Category Archives: United States

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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Russia, Syria, United Nations, United States

Was the attack in Idlib province really sarin – and, was Assad to blame?

SYRIA

The evidence that sarin nerve gas was used against civilians in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun largely comes from reports (from Turkish doctors) who treated survivors of the Syria attack earlier this month.

Victims were choking, foaming at the mouth, defecating and vomiting – all of which are consistent with sarin use.

Sarin, a colourless, odourless liquid at room temperature, is expensive and complex to manufacture.

The two key chemical compounds – a phosphorus variant and isopropyl alcohol – are mixed near the point of use, usually hours before it is released.

This is to avoid accidents and degradation in storage. The level of sophistication required in handling sarin would suggest state involvement.

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was supposed to have surrendered his entire chemical weapons stockpile – including sarin – to Russia after an earlier attack on an opposition-held area near Damascus in 2013. More than 1,000 victims died and only a Russian-brokered deal – with Assad agreeing to give up his chemical weapons for destruction – prevented US airstrikes then. According to some reports which have now surfaced, a consignment of sarin was missing from the stockpile handed over.

At the same time, Assad signed up to the Chemical Weapons Convention, a group of states which ban these weapons. However, chlorine gas, which produces similar symptoms to sarin, was not covered by the removal deal. And unlike sarin (which is 3,000 times more lethal) chlorine is easily accessible and has many everyday uses.

Medecins Sans Frontieres doctors, who treated some victims, have said that both a toxic nerve agent and chlorine may have been used. But until impartial experts establish whether, and what, chemical weapons were involved, sole reliance on the observations of doctors is insufficient.

Central to the issue for many is why Assad would use chemical weapons in a war that he’s clearly winning? It is a perplexing question. Since September 2015, when the Russians first intervened in Syria, Assad’s regime has made steady progress in defeating various rebel opponents, notably when his forces took Aleppo in December.

In recent days, the US has strongly suggested it was prepared to leave Assad in power, as it saw him as a potential ally in the fight against Islamic State. Syria’s military continue to categorically deny that it was responsible for the attack, but, of course, Assad has used various weapons indiscriminately against civilians, including barrel bombs (dropped from helicopters) and unfocused artillery bombardment. He has also ‘weaponised’ gases – for example, putting tear gas in shells used by police to quell rioters.

Many are likely to believe, however, that Assad would have to be insanely overconfident to have brazenly used sarin, not least because of the risk – since realised – of heavier US reprisals and greater involvement in the area. All the evidence is that this cruel and calculating man is not insane.

He has remained intent, though, on corralling the remaining rebels in Idlib province where the attack took place. This act of terror may have been a signal that he felt he could act with impunity, particularly following the call by the US Ambassador to the UN that America was no longer seeking for the Syrian president to stand down.

The natural follow-on question is if not Assad, then who was it and why?

Charges of using chemical weapons are a very useful propaganda tool to blacken the reputation of any opponent, however dark already. Conspiracy theorists will see various nefarious hands at work.

The Russians, who back Assad’s regime, claim the Syrian air force bombed chemical munitions held by rebel forces in a warehouse, which then exploded. Another claim is that it was a gas manufacturing plant.

Such a strike would probably have destroyed what sarin there was and distributed the rest over a smaller area, affecting fewer victims.

Given that the highly flammable isopropyl alcohol is one of the chemicals in sarin, a fireball might have been expected but there have been no reports of this.

The numbers of women and children caught up in the attack would also rule against a rebel-held munitions depot in the immediate area.

Sarin can be delivered via shells, but some witnesses saw ‘chemical bombs’ falling. The first reports from the site described a crater where a chemical-bearing rocket was said to have landed. There were no structural remains suggesting an explosion at a warehouse.

While it is possible that rebel forces acquired the chemicals to make sarin, or other nerve agents, these are unlikely to have been in large enough quantities to cause so many casualties.

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Britain, India, Military, NATO, Photography, Russia, United States

The T-50 and F-35 warplanes

RUSSIAN MILITARY

Sukhoi

T-50 is a joint military collaboration between Russia and India.

The Sukhoi aircraft have an impressive track record in Russian military history. The newest model, the T-50, is currently in joint development with India.

The aircraft is expertly equipped to sustain supersonic flight, better than any Russian plane built in years past. Its range at supersonic speeds is 930 miles. At subsonic speeds, it can go 2,175 miles.

It’s also deemed a versatile and aerobatic fighter jet. Its life-support system can sustain 9G manoeuvres for a period of up to 30 seconds. Meanwhile, a pilot ejection is possible from an altitude of 60,000 feet.

T 50 engine

A quarter of the aircraft’s body weight is made of composite materials that help reduce its overall weight.

Sharp angles help minimise its radar detection, making it tough to be spotted from far away distances.

The Saturn izdeliye 117 engines (pictured) provide vectored thrust for the plane. The engines originated as part of the original AL-41F program which was launched way back in 1982.

AMERICAN MILITARY

US F35

U.S. F-35 warplanes arrive at RAF Lakenheath, England.

A fleet of F-35 stealth fighter jets has arrived in Europe from the United States as part of a planned NATO exercise aimed at “deterring” Russia.

The F-35A Lightning II jets landed at RAF Lakenheath, England, having made the journey from Hill Air Force Base, Utah.

This deployment marks the first time American F-35A fighter jets have made an appearance in Europe, though a few countries already use them as part of their air fleet.

The deployment will last several weeks and is part of the European Reassurance Initiative, a US build-up of troops and weapons in Europe launched in 2014 to “deter Russian aggression.”

Though apparently scheduled months in advance, the deployment was announced as relations between Washington and Moscow have been described as “at an all-time low” by US President Donald Trump.

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