"North Korea may be able to make nuclear missile; Findings shared in congressional budget hearing" by Thom Shanker, David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt | New York Times, April 12, 2013
WASHINGTON — A new assessment by the Pentagon’s intelligence arm, the Defense Intelligence Agency, which has primary responsibility for monitoring the missile capabilities of adversary nations but which a decade ago was among those that argued most vociferously — and incorrectly — that Iraq had nuclear weapons....
(Blog editor is saddened that the sick war f***s actually think the people that care and pay attention will fall this s*** again. And btw, brain-dead Amurka ain't with you either because they are, well, brain dead. You reap what you sow)
The disclosure of the Defense Intelligence Agency’s assessment came on the same day that the director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper, sought to tamp down fears that North Korean rhetoric could lead to an armed clash with the United States, South Korea, and regional allies, and that a high South Korean official called for dialogue with North Korea.
Translation: The U.S. JUST BLINKED!
Clapper told a hearing of the House Intelligence Committee that, in his experience, two other confrontations with the North — the seizure of the US research ship Pueblo in 1968 and the death of two US soldiers in a tree-cutting episode in a border area in 1976 — stoked much greater tensions between the two countries. The statement by the South Korean official, Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl Jae, was televised and represented a considerable softening in tone by President Park Geun Hye’s government.
Related: Kornering Park Geun Hye
She escaped!
Secretary of State John Kerry, meanwhile, was scheduled to arrive in Seoul on Friday and to travel to China and Japan after that.
Related: North Korea Greets Kerry With Nuclear Bomb
Again?
He has two principal goals on the last leg of a six-nation trip: to encourage China to use its influence to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program and to reassure South Korea and Japan that the US remains committed to their defense....
Nonetheless....
I get s*** war propaganda!!!!
--more--"
Also see: G-8 foreign ministers focus on Korea
Path to peace in Korea
That's not something I'm going to find in my war-promoting paper.
Army chaplain honored decades after death in Korea
I'll bet the North Koreans killed him.
And after the article that I just analyzed I get this?
"Kerry walks fine line on North Korea; Warns of US response, hedges on threat level" by Anne Gearan and Greg Miller | Washington Post, April 13, 2013
SEOUL — Secretary of State John Kerry warned North Korea’s young leader Friday that his country would lose any military showdown with the United States, and sought to downplay a US intelligence report that North Korea is now capable of delivering a nuclear-armed missile.
The dual signals from Kerry were part of a broader effort by the Obama administration to force North Korea to back away from its increasingly bellicose rhetoric, while also assuaging the concerns of allies and the American public....
What a turned-inside out description of what is going on over there. This AmeriKan ma$$ media is so far gone it's sickening. They are the ones responsible for all this heat and they are trying to come on as the peacemakers. How disgusting!!
The tone of the reference to US military power seemed designed to reinforce a message the administration has also delivered more explicitly in recent weeks by repositioning US missile defense equipment and sending nuclear-capable stealth bombers on conspicuous missions over South Korea.
Yeap, we got a bogus intelligence report and the South calling for talks a day before, and yet I get this s*** on a Slow Saturday. And no big deal with B-2 buzzers and all. God, if someone did that on the Canadian border the planes would be right there (or not. Let's never forget the Dick Cheney stand-down order during the simultaneous 9/11 war games he was directing).
At the same time, Kerry attempted to tamp down the significance of a recent intelligence report that concluded that North Korea is now capable of making a nuclear warhead that can be mounted on a ballistic missile and fired.
If true, it would mean that North Korea has crossed what many regard as the most difficult technical barrier to being able to launch a nuclear attack, even if limited in scope and range.
Kerry said that ‘‘it is inaccurate to suggest’’ that Pyongyang ‘‘has fully tested, developed, or demonstrated capabilities that are articulated in that report.’’
So we got another lying, fudging US intel agency, huh?
