End Times and Current Events

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/19/us-nkorea-threat-idUSBRE91I0J520130219

2/19/13

(Reuters) - North Korea threatened South Korea with "final destruction" during a debate at the United Nations Conference on Disarmament on Tuesday, saying it could take further steps after a nuclear test last week.

"As the saying goes, a new-born puppy knows no fear of a tiger. South Korea's erratic behavior would only herald its final destruction," North Korean diplomat Jon Yong Ryong told the meeting.

Jon's comments drew quick criticism from other nations, including South Korea, France, Germany and Britain, whose ambassador Joanne Adamson said such language was "completely inappropriate" and the discussion with North Korea was heading in the wrong direction.

"It cannot be allowed that we have expressions which refer to the possible destruction of U.N. member states," she said.

Spanish Ambassador Javier Gil Catalina said the comment left him stupefied and appeared to be a breach of international law.

"In the 30 years of my career I've never heard anything like it and it seems to me that we are not speaking about something that is even admissible, we are speaking about a threat of the use of force that is prohibited by Article 2.4 of the United Nations charter," Catalina said.

Since the North tested a nuclear bomb last week in defiance of U.N. resolutions, its southern neighbor has warned it could strike the isolated state if it believed an attack was imminent.

Pyongyang said the aim of the test was to bolster its defenses given the hostility of the United States, which has led a push to impose sanctions on North Korea.

"Our current nuclear test is the primary countermeasure taken by the DPRK in which it exercised its maximum self-restraint," said the North Korean diplomat Jon.

"If the U.S. takes a hostile approach toward the DPRK to the last, rendering the situation complicated, it (North Korea) will be left with no option but to take the second and third stronger steps in succession," he said, without indicating what that might entail.

North Korea has already told key ally China that it is prepared to stage one or two more tests this year to force the United States into diplomatic talks, a source with direct knowledge of the message told Reuters last week.

"OFFENSIVE"

U.S. Ambassador Laura Kennedy said she found North Korea's threat on Tuesday profoundly disturbing and later tweeted that it was "offensive".

Poland's representative suggested North Korea's participation in the U.N. forum should be limited.

Impoverished and malnourished North Korea is one of the most heavily sanctioned states in the world.

It is still technically at war with South Korea after a 1950-53 civil war ended in a mere truce.

Washington and its allies are believed to be pushing to tighten the noose around North Korea's financial transactions in a bid to starve its leadership of funding.

Jon said last week's test was an act of self-defense against nuclear blackmail by the United States, which wanted to block North Korea's economic development and its fundamental rights.

"It is the disposition and firm will of the army and people of the DPRK to counter high-handed policy with tough-fist policy and to react to pressure and sanctions with an all-out counter-action," he said.

Jon said the United States had conducted most of the nuclear tests and satellite launches in history, and he described its pursuit of U.N. Security Council resolutions against North Korea as "a breach of international law and the height of double standards".

Neither Russia nor China, which are veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council, spoke at Tuesday's meeting in Geneva.

Before its nuclear test, North Korea was already facing growing diplomatic pressure at the United Nations.

The U.N. Human Rights Council is widely expected to order an inquiry next month into its leaders' responsibilities for crimes against humanity.

(Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/north-korea-warns-u-forces-destruction-ahead-war-071306123.html

2/23/13

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea on Sunday warned the top U.S. military commander stationed in South Korea that his forces would "meet a miserable destruction" if they go ahead with scheduled military drills with South Korean troops, North Korean state media said.
 
Pak Rim-su, chief delegate of the North Korean military mission to the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom, gave the message by phone to Gen. James Thurman, the commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, KCNA news agency said.
 
It came amid escalating tension on the divided Korean peninsula after the North's third nuclear test earlier this month, in defiance of U.N. resolutions, drew harsh international condemnation.
 
A direct message from the North's Panmunjom mission to the U.S. commander is rare.
 
North and South Korea are technically still at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.
 
The U.S.-South Korean Combined Forces Command is holding an annual computer-based simulation war drill, Key Resolve, from March 11 to 25, involving 10,000 South Korean and 3,500 U.S. troops.
 
The command also plans to hold Foal Eagle joint military exercises involving land, sea and air manoeuvres. About 200,000 Korean troops and 10,000 U.S. forces are expected to be mobilized for the two month-long exercise which starts on March 1.
 
"If your side ignites a war of aggression by staging the reckless joint military exercises...at this dangerous time, from that moment your fate will be hung by a thread with every hour," Pak was quoted as saying.
 
"You had better bear in mind that those igniting a war are destined to meet a miserable destruction."
 
Washington and Seoul regularly hold military exercises which they say are purely defensive. North Korea, which has stepped up its bellicose threats towards the United States and South Korea in recent months, sees them as rehearsals for invasion.
 
North Korea threatened South Korea with "final destruction" during a debate at the U.N. Conference on Disarmament on Tuesday.
 
(Reporting by Sung-won Shim; Editing by Nick Macfie)

http://news.yahoo.com/first-female-skorean-president-faces-nkorea-crisis-013531771.html

First female SKorean president faces NKorea crisis

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Park Geun-hye took office as South Korea's first female president Monday, returning to the presidential mansion she had known as the daughter of a dictator, and where she will respond to volatile North Korea, which tested a nuclear device two weeks ago.
 
Elected in December, Park also must answer victims of her father's 18-year dictatorship and address worries about a lack of jobs, a growing gap between rich and poor and a stagnant economy. There's pressure for her to live up to her campaign suggestion that she can return the country to the strong economic growth her father oversaw, the so-called Miracle on the Han River.
 
