US, SKorea militaries gird for NKorean provocation

US, SKorea militaries gird for NKorean provocation

news.yahoo.com

SEOUL, South Korea – The U.S. and South Korea put their military forces on high alert Thursday after North Korea renounced the truce keeping the peace between the two Koreas since 1953. The North also accused the U.S. of preparing to attack the isolated communist country in the wake of its second nuclear bomb test, and warned it would retaliate to any hostility with "merciless" and dangerous ferocity.

(visit the link for the full news article)

The article goes on to say:

"The northward invasion scheme by the U.S. and the South Korean puppet regime has exceeded the alarming level," the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. "A minor accidental skirmish can lead to a nuclear war."

The U.S., which has 28,500 troops in South Korea and another 50,000 in Japan, has denied it is planning military action. But U.S. and South Korean troops were placed on their highest alert level for more than two years.

So basically, if North Korea decide they have been challenged in any way, they are threatening nuclear war. This does not bode well. Just the slightest provocation and we may very well be looking at WWIII...

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I heard the "tweeps" all the way here from the thousands of puckers squeezing tight.

All American soldiers in Korea better be sleeping with their boots on.

Just in case.

I don't know how there could be a nuke war with NoKo. We (the US) can see everything they're doing and we know they can't put a nuke on a long range missile yet.

If we saw them trying to drag a nuke across the border it would be over. If we saw them preparing a missile with an attached nuke, it would be over.

So how can there be a nuke war with NoKo?

reply to post by Electro38


If you are a commander of conscious, regardless of whether you are the US Commander in Chief, or you command a fire team, the objective is two parts.

Eliminate your enemy, and do it so that you minimize your own casualties.

Anything less, and you aren't worth a damn.

So rather than spill enough American blood to float a 12-meter yacht, it just may be better to deal with this one at a distance.

Let fatface and his crew become part of the world weather system.

reply to post by dooper


Agreed, but it wouldn't be a nuclear war. We (the US) wouldn't need to blow up any nukes over there, that would be ridiculous. NoKo is not the USSR during the cold war.

Washington has been very quiet diplomatically these past couple of days in the rhetoric war.

That suggests to me the possibility of one of three possible things.

President Obama is in no way shape or form prepared to navigate such a crisis when a strategy hadn’t already been laid in place by a predecessor or being able to follow along to a key ally’s initiative like Israel or the U.K.

Or Washington knows its short on manpower and equipment to engage the huge conventional forces the North Koreans have long amassed on the border and its best not to say too much that will ratchet up the tensions that could accidently force a confrontation.

Or they are planning the mother of all offenses and staying quiet as a church mouse until it’s time to launch it.

Personally I think it’s being used more as theatre to heighten the perception that Iran is a greater threat than it is by trying to tie Iran into North Korea and trying to plant that seed that a Nuclear armed Iran would be even more dangerous than an already nuclear armed North Korea.

Washington sure is quiet though and as much as our politicians love to talk that’s not a good sign either way you probably slice it.

Originally posted by ProtoplasmicTraveler
Washington sure is quiet though and as much as our politicians love to talk that’s not a good sign either way you probably slice it.

I agree. I'm not really sure what they could say or do that wouldn't increase the possibility of North Korea launching an all-out war against pretty much everyone. So it may be best that they not say much of anything. Obama has already publicly condemned the recent nuclear test, anything more and it may push them over the edge. Nuclear weapons are not something that should be played with and NK seems very ready to start playing around with them.

Originally posted by Jenna

Originally posted by ProtoplasmicTraveler
Washington sure is quiet though and as much as our politicians love to talk that’s not a good sign either way you probably slice it.

I agree. I'm not really sure what they could say or do that wouldn't increase the possibility of North Korea launching an all-out war against pretty much everyone. So it may be best that they not say much of anything. Obama has already publicly condemned the recent nuclear test, anything more and it may push them over the edge. Nuclear weapons are not something that should be played with and NK seems very ready to start playing around with them.

It's a shame that neither the Clinton, or Bush presidencies really have kept on top of this situation with North Korea.

Its a real question mark too as to why after all these years no one has pushed for a permanent treaty to end the state of war between the two Koreas either. The Truce agreement doesn't take much for either side to break.

Douglas McCarthur wanted very much to wage the Korean War in a much more forceful way and was eventually forced into retirement during the war as the politicians felt that such an approach would just lead to a large scale war with China or the Soviet Union.

We sure do leave a lot of problems on these tables that we don't listen to our best generals when it comes to fighting these wars.

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


I think the reason why the US seems "quiet" is because everyone knows this is in China's court right now. China, and maybe Russia.

NoKo is not an immediate threat to the US (I mean our land/civilians). We (the US) have always been aware of whatever NoKo does on the ground via spy satellites. We know whenever a nuke reactor goes on or off, we know when they're preparing to fuel a rocket, or when they might be preparing for a launch. That doesn't come from ops on the ground, it's coming from satellites. We can see everything that they do, or prepare to do.

So I think they are really not an immediate threat to anyone currently. If they began to prepare a raid into SoKo, we would see it being prepared and we would stop it before it happened.

Then they could give a nuke to a terrorist, but don't even think they're technical ability is there yet, to be able to hand off a nuke that could be carried around like that.

China, has to give them a little smack. And that would be it, it would be over for awhile.

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


Good analysis, Proto. I think Obama is choking on this one, and I think the military is preparing an option as you mentioned in option three.

I'm so damned sick and tired of all the decades of talking.

Squeeze hard, or get off the pot.

reply to post by dooper


Breaking:

Chinese ships quit North-South Korea border

SEOUL, May 29 (Reuters) - Chinese fishing ships are leaving a disputed sea border that divides the two Koreas as tension mounts on the peninsula following this week's nuclear test by the North, South Korean media reported on Friday.

