Category Archives: North Korea

Government, North Korea, Politics, United Nations, United States

A world dangerously close to the brink

NORTH KOREA

North-Korea-missile-663759

North Korea launched a ballistic missile in the Sea of Japan. This may have been from a submarine or from a new land based launch site.

THE world has looked on in horror this week as North Korea fired a missile over Japan. That has spread panic among the 6million population of Hokkaido island and is cranking-up tension to snapping-point.

Not since the Cuban missile crisis has the world seemed as close to the brink of a genocidal nuclear exchange.

The difference is that in that terrifying stand-off of 1962, both John F Kennedy and Russia’s Nikita Khrushchev remained open to reason. For all their bluster, they saw full-scale war as unthinkable, and each was prepared to compromise.

But how confidently can the same be said of the arch protagonists in the Korean crisis?

We should all hope and believe that Donald Trump, though hugely unpredictable, is less reckless than he likes to appear. As leader of the world’s greatest democracy, he is also restrained by the US Constitution and independent-minded advisers.

But this is hardly true of the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un. Surrounded by sycophants too terrified or brainwashed to rein him in, he seems as deranged as he is ruthless.

Indeed, his countless victims include his half-brother, poisoned at Kuala Lumpur airport, and an uncle he blew to shreds with heavy artillery at point-blank range. The fear is that anyone capable of such barbarity may be capable of anything.

But are threats of ‘exterminating’ his regime, and demonstrations of military might, the best way to deal with a madman who seems only to fear losing face?

Or will South Korea’s menaces and bombing exercises, and President Trump’s muscle-flexing, merely heighten Kim’s paranoia and sense of isolation, spurring him to ever wilder acts of lunacy?

One thing seems sure. If the North Korean dictator will listen to anyone, it will be to his neighbours the Chinese, who have everything to fear from war in Korea. The West should be using all its energy and efforts by encouraging Beijing to bring him to reason.

Certainly, Mr Trump should leave him in no doubt that the US will support South Korea to the hilt. But if he wants to be remembered as a statesman, he will tone down the language – and, like Kennedy, work tirelessly to broker peace behind the scenes.

Goading this tyrant with threats of ‘fire and fury’ is surely not the answer. Such language is adding fuel to a fire that could become dangerously out of control. It could even provoke the unthinkable: nuclear war.

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Asia, Government, North Korea, United Nations, United States

Pentagon warns North Korea, ‘You will be destroyed’

NORTH KOREA

DONALD TRUMP’S military chief has warned North Korea that action against the United States would ‘lead to the end of its regime and the destruction of its people’.

Pentagon head Jim Mattis said that Kim Jong-Un would lose any arms race or conflict it started after Pyongyang threatened to strike the American territory of Guam.

Earlier, the US President had declared that his nuclear arsenal was ‘far stronger and more powerful than ever’.

Mr Mattis said that, while Washington was pursuing a diplomatic solution, the military power of the US and its allies was the most robust on Earth. Mr Trump had sent a shudder through Asia this week, threatening to unleash ‘fire and fury like the world has never seen’ against Kim Kong-Un’s regime.

Mr Trump’s comments came after US intelligence concluded that the Korean dictator had developed a nuclear warhead small enough to fit inside a ballistic missile – years sooner than expected.

Supersonic bombers from the American air force then carried out a ten-hour mission over the Korean peninsula, prompting Pyongyang to brand the US ‘nuclear war maniacs’.

The Korean People’s Army said it was ‘carefully examining’ a plan to strike the island of Guam in the Western Pacific – where US bombers are stationed.

Amid fears of nuclear war, Mr Trump continued to boost of his country’s military power on Twitter.

He posted: ‘My first order as president was to renovate and modernise our nuclear arsenal.

‘It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before. Hopefully we will never have to use this power, but there will never be a time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world!’

However, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sought to ease tensions and said there was no imminent threat from North Korea.

Mr Trump’s chief diplomat suggested that the president’s sabre-rattling had been deliberately robust – because it was the only language that Kim would understand.

He said: ‘I think Americans should sleep well at night, have no particular concerns about this particular rhetoric of the last few days.’

Mr Tillerson’s comments came as his plane refuelled in Guam, which is 2,131 miles from North Korea, on the way to the US after a trip to Asia.

He added: ‘Nothing I have seen and nothing I know of would indicate that the situation has dramatically changed in the last 24 hours.

‘What the President is doing is sending a strong message to North Korea in language that Kim Kong-Un would understand, because he doesn’t seem to understand diplomatic language.’