North Korea's underground atomic detonation tests her vow to soften Seoul's current hard-line approach to its northern rival. Park called the Feb. 12 test, the North's third since 2006, "a challenge to the survival and future of the Korean people" and said Pyongyang should abandon its nuclear ambitions and work for peace.
 
"There should be no mistake that the biggest victim will be none other than North Korea itself," Park said in her first speech as president during a ceremony where troops in formal uniforms shouted "loyalty" and fired cannons in salute.
 
At her inauguration, a band played a military march before a crowd of tens of thousands, including U.S. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso. Before Park took her oath of office, South Korean superstar PSY performed his global hit "Gangnam Style." Children and the elderly alike joined him in the contagious horse-riding dance he made famous in the song's video.
 
As Park was sworn in as president, North Korea's state media continued their typical rhetoric against South Korea and the U.S. over annual military drills that Pyongyang says are an invasion rehearsal.
 
"The U.S. warmongers should think what consequence will be brought out for getting on the nerves of the DPRK, a dignified nuclear power," the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. DPRK refers to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name. It warned the allies would "die in flames" if they start a northward invasion.
 
Pyongyang, Washington, Beijing and Tokyo are all watching to see if Park pursues an ambitious engagement policy meant to ease five years of animosity on the divided peninsula, or if she sticks with the tough stance of her fellow conservative predecessor, Lee Myung-bak.
 
Park's decision will likely set the tone of the larger diplomatic approach that Washington and others take in stalled efforts to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions.
 
"If Park Geun-hye wants to contain, the U.S. will support that," said Victor Cha, a former senior Asia adviser to President George W. Bush. "But if Park Geun-hye, months down the road, wants to engage, then the U.S. will go along with that too."
 
Park's first weeks in office will be complicated by North Korea's warning of unspecified "second and third measures of greater intensity," a threat that comes as Washington and others push for tightened U.N. sanctions as punishment for the nuclear test.
 
That test is seen as another step toward North Korea's goal of building a bomb small enough to be mounted on a missile that can hit the United States. The explosion, which Pyongyang called a response to U.S. hostility, triggered global outrage.
 
Park has said she won't yet change her policy, which was built with the high probability of provocations from Pyongyang in mind. But some aren't sure if engagement can work, given North Korea's choice of "bombs over electricity," as American scientist Siegfried Hecker puts it.
 
The economic aid and other benefits that North Korea would have received by "choosing electricity over bombs ... will be made much more difficult, if not impossible, for at least the next five years," Hecker, a regular visitor to North Korea, said in a posting on the website of Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation.
 
As she takes office, however, Park will be mindful that many South Koreans are frustrated at the state of inter-Korean relations after the Lee government's five-year rule, which saw the North conduct two nuclear tests and three long-range rocket launches. In addition, attacks blamed on North Korea that killed 50 South Koreans in 2010.
 
Park's policy calls for strong defense but also for efforts to build trust through aid shipments, reconciliation talks and the resumption of some large-scale economic initiatives as progress occurs on the nuclear issue. Park has also held out the possibility of a summit with new North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
 
Park's last stint in the presidential Blue House was bookended by tragedy: At 22, she cut short her studies in Paris to return to Seoul and act as President Park Chung-hee's first lady after an assassin targeting her father instead killed her mother; she left five years later, in 1979, after her father was shot and killed by his spy chief during a drinking party.
 
Park's transition to power has been rocky, reflecting deep rifts in South Korea that many trace back to her father's dictatorship.
 
She began her first day as president with lawmakers deadlocked over her government restructuring plans, which include newly created or revamped ministries. Some of the people she has nominated for ministry posts have been accused of tax evasion, real estate speculation and ethical lapses.
 
Many of Park's nominations for top posts came as surprises, and she was criticized for relying only on a handful of close associates, and for being secretive.
 
Much has also been made of Park's role as a trailblazer for women in South Korea, which is still a largely male-dominated society. The income gap between men and women is the widest among the world's most developed countries. But Park gave only two of 18 Cabinet posts to women. Late liberal former President Roh Moo-hyun, Lee's predecessor, named four women to his Cabinet when he took over in 2003.
 
Park also has handed top jobs to people with ties with her late father, reviving claims in the campaign that she doesn't fully understand her father's complicated legacy. Park Chung-hee is both reviled as a dictator and human-rights abuser, and revered for leading South Korea from the economic rubble of the Korean War.
 
Critics have said Park Geun-hye's North Korea policy lacks specifics. They also question how far she can go given her conservative base's strong anti-Pyongyang sentiments.
 
But Park has previously confounded ideological expectations. She travelled to Pyongyang in 2002 and held private talks with the late Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un's father and predecessor. During the often contentious presidential campaign, she responded to liberal criticism by reaching out to the families of victims of her father's dictatorship.
 
"I don't think this latest spike in the cycle of provocation and response undermines her whole platform of seeking to somehow re-engage the North," said John Delury, an analyst at Seoul's Yonsei University, noting that North Korea wants a return of large-scale aid and investment from South Korea.

http://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-cuts-off-hotline-south-korea-013425532.html
North Korea cuts off hotline with South Korea
3/11/13
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has cut off a Red Cross hotline with South Korea as it escalates its war of words against Seoul and Washington in response to a military drill in the South and U.N. sanctions imposed for its recent nuclear test. The North had threatened to cut off the hotline on March 11 if the United States and South Korea did not abandon their joint military exercise. The Red Cross hotline is used to communicate between Seoul and Pyongyang which do not have diplomatic relations.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21737859
US-South Korea drills begin amid North Korea tensions
3/11/13
The US and South Korea have begun annual military drills amid high tensions with North Korea in the wake of a UN sanctions vote. Pyongyang has strongly condemned the exercises, threatening to scrap the armistice that ended the Korean War. Seoul says North Korea also appears to have carried out a threat made last week to sever a cross-border hotline. The drills come days after the UN approved new sanctions on North Korea following its nuclear test in February. The test last month was the communist country's third. It followed an apparently successful launch in December of a three-stage rocket, seen as a banned test of missile technology.

http://beforeitsnews.com/war-and-conflict/2013/03/nk-fighter-jet-activity-increases-dramatically-evacuating-civilians-into-tunnels-camouflaging-transports-2445462.html
3/13/13
North Korea has begun evacuating some citizens into tunnels with emergency provisions and putting military camouflage on buses and trucks, the South Korean Defense Ministry said Tuesday.
 
