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this might be it or the next day?
2013/03/29 14:44 KST
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(LEAD) N. Korean missile launch sites show increased activities: sources
By Kim Eun-jung
SEOUL, March 29 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's missile sites have recently shown increased activities in the wake of the communist nation's threat to strike South Korea and the United States in response to their ongoing military drill involving nuclear-capable bombers, military sources in Seoul said Friday.
The latest move comes after the North Korean military on Tuesday put its strategic rocket units on the highest level of combat readiness, threatening to strike targets in South Korea as well as U.S. bases in Hawaii and Guam.
Following the U.S. military's unprecedented announcement that its nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers participated in the joint military drill in the South, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Friday ordered the country's strategic rocket forces to assume combat ready status in a fresh threat to hit U.S. bases with its long-range missiles.
Amid heightened tensions, South Korean and U.S. forces have focused their intelligence efforts on monitoring the North's missile sites, which have shown brisk activities.
"North Korea's launch sites to fire off mid- and long-range missiles have recently shown increased movement of vehicles and forces," the official said, asking for anonymity. "We are closely watching possibilities of missile launches."
North Korea's missile launch site in Dongchan-ri, located in the northwestern region (Yonhap file photo)
Another source said several vehicles were seen moving to the Tongchang-ri missile site on the western coast, in what seemed like preparations for testing its long-range missiles.
Seoul's defense ministry saw the latest move as a "follow-up measure" to the North Korean military's announcement of the heightened level of combat readiness, but it did not elaborate on "a rocket preparation plan" signed in the North.
Tensions on the peninsula have risen after the North launched a long-range rocket in December 2012 and conducted its third nuclear test last month, which drew new rounds of U.N. sanctions on the isolated state.
After the North announced it had voided the Armistice Agreement and cut the military hotline connecting two Koreas, concerns rose over unprovoked attacks by the recalcitrant neighbor, which launched deadly attacks near the western maritime border in 2010.
Although Pyongyang has routinely denounced past annual drills in the South, Seoul and Washington have taken its bellicose rhetoric more seriously this year as the North has even threatened an "all-out battle" and "pre-emptive nuclear strike" against the U.S. mainland, which are unusually intense threats.
Outside watchers, however, consider Pyongyang's latest remarks to be aimed at strengthening control domestically and building military credentials, raising doubts over whether it has the technology to build an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland.
On Friday morning, a North Korean Mig-21 fighter jet flew near South Korea's front-line airspace, known as the Tactical Action Line (TAL), and returned to its base, according to military officials. The supersonic fighter jet has a maximum speed of about 2,000 km/h.
The provocative flight prompted the South Korean Air Force to dispatch a KF-16 fighter, they said, without further elaboration.
TAL is the point between 20 and 50 kilometers north of South Korean airspace. Any aircraft approaching that line compels fighter jets in the South to scramble.
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(END)
well gee what will happen ? let me think??? first they would have to ready and fuel up their missiles and increase activity , along and to the DMZ, movements in and around heavy artillery, put out a final call KNCA as seen here
2013/03/29 06:25 KST
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(News Focus) N. Korea cautious in choosing timing for any attack: U.S. experts
By Lee Chi-dong
WASHINGTON, March 28 (Yonhap) -- As North Korea issues bellicose rhetoric almost every day, coupled with obstructionist steps like the severing of the inter-Korean military hotline, the main question is whether and when the erratic nation will launch attacks on South Korea and the United States.
Around 7,000 miles away from Seoul, Korea experts in Washington also sense high tensions on the peninsula. They agree North Korea's provocations are possible anytime but admit the difficulty of predicting what will happen.
"Discerning bluster from actual North Korean intent is always difficult, but recent actions suggests greater potential for another attack on South Korean military and civilian targets," said Bruce Klingner, senior researcher at the Heritage Foundation.
Pyongyang's military threats in recent weeks are strong and worrisome even by the standards of the communist regime's typical propaganda tactics.
Angry about new U.N. sanctions and South Korea-U.S. military exercises, the North has threatened to stage nuclear warfare, reduce South Korea to ashes and lob rockets onto Guam, Hawaii and the mainland U.S.
Klingner, who long worked in the U.S. intelligence community, raised the possibility of "miscalculation" by the North's young and inexperienced leader, Kim Jong-un, perhaps emboldened by a successful long-range rocket launch in December and a nuclear test two months later.
"As frightening as these warnings are, North Korea would more likely conduct another tactical-level attack to achieve its objectives rather than risk national suicide through a nuclear strike," he added.
In 2010, the North torpedoed a South Korean naval ship and carried out a massive artillery attack on a border island, killing a total of 50 South Korean soldiers and civilians.
But Larry Niksch, who has long followed Korean affairs, said noise from Pyongyang does not necessarily mean imminent military provocations.
"In the past, North Korea has struck against the U.S. and the ROK (South Korea) during periods of relatively calm with little or no prior warnings," said Niksch, senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). "In that situation -- periods of relative calm, North Korea has had the element of surprise when our guard was relaxed. I will worry more when North Korea calms the rhetoric."
Denny Roy, senior research fellow at the East-West Center, agreed that Pyongyang may be more cautious, especially as Seoul has stated plans to retaliate militarily to any future attack.
Currently, tens of thousands of South Korean and U.S. troops are staging annual joint military drills code-named Foal Eagle.
"If Pyongyang is more cautious, they might choose a more indirect type of provocation, something less lethal, or that is not clearly attributable to the DPRK (North Korean) government," he said.
A high-level government source here said there are no concrete indications of North Korea's actual provocations as yet.
The source, who requested anonymity, would not rule out the possibility that the North will refrain from taking additional provocative steps and create a mood for dialogue.