Kerry was referring to an assessment secretly circulated last month by the Defense Intelligence Agency, a spy service that gathers intelligence and produces analysis for the Pentagon. The finding was made public Thursday when it was mentioned by a Republican congressman during a hearing on Capitol Hill....
Kerry’s use of the phrase ‘‘fully tested, developed, or demonstrated,’’ seemed to allow for some ambiguity on the question of whether North Korea is capable of making a nuclear warhead....
(Long exhale)
Statements from the White House and the nation’s intelligence chief included similarly hedged terms.
What may seem like administration obfuscation is ‘‘a genuine issue,’’ said George Perkovich of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. ‘‘As any of these guys will acknowledge, our intelligence on North Korea is very, very limited. We don’t know what we don’t know.’’
Channeling Don Rumsfeld?
*********************
US officials with access to classified reports said that the Defense Intelligence Agency tends to goes further than other spy agencies in its assessments of threats, including North Korea’s nuclear program, because of the agency’s unique mission.
That's the excuse for more horse s*** shoveling?
The agency is focused on missions that include identifying threats to American forces overseas, and making sure that Pentagon leaders are prepared for developments that require a US military response.
Still, officials said that the agency’s conclusion on North Korea, which it conveyed with ‘‘moderate confidence,’’ is not contradicted by findings from the CIA or other US spy agencies....
Oh, so it's still good intel, huh?
Good frikkin' Christ!!!
The urgency of that question has been heightened by the menacing behavior of North Korea’s young and relatively untested leader.
Last month, the North Korean news agency released pictures of Kim in a ‘‘war room’’ where a large map was marked with lines meant to depict missile flight paths to major cities in the United States.
Of course, when they show Obama and his Cabinet staring at a blank screen during the alleged assassination of bin Laden it's all good. It's a president in charge!
US officials have said that and other provocative moves seem aimed at bolstering Kim’s standing in North Korea and abroad....
Which oddly, this crisis has done. He will now be looked at as the leader who got the U.S. to back down.
--more--"
Related:
On Friday, protesters in South Korea call on US Secretary of State John Kerry to start peace talks with North Korea (Associated Press).
I like the welcome!
"US, South Korea on alert for missile launch by North" by Choe Sang-Hun | New York Times, April 11, 2013
SEOUL — US and South Korean troops increased alert levels Wednesday as South Korea’s foreign minister warned that North Korea could launch its medium-range Musudan missile ‘‘any time from now.’’
********************
A successful test of the missile would demonstrate the North’s potential to hit not only South Korea but also all of Japan and targets as far away as the US military bases on the Pacific island of Guam....
Adding to the concerns, North Korea often stages military provocations around important national anniversaries, and Monday is the birthday of North Korea’s founder, Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of the current leader, Kim Jong Un....
Despite warnings from their leaders of impending nuclear war, residents of Pyongyang gave no sense of panic, with people planting trees and dancing in the plazas ahead of the holiday, the Associated Press, which has a bureau in the North Korean capital, reported Wednesday.
The North Korean warnings also appeared to have little or no effect on the small Pyongyang community of foreign diplomats, who had been admonished by the host government last week that it could not guarantee their safety as of Wednesday and that they should consider evacuating.
A spokeswoman for Catherine Ashton, the top foreign policy official at the European Union, said in Brussels that despite North Korea’s ‘‘aggressive rhetoric, we judge that the situation on the ground does not justify evacuation or relocation.’’
The spokeswoman, Maja Kocijancic, said this message had been delivered via the Swedish Embassy to North Korea’s Foreign Ministry, along with a reminder that under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, North Korea ‘‘has a continuing obligation in all circumstances to protect diplomatic missions and EU citizens.’’
***************************
The military activity came as tensions continued to affect economic ties between the two Koreas. For a second consecutive day, North Korean workers did not turn up for work Wednesday at the industrial complex the two Koreas had run jointly in the North Korean city of Kaesong. About 110 South Koreans returned home Wednesday, reducing the number of South Koreans staying there to 297.
