Nuclear War At Any Moment - N. Korea

Gloucestershire ^

[RCW2001]

14:00 - 20 February 2003

Relations between North and South Korea are now so grave that military commanders have warned a nuclear war could break out at any moment.

This follows an incident in which a North Korean fighter jet briefly crossed into South Korea but retreated after being confronted by two southern jets.

Anti-aircraft missile units have been put into battle position in the South Korean capital of Seoul

Only a few days ago the North threatened to abandon the armistice keeping peace along the countries' tense border.

The incursion, the first by a North Korean military jet since 1983, increased jitters on the peninsula, where the North is locked in a dispute over nuclear weapons development.

KCNA, the North's state news agency and a mouthpiece of the regime, said the situation on the peninsula was now "so alarming that a nuclear war may break out at any moment."

Tension has crept up since October, when US officials said North Korea had admitted having a covert nuclear weapons programme.

Washington and its allies suspended fuel shipments, and the North retaliated by expelling UN monitors, taking steps to restart frozen nuclear facilities and withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

[Interesting Times]

North Korea has to be wondering why the heck we haven't bought them off yet.

It may take them a while to absorb the notion that rattling their sabers is no longer a lucrative venture.

[Eternal_Bear]

Maybe they received assurances of support from both China and Russia?

[katana]

Crunch ..... aaarrggghhhh! ..... thud

[Eric in the Ozarks]

You are probably correct. The US has no nukes on S. Korean soil. But our subs and carriers make this a moot point.

[George W. Bush]

KCNA, the North's state news agency and a mouthpiece of the regime, said the situation on the peninsula was now "so alarming that a nuclear war may break out at any moment."

Translation: we can no longer feed the army and they're preparing to revolt. Our oil stocks are declining to the point where we will soon no longer be able to drive a tank down the street. We hope you believe we will commit nuclear suicide and take the South with us if you don't give us the oil and the food and let us make nukes to sell to terror states.

Japan is ready to hit the North if they even start to fuel a missile. I don't think the North has nuclear artillery so they have to drop a bomb from a jet or a missile. I suspect we've got spy satellites watching them every second and the Japanese are using our satellite feed to keep watch. While it has not been reported, I suspect Japan's defense forces are constantly on patrol off the coast, ready to hit.

The incursion by the jet is just an intimidation tactic as is the talk of imminent nuclear war.

China is also very opposed to nuclearization of the Korean peninsula or Japan. So the North is making them unhappy. And Japan announced a few weeks ago that some weapons-grade plutonium somehow can't be accounted for under their nuclear control procedures. Hmmm, now just where did that plutonium go, surely not into a couple of tactical nukes under Japanese control...

[Steel Wolf]

Why else would Putin be sending horses to N. Korea?

Breakfast?

There's a lot of meat on horses, and it sure beats the traditional North Korean meal, bark soup.

[George W. Bush]

I wonder if those South Korean protestors still want us out?

The Korean churches and media/business sector are organizing a one million plus pro-U.S. demonstration for March 1. Don't think that Korea is as Leftish as the Euroweenie populations just yet. Wait and see on March 1. We still have some real support there from the government and the ordinary people. The older generation still remembers.

[George W. Bush]

Washington and its allies need to suspend the food shipments!

What?! We haven't cut off the food yet? Only the oil has been cut off? Bad policy but I'll trust Bush/Cheney/Powell/Rumsfeld and hope they're right. They're playing everything else just right.

[appalachian_dweller]

>> Washington and its allies need to suspend the food shipments! <<

I thought the US had already done so.

[TLBSHOW]

Nope instead we are feeding their army! Either directly or they save the money on the food and use theirs for weapons!

plus

Thursday, Jan. 23, 2003

Yes, U.S. Is Building North Korea's Reactors

"Fox and Friends" nearly always gets things right, and for good reason it's the country's top-rated morning cable show. But in response to e-mail queries from readers, we do want to reaffirm that our report about the U.S. still building North Korea's nuclear plants is correct.

"The construction continues on the light-water reactors," Brian Kremer, assistant director of public affairs for the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, told NewsMax today. "KEDO is still building them, and the U.S. is part of that."