Tensions over the North Korean peninsula heightened as Pyongyang tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles.

It was understood they were capable of hitting Alaska, but not the US mainland.

But earlier in the week it was reported that intelligence agencies were convinced North Korea has produced a miniaturised nuclear warhead that could fit on one of its ballistic missiles.

The Defence Intelligence Agency’s assessment suggested Kim’s quest to turn North Korea into a fully-fledged nuclear power had been accelerated by several years.

Officials also increased estimates of the number of nuclear bombs in Kim’s arsenal to 60.

And they revised expectations of how soon the regime could mount a nuclear strike on the American mainland.

Critics countered that they did not believe North Korea has yet mastered the technology required to prevent its long-range missiles burning up in the atmosphere during re-entry from space.

Asia experts claim Mr Trump’s combative language is playing into the hands of Kim by allowing him to convince his people that he is protecting them from a real US threat to their existence.

Although analysts tend to believe North Korea’s ruler does not want war, they have warned he is willing to push tensions with the US as far as possible.

Mr Tillerson said he hoped international pressure – including from Russia and China – could persuade North Korea to reconsider and begin talks.

Britain’s Foreign Office said it would work to ‘maintain pressure on North Korea’.

COMMENT

FOR the second time this year, the escalating tensions in the Korean peninsula are a cause for serious concern.

Over Easter, random missile tests by Pyongyang and US sabre rattling alerted the world to how potentially dangerous the situation in this volatile region could be.

When the stand-off ended, there was at least some hope that North Korea would end its provocative weapons tests.

But instead, the country’s unhinged dictator Kim Jong-Un has doubled down, pressing ahead with the development of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles which he now claims can hit the US mainland.

According to reports sourced to US intelligence, North Korean scientists have overcome a critical technological hurdle in the production of a miniaturised nuclear warhead that can fit inside its missiles.

If true, this rogue state is close to having the power to inflict unimaginable death and destruction, and now presents the gravest of threats to the region and the West.

Whatever individual feelings are of President Trump, most people should accept that under such circumstances no president of the world’s most powerful democracy could stand by and do nothing. Mr Trump’s stance is in stark contrast to the softly-softly approach of the Obama administration, which arguably allowed the situation to dangerously escalate.

Yes, Trump is guilty of using inflammatory rhetoric when he says threats against the US will be met with ‘fire and fury like the world has never seen’. But the message is at least unequivocal, and expressed in language the North Korean regime cannot fail to understand as it threatens a missile strike against the US territory of Guam in the South Pacific.

The problem with such rhetoric, however, is that if the President fails to deliver on his threat, he will seem weak.

What is needed now is not more bellicose language but calm thinking by diplomats and Mr Trump’s senior generals, some of whom have impressive pedigrees. What is also vital is that the Chinese, who could have imposed reform on North Korea – effectively their client state – years ago, now behave responsibly and sensibly.

To their credit, they and Russia have supported the new UN sanctions against Pyongyang. Those sanctions must now be given the chance to work.

Kim’s Target:

guam-map

Protecting the island is the US military’s Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, used to shoot down ballistic missiles.

. Andersen Air Force Base, located in the south-west of the island, hosts B-52 bombers, as well as B-1B Lancer bombers and B-2 Stealth bombers.

. Guam is a 210-square mile volcanic island in the Western Pacific.

. It has a population of just 160,000 with some 6,000 US troops stationed there.

. 4 nuclear submarines. A Naval Base is located in the north-east of the island.

 

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China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, United Nations, United States

The United States warns: ‘be prepared for military action against North Korea’

NORTH KOREA

south-korea-us-military-drill

The United States is prepared for military action against the threat posed by North Korea.

America’s National Security Adviser, Lieutenant General HR McMaster, has said America should be “prepared” to take military action against North Korea.

McMaster has called on other world powers to prevent the rebellious regime from developing a nuclear arsenal, saying the state was acting in “open defiance of the international community”.

Although he said the Trump administration would prefer to “work with others” to resolve the issue “short of military action”, he said the US must be prepared for its armed forces to intervene.

“North Korea poses a grave threat to the United States, our great allies in the region, South Korea and Japan … but also to China and others. And so, it’s important, I think, for all of us to confront this regime,” he said.

He added: “This regime is pursuing the weaponisation of a missile with a nuclear weapon. This is something that we know we cannot tolerate … The President has made clear that he is going to resolve this issue one way or another.”