North Korea has dramatically increased the number of fighter jets in its skies over the last few days, an unnamed government official told South Korean-based news agency Yonhap, and may have closed access to its limited internet from the outside.

“Flights of North Korean air force’s fighter jets and helicopters reached about 700 sorties on March 11,” the source said. South Korean sources often only reveal information to local media on the condition of anonymity.

All that was left now, was for North Korea to “unleash merciless retaliation” against ongoing U.S.-lead sanctions and war games, Yonhap reported, citing an official North Korean government statement.

North Korea has responded to on-going U.S.-South Korean war games by creating its own war-like atmosphere, the Seoul-based Daily NK reported. “Before the military exercises started on the 11th, orders were handed down telling us to raise the readiness posture one step from ‘combat mobilization,’” the North Hamkyung-based source told the online newspaper.

Simple question for everyone, what is North Korea going to do?  I don't ever remember thembeing on this type of footing over war games before.  Martial lawhigh alert, cancelled armistice, etc. etc.   -Mort

Those people are just plain nuts. ::)

Welcome Catalyst!

Yes, those two have been at it for some time with this nonsense. Unbelieving Koreans are some strange people. ::)

Didn't South Korea recently "elect" a PM?

Yeah, I know the NWO minions choose the world leaders, but nonetheless guess it's no coincidence that while the tensions are really running high right now, a "new leader" for SK gets appointed.

Guess we'll see...

Yes, they did, a woman.

US to deploy more ground-based missile interceptors as North Korea steps up threats

The U.S. is deploying 14 new ground-based missile interceptors in Alaska to counter renewed nuclear threats from North Korea and Iran, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Friday.

The new interceptors will be based at Fort Greely, an Army launch site about 100 miles southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska, and are projected to be fully deployed by 2017, Hagel said. The additions will bring the U.S.-based ground interceptor deployment from 30 to 44, including four that are based in California.

REST: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/15/17327806-us-to-deploy-more-ground-based-missile-interceptors-as-north-korea-steps-up-threats?lite

It's as if pretty soon, missile bases and nuclear weapons could be on every street corner - reminds me of the 2nd seal in Rev 6.

Pretty much all of the chess pieces are being set in play before the Rev 6 seals get unleashed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_trSJf7Zec

The only worship that is allowed is that of the "dear leader" Kim Jong-Il and his father Kim Il-Sung. In North Korea, every other religious activity is labeled an act of insurrection against North Korean

UN launches inquiry into crimes, labor camps in North Korea - @Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/21/us-korea-north-un-idUSBRE92K0SZ20130321

North Korea orders artillery to be combat ready, targeting U.S. bases

 North Korea said on Tuesday its strategic rocket and long-range artillery units have been ordered to be combat ready, targeting U.S. military bases on Guam, Hawaii and mainland America after U.S. bombers flew sorties threatening the North.

The order, issued in a statement from the North's military "supreme command", marks the latest fiery rhetoric from Pyongyang since the start of joint military drills by U.S. and South Korean forces early this month.

South Korea's defense ministry said it saw no sign of imminent military action by North Korea.

"From this moment, the Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army will be putting into combat duty posture No. 1 all field artillery units, including long-range artillery units and strategic rocket units, that will target all enemy objects in U.S. invasionary bases on its mainland, Hawaii and Guam," the North's KCNA news agency said.

The North previously threatened nuclear attack on the United States and South Korea, although it is not believed to have the capability to hit the continental United States with an atomic weapon. But the U.S. military's bases in the Pacific area are in range of its medium-range missiles.

South Korea's defense ministry said it had detected no signs of unusual activity by the North's military but will monitor the situation. The South and the U.S. military are conducting drills until the end of April, which they have stressed are strictly defensive in nature.

The North has previously threatened to strike back at the U.S. military accusing Washington of war preparations by using B-52 bombers which have flown over the Korean peninsula as part of the drills.

North Korea has said it has abrogated an armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War and threatened a nuclear attack on the United States.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/26/us-korea-north-combat-idUSBRE92P06520130326

North Korea puts rocket units on alert to 'attack US'

North Korea has elevated its artillery and strategic missile forces to "combat-ready posture" and said it is prepared to strike targets in South Korea, Japan, Guam, Hawaii and the continental US.

The announcement, carried by the KCNA state media, was in the name of the Supreme Command, which has attracted attention in South Korea because it is an emergency division of the government that is only operational during time of war.

In the announcement, North Korea said it would "show off our army and people's stern reaction to safeguard our sovereignty and the highest dignity through military actions."

The comments come a day after Kim Jong-un was again pictured visiting military units, watching exercises on the east coast involving troops storming ashore from hovercraft and artillery shelling targets.

The media mouthpiece for the regime said North Korea can no longer overlook Washington's nuclear and military threats.