"Chinese fishing vessels have begun retreating from NLL (northern limit line) waters since yesterday. We are working to find out if this is based on North Korea's request," Yonhap news agency quoted an unnamed South Korean army source as saying.

The NLL marks the maritime border between the two Koreas and has been the scene of naval clashes in the past.

(Source: Reuters AlertNet)

reply to post by chips


Thanks for the link. It's probably a good idea for China to get their fishing boats out of there. They'd make an easy target if things go south.

reply to post by Jenna


Cheers, Jenna.

Another breaking:

Army chief: US able to fight NKorea if necessary

WASHINGTON -- The United States could fight an old-fashioned war against North Korea if necessary, even while newer forms of conflict against terrorists and extremists continue, the Army's top officer said Thursday.

Asked whether the United States would be prepared to fight if war broke out between South Korea and North Korea, Gen. George Casey replied, "The short answer is yes," then added that "it would probably take us a little bit longer to shift gears" away from the type of counterinsurgency fighting that now occupies the Army.

Casey said his usual rubric for how long it would take the Army to gear up for a new "conventional" war is about 90 days. That doesn't mean it would take 90 days for the U.S. to effectively fight the North's million-man army, he said.

"We'd move forces as rapidly as we could get them prepared," Casey said during an appearance at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

North Korea has threatened war following condemnation of its underground nuclear test this week, and the United States has a long-term commitment to South Korea's defense.

"This is a combat-seasoned force" that can pivot quickly, Casey said.

(Source: kentucky.com)

[edit on 28-5-2009 by chips]

Originally posted by dooper
reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler

 

Good analysis, Proto. I think Obama is choking on this one, and I think the military is preparing an option as you mentioned in option three.

I'm so damned sick and tired of all the decades of talking.

Squeeze hard, or get off the pot.

Strategically it makes sense in a way to have left the Koreas divided. If you see China as a long term threat, which of course we always have and still do, then South Korea becomes your Omaha Beach launching point to roll up through North Korea and then on in to China.

Had we fought the war to it's ultimate conclusion and left a unified Korea under a stable unified Korean government then we are stuck with having to get troops from Japan into China, carving out a beach head, and all that.

China of course likely understands the reasoning behind it and is not keen to see North Korea fold in to South Korea as it costs the U.S. a lot of money to maintain a presence in South Korea.

It's fun to kill your enemy it's more fun to hit them in the wallet watch their wives leave them for some other guy, their kids call them loosers and end up on skid row!

We let China take the diplomatic lead in many ways to keep from having resolution, knowing China is never going to resolve it, because when push comes to shove, they too can roll far more ground forces quickly into North Korea and down into the South, than we can quickly land troops in South Korea and move them up to the North. Korea gets torched in that process and not any part of China, so in a wierd way it's a win, win for everyone most of the time.

Well except for the American Taxpayer.

reply to post by chips


Thanks for the link and article. I wonder why everyone assumes this is the USA's problem with NoKo.

They really are no direct/immediate threat to the US. They are much more of a threat to other parts of Asia, an immediate and direct threat.

In my opinion this is more of a problem for China. It's more their problem.

What if the US just sat back and let everyone else take care of this?

reply to post by Electro38


North Korea sure is not in a position to do to much on their own except launch what in essence would be one formidable human wave attack, which because of how the troops are deployed basically facing each other over a few miles of no man's land that is heavily mined and full of anti-personal, anti-tank, and anti-vehicle traps laid there by both sides they wouldn't need much prep other that to sound the bell.

Honestly when you are talking about a million plus even half starved, emaciated men, who are none the less armed with bullet spewing AK-47's that's not really a scenario air power, and artillery alone can deal with. It would be bloody and messy, and the 35,000 Americans stationed on the border would likely be toast.

Like with Russia at Stalin Grad and Saddam Hussein you can bet Party Commisars will be right behind the NKO troops with guns on their backs to where you get shot turning around and going back, or shot going forward.

Most men even in an unjust war would prefer to die a heros death instead of a coward's one.

Thechnology may not be the answer for an all out human wave attack on a large scale.

Hopefully we never find out, hopefully for the sake of our troops you are right that it could be.

Originally posted by dooper
It's fun to kill your enemy it's more fun to hit them in the wallet watch their wives leave them for some other guy, their kids call them loosers and end up on skid row!

We let China take the diplomatic lead in many ways to keep from having resolution, knowing China is never going to resolve it, because when push comes to shove, they too can roll far more ground forces quickly into North Korea and down into the South, than we can quickly land troops in South Korea and move them up to the North. Korea gets torched in that process and not any part of China, so in a wierd way it's a win, win for everyone most of the time.

Well except for the American Taxpayer.

In my opinion, we let China take the lead because it is really their problem and they are the only one's who can really talk to NoKo.

Also, the idea of any kind of invasion from any side is a fantasy scenario, and unnecessary.

reply to post by Electro38


Dooper has a habit of talking masochistic gobbledygook.As for me? im still not worried(Yet) about this escalating very far...N.Korea is alot more vocal than it has been in a few years,but that still doesn't even come close to a scenario where war would be on the table.Russia and China are seriously peed off though i can bet.

reply to post by Electro38


It is my sincere hope that we sit back and do nothing and let someone else deal with it for once. If North Korea does launch nukes like they've threatened though, we may not have a choice in the matter. Whether they have the capability to hit the US from there or not really doesn't matter, regardless the effects would be felt world-wide and I can see the majority of the world smacking North Korea down if they launched a nuke. We've seen how much devastation one of those can cause and I don't see many countries sitting back and doing nothing if that were to happen.