of you want to see blood . . . how cool would it be to watch the red chinese and the red koreans go at it? (Like a girl fight, it would be fascinating.) [While in the spirit of this thread, reality dictates that it wouldn't be cool at all as a massive number of regular people would be killed.]

64 posted on 02/06/2003 9:01:27 PM PST by hoyaloya
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: Cautor
As Eastwood said: "Go ahead, make my day punk!"

You Twisted Litte Freak!

65 posted on 02/06/2003 9:11:09 PM PST by Happy2BMe (It's All About You - It's All About Me - It's All About Being Free!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Kozak
Now here is a REAL enemy. Let's focus on these Nuke guys first and let them know who's boss.

More than likely, it's Sadaam who has been assisting NK in all of this. They're in bed together.

66 posted on 02/06/2003 9:31:40 PM PST by mass55th
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: silverlizzard
You left out France. Remember they are a nuclear power too.
67 posted on 02/06/2003 10:08:21 PM PST by Kozak
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: AEMILIUS PAULUS
China will come in on NK's side etc.

Not a prayer. How much buisiness do you think China can do with the Koreans? Compared to the amount of trade they get from us and Japan? If NK starts any real trouble they will get spanked real quick by the Chinese.
68 posted on 02/06/2003 10:11:23 PM PST by Kozak
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: silverlizzard
By the way I have an 18 year old son. He plans to enlist after college. I am immensely proud of him. Doubt your parents can say that about you.
69 posted on 02/06/2003 10:15:01 PM PST by Kozak
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: RCW2001
Under a now defunct 1994 accord with Washinton, Pyongyang agreed to freeze the Yongbyon complex in return for the supply of heavy fuel oil and the construction of two light-water reactors.

Thank you delusional bastards Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter!

"Clinton Bankrolled North Korea's Nuke Program"
http://www.newsmax.com/showinsidecover.shtml?a=2002/10/17/80959

"Clinton Deal Gave N. Korea 100-Nuke-Per-Year Capacity"
http://www.newsmax.com/showinsidecover.shtml?a=2002/10/19/114657

70 posted on 02/07/2003 12:51:47 AM PST by WatchNKorea (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/563733/posts?page=428)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GOPJ
Spear technology could take out North Korean reactors:
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/12/30/30344.shtml
71 posted on 02/07/2003 12:53:08 AM PST by WatchNKorea (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/563733/posts?page=428)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Kozak
If trade is their sole consideration, you are right. However, if they do not think in economic terms but in political terms you are wrong.
72 posted on 02/07/2003 5:34:07 AM PST by AEMILIUS PAULUS (Further, the statement assumed)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 68 | View Replies]

Comment #73 Removed by Moderator

To: silverlizzard
This is not some nebulous goal. Iraq is well on the way to becomming a nuclear power as well as having large amounts of biologic and chemical weapons. Couple this with it's demonstrated willingness to deal with terrorist groups and the threat to us is VERY real and VERY imminent. We will only be able to contain the threat posed by the Islamo- Fascist terrorists by removing any safe havens they employ. Thats going to mean convincing the governments of Muslim countries WE WILL DO WHAT WE NEED TO. They will get the message.

Conversely North Korea is a single isolated impoverished state. It's not going anywhere. Since they have nuclear weapons (thanks to our illustrious Great Leader WJC ) the situation can't get much worse in the near term.
74 posted on 02/07/2003 11:22:05 AM PST by Kozak
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies]

Comment #75 Removed by Moderator

To: joanie-f; snopercod
A guess:

The North Koreans are racing to build two first-strike nuclear missiles; it is a situation now far more serious than Iraq.

All these years, since the end of the Korean War, we have managed the North Korean threat, that is the Red Chinese threat through North Korea, by guaranteeing an immediate retalitory strike, using nuclear bombs ... should North Korea again invade South Korea or threaten an offensive against South Korea; that includes the same protection for Japan.

North Korea is a province of Red China, no matter what are the labels, and a problem has come up because:

First, the Red Chinese were effectively given, by the Clinton Administration, the ability to make "efficient" nuclear triggers.

Second, the Red Chinese were given the improvements to ballistic missile construction, which they had till then lacked --- the Russians did not appreciate it, by the way.

Third, the Red Chinese were handed over the Aegis technology when they "captured" that Navy reconnaisance aircraft --- for which President Bush gave everybody a medal.

It is a bit more difficult to determine how Red China might sacrifice North Korea, in comparison and contrast to how Saddam might sacrifice his allies, such as Syria. The angling for opportunity to shock the world by tripping the Americans into a first nuclear, though low-grade tactical, strike, is something to take much more seriously than a regime change for Iraq.

The Red Chinese are ratcheting up things, and quite rapidly, because they see it is working --- they are getting the reactions they predict.

Soon will come more talk of the nuclear bunker-busters which the Americans have available for sinking Saddam "a way down ..." and that their use could ignite a world-wide nuclear confrontation. Boo!

Well, nobody wants that, and viola, to keep at some distance from it, President Bush will be "forced" to dismiss the use of said nuclear weapons.

In addition, the North Koreans [read: Red Chinese] will press for the removal from the Theatre of the Sea of Japan, our "stockpiles of nuclear weapons."