REST: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/9953874/North-Korea-puts-rocket-units-on-alert-to-attack-US.html

North Korea has a history of this type "sabre-rattling", but this time they seem to be rattling it a little harder. I'm wondering if it's because of their new "Dear Leader" wants to show himself as being his own man, a kind of political peeing on a tree. It serves as a dry run to get him up to speed on that aspect of being a tyrant.

North Korea to cut all channels with South as "war may break out any time"

Reclusive North Korea is to cut the last channel of communications with the South because war could break out at "any moment", it said on Wednesday, days after warning the United States and South Korea of nuclear attack.

The move is the latest in a series of bellicose threats from North Korea in response to new U.N. sanctions imposed after its third nuclear test in February and to "hostile" military drills under way joining the United States and South Korea.

The North has already stopped responding to calls on the hotline to the U.S. military that supervises the heavily armed Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and the Red Cross line that has been used by the governments of both sides.

"Under the situation where a war may break out at any moment, there is no need to keep north-south military communications which were laid between the militaries of both sides," the North's KCNA news agency quoted a military spokesman as saying.

"There do not exist any dialogue channel and communications means between the DPRK and the U.S. and between the north and the south."

Despite the shrill rhetoric, few believe North Korea, formally known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), will risk starting a full-out war.

North and South Korea are still technically at war anyway after their 1950-53 civil conflict ended with an armistice, not a treaty, which the North says it has since torn to pieces.

The "dialogue channel" is used on a daily basis to process South Koreans who work in the Kaesong industrial project where 123 South Korean firms employ more than 50,000 North Koreans to make household goods.

About 120 South Koreans are stationed at Kaesong at any one time on average.

It is the last remaining joint project in operation between the two Koreas after South Korea cut off most aid and trade in response to Pyongyang's shooting of a South Korean tourist and the sinking of a South Korean naval vessel blamed on the North.

Kaesong is one of North Korea's few hard currency earners, producing $2 billion a year in trade with the South, and Pyongyang is unlikely to close it except as a last resort.

The North's military spokesman representing its "supreme command" did not mention Kaesong, which has suffered temporary shutdowns before.

The South's government said it would take steps to ensure the safety of the workers at Kaesong. It did not elaborate.

http://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-cut-channels-south-war-may-break-090941398.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/9960933/North-Korea-plan-to-attack-US-mainland-revealed-in-photographs.html
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.

The meeting of the Pyongyang's senior military leaders was called after two US B2 bombers, flying out of bases in Missouri, carried out simulated bombing raids on North Korean targets on an island off the coast of South Korea.

"He finally signed the plan on technical preparations of strategic rockets, ordering them to be on standby to fire so that they may strike any time the US mainland, its military bases in the operational theatres in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam, and those in South Korea," the state-run KCNA news agency reported.

It added that the B2 test flights demonstrated Washington's "hostile intent" and said the "reckless" act had gone "beyond the phase of threat and blackmail."

The North's military was placed on its highest alert level earlier this week and a hotline link with the South Korean military was severed.

North Korea has also cut the mobile Internet link for foreign visitors, only weeks after the 3G service was introduced.

Despite the increasingly belligerent rhetoric and new images emerging from the North Korean regime, analysts believe its missiles are not capable of striking targets as far away as the US mainland and are not, as yet, capable of delivering a nuclear payload.

The images of Kim surrounded by his officers and diagrams of targets in the US are designed for a domestic consumption and to demonstrate the young leader's mastery of military affairs, experts believe.

‘Threat Level Red’ Declared? Preparedness Pro – Air Force Reserve Base In Portland On Stand-by
Thursday, March 28, 2013 15:46
http://beforeitsnews.com/survival/2013/03/threat-level-red-declared-preparedness-pro-air-force-reserve-base-in-portland-on-stand-by-2467606.html

According to Preparedness Pro via a post on Facebook, the United States Military has gone to 'threat level red'. After this original post was made approx. 5 hours ago (approx. 1:30 pm eastern time on Thursday March 28th, 2013), confirmation HAS BEEN received from 6 different sources as outlined in comments further down in the post. What are they preparing for? North Korea has declared war upon the United States and South Korea; the Pentagon has deployed B-2 Stealth Nuclear bombers to South Korea. One could quite easily say that WW3 is now upon the horizon. Let's all pray that cooler heads prevail. The original Facebook post is here:

(http://beforeitsnews.com/contributor/upload/5385/images/preparedness%20pro.png)

i would like to think that if there was any kind of real threat here, we would be seeing a lot more moement of materials. It just isnt happening.

Nonetheless, chalk this one up as "rumors of war...be ye not troubled...".

http://news.yahoo.com/nkorea-says-state-war-skorea-014344604.html
3/30/13
NKorea says it is in a 'state of war' with SKorea

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea warned Seoul on Saturday that the Korean Peninsula had entered "a state of war" and threatened to shut down a border factory complex that's the last major symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.

Analysts say a full-scale conflict is extremely unlikely, noting that the Korean Peninsula has remained in a technical state of war for 60 years. But the North's continued threats toward Seoul and Washington, including a vow to launch a nuclear strike, have raised worries that a misjudgment between the sides could lead to a clash.

North Korea's threats are seen as efforts to provoke the new government in Seoul, led by President Park Geun-hye, to change its policies toward Pyongyang, and to win diplomatic talks with Washington that could get it more aid. North Korea's moves are also seen as ways to build domestic unity as young leader Kim Jong Un strengthens his military credentials.