North Korea suspended operations at the factory park in response to ongoing joint US-South Korean military drills and UN sanctions....
The money earned by North Korean workers at Kaesong has been a key source of badly needed foreign currency for the North Korean regime. Wednesday was a payday for North Korean workers, but with the North blocking anyone from the South from entering the industrial zone, South Korean factory owners had no way to pay their North Korean workers.
There were also signs that the tensions were starting to hurt tourism to the North....
Related:
"The Koreas’ border — part tourist trap, part war zone. The border allows visitors to experience a touch of danger — but not so much that it interferes with shopping and picture-taking."
Tourism is thriving despite the insult, mostly Chinese and Japanese?
Also Wednesday, South Korea officially blamed North Korea for launching a series of hacking attacks that paralyzed the computer networks of three broadcasters and three banks, as well as several government websites, in the South last month.
Those were likely false flags carried out by the west.
--more--"
You know what I'm weary of, readers?
An AGENDA-PU$HING, WAR-PROMOTING, MA$$ MEDIA!
"No sense of panic in North Korean capital; Officials urge foreign firms to leave the South" by Jean H. Lee | Associated Press, April 10, 2013
PYONGYANG, North Korea — Scores of North Koreans of all ages planted trees as part of a forestation campaign — armed with shovels, not guns. In the evening, women in traditional dress danced in the plazas to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the late leader Kim Jong Il’s appointment to a key defense post.
My eyes are watering up right now because that is such a contrast the daily drumbeat of war s***. Planting trees and dancing and my government wants to send missiles in there.
Despite another round of warnings from their leaders of impending nuclear war, there was no sense of panic in the capital on Tuesday....
Yup, haven't moved any troops, haven't beefed up reinforcements. If anything, it shows the Koreans aren't talking war. I'm starting to wonder if all this bellicose blah-blah from my s*** war paper even happened!!!
There was no sign of an exodus of foreign companies or tourists from South Korea....
Yeah, well, wait a day or two.
(Blog editor sighs violently)
Analysts see a direct attack on Seoul as extremely unlikely, and there are no overt signs that North Korea’s army is readying for war, let alone a nuclear one....
Ya' got that, readers?
Admiral Samuel Locklear, commander of the US Pacific Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington on Tuesday that he concurred with an assessment by Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, that called the tension between North Korea and the West the worst since the end of the Korean War.
PFFFFFT!
Why don't you go fight global warming, "sir."
--more--"
"North Korea to pull workers from project with South; Move threatens decade-old link to reconciliation" by Choe Sang-Hun | New York Times, April 09, 2013
SEOUL — North Korea said on Monday that it was withdrawing all its 53,000 workers from an industrial park jointly run with South Korea, casting doubt on the future of the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean reconciliation.
The Kaesong industrial complex, in the North Korean border town of the same name, operated for eight years despite political and military tension, including the North Korean artillery attack on a South Korean island three years ago.
North Korea’s decision to withdraw its workers, although it called the move temporary, presented the most serious challenge to its viability....
The North’s final decision will depend on the Seoul government’s attitude, he said, making it clear that Pyongyang was using the future of the factory park to pressure Seoul for political concessions.
South Koreans had hoped that the North’s growing dependence on the complex as an important source of hard currency would provide Seoul with leverage on the North’s recalcitrant leadership and a possible buffer against military conflict. But the North’s decision on Monday indicated that Pyongyang was subordinating financial gains to political and military priorities in the crisis, analysts said.
Hours earlier, South Korea said it had no intention of talking with North Korea. Doing so amid a torrent of North Korean threats to attack Seoul and the United States with nuclear weapons would be tantamount to capitulation and would only embolden the North’s brinkmanship, officials here said....
What changed in two days? Or are my paper's sources just s***?
North Korea has blocked South Korean managers and cargo trucks from crossing the heavily armed border to Kaesong for six days to protest United Nations sanctions and joint military drills that the United States and South Korea are conducting on the Korean Peninsula.