Greenpeace will no doubt emerge from the fog and scare the C.R.A.P. out of their fellow "greens" in Germany, in particular.

In short, the "nuclear boogey man" is going to get center stage, and to get him offstage, all manner of "liberal media" will begin asking President Bush, "Do you deny that the U.S. has plans to use nuclear weapons against Iraq and North Korea?"

Well, that'll get everybody's stomach in an uproar.

Just swell.

And, well, we obviously cannot tolerate North Korea's finally, actually, assembling functional nuclear missiles --- we cannot let them do that.

The Japanese will not let them do that.

IMHO, naturally.

76 posted on 02/10/2003 6:09:44 PM PST by First_Salute
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: First_Salute
I think you have pretty much nailed the political angle of what is going on.

Did you ever visit Maybury's site Chaostan? The guy has been writing for years about a worldwide "alliance" between the muslims and Chinese to bring down America. It's pretty interesting stuff. The lead article now is titled "Yes, it's WW III". Disclaimer: Maybury is trying to sell "how to protect yourself" newsletters.

I still think that not all of the troops leaving for the gulf are arriving at that destination. But it won't be enough without the nukes.

To me, nuclear weapons are just bigger bombs. We should use them if we have to, world opinion be damned. My fear is that clinton dismantled most of them.

77 posted on 02/11/2003 4:45:14 AM PST by snopercod
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 76 | View Replies]

To: snopercod; joanie-f; Squantos; M Kehoe; PhiKapMom; harpseal; Travis McGee; brityank; tangofox
The no. 1 reason that President Bush is considering nuclear bunker busters, is to make up for the Clinton Legacy --- the lack of munitions and equipment.

We are still not prepared to remove Saddam Hussein.

To wit: the cupboard is nearly bare.

We do not have in the logistics chain, anywhere near what we need; thus, is this impetus to have a knock-out punch from the get-go.

The Red Chinese, Iran, and Syria all know this. The Saudis do also, but they're a little more inclined toward some faith in our ability to come up with the goods more quickly than these "competitors'" assumptions would permit. The French know it. The Germans know it.

The federalization of some private carriers' jet transportation should have occurred on Sept. 12, 2001, as previously stated on Sept. 12, 2001, along with volunteers training in first aid, fire, police, bridge building and other transportation repair crews ... we still have no domestic B and C teams.

Instead we sit, afraid of being politically incorrect --- by President Bush's order, by the way --- preventing us from doing the right thing, which is stopping all manner of transport used by anybody resembling somebody from the mid-East, "and then some," and inspecting such transport.

Every car shop, car, bus, truck, and trailer lot owned or operated by somebody from the mid-East ethnically, should be inspected.

But no. Instead we sit by order of Bush-Bot-dom, to await the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in ... Wilkes Barre, PA? Because it's in a valley where the vapors and radiation will not clear out easily?

Yeah; let's just sit and wait.

Our country is frozen in the headlights of political correctness and government imposition all trying to control the populace. Most political leaders are fussing over not trying to cause a panic, instead of applying our resources to going after the bad guys.

But you can tell all this, merely from the fact that you cannot park your car near the airport terminal, while the Somali taxi cab drivers come and go at will, their cabs are not inpsected, and if you look at their faces, their the same guys who are in the films of the people who dragged our dead soldiers through the streets of Mogadishu.

Not only do they come and go here at will, because they have complained about "regular" passenger traffic along the main airport entrance, the airport administration has opened up a perimeter fence for them.

That gate is not manned; there's nobody there. It's road is actually part of the ramp system for the main east-west runway along the south side of the airport.

So dig this, in this so-called modern metropolis, a bad guy with a cab can drive un-obstructed upon the airport ramp system, stop a passenger jet, shoot it up, stop the next and undoubtedly board it, having scared everybody, and then take that jet.

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO NEED TO GO INSIDE THE AIRPORT AND TRY TO GET PAST AIRPORT "SECURITY!"

But absolutely nobody around here has got that on their desk, in front of their nose, stamped "APPROVED!" by some higher-up!

The German bureaucracy helped Hitler to his demise. The Russian communist bureaucracy was laughed out of existence by its constantly tying their own shoes together.

The bad guys in the U.S. need transportation, and our government "leaders" are doing nothing about it because none of them want to be interviewed by Peter Jennings on the topic of their being meanspirited.

I cannot wait until friends and relatives of the hundreds of thousands of dead Americans, visit their wrath upon such social-engineering "operatives."

Then, the war will have actually started; finally, to go after the bad guys.

78 posted on 02/11/2003 6:19:42 AM PST by First_Salute
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 77 | View Replies]

To: snopercod; joanie-f
Tonight's top story should be about the 24-hours around-the-clock aircraft construction business.

We do not have the equipment.

We do not have the replacement parts.

We do not have enough maintenance people.

We do not have any significant number of replacement personnel.

We have no B and no C teams at all.

79 posted on 02/11/2003 6:23:48 AM PST by First_Salute
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]

To: snopercod; joanie-f
If the bad guys strike Fresno, CA, there isn't going to be any Free Republic online. Good luck.
80 posted on 02/11/2003 6:27:57 AM PST by First_Salute
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 79 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-83 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson