N. Korea Crisis - Updated as News come to hand

Oh boy... might be something... might be nothing... but this don't look good.

Watch the carrier Vinson leave San Diego Tuesday

The public can watch the carrier Carl Vinson leave San Diego Harbor on Tuesday for a long-planned training exercise and for deployment to the western Pacific and the Indian Ocean.

Navy officials say Vinson, which will serve as the flagship of Carrier Group 1, will depart at 11 a.m. and should clear the harbor about one hour later.

The carrier group will comprised of the Vinson, the cruiser Bunker Hill, and the destroyers Stockdale and Gridley. This will be the maiden deployment for the Stockdale.

And as always ``it's been long planned``... yeah I'm sure North Korea/China is gonna believe that one.

Hopefully this carrier goes nowhere near Korea or the Yellow Sea.

EDIT: Apparently, they are heading to the middle-east...to do support operations in Afghanistan... but nothing would stop them from doing a little stop in Korea for a show of force.

More news..
Global War in the China Sea
Interesting. This guy thinks that North Korea attacking South Korea is a Chinese move aimed at US drills in the Yellow Sea.

Growth of San Diego's Navy fleet tied to tension in Korea

"If the CHICOMS (Chinese Communists) are unhappy about one carrier in the North China Sea, possibly their unhappiness at two carriers sailing in their Exclusive Economic Zone might prompt them to get off the dime and lean on North Korea."

I wonder if the wikileaks information has been exposed long enough for it to come up in the meeting between N. Korea officials and China today?

I actually thought from the get go that the attack on South Korea may have at least had china's green light to go ahead as a response to US economic moves and the war drills. Who knows.

reply to post by Nomad451


I would put no stock in what wiki leaks released in ref. to NK relations. Since China is selling arms to iran and NK, the truth is pretty obvious. Do not forget wiki leaked DIPLOMATIC RHETORIC. Not facts.....................

oh this is really a bad news i hope N. Korea and S. Korea can calm down and negotiate . war can not solve their problems .i lelieve that they know that war will be bad for both of them

And now a few news from China military...

China launched its second Type 071 landing ship dock amphibious assault ship from the Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard in Shanghai on the night of 18 November.

Ready for action.

Chinese UAV targets U.S. Aircraft Carrier in Airshow Presentation

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei has stated that China's stance on U.S. naval action in the Yellow Sea remains unchanged. The politically influential and increasingly vocal military is also likely to keep the pressure on the leadership to take a firm stand.

Any affront to Beijing's authority or intrusion into Chinese territorial waters would inflame the Chinese public and require a government response, said Fang Xiuyu, an analyst on Korean issues at Fudan University's Institute of International Studies in Shanghai.

"We hope that the U.S. can exert restraint and not cross that line," Fang said.

This whole NKorean crisis and still no word from Russia...

More news...

Out on the streets of downtown Seoul with thousand of elderly vets rallying peacefully. They want #ROK to respond with force to #DPRK. 33 minutes ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®

And apparently there's a Chinese war game near the Yellow Sea. Anti-Air operations.

N.Korean officials arrive in Beijing: reports

Two top North Korean officials arrived in Beijing on Tuesday amid sharp tensions on the Korean peninsula following the North's artillery attack on the South, South Korean and Japanese media said.

Kim Yong-Il, the head of the international department of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party, arrived in Beijing on a flight from Pyongyang, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported separately that Choe Thae-Bok, chairman of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly and considered a close confidant of leader Kim Jong-Il, also arrived for a visit.

China's Xinhua news agency had said that Choe would be visiting until December 4, but its state media had made no previous mention of a visit by Kim, who is a top official in charge of diplomatic matters.

Japan's foreign ministry also said it was sending its top North Korea envoy to China on Tuesday, where he will meet his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei.

So Japan and North Korea envoys are there now. Maybe they'll try to make a deal behind closed doors so no one loses face.

At-loss China accepts unified Korea: WikiLeaks

In another cable reproduced by The New York Times, a Chinese official whose name was removed said that Beijing believed North Korea had "gone too far" after carrying out its second nuclear test and firing a missile.

The official told a US diplomat "that Chinese officials had expressed Chinese displeasure to North Korean counterparts and had pressed (North Korea) to return to the negotiation table," it said.