The blockade quickly dried up the fuel, food, and raw materials for 123 South Korean factories there, forcing 20 of them to stop operating as of Monday....
For nearly a decade, the complex, where South Korean factories hired North Korean workers and the North’s Communist authorities experienced the first taste of South Korean capitalism, has been held up as a test case for how reunification of the two Koreas might look. The factories, near the western edge of the border, produced $470 million worth of textiles and other labor-intensive products last year.
As relations deteriorated in recent years, however, the factory park has also become controversial in South Korea.
Some conservative South Koreans argued that the complex, which generates $90 million a year in wages for the 53,000 North Koreans employed there, helped undermine the impact of United Nations sanctions by extending a lifeline to the North Korean government, which the South blamed for the island attack and the 2010 sinking of a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors.
Related: Sinking the Chances of Korean Peace
Ain't that a kick in the head?
North Korea’s threat this month to close the complex was met with skepticism from some news media analysts who indicated that the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, would not want to risk an important source of hard currency.
Well, you misjudged him again.
North Korea responded Monday, saying it ‘‘gets few economic benefits from the zone while the South side largely benefits from it.’’
Kim ‘‘is not accountable to his people, and thereby can afford to raise tension almost indefinitely at a great cost to his own people,’’ said Lee Sung Yoon, a North Korea specialist at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, recalling that the government did not change its policy even after a famine killed an estimated 10 percent of its population in the mid-1990s.
Sounds like an AmeriKan president, and we couldn't have helped them out with some food back then, huh?
North Korea has issued a daily barrage of bellicose language since early March....
Okay, yup, sigh.
In the past week, North Korea appeared to move beyond just talk. It told foreign embassies in Pyongyang to consider evacuating their personnel because of rising tensions, and it moved one of its medium-range missiles to its east coast for a possible test launching.
On Monday, South Korean officials reported activities at North Korea’s main nuclear test site, but said it was too early to tell whether the country would conduct another underground test....
--more--"
"China indirectly warns North Korea" by Jane Perlez | New York Times, April 08, 2013
BOAO, China — In an indirect but clear reference to the North Korean crisis, Chinese president Xi Jinping said Sunday that no country should be allowed to threaten world peace.
“No one should be allowed to throw a region and even the whole world into chaos for selfish gain,’’ Xi said in a speech at an annual regional business forum in Boao. Xi did not name any countries or disputes, but in separate remarks, China’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday repeated its ‘‘grave concern’’ over the rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
Also Sunday, the South Korean government warned that North Korea might carry out a provocation this week, possibly a missile test, as a way to extract concessions from the United States and South Korea.
Beware the false flag.
South Korea also said its top military officer put off a visit to Washington because of tensions with North Korea....
As North Korea’s major ally, China has been discomfited by the behavior of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, but it has refrained from making pronouncements that would signal what, if anything, it planned to do to curb Pyongyang.
The Obama administration, in response to North Korea’s threats to fire missiles at the United States, has said that it will strengthen its missile defenses, and has sent jet fighters, bombers, and warships to the area in a show of support for South Korea.
Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that he does not foresee North Korea taking military action soon, “but I can’t take the chance that it won't.’’
Or taking action at all, right?
Dempsey said there is a risk of action by North Korea on one of two nationally important anniversaries in April, the birth of North Korean founder Kim Il Sung and creation of the North Korean army.
The Pentagon has delayed a missile test planned for this week at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., the Associated Press reported, citing a senior defense official. The official said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel decided to put off the Minuteman 3 test because of concerns it could exacerbate the Korean crisis.
I didn't see or hear any hollering about us testing missiles. WTF?
--more--"
Related: Slow Saturday Special: China Keeps the Peace in Korea
"US pressuring China to rein in North Korea" by Mark Landler | New York Times, April 06, 2013
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, detecting what it sees as a shift in decades of Chinese support for North Korea, is pressuring China’s new president, Xi Jinping, to crack down on the regime in Pyongyang or face a heightened US military presence in its region.