On Thursday, U.S. military officials revealed that two B-2 stealth bombers dropped dummy munitions on an uninhabited South Korean island as part of annual defense drills that Pyongyang sees as rehearsals for invasion. Hours later, Kim ordered his generals to put rockets on standby and threatened to strike American targets if provoked.

more

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/9961610/North-Korea-outbreak-of-war-hours-away-as-Kim-Jong-un-plans-US-strike.html
North Korea: 'outbreak of war hours away' as Kim Jong-un plans US strike
North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un has ordered missile units to prepare to strike US mainland as a British tour operator was warned that the "outbreak of war probably only hours away".

3/29/13

The order came after US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Washington would not be cowed by Pyongyang's bellicose threats and stood ready to respond to "any eventuality".

Mr Kim directed his rocket units on standby at an overnight emergency meeting with top army commanders, hours after nuclear-capable US B-2 stealth bombers were deployed in ongoing US joint military drills with South Korea.

In the event of any "reckless" US provocation, North Korean forces should "mercilessly strike the US mainland ... military bases in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam, and those in South Korea", he was quoted as saying by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

While North Korea has no proven ability to conduct such strikes, Mr Kim said: "The time has come to settle accounts with the US imperialists."

Meanwhile, Dylan Harris, director of Lupine Travel, which specialises in holidays to unusual places like Iran, Chernobyl and Siberia, received an email on Friday morning.

It said US stealth bomber flights over the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DRPK) had made the situation "critical with the outbreak of war probably only hours away". It was not clear who the email was from.

There is currently a British golfer in Pyongyang as part of a group holiday.

Mr Harris said: "I contacted the Foreign Office and if they say it's unsafe we will not travel or organise further trips to North Korea.

"However, there is a group of ten golfers in Pyongyang, which is where the only public golf course is, who are due to fly out of the country tomorrow (Saturday).

"One of them is British and nine are Chinese. I'm in constant touch with them and they are all safe and in good spirits."

"We had planned to organise a golfing tournament in May but with the current situation I don't know if that will go ahead, some customers have already cancelled."

more

Whether or not it's true, as we have no idea if any of these events have actually taken place, it makes no sense. Why would NK escalate like this? Because US and SK military drills, which they do all the time? Maybe the son is a stone-cold nutcase, itching to try out his new toys. Whatever, it's insane for NK to be trying anything with anybody.

Propaganda no doubt, but... :-\

IMHO, I don't think world war will break out until the tribulation period(after the AC signs the peace treaty - 2nd seal). Otherwise, propaganda or no, this is yet another "war rumor" Jesus talks about in Matthew 24(let not your hearts be troubled).

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/31/world/asia/us-korea-f-22s/index.html?eref=rss_mostpopular
U.S. deploys stealth fighter jets to South Korea
 
By CNN Staff
updated 10:44 PM EDT, Sun March 31, 2013

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- The United States deployed stealth fighter jets to South Korea on Sunday as part of ongoing joint military exercises between the two countries, a senior U.S. defense official said.

The F-22 Raptors were sent to the main U.S. Air Force Base in South Korea amid spiking tensions on the Korean peninsula. The U.S. military command in South Korea said they were deployed to support air drills as part of the annual Foal Eagle training exercises, which are carried out in accordance with the armistice that put an end to armed hostilities in 1953.

North Korea has been ramping up its rhetoric and military show of force in response to the annual joint military exercises, declaring the armistice invalid on March 11, 10 days after Foal Eagle began. It is something Pyongyang has done before during heightened tensions.

The United States' participation in Foal Eagle is intended to demonstrate the country's "commitment to stability and security in the Asia-Pacific Region," the U.S. military command in South Korea said in a statement that also urged North Korea to tone down its rhetoric.

more

Kim Jong Un vows to restart nuclear facilities shut in 2007...
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20130402/DA5D7U6G3.html


USA MOVES DESTROYER OFF NKOREA...
http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/31/17543980-us-navy-shifts-destroyer-in-wake-of-north-korea-missile-threats?lite

CHINESE TROOPS MOBILIZE NEAR BORDER...

China mobilizing troops, jets near Korea

China has placed military forces on heightened alert in the northeastern part of the country as tensions mount on the Korean peninsula following recent threats by Pyongyang to attack, U.S. officials said.

Reports from the region reveal the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) recently increased its military posture in response to the heightened tensions, specifically North Korea’s declaration of a “state of war” and threats to conduct missile attacks against the United States and South Korea.

According to the officials, the PLA has stepped up military mobilization in the border region with North Korea since mid-March, including troop movements and warplane activity.

China’s navy also conducted live-firing naval drills by warships in the Yellow Sea that were set to end Monday near the Korean peninsula, in apparent support of North Korea, which was angered by ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills that are set to continue throughout April.

North Korea, meanwhile, is mobilizing missile forces, including road-mobile short- and medium-range missiles, according to officials familiar with satellite imagery of missile bases.

The missile activity is believed to be North Korea’s response to the ongoing U.S.-South Korean military exercises that last week included highly publicized flights by two B-2 strategic nuclear bombers near North Korean territory as part of annual military exercises.

North Korea’s government announced last week that since March 26 its missile and artillery forces have been placed on the highest alert status.

Specifically, Nodong medium-range missiles and their mobile launchers were spotted in satellite imagery, the officials said.

There are also indications North Korea will soon conduct a flight test of its new KN-08 road-mobile ICBM or its intermediate-range Musudan mobile missile. Test preparations had been detected in the past, the officials said.

A military provocation by North Korean forces against the South is not expected while the current war games are underway in South Korea, officials said.

However, the situation remains dangerous as hostilities could break out as a result of a miscalculation. South Korea’s government has said it would respond to any North Korean military provocation with force.

The Chinese military activities near North Korea were detected in Jilin Province, and intelligence reports from the area on March 19 indicated that PLA forces were ordered to go to “Level One” alert status, the highest level of readiness.