"Unfortunately," the Chinese official was quoted as saying, "those protests had had no effect."

"'The only country that can make progress with the North Koreans is the United States,'" the Chinese official was quoted as saying.

If the whole peace on the peninsula rests on the US... we are doomed.

Many US experts believe that China wants to preserve the status quo on North Korea, fearing that a collapse would trigger a flood of refugees and bring a united and US-allied Korea to its border.

But senior South Korean official Chun Yung-Woo is quoted in a cable as saying that more "sophisticated" Chinese officials have come to believe that North Korea "has little value to China as a buffer state" since its first nuclear test in 2006.

Interesting.

However, another cable quoted a Chinese official who "discounted strongly any suggestion that the system would collapse once Kim Jong-Il disappeared."

The unnamed official "cautioned that US experts should not assume North Korea would implode after Kim Jong-Il's death," it said.

Lots of confusing information out there.

S. Korean military to toughen rules of engagement with N. Korea

The envisioned change, reported to the National Assembly, will free South Korean forces from the existing regulations that stipulate they should respond to an enemy attack with the same kind of weapons and the same amount of firepower the enemy used.

So.. basically adopting the Israeli way of things... attack us with a slingshot and we shall kill you. Attack us with a crappy missile that hit nowhere and we shall bomb your house to the ground...

Except this time, North Korea isn't unarmed Palestinians. It's a nuclear armed country with 10000+ artillery pieces on Seoul...

Now the political witchhunt starts in SKorea...
(LEAD) President Lee rebukes ministers for response to N. Korean provocation
He's the freaking president and it's his minister fault? Really?

More news from Korea.

Another deployment... North Korea might see this as a preparation for an attack...because it is.

Gov't Mulls Turning Baeknyeong into Forward Deployment Base

The government is looking into using Baeknyeong Island in the West Sea as a forward-deployment base supporting marines in case of an amphibious landing on North Korea's west coast. "The presidential defense committee is looking into the possibility of turning the five West Sea islands including Baeknyeong into launching platforms for marine landings on North Korea's west coast in times of conflict and stationing strategic missiles with a range of some 500 km there," a government source said Monday.

Those bases would be used to invade North Korea behind the lines... North Korea won't like this ONE BIT if they go forward with that plan.

Chinese in Series of Diplomatic Gaffes in Seoul

As soon as the delegation arrived, they asked the Foreign Ministry to arrange an audience with Lee the same day, without clearly stating the purpose of the meeting. One source said, "It is against diplomatic protocol to request a meeting with a head of state in such a manner."

China initially wanted Dai's visit to remain confidential, but Seoul refused, saying the request is inappropriate in this situation.

Dai reportedly gave a tedious hour-long talk on the history of relations between South Korea and China, which offended Lee. Then when Dai called for resumption of six-party nuclear talks, Lee did not say a word.

Ah diplomacy...

Hardline Israeli Paper Laments S.Korea's Response to Attack

A newspaper in Israel has condemned South Korea's response to North Korea's attack on Yeonpyeong Island as "the model we must strenuously avoid emulating." The rightwing Jerusalem Post, in an editorial titled "As Iran Watches Korea," on Saturday said, "Both North Korea and its Mideastern associates are testing the limits of world tolerance," and claimed, "Teheran and Damascus carefully monitor every nuance of Washington's response to Pyongyang's actions."

Ah Israel... why don't they just shut up already? There's already enough tension without their insanity.

reply to post by Vitchilo


Hey Vitchilo...

Have you been paying attention?

China ready to abandon North Korea

Leaked dispatches show Beijing is frustrated with military actions of 'spoiled child' and increasingly favours reunified Korea

reply to post by SLAYER69

Leaked dispatches show Beijing is frustrated with military actions of 'spoiled child' and increasingly favours reunified Korea

Yeah but there's confusing info about that. And IF THEY DO dump them, North Korea is gonna test a nuke or some BS. They won't go away easy like that.

Hopefully China will force them to back down instead of just dumping them.

reply to post by Vitchilo


Summary 1. South Korea's vice Foreign Minister Chun Yung-wo tells the Americans that senior Chinese officials have told him that China is fed up with the North Korean regime's behaviour and would not oppose Korean reunification. Chun says North Korea has already collapsed economically and will collapse politically when Kim Jong-il dies.