Umm, that sounds like a THREAT directed at CHINA!!
WTF, Obama?!?!?!
In a flurry of exchanges that included a recent phone call from President Obama to Xi, administration officials said they had briefed the Chinese in detail about US plans to upgrade missile defenses and other steps to deter the increasingly belligerent threats made by North Korea’s young leader, Kim Jong Un.
Someone is being belligerent, and it's not the Koreans.
China, which has been deeply suspicious of the US desire to reassert itself in Asia, has not protested publicly or privately as the United States has deployed ships and warplanes to the Korean Peninsula.
What it tells you is the Chinese are a patient people.
And imagine how we would react if China said they were going to start sending over ships and warplanes to protect, Venezuela, say?
That silence, US officials say, attests to both Beijing’s mounting frustration with the North and the recognition that its policy of reflexive support for Pyongyang could strain its ties with Washington.
‘‘The timing of this is important,’’ Tom Donilon, Obama’s national security adviser, said in an interview. ‘‘It will be an important early exercise between the United States and China, early in the term of Xi Jinping and early in the second term of President Obama.’’
Related:
"Donilon.... repeatedly challenged the military to justify the need for large numbers of troops over a period of a decade or more, finally cautioning the president that a policy of what he termed “endless war’’ was not wise or politically sustainable.... Donilon had similarly testy relations with Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.... Inside the White House, Donilon has spoken often of the need to conduct a “rebalancing’’ of US foreign policy, devoting renewed attention to great power relationships and America’s long-term position in Asia."
And away from Israel!
While administration officials cautioned that Xi has been in office for only a few weeks and that China has a history of frustrating the United States in its dealings with North Korea, Donilon said he believed that China’s position was ‘‘evolving.’’
Judging whether China has genuinely changed course on North Korea is tricky: Beijing has appeared to respond to US pressure before, only to backtrack later. China, the North’s only strong ally, has long feared that the United States would capitalize on the fall of the North Korean leadership by expanding US military influence on the Korean Peninsula.
That's the plan, yeah.
Nor has China given clues about its intentions in its public statements, voicing grave concern about the rising tensions while being careful not to elevate Kim’s stature.
Behind that taciturn reaction, Chinese analysts said, are internal debates within the Communist Party and the military about how to deal with Kim, and how vigorously to enforce the UN economic sanctions that China signed on to last month.
The White House said it was encouraged by how swiftly China supported the sanctions, which followed a North Korean nuclear test and a missile launch. But how energetically China has enforced them is a matter of debate, with some diplomats and analysts saying it has dragged its feet.
In a meeting with two senior US officials who traveled to Beijing two weeks ago to try to persuade China to enforce new banking restrictions on North Korea, Chinese banking leaders showed little sign of compliance, said Marcus Noland, an expert on North Korea at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.
Many analysts say the sanctions cannot succeed without China’s cooperation, since it has close trade ties with North Korea and has in the past chosen to keep its government afloat by providing fuel and significant aid.
North Korea is China's Israel?
Even if China does cooperate, it is unclear how far North Korea might bend; North Korea ignored China’s entreaties not to conduct the nuclear test in February that set off the latest conflict with the United States and South Korea.
In the coming weeks, the White House will send a stream of senior officials to China to press its case, starting with Secretary of State John Kerry, who will travel to Beijing on April 13, on a tour that will also take him to South Korea and Japan.
In the short run, officials said, the administration wants the Chinese to be rigorous in customs inspections to interdict the flow of banned goods to North Korea.
More broadly, it wants China to use its leverage over Kim to persuade him to cease his provocations and agree to negotiations predicated on giving up his nuclear program.
--more--"
Also see:
US envoy presses China over hacking, North Korea
Looks like Chinese banks are too big to sanction for Lew.
US should press China to isolate North Korea
China joins in rebuke against North Korea
Happy now?
Related:
"Kim Kwan-jin, the South Korean defense minister, said that if North Korea were preparing for a full-scale conflict, there would be signs such as the mobilization of a number of units, including supply and rear troops, but South Korean military officials have found no such preparations."
