Over the past couple of months, North Korea's Kim Jong-Un has become increasingly belligerent. Within that time frame, the DPRK has released a video promising the incineration of Washington by a nuclear device; declared null and void its 60-year-old armistice with South Korea; severed military "hotline" communications with South Korea; and vowed to "settle accounts" with the US. Yes, North Korea has a history of testing new South Korean leaders; and the timing (of some of this bellicose rhetoric, anyway) may be loosely related to America's recent military maneuvers with South Korea, and the B-52 flyover of the Korean Peninsula. But the rhetoric is nonetheless worrisome: Kim the Younger may very well be backing himself into a corner, so that he must actually do something, in order to prove that he is not all bluster. And that could certainly mean a new war on the Korean Peninsula.
(Reuters) - North Korea said on Saturday it was entering a "state of war" with South Korea in a continuing escalation of tough rhetoric against Seoul and Washington after coming under international sanctions for its nuclear test. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/30/us-korea-north-war-idUSBRE92T00020130330
Do the "I want war" nuts ever engage their brains. OK, it's clear, NK is run but a set of morons - I won't argue but why do they want to attack the US of A? America has been a threat to North Korea since the end of WWII when you supported the South Korean dictator in an attempt to keep communism out of Asia. This conflict, whilst it may well be nasty, is absolutely nothing to do with America and you should not be there. It gets worse. So many Americans have no idea what is near North Korea. Many know China shares a land border and, as the brighter posters will have noticed, the American government is pushing anti Chinese stories at the moment. That's been going on for about a year now as the "Muslim" threat is played out. What many of you have no idea about is, NK shares a land border with Russia and, here's the bugger, the Vladivostok naval base is very close to that border. This is a major Russian base and they won't want the Americans that close to it. That leaves you with two very well armed countries, watching American actions very closely and neither will want you close to their land border. You may have a far greater problem than your politicians bother to mention.
1. Following are excerpts from the article headllined 'North Korea’s “US Mainland Strike Plan” revealed' at http://www.humanevents.com/2013/03/29/north-koreas-us-mainland-strike-plan-revealed/ (Begin excerpts) The deranged lunatics who run North Korea decided to emphasize their latest round of saber-rattling by releasing a photo of leader Kim Jong-un signing the orders to prepare for an attack on the United States, flanked by a clown car’s worth of his top military brass... The UK Telegraph noticed that if you look carefully at the maps on the wall behind Kim, you can see that one of them is marked “US Mainland Strike Plan,” and it shows missiles fired from North Korea striking Hawaii, Washington D.C., Los Angeles, and… Austin, Texas. What did Austin do to get on the target list? Or is that the sort of question one is not supposed to bother asking psychopathic nutjobs while they play dress-up? ...“He finally signed the plan on technical preparations of strategic rockets, ordering them to be on standby to fire so that they may strike any time the US mainland, its military bases in the operational theatres in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam, and those in South Korea,” the state-run KCNA news agency reported. It added that the B2 test flights demonstrated Washington’s “hostile intent” and said the “reckless” act had gone “beyond the phase of threat and blackmail.” The North’s military was placed on its highest alert level earlier this week and a hotline link with the South Korean military was severed...(End excerpts) 2. Following are excerpts from the article headllined "North Korea: US fears comical Kim may be all-too-deadly serious" at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...omical-Kim-may-be-all-too-deadly-serious.html (Begin excerpts) Some of the images from Kim Jong-un's secretive regime could have been from a Hollywood spoof. In one photograph, the podgy dictator dressed in his buttoned-up suit studied a map, ostentatiously labelled "US Mainland Strike Plan". Another showed a fleet of hovercrafts rehearsing for a marine landing – pictures which, it was later revealed, had been photoshopped to exaggerate the military strength of North Korea. Yet when Kim Jong-un's government declared early on Saturday that the "time has come to stage a do-or-die final battle", and declared relations with South Korea to be "at the state of war", the warnings were not being taken