US embassy cables: China 'would accept' Korean reunification

1. (S) Vice Foreign Minister Chun Yung-woo told the Ambassador February 17th that China would not be able to stop North Korea's collapse following the death of Kim Jong-il (KJI). The DPRK, Chun said, had already collapsed economically and would collapse politically two to three years after the death of Kim Jong-il. Chun dismissed ROK media reports that Chinese companies had agreed to pump 10 billion USD into the North's economy. Beijing had "no will" to use its modest economic leverage to force a change in Pyongyang's policies -- and the DPRK characterized as "the most incompetent official in China" -- had retained his position as chief of the PRC's 6PT delegation.

Describing a generational difference in Chinese attitudes toward North Korea, Chun claimed XXXXXXXXXXXX believed Korea should be unified under ROK control. Chun acknowledged the Ambassador's point that a strong ROK-Japan relationship would help Tokyo accept a reunified Korean Peninsula. End summary. VFM Chun on Sino-North Korean Relations...

I know. But they say that they don't really support the North since 2006, yet they've been doing lots of economic deals with them and supported them all the way with the Chenosean sinking.. .ect...

Also there's other wikileak reports saying that not everyone agree in the Chinese government... that's what we were saying earlier...

Old guard VS new guard.

reply to post by Vitchilo


Thank you for your updates and your vigilance Vitchilo! I really do appreciate it. I agree with you, nobody can predict what they are going to do over there, and all we can really know is that this situation is volitile, and very confusing. Sounds like the optimal pretext to war to me! Also, would China abandoning NK not make an invasion, or at least a major air campaign, even more likely?

If the US and China want a reunified Korea then another Korean war must be fought, I don't believe that Kim Jong Ill will go away quietly...I can see them trying to launch a nuclear warhead against South Korea

reply to post by SLAYER69


Looks like all the DPRK needs to do now is provide us casus belli and the ceasefire dies in a blaze of glory. Sure we might lose Seoul, but it can be rebuilt. People forget much of Germany and Japan looked like the moon after WW2. Within a decade it didn't look like the moon anymore.

Now I wonder should we invite PLA and Russian peacekeepers?

reply to post by MikeboydUS


What about Japanese peacekeepers? I'm kidding of course. Koreans would be pissed.

Russia-China invading North Korea from the North could be interesting....

Thing is...

We all talk about China's relation and acceptation of an United Korea on it's border.... BUT WHAT ABOUT RUSSIA?

Russia could be the wild card here. China might like the idea of a Unified Korea... Russia might not.

"Medvedev to outline plans for Russia's future in annual address"

Maybe they will mention their political opinion on the two Koreas? They
will broadcast live in about 45-50 minutes. Surely they have interests
in that part of the world eh?

rt.com...

reply to post by Mr. D


Hopefully Russia is for it... so the Koreans can finally have peace... and the North Koreans a meal.

Medvedev might announce a new political division of Russia... which might lead to problems and separatism within Russia...

Originally posted by Vitchilo
reply to post by Mr. D

 

Hopefully Russia is for it... so the Koreans can finally have peace... and the North Koreans a meal.

Medvedev might announce a new political division of Russia... which might lead to problems and separatism within Russia...

I don't know if he is for the War however on the political side of the spectrum
He already demonstrated that when he fired Moscow's mayor. The former
mayor said that Russia was slipping back to it's old ways or something like that.

www.huffingtonpost.com...

North Korean talks 'the only way' to avoid war
www.abc.net.au...

"The only feasible way to... avoid iron and blood remoulding the political future of the Korean peninsula is for everybody to sit down and discuss their concerns and demands," said the editorial published in an offshoot of the People's Daily, the

But North Korean leader Kim Jong-il said last week his isolated country's friendship with China was "unbreakable".

A lot of mixed messages coming out of china .And now the north is upping the ante by claiming they have thousands of centrifuges running.Confusion and propaganda thrive in times of war

reply to post by 12voltz


I understand the need for "Talks", have we not been there before? They
promise not to build nukes, we give them stuff, they lie and say they
want more stuff, over and over again. Why don't they just tell the truth
about what they really want? (besides taking over South Korea because
the South will never accept that). It isn't the Souths fault that the North
can't manage their lands, resources and businesses so why blame them?
They don't need to target South Korean people with artillery everytime
something doesn't work out for them or when there is a change of leaders.