There are 1,500 workers at the construction site, he said.

http://www.newsmax.com/showinside.shtml?a=2003/1/23/174715

I sure hope that has or is going to change soon!

[vannrox]

.


"...Relations between North and South Korea are now so grave that military commanders have warned a nuclear war could break out at any moment..."


.

[Steel Wolf]

There is something almost funny about how provocative NK is being. Like the mouse that roared.

Kim Il Sung died in 1994, which is when his son Kim Jong Il rose to power. The overwhelming bulk of Jong Il's foriegn policy experience has been dealing with Clinton, and being the beneficiary of the United States. The days of USSR or PRC support are before his time, and neither now has the money to keep the DPRK afloat. Only the US can provide the North Korans with the security they need.

Kim Jong Il and the DPRK, for almost a decade, have assessed the United States and their neighbors as being vulnerable to threatening behavior. They portray themselves as crazy, but they are not. They are extremely calculating. They ARE desperate, however, that is not an act.

They are simply not self sufficient, nor will they ever be under Kim's rule. Kim has bet the farm that the United States will realize how desperate North Korea is, bow to the pressure from South Korea, and pay them off. Cutting off the food and oil will kill the regime in short order. Sanctions will speed the process even more so. Every indication we have from high level defectors is that North Korea would have fallen already if not for Clinton's food and oil aid.

Kim is playing chicken. He has no choice. If he fails to win concessions from the United States, he will face either a high level coup, or a total civil breakdown of the country, ending for him in the hangman's noose from the nearest tree.

[PsyOp]

You're proabably right. I also think those reports we've heard of the Air Force developing deep-penetrating, low-yield, nuclear bunker busters may have more application against North Korea than Iraq. Thye would be perfect for taking out the artillery N.Korea has dug in and aimed at Seoul.

I also think that Bush is playing this right--studiously ignoring North Korea and allowing them to flail about provocatively till they make the case for their own removal from the civilized world. The more we ignore him, the more Kim Jong Il will try to get noticed in the only way he knows how--threats.

It has the double effect of reminding the South why we are there in the first place.

[PsyOp]

Those damn protestors would get religion in a hurry.

I doubt it would hit them until after their second week in one of Kims "re-education" camps. Socialist nitwits are particularly hard-headed.

[Mamzelle]

Thanks for the analysis. Frankly, I haven't paid much attn., other to be annoyed at the behavior of the South to our soldiers.

[Steel Wolf]

Translation: we can no longer feed the army and they're preparing to revolt. Our oil stocks are declining to the point where we will soon no longer be able to drive a tank down the street.

North Korea has somewhere around four thousand tanks, most of them in the T-54s family, either in storage or in various states of disrepair. They also field some T-34s, and T-62s, and a handful of better tanks. They haven't had enough fuel to do good training with them for more than a decade. (To say nothing of their air force, which trains at 30% or so of the South Koreans)

They don't have the reserves to train, much less to carry the fight South for long, and I wouldn't want to be within 20 miles of a NK oil storage depot after hostilities commence. Their conventional strength atrophies further with every passing year.

[Phredd23]

China is behind the NK noise. 1) to test how US responds to potential of 2 fronts and 2) long term strategy is to remove USA from Asia, which China sees as their sole sphere of influence.

Keep an eye on the puppetmaster

[Jimmyclyde]

...But seeing this is a nuclear bomb, the most powerful weapon in the world, and can blow your little country's head clean off, you've got to be asking yourself one question...Do I feel lucky? Well do ya, you feel lucky punk?

[Wonder Warthog]

"The US has no nukes on S. Korean soil."

And your source for this is??? I would bet that there are any number of TACTICAL nuclear devices in S. Korea, as that is the only possible way to defeat a "human-wave" style offensive by the N. Koreans.

OTOH, I agree that there are no STRATEGIC nuclear devices (i.e. city-busters) in the multi-kiloton to megaton range. Those are with our long-range bomber force, and on subs.

[Just mythoughts]

LOL, Breakfast only if Ill were hungry, seen his picture? He seems to be eating well these days.

Now unless he likes horse meat the horses probably will receive protection that Ill receives so the hungry won't have breakfast.

I expect to see Ill on a horse, having his picture on the world stage, sending back a thank you to Putin, "I got the message".