Related: US to spend $1b to deter attack by North Korea
I$ that what thi$ wa$ all about? Getting some war contractor some more dough?
"The current crisis began with the deployment of US nuclear-capable stealth bombers to the peninsula as part of ongoing military exercises with South Korea. North Korea has railed for weeks against joint US and South Korean military exercises taking place in South Korea. On Wednesday morning North Korea banned 179 South Koreans from making their daily cross-border trip to the site. South Korea said that 861 southern workers were already at the complex, and that many had opted to stay there to continue operations."
The old South Korean double shift, huh?
And they finally fingered the culprit in the crisis.
"North Korea says it will expand its nuclear arsenal; Announces it will use all its atomic facilities in effort" by Choe Sang-Hun and Mark Landler | New York Times, April 03, 2013
SEOUL — China urges all parties ‘‘to remain calm and restrained,’’ the spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Hong Lei, said.
The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said Tuesday that North Korea appears to be ‘‘on a collision course with the international community,’’ the Associated Press reported. Speaking in Andorra, where he is on an official visit, Ban said the crisis had gone too far and international negotiations were urgently needed.
China’s official Xinhua news agency issued comments from Deputy Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui that did not expressly single out North Korea but nonetheless signaled deepening worry about its actions and the response from the United States and its allies.
Zhang told Xinhua that he had met with diplomats from the countries concerned and ‘‘expressed grave concern over current developments.’’ The report did not identify those countries....
It didn't have to. We all know who they are.
--more--"
Just wondering if they got the translation wrong.
White House moves to ease tensions with North Korea
Oh, is that what they are doing?
"N. Korea’s last nuclear test especially secretive, US says; Could signify the use of highly enriched uranium" by Joby Warrick | Washington Post, April 01, 2013
WASHINGTON — The effects of the blast were remarkably well contained, with few radioactive traces escaping into the atmosphere where they could be detected, according to US officials and weapons experts who have studied the data....
A successful test of a uranium-based bomb would confirm that Pyongyang has achieved a second pathway to nuclear weapons, using its plentiful supply of natural uranium and new enrichment technology. A device based on highly enriched uranium — HEU — also would deepen concerns about cooperation between the hermetic regime and Iran....
YUP!! Gotta work that angle in. (SIGH!)
Although North Korea and Iran have cooperated on missile technology, US officials said there is no direct evidence of nuclear cooperation.
‘‘We’re worried about it, but we haven’t seen it,’’ said a former Obama administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence assessments. ‘‘They cooperate in many areas, especially missiles. Why it hasn’t yet extended to the nuclear program is frankly a mystery.’’
Not to me. Iran not building a bomb.
***************************
There are two paths to a nuclear weapon. The bomb that the United States dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 used HEU as its core, and the one dropped three days later on Nagasaki was a plutonium device....
Yeah, need you be reminded AmeriKa is the ONLY COUNTRY EVER TO USE those horrible weapons -- in what were without a doubt the TWO GREATEST SINGLE WAR CRIMINAL ACTS in ALL HUMAN HISTORY!
--more--"
"North Korea stands by threats; Says it will close factory site jointly run with the South" by Choe Sang-Hun and Gerry Mullany | New York Times, March 31, 2013
SEOUL — North Korea, reiterating that it considered the Korean Peninsula back in ‘‘a state of war,’’ threatened Saturday to shut down a factory complex it jointly operates with South Korea that stands as the last significant symbol of cooperation.
The industrial park, the eight-year-old Kaesong complex in the North Korean border town of the same name, is a crucial source of badly needed cash for the heavily sanctioned North. It funnels more than $92 million a year in wages for 53,400 North Koreans employed there, and its operation has survived despite years of military tensions.
The latest threat to close down Kaesong came amid a torrent of bellicose statements by the North in recent days....
(S-I-G-H, SIGH!)