lightly in the world's major capitals. "We've seen reports of a new and unconstructive statement from North Korea. We take these threats seriously and remain in close contact with our South Korean allies," said Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council.... Kim Jong-un, the 30-year-old "Supreme Leader", is still an unknown quantity, having been in power for just over a year following the death of his father Kim Jong-il in December 2011. The country of 24 million people is in itself shrouded in mystery, closed to the world and with an estimated 200,000 held in prison camps. Defectors occasionally escape to the outside world, but their accounts are impossible to confirm and thought to be frequently unreliable. Another key question is who is actually running the country: is it Kim, or are the country's powerful generals actually pulling the strings? With the world's fourth largest standing armed forces - some 1.19 million people in active service -- North Korea's generals wield immense power. Since taking over, Kim Jong-un has made efforts to model himself on his warmongering grandfather, Kim Il-sung, who founded the professional army and sent agents to try to assassinate the president of South Korea. In his photos he adopts the stances and positioning of his grandfather, while his haircut is also unmistakably similar to that of his hardline ancestor. Given that we know so little, it is the very secrecy that leads to so much concern in the rest of the world. China is the only country which has any real contact with the rulers of the pariah state – leaving Washington and Seoul to read between the lines and interpret the signs....(End excerpts) 3. North Korea is the first country ever dares to threaten to attack the US mainland with nuclear missiles and turn "the world's sole superpower" (the title is controversial now) into a “sea of fire.” This is analogous to a 6-year-old boy challenging a world heavyweight boxing champion to a fight. It is also akin to a calf charging headlong at a tiger which stands transfixed with awe and surprise at the calf's unexpected aggressive behaviour. Even at the peak of the Cold War, no Soviet leader ever dared to declare that the "time has come to stage a do-or-die final battle" against the US Imperialist. Similarly, no government leaders and military top brass in China and Russia have ever dared to announce that the time has come to settle accounts with the US and turn it into a “sea of fire”. Although the Kim Jong-un's aggressive posturing looks comical and farcical, it's not done without purpose and effect. It's a clever ploy in psychological warfare. However, don't try to call his bluff. He could be considered the greatest gambler in the history of mankind, ready to put not only his life but the lives of his people and even the whole Korean race on the "gaming table" of nuclear war. His nuclear threats against the US mainland might be a sick fantasy, but he has plenty of weapons to unleash a second Korean War. 4. What has Kim's brinkmanship demonstrated? a. Had Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi made a monkey out of Uncle Sam, they would have departed much earlier. Similarly, if any country in the Western Hemisphere makes such a nuclear threat, Uncle Sam would not hesitate to strike at once. Kim's tomfoolery has exposed Uncle Sam's impotence in dealing with North Korea, not to mention denuclearizing the rogue state. It won't be surprising that many Americans are watching Kim's spoof with much agitation and frustration. b. Similarly, the Iraq fiasco has demonstrated the striking limitations of power for the globe's highest-tech, most destructive military machine. In Iraq, Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to two US presidents, concedes in a recent op-ed, "We are being wrestled to a draw by opponents who are not even an organized state adversary." In 1945, the US nuked Japan like nobody's business. Now the North Korean "deranged lunatic" threatens to nuke the Us like nobody's business. This shows that the US is past its zenith. This was opined in the article headlined "The World's Sole Superpower in Fast Decline" at http://www.alternet.org/story/60489/the_world's_sole_superpower_in_fast_decline "No superpower in modern times has maintained its supremacy for more than several generations. And, however exceptional its leaders may have thought themselves, the United States, already clearly past its zenith, has no chance of becoming an exception to this age-old pattern of history." c. Kim's brinkmanship has unnerved the world's major capitals while one of a series of photos released by North Korea’s state news agency shows him calmly signing the order for North Korea's strategic rocket forces to be on standby to fire at US targets, with large-scale maps and diagrams in the background. Russia