Large groups of soldiers were seen on the streets in Ji’an, a city in Jilin, amid reports that the PLA had been ordered to combat readiness status.

PLA heavy armored vehicles, including tanks and armored personnel carriers, were reported moving near the Yalu River that separates China from North Korea.

The troops were part of the 190th Mechanized Infantry Brigade, stationed in Benxi, in Liaoning Province. The movements are believed to be related to increased tensions in Korea.

Additionally, PLA troops and military vehicles were seen near Baishan, in Jilin province, around March 21.

Low-flying PLA air force jets, believed to be fighters, also were heard and seen at several border locations in China, including Yanji and Yanbian in Jilin, Kuancheng, in Hebei province, and Dandong, in Liaoning province.

Chinese forces along the border responded to some unknown event in North Korea near Siniju on March 21 that involved Chinese fighter jets flying over the area.

The officials said the Chinese military activities appear to be based on concerns about a new outbreak of conflict between North Korea and South Korea and the United States.

China’s military maintains a long-standing defense treaty with the North that obligates China to defend North Korea in the event it is attacked. The last time Chinese forces backed Pyongyang was during the Korean War when tens of thousands of Chinese “volunteers” drove south into the peninsula.

Chinese military spokesmen frequently refer to their relations with the Korean People’s Army, as the North Korean military is called, as ties “as close as lips and teeth.”

Other reports from China indicate that the heightened tensions have led to a disruption of trade between China and North Korea along the border between the two countries.

One sign of slowed commerce between China and North Korea was a Chinese Internet report from a restaurant owner in Dandong, China, a border city, who said commerce between the two countries was disrupted following North Korea’s Feb. 12 underground nuclear test.

Since that time, it has been more difficult for the goods from North Korea to reach China because the North Korean Customs Office closed frequently as a result of increased Chinese inspections of North Korean goods.

U.S. officials and private analysts said the slowdown may be a sign of Beijing’s displeasure at the North Korean nuclear test.

China also held up exports of crude oil to North Korea in February, according to customs data reviewed by Reuters news agency. The agency said in a report that it was the first time deliveries of oil were cut since early 2007.

However, in a sign of continuing close relations, the government of Jilin province announced March 27 that it plans to modernize railway links to North Korea to bolster cross-border economic and trade ties.

The China Tumen-North Korea Rajin Railway and China Tumen-North Korea Chongjin Railway will be upgraded under the Jilin government plan, China’s official Global Times reported.

Additionally, the Chinese plan to set up a special highway passenger line to connect Tumen to North Korea over the next several years.

Other reports from the region stated that North Korean cities in the northern part of the country were placed on “combat” alert and have conducted evacuation drills, officials said.

The drills have been carried out in three-day to five-day intervals when power and water supplies were suspended as part of the exercises.

Chinese citizens living in border cities in China also reported hearing air-raid sirens as part of the exercises, officials said.

U.S. officials say China’s main fear for its fraternal communist client regime in North Korea is a collapse of order that leads to large-scale refugee flows into China.

Reports from inside North Korea also revealed that North Korean soldiers have been issued bread, instant noodles, sausages, milk, and dried fish that appeared to be supplied by the United Nations as aid meant for the civilian population.

The Feb. 12 underground blast, North Korea’s third, is credited by analysts with setting off the latest round of belligerence by the Pyongyang regime.

After the test, the U.S. government continued to refuse to acknowledge North Korea as a nuclear-armed state.

That prompted the regime of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un to issue unprecedented threats to fire nuclear missiles at the United States.

The Pentagon responded by using annual military exercises with South Korea to fly B-52 strategic bombers and later B-2s near North Korea.

Frontline F-22 fighter-bombers, the Air Force’s most advanced jets, were sent on Sunday to take part in the military drills.

North Korea’s latest threats included announcing a state of war and cutting off military and other communications.

North Korea’s ruling communist Korean Workers Party announced on Sunday that the nuclear arsenal is the “nation’s life” and would not be given up even if offered “billions of dollars,” the Associated Press reports.

http://freebeacon.com/border-patrol/

I still feel this is a total feint so that China can make a move on Japan

We're seeing a lot of this going on in the ME as well - IMHO, a lot of this is slowly but surely getting into place as we're moving into the end times. I don't think world war will bring out anytime soon, but everything will be in place when the 2nd seal gets unleashed in the tribulation period. Ditto the worldwide economic collapse - all of these bailouts, bank account grabs, etc that we are seeing is being set up for the 3rd seal in the tribulation period.

N. Korea approves nuclear strike on United States

By Jung Ha-Won (AFP) – 20 minutes ago 

SEOUL — North Korea dramatically escalated its warlike rhetoric on Thursday, warning that it had authorised plans for nuclear strikes on targets in the United States.

"The moment of explosion is approaching fast," the North Korean military said, warning that war could break out "today or tomorrow".

Pyongyang's latest pronouncement came as Washington scrambled to reinforce its Pacific missile defences, preparing to send ground-based interceptors to Guam and dispatching two Aegis class destroyers to the region.

Tension was also high on the North's heavily-fortified border with South Korea, after Kim Jong-Un's isolated regime barred South Koreans from entering a Seoul-funded joint industrial park on its side of the frontier.

In a statement published by the state KCNA news agency, the Korean People's Army general staff warned Washington that US threats would be "smashed by... cutting-edge smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike means".

"The merciless operation of our revolutionary armed forces in this regard has been finally examined and ratified," the statement said.

Last month, North Korea threatened a "pre-emptive" nuclear strike against the United States, and last week its supreme army command ordered strategic rocket units to combat status.

