Free Republic

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has put the Stalinist state's army on combat alert amid rising tensions after the March sinking of a South Korean warship was blamed on Pyongyang, a news report said on Tuesday. A high-ranking official read Kim's orders on national television last week, South Korea's Economic Daily newspaper said, citing reports by North Korean refugees. The order was issued after Seoul said Thursday that investigations had concluded that a torpedo fired by North Korea was responsible for the March 26 sinking of the corvette Cheonan, which killed 46 South Korean sailors. Kim did not want...

Ruler Kim Jong-Il's largest and most secret redoubt is located inside a northern mountain in North Korea. The Kanwa Asian Defense reported May 11 that if Kim were ever forced to retreat, the Paekdu Mountain Military Base would be the likely location. The base houses Kim’s largest residence and features an airport and extensive underground facilities. Predictions of the collapse of the Kim Jong-Il regime have not come to pass, the report said. However, a variety of more than 30 high-level North Korean officials, businessmen, actors and chefs have said the regime is maintained because illicit economic activities have avoided...

China has stepped up pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear program, the US military commander for Asia said Thursday, playing down charges in Washington that Beijing could do more. Admiral Robert Willard, head of the US Pacific Command, renewed calls on North Korea to return to six-nation talks on ending its nuclear program. "We're convinced that the Chinese are committed to the denuclearization of North Korea, as we are," Willard told the House Armed Services Committee. "They have made efforts -- increasing efforts, I think -- over the past year to exert their influence over North Korea," he...

North Korea has about 1,000 short- and medium-range missiles that are capable of hitting U.S. military facilities in Japan and Guam as well as South Korea, Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said Wednesday. Kim told a forum in Seoul that the North is also believed to have 30 to 40 kilograms of highly enriched uranium. Kim's remarks indicated an increase in Pyongyang's missile stockpile given South Korean military authorities had made an assessment in 2008 that the communist state would have about 800 short, medium and intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs). Kim said North Korea is struggling to maintain the regime amid...

South Korea's military says several North Korean soldiers crossed the border into the South this week, apparently to pursue a defecting soldier. Military spokesman Park Sung-woo said Thursday the North Korean soldiers crossed the border about an hour after a fellow soldier fled to the South on Tuesday. He says they retreated after South Korean soldiers fired warning shots. Park says North Korean soldiers did not return fire. He says the defector is being questioned. More than 18,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the 1950-53 Korean War. They rarely cross the heavily armed border and instead defect...

More so than in most other places, modeling and simulation are critical to training in Korea. Units in Korea do not have access to live combat training centers such as those found in the United States and Europe. Large-scale maneuver training areas, for example, are limited. Environmental and political restrictions severely limit training and traffic congestion curtails the ability of units to get to training areas. Modeling and simulations are a cost-effective means of overcoming these obstacles. Exercise Key Resolve is an annual training event that is designed to ensure that the Combined Forces Command (CFC) is ready to defend...