called on the US and South Korea to refrain from belligerent actions, said a recurrence of war was unacceptable. France said it was deeply worried about the situation on the Korean peninsula while NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow said the alliance hoped "that this is more posturing than a prelude to any armed hostilities." China has repeatedly called for restraint on the peninsula. Barry Pavel, a former senior director for defence policy at the White House's National Security Council, said: "This is a dangerous situation. It's a classic dynamic of deterrence and escalation and I'm sure it's exactly what the Obama administration did not want." Some questioned the wisdom of the US flying its stealth bombers to the South. James Hardy, the Jane's expert, said: "The problem is that the US may appear equally belligerent. And the question remains: why is it doing that? Have the Americans lost patience with North Korea? Or are they, as I think, making a statement to South Korea to show they are backing them, and that Seoul should not overreact?" 5. What are the possible consequences of Kim's brinkmanship? a. By openly challenging and standing up to the world's sole superpower, Kim has become a hero in the eyes of the Korean people. He will be able to consolidate his political power among his people and the military. b. His brinkmanship can be used as a template by others in their future defiance against the US and other Western countries. Leaders of Third World countries such as Syria and Iran can emulate Kim's aggressive posturing by rallying thousands of their people on the streets to chant "Death to the US imperialists" and "Sweep away the US aggressors". c. With the North Korean nuclear facilities remain intact and go unscathed even after threatening the US with nuclear weapons, he will be emboldened to repeat his brinkmanship in the future. In the aftermath of the event, nothing -- pressure or no pressure -- can stop North Korea's advance to the status of a full-fledged nuclear state. Economic sanctions will bite, and bite hard at the North Korean people but not Kim's nuclear weapons. To the North Korean "deranged lunatic", his people can die but his nuclear weapons must survive at all costs. North Korea Rejects U.N. Sanctions, Vows to Become Full-Fledged Nuclear State http://www.latinospost.com/articles...ns-vows-become-full-fledged-nuclear-state.htm North Korea Vows to Produce Nuclear Weapons http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/world/asia/14korea.html?_r=0 Can North Korea REALLY attack Austin? Experts scoff at Kim Jong Un's ham-fisted threats on map that just happened to show attack plan with 'non-existent' missiles http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ppened-attack-plan-non-existent-missiles.html ANALYSIS: North Korean Photo Reveals ‘U.S. Mainland Strike Plan’ http://www.nknews.org/2013/03/breaking-north-korean-photo-reveals-u-s-mainland-strike-plan/ North Korea enters 'state of war' against South Korea http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...-enters-state-of-war-against-South-Korea.html North Korea threatens to strike US mainland http://www.smh.com.au/world/north-korea-threatens-to-strike-us-mainland-20130326-2gsba.html North Korea threatens to 'settle accounts with the US' http://video.foxnews.com/v/22623948...ettle-accounts-with-the-us/?playlist_id=86858 North Korea Threatens to 'Settle Accounts' with US http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/March/North-Korea-Threatens-to-Settle-Accounts-with-US-/ San Diego is a Target on North Korea's Attack Map http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblo...diego-is-a-target-on-north-koreas-attack-map/ Questions for an Expert on North Korean Propaganda http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/20...s-north-koreas-propaganda-mean/?ref=kimjongun North Korea has threatened to attack the US – what will happen next? http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/29/north-korea-attack-us-what-happens-next?CMP=twt_gu Global Powers Cast Wary Eye as Korean Tension Escalates http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/30/w...ers-missile-readiness.html?ref=kimjongun&_r=0 Korea border skirmishes http://koreanunification.net/2010/11/04/korea-border-skirmishes/ A People's History of American Empire by Howard Zinn http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn3lF5XSUg Collapse of the American Empire: swift, silent, certain http://articles.marketwatch.com/2010-03-09/commentary/30786884_1_collapse-rise-and-fall-20th-century
N Korea 'could be linked to bank heists'... N Korea could be linked to cyber-attacks on banks, security firm says Fri, 27 May 2016 | A top cyber-security firm is investigating whether North Korea could be linked to attacks on banks in recent months.