But, while Pyongyang has successfully carried out test nuclear detonations, most experts think it is not yet capable of mounting a device on a ballistic missile capable of striking US bases or territory.

Mounting tension in the region could however trigger incidents on the tense and heavily-militarised border between North and South Korea.

There was no immediate American reaction to the North's latest statement, but US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Pyongyang represented a "real and clear danger" to the United States and to its allies South Korea and Japan.

"They have nuclear capacity now, they have missile delivery capacity now," Hagel said after a strategy speech at the National Defense University. "We take those threats seriously, we have to take those threats seriously."

"We are doing everything we can, working with the Chinese and others, to defuse that situation on the peninsula. I hope the North will ratchet its very dangerous rhetoric down," he said.

The Pentagon said it would send ground-based THAAD interceptor batteries to protect US bases on the island of Guam, complementing two Aegis anti-missile destroyers already dispatched to the region.

The THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defence) is a truck-mounted system that can pinpoint an enemy missile launch, track the projectile and launch an interceptor to bring it down.

Guam is a US island territory 3,380 kilometres (2,100 miles) southeast of North Korea in the Pacific and is home to 6,000 American military personnel, as well as bases for submarines and strategic bombers.

The new defensive measures came as Pyongyang stopped South Korean staff members from entering the Kaesong complex, a shared industrial zone funded by Seoul but 10 kilometres inside the North.

Pyongyang said the 861 South Koreans already in the zone could leave, but the move cut the last practical cooperation between the rival powers and was seen as a dramatic escalation in the crisis.

South Korea's defence ministry said it had contingency plans that included "military action" if the safety of its citizens in Kaesong was threatened.

China, the North's sole major ally, appealed for "calm" from all sides and Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov said he was worried that the situation could spiral out of control.

Describing the Kaesong ban as "very regrettable", South Korea's Unification Ministry urged the North to normalise access immediately.

"Otherwise," the ministry warned, "not only will inter-Korean relations be negatively affected but North Korea will invoke greater criticism and isolation from the international community."

It said 33 South Koreans had returned from Kaesong, with hundreds staying on to keep their companies running smoothly.

Around 53,000 North Koreans work at 120 South Korean plants at the complex, which was still operating normally Wednesday.

Tensions have soared on the Korean peninsula since December, when the North test launched a long-range rocket. In February, it upped the ante once again by conducting its third nuclear test.

Washington has deployed nuclear-capable US B-52s, B-2 stealth bombers and two US destroyers to South Korean air and sea space.

This week, the North warned it would reopen its mothballed Yongbyon reactor -- its source of weapons-grade plutonium. The North shut down Yongbyon in July 2007 under a six-nation aid-for-disarmament accord.

Experts say it would take at least six months to get the reactor back up and running, after which it will be able to produce one bomb's worth of weapons-grade plutonium per year.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gpuimXzka5inwGnL0c9vZsbQ54fw?docId=CNG.4eb43e27607cb9d4be6b952b88ddefeb.01

Is North Korea about to start World War 3? The truth behind rogue state's fighting talk

With a 900,000-strong army, a terrifying chemical arsenal and a leader with an itchy trigger finger, it could explode into a devastating war

IT is easy to see North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as a joke figure, and to dismiss his puffed-up posturing about bombing the US as bluster.

And it is true there is no chance of a North Korean nuclear missile flattening New York, Manhattan, Washington or LA any time soon.

But with a 900,000-strong army, a terrifying chemical arsenal and a leader with a very itchy trigger finger, the fragile situation in Korea could explode into a devastating war.

And international concern is mounting.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, himself a former South Korean foreign minister, has called for direct talks with North Korea to contain the situation.

The United States responded to North Korean threats with a quiet demonstration of its enormous military might, sending B-52 and B2-stealth bombers for training flights over North Korea.

These are platforms for US strategic nuclear weapons, sending an unmistakable signal that the regime is playing with fire.

The US also deployed F-22 stealth bombers and moved an Aegis-class warship to the region.

The battleship is equipped with the capability to intercept ballistic missiles.

Yesterday North Korea announced that it was restarting the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, shut down in 2007.

The reactor produced the plutonium for the country’s nuclear devices.

Although it will take up to a year to restart, the announcement is significant because currently North Korea only has enough plutonium for about six nuclear devices.

It wants to make clear it will develop its nuclear arsenal, integrate it fully into its defences and will not give up nuclear weapons.

In Washington and South Korean capital Seoul, the atmosphere remains calm. There is no evidence North Korea is mobilising its forces.

Every day South Korean workers travel to the special industrial zone in Kaesong across the border as if nothing had happened.

Washington and Seoul remain convinced that North Korea cannot afford to start a major conflict which could only end with the destruction of its regime.

But the risk of war is real. There are 900,000 North Korean soldiers deployed across the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas.

They are equipped with more than 17,000 artillery pieces and 3,500 main battle tanks.

In the event of armed conflict, the Korean People’s Army will be raining artillery projectiles on to downtown Seoul while advancing across the DMZ.

The North also possesses significant quantities of chemical weapons.

While it cannot win a war, it can cause enormous damage and loss of life even without nuclear weapons. It also has about 100,000 special forces trained to infiltrate the South in the event of war.

The current crisis is dangerous because both sides have already reached the limit of what can be achieved through military signals, and have no way to reduce tensions.

Washington and Seoul do not want to reward Kim Jong-un with any concessions or even talks as they have done previously.

Normalisation of relations remains off the table as long as North Korea maintains brutal prison camps where 200,000 of its political opponents are incarcerated and denies basic human rights to its own population.

In the mid-90s a severe famine resulted in the deaths of three million people in the North while its government did nothing at all to alleviate their suffering.