"I think we will have to wait until the end of the ongoing South Korea-U.S. military exercise on April 30 to get a better sense of whether the military tensions will be prolonged or talks will be able to resume," the source said.
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(END)
did i for get any ting before the word is given
- Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army Kim Jong Un convened an urgent operation meeting on the KPA Strategic Rocket Force's performance of duty for firepower strike and finally examined and ratified the plan for firepower strike.
Originally posted by Izak4K
I just read title and - IT'S ALL FAKE! Come on wake up, no one is going to do anything.
Leave Korea alone, as they always have been.
It's almost the same crap, what Russians did with there "nuclear" bombers. Think it was actually this month.
Come on......
EDIT: Creating paranoia over nothing.......edit on 29-3-2013 by Izak4K because: (no reason given)
Originally posted by MarioOnTheFly
Originally posted by Izak4K
I just read title and - IT'S ALL FAKE! Come on wake up, no one is going to do anything.
Leave Korea alone, as they always have been.
It's almost the same crap, what Russians did with there "nuclear" bombers. Think it was actually this month.
Come on......
EDIT: Creating paranoia over nothing.......edit on 29-3-2013 by Izak4K because: (no reason given)
That would explain my conundrum...if it's all faked.
Originally posted by MushroomWig
Source
Pyongyang has ordered rocket units be put on standby to fire on US bases in the South Pacific. “The time has come to settle accounts with the US imperialists in view of the prevailing situation,” North Korean leader declared, according to state media.
Is this it? Has the time finally arrived for North Korea and the United States to enter a war against each other?
www.facebook.com... My comment for the day: The Korea Threat Tensions on the Korean peninsula have again reached a flashpoint, as the US and South Korea trade threats with the government of North Korea. North Korea has threatened retaliation for US/South Korean provocations and has, it claims, abrogated the armistice that ended the Korean War some 60 years ago. On the other side, the US and South Korea held a three day naval exercise last month that included, among many other warships, an American nuclear-powered submarine. This month, the US and South Korea are conducting another joint military exercise, this time with the US flying nuclear-capable B-52 bombers over the Korean peninsula. Much of the current escalation came after the US drew up yet another set of sanctions for the UN Security Council to impose on North Korea. US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, who drafted the language, promised that this round of sanctions “will bite and bite hard." That is unlikely, as sanctions have a pretty lousy track record. However, the North Korean government retaliated against the new sanctions with bellicose threats to launch a nuclear first strike against the US. The US response to the threats has been entirely predictable. Rather than seek a way to tone down the rhetoric, newly confirmed Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced that the Pentagon, which just weeks ago claimed the “sequestration” would leave the US defenseless, would spend another billion dollars to deploy additional missile interceptors along the Pacific. This means money and jobs for a military-industrial complex that never really faced any threat of belt-tightening, as both parties continue to view the military as essentially a jobs program. Secretary Hagel, when announcing the additional $1 billion spending spree, sounded far more hawkish than his recent dovish defenders probably hoped, stating, “We will strengthen our homeland defense, maintain our commitments to our allies and partners, and make clear to the world that the United States stands firm against aggression.” Obviously, monthly US-South Korean joint military exercises near North Korean borders are not considered aggression. Only North Korean bellicosity. I wonder how the Obama Administration would view a Chinese-Mexican joint military exercise on the Texas border. Where will it all end? From the look of it, not well. The US foreign policy playbook has only one page: do the same thing over and over that has not worked in the past and hope it begins to work in the future. The real question is why are we still in Korea at all. Why, after 60 years, is the United States military still occupying South Korea, patrolling its borders, inserting itself into the dispute between North and South? What might have happened if the US had not maintained such a force in Korea, enforcing the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) and keeping families on either side from having contacts with each other? The popular view is that because North Korea is an isolated dictatorship run by irrationals, the only possible US response is to keep the situation militarized. To maintain the military threat. To continue to provoke. And always, impose more US-authored sanctions. However, one reason North Korea is isolated is the isolationist policies of the US government. It is isolationist to impose sanctions, to prohibit Americans from doing business, to impede or forbid travel by US citizens to countries with which the US government disagrees. North Korea is isolated in part because our government has isolated it. North Korea threatens to attack South Korea and the United States partly because South Korea and the United States continue to mount very provocative military exercises on North Korea’s border. That does not mean that I am in favor of the North Korean government. Far from it. Nor do I believe they are necessarily in favor of peace. But I do recognize when a policy is counter-productive. I am the opposite of an isolationist. I believe we must engage the rest of the world, not with force or arms or hectoring about internal political developments. We must engage the rest of the world with our ideas, bringing people together rather than building walls or DMZs to keep them apart. A change in our policy may not produce an instant opening or improvement, but haven’t we tried the old, failed approach long enough? Does continuing to provoke North Korea show any real hope of diffusing the gathering storm? What is the real Korean threat? The real “Korea threat” is the threat to the US economy by over-reacting to saber rattling by a third world country with another billion dollars in military spending. We cannot afford this empire, and sooner or later it will end.
North Korea plan to attack US mainland revealed in photographs
North Korea has revealed its plans to strike targets in Hawaii and the continental United States in photos taken in Kim Jong-un's military command centre.
The photos appeared in the state-run Rodong newspaper and were apparently taken at an "emergency meeting" early on Friday morning. They show Kim signing the order for North Korea's strategic rocket forces to be on standby to fire at US targets, the paper said, with large-scale maps and diagrams in the background.
The images show a chart marked "US mainland strike plan" and missile trajectories that the NK News web site estimates terminate in Hawaii, Washington DC, Los Angeles and Austin, Texas.