Although South Korean officials reasserted that they were ready to retaliate if the North committed any military provocations, they said they saw no imminent sign of any such attacks. On Saturday, cross-border traffic operated as normal....
And that was what, TWO WEEKS AGO?!
The fate of Kaesong is seen as a crucial test of how far North Korea is willing to take its recent threats against the South. Its continued operation was often seen as a sign that Pyongyang’s verbal militancy was not necessarily matched by its actions....
In another development, some of the North’s main government-run websites were disabled Saturday in what news media reports said were cyberattacks....
Related:
"Hackers often go to the National Security Agency, where they work on offensive digital attacks on foreign nations."
So what was it, a Stuxnet, a Gaus, A Dooku, what?
North Korea Tech, a website that monitors Internet activities on the Korean Peninsula, said the problems appeared ‘‘to be part of a loosely coordinated effort by hackers to target North Korean sites.’’
Gee, who would want to do that?
******************************
South Korean officials suspect that North Korea was behind cyberattacks on March 20 against three banks and the country’s two largest broadcasters. The attacks came five days after North Korea blamed the South and the United States for cyberattacks that temporarily shut down some of its official websites....
Blogs said the attacks came from servers in South Korea.
North Korea has been angry ever since South Korea and the United States started a joint military exercise in early March....
--more--"
Sticking with the cyberspying:
"North Korea’s real threat might be electronic" by Choe Sang-Hun and David E. Sanger | New York Times, March 30, 2013
SEOUL — This week, North Korea’s young leader, Kim Jong Un, ordered his underlings to prepare for a missile attack on the United States. He appeared at a command center in front of a wall map with the bold, unlikely title, ‘‘Plans to attack the Mainland US.’’ Earlier in the month, his generals boasted of developing a ‘‘Korean-style’’ nuclear warhead that could be fitted atop a long-range missile.
But the missile systems that figure in Kim’s blitz of threats and orders do not yet have the range to approach US shores. There is no evidence his nuclear weapons can be shrunk to fit atop a missile. And a prominent photograph showing Kim’s military launching a Normandy-style beach landing appears to have been manufactured, raising questions about whether his forces could possibly repeat the feat his grandfather pulled off in 1950, launching a ground attack to open the Korean War.
Like a bin Laden death photo?
I'm sorry, readers, but s*** journalism likes this really makes me mad.
On top of all that, most countries on the verge of a major military assault do not broadcast their battle plans to the world.
“You would expect such a military order to be issued in secret,’’ said Kim Min Seok, spokesman of the South Korean Defense Ministry. ‘‘We believe that by revealing it to the media and publicizing it to the world, North Korea is playing psychology.’’
It is a mind-manipulating operation.
In fact, it is the abilities that Kim is not showing off that have the Obama administration most worried. The cyberattacks on South Korea’s banking system and television broadcasters two weeks ago were surprisingly successful, as was the torpedo attack three years ago this week on the Cheonan, a naval ship, that killed 46 South Korean sailors. The North has never acknowledged involvement in either — though the South believes it was responsible for both and so do US analysts....
Here we go with the FALSE FLAGS!!
The cyberattacks and torpedo attack have something in common: Unlike the missile attacks and beach landings that Kim seems to be suggesting are imminent, they are hard to trace back to North Korea, at least immediately.
Especially if they didn't do it?
As a result, they are hard to retaliate against, and in fact the South never struck back militarily for the sinking of the Cheonan, even after a commission of inquiry, with experts from outside South Korea, concluded it was the work of a submarine-launched torpedo.
From a German-made Israeli Dolphin.
To North Korea experts in Washington and Seoul, there is something familiar in the country’s threats to ‘‘keep the White House in the cross hairs of our long-range missiles.’’ Such threat of armed brinkmanship — the catch phrase in the 1990s was that Seoul would become a ‘‘sea of fire,’’ a term recently revived by North Korea’s news agencies — has in the past drawn its adversaries to the bargaining table with economic concessions.