“It may mean ratcheting up those sanctions even further and it also means being prepared for military operations if necessary.”

President Donald Trump has said he would “not be happy” if North Korea carried out another missile test, adding that his Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping would likely feel the same.

He refused to say whether this meant military action, saying: “We shouldn’t be announcing all our moves. It is a chess game. I just don’t want people to know what my thinking is.”

Mr Trump also called the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un “a pretty smart cookie” for being able to hang onto power after taking over the isolationist state at a young age.

On Saturday, a North Korean mid-range ballistic missile appeared to fail shortly after launch, the third such failure this month.

North Korean ballistic missile tests are banned by the United Nations because they are seen as part of the North’s drive to produce a nuclear-armed missile that could reach the US mainland.

  • 02 May 2017

– Japan sends its biggest warship to defend U.S. supply vessel in the Korean peninsula

Japan is to deploy its biggest warship to help protect the threat posed by North Korea. It will accompany a U.S. supply vessel as tensions continue to mount in neighbouring waters over North Korea’s missile tests. This will be the first Japanese operation since the East Asian country relaxed laws limiting its military activity. Japan is at serious risk of being attacked by North Korea, not least because it is now a close US ally.

The U.S. supply vessel has been dispatched to refuel American naval forces in the region, including the Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group that North Korea has threatened to sink.

Under conservative Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japan has been gradually expanding the role of its heavily-regulated military. The country’s post-World War II constitution means it can only use force in cases of self-defence.

A 2015 update expanded this to cover some acts of “collective self-defence,” such as protecting the equipment of an ally who is defending Japan.

Japan’s helicopter carrier, the Izumo, is 249 meters long and can carry up to nine helicopters, according to military records.

It will depart from Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, to join the U.S. ship, and protect it on its journey to the sea off Shikoku in western Japan.

North Korea launched a missile test on Saturday. U.S. and South Korean officials said the test, from an area north of the North Korean capital Pyongyang, appeared to have failed, in what would be the North’s fourth consecutive unsuccessful missile test since March.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said he would not rule out the possibility of military action against the dictatorship. Mr Trump said Americans should not underestimate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s intelligence, and added: “We have a situation that we just cannot let — we cannot let what’s been going on for a long period of years continue.”

The Korean War between the capitalist South and communist North, which paused in 1953 with a ceasefire, has never formally ended. U.S. troops were embroiled in the conflict.

– North Korea warns of nuclear test ‘at any time’

North Korea Fifth Nuclear Test

Pyongyang has promised to test its nuclear and ballistic missile capability on a regular basis. The United States says it is ready to attack North Korea if it conducts another nuclear test.

North Korea has warned today that it will carry out a nuclear test “at any time and at any location” set by its leadership, in the latest rhetoric to fuel jitters in the region.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been running high for weeks, with signs that the North might be preparing a long-range missile launch or a sixth nuclear test – and with Washington refusing to rule out a military strike in response.

A spokesman for the North’s foreign ministry said Pyongyang was “fully ready to respond to any option taken by the US”.

The regime will continue bolstering its “pre-emptive nuclear attack” capabilities unless Washington scrapped its hostile policies, he said in a statement carried by the state-run KCNA news agency.

“The DPRK’s measures for bolstering the nuclear force to the maximum will be taken in a consecutive and successive way at any moment and any place decided by its supreme leadership,” the spokesman added, apparently referring to a sixth nuclear test and using the North’s official name, the Democratic Republic of Korea.

The North has carried out five nuclear tests in the last 11 years and is widely believed to be making progress towards its dream of building a missile capable of delivering a warhead to the continental United States.

It raises the tone of its warnings every spring, when Washington and Seoul carry out joint exercises it condemns as rehearsals for invasion, but this time fears of conflict have been fuelled by a cycle of threats from both sides.

The joint drills have just ended, but naval exercises are continuing in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) with a US strike group led by the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson.

The Pyongyang foreign ministry spokesman said if the North was not armed with “the powerful nuclear force”, Washington would have “committed without hesitation the same brigandish aggression act in Korea as what it committed against other countries”.

The statement reasserts the North’s long-running rhetoric on its military capabilities.

Seoul also regularly warns that Pyongyang can carry out a test whenever it decides to do so.

Pyongyang’s latest attempted show of force was a failed missile test on Saturday that came just hours after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson pressed the UN Security Council to do more to push the North into abandoning its weapons programme.

Tillerson warned the UN Security Council last week of “catastrophic consequences” if the world does not act and said that military options for dealing with the North were still “on the table”.

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