But at the same time, the tensions with the outside world provide the government with opportunities to elevate its leader’s status among his people — which may be more important to a young, untested leader than it was to his father and grandfather.
According to the view that North Korea’s propaganda machine pounds into its citizens’ minds, the North is a tiny nation besieged by hostile outside forces, one that survived despite decades of sanctions and can finally stand up to both its US foe and its longtime Chinese ally — all thanks to the strong ‘‘military-first’’ leadership of the Kim family and the country’s nuclear arsenal.
Oh, it reads so much like my NEWSPAPER and the NATION of ISRAEL, doesn't it?
Six Zionist Companies Own 96% of the World's Media
Declassified: Massive Israeli manipulation of US media exposed
Operation Mockingbird
Why Am I No Longer Reading the Newspaper?
Talk about propaganda machines pounding ideas into citizen's heads!
In such a setting, Kim’s trip to a border island on a wooden boat — it almost seemed designed to create a ‘‘Washington crossing the Delaware’’ motif — is proof of his ‘‘daring and pluck,’’ as the country’s main party newspaper Rodong explained.
In the propaganda world the three generations of the Kim dynasty have created, Kim is ‘‘a great iron-willed general admired by all of his people, including real generals who have actually served in the military,’’ said Lee Sung Yoon, North Korea specialist at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. ‘‘For the Kim III, fantasy is reality.’’
Must be a bit of Weiss's wisdom!
Keeping the fantasy up has required a lot of work in the past month....
And just imagine, Amerikan media has had to do that for decades! They must be exhausted -- or not.
Jonathan D. Pollack, a North Korea expert at the Brookings Institution, said, “Kim has steadily reverted to form,’’ adopting the approach of his father and grandfather in using the perception of an external threat to solidify support at home.
--more--"
Also see: US bombers fly long-range mission over South Korea
"North Korea cuts off its last military hotline with South Korea" by Choe Sang-Hun | New York Times, March 28, 2013
SEOUL — Traffic was running normally Wednesday, South Korean officials said, indicating that the North Korean military did not go so far as to stop cross-border economic exchanges....
The North’s action came a day after its top military command ordered all its missile and artillery units to be on ‘‘the highest alert’’ and ready to strike the United States and South Korea.
It also vowed to take ‘‘substantial military actions’’ to retaliate against joint US-South Korean military drills, which involved US B-52 bomber sorties over South Korea.
The last time North Korea severed all military hotlines, during joint US-South Korean military drills in 2009, it allowed an inter-Korean economic liaison office in Kaesong to serve as a communication channel with Seoul, and South Korean workers could commute to Kaesong.
The two Koreas continue to maintain hotlines between their civil aviation authorities....
--more--"
Related:
"In North Korea, the authorities were kicking up a war fever — a tool of populace control. The announcement came a day after the allies began their annual Key Resolve joint military exercises, which are in addition to their two-month-long Foal Eagle drill that began on March 1. Jay Carney, a White House spokesman, said the United States was ‘‘certainly concerned by North Korea’s bellicose rhetoric. And the threats that they have been making follow a pattern designed to raise tension and intimidate others.’’"
Another thing I'm weary of?
A POT-HOLLERING KETTLE MEDIA!
"North Korea’s neighbors and the West condemn the drain on the precious resources that could go to North Korea’s largely destitute people."
This coming from the f***ing US military machine in this time of austerity, inequality, and poverty?
Both Koreas step up threats
Amid tensions, S. Korea stages military drills
US shows muscle, restraint in dealing with North Korea
Yeah, it was a great diplomatic victory for Obama and Kerry. SIGH!!!
Time to hit the road:
"ROAD TRIP -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was joined by former NBA star Dennis Rodman at an exhibition basketball game on Thursday between American and North Korean players in Pyongyang. Rodman arrived on Monday with three members of the Harlem Globetrotters to shoot an episode on North Korea for a television series (Boston Globe March 1 2013)."
Rodman for President.