In the past, North Korea has used small-scale attacks, such as the killing of American soldiers in the DMZ or the sinking of the South Korean frigate Cheonan and artillery attacks on Yeonpyeong island in 2010 to reinforce the diplomatic pressure.

Since then, the South Korean military has changed its policy.

It is determined to respond to any attack by North Korea with a much larger military response targeted both at the units that fired and command centres in the capital Pyongyang.

North and South Korea are still technically at war as there is no peace treaty and South Korea never signed the ceasefire agreement at the end of the Korean War.

Any miscalculated step could trigger a military conflict that could spiral out of control.

Many are now looking to China for keeping its “client state” under control. China rescued North Korea from total defeat in the Korean War in the 50s.

At that time General MacArthur wanted to use nuclear weapons against targets in China to force their withdrawal from the war but was overruled by President Truman and removed from command.

Although China has provided a security guarantee for North Korea since then, it is no longer the case that it will support North Korea’s military adventures.

Thus, China has called for calm and restraint on all sides.

In  the past China temporarily suspended shipments of oil and food to North Korea. So why not now?

The answer is that Beijing is concerned about the outbreak of a major conflict on the Korean peninsula that could result in millions of refugees flooding into China.

Worse still, it could suck China itself into a military conflict with the United States.

Beijing is treading very carefully now because it fears further pressure on North Korea will cause the situation to get out of control.

So far there has been no clear indication of what Kim Jong-un wants to achieve.

The most likely explanation is that there are serious divisions within the leadership.

By responding harshly to the condemnation of his missile and nuclear tests in the United Nations Security Council, Kim is demonstrating that he is up to the job of confronting the United States and South Korea.

Ban Ki-moon is right. China and the United States need to work together to establish some framework for dialogue with North Korea to defuse the crisis.

This might be enough for Kim Jong-un to declare victory without achieving any substantial concessions and allow for renewed engagement with North Korea.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/north-korea-start-world-war-1806119

Why did North Korea really threaten to launch nuclear attacks on the U.S.? Is Kim Jong-un just crazy or is there something bigger at play here?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpmI7ECNfRk

U.S. MISSILE DEFENSE TO GUAM...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22021832

Warplanes moved to Philippines...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/04/us-philippines-usa-military-idUSBRE9330BC20130404

American Troop Poised at Border...
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/04/u-s-troops-stand-poised-to-respond-at-north-korea-border/

'Could make preemptive strike'...
http://thehill.com/video/house/291579-rep-king-us-could-make-preemptive-strike-on-north-korea

Kim Jung-Un Losing Control?
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Military/2013/0403/Kim-Jong-un-Can-US-trust-North-Korea-leader-to-act-rationally?nav=87-frontpage-entryNineItem

China miffed at NKorea...
http://koreajoongangdaily.joinsmsn.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=2969614&cloc=joongangdaily|home|newslist1

PYONGYANG PREPS MISSILES
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20130404/DA5ELC3G1.html

Just remember, Amerika is NOT an END TIMES player. The Antichrist becomes Israel’s protector, just how do you think that happens? Something has to happen to Amerika, this could be it...Need to prepare for the worst... 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/29/korea-north-russia-idUSL5N0CL0JG20130329?feedName=OutloudFeed&feedType=RSS
3/29/13
Russia warns against military activity near North Korea

(Reuters) - Russia said on Friday that heightened military activity near North Korea was slipping into a "vicious cycle" that could get out of control, implicitly criticising U.S. bomber flights that followed threats from Pyongyang.

Foreign Ministry Sergei Lavrov suggested that North Korea should also cool down, calling on "all sides not to flex their military muscle" and avoid the danger of a belligerent response.

"We are concerned that alongside the adequate, collective reaction of the U.N. Security Council, unilateral action is being taken around North Korea that is increasing military activity," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"The situation could simply get out of control, it is slipping toward the spiral of a vicious cycle," he said when asked about tensions on the Korean Peninsula at a joint news conference after talks with his Ukrainian counterpart.

more

US chemical battalion in South Korea:The United States has deployed a battalion equipped to deal with nuclear, biological and chemical attacks in South Korea after North Korea threatened to attack the US with ‘nuclear weapons.’ 

http://presstv.com/detail/2013/04/04/296464/us-chemical-battalion-in-south-korea/

Not that I endorse SBC President Fred Luter nor Rick Wiles(that end times radio talk show host who's proven to be a heretic, and has a lot of Catholic listeners), but Luter was on Wiles's show recently, and he suggested to Wiles that b/c same-sex marriage is really being pushed in this country, God has brought judgment by putting that madman there in North Korea.

Again, I don't endorse anything they say(I've crossed paths with Luter once when I lived in New Orleans - the guy's a fake, and he's also a member of the city's Interfaith group at the RCC archdiocese), but nonetheless the enemies(which I believe Luter and Wiles work for) will occasionally telegraph stuff to the public like this as they know what's going on behind the dark curtains.

So yeah, who knows, this could be the event that brings Amerika down.

This country has been under Judgment for a while. Eventually we will be punished, what better time than now.

I agree that scripture doesn't mention America, at least it seems not to, but I'm not willing to go so far as to say they aren't an end times "player". I don't believe there is any indication that America won't be around as a country till the end, unless you go by events in the world itself, which seems to suggest America is being taken over and changed to conform to the New World Order of world government. For that to happen, they had to break the US politically, somehow remove the Constitution from the equation, and I believe they have done that as evidenced by all the politicians who are complicit in the passing of unconstitutional tyrannical laws and the various other actions that shows it's clear those people are not friends of the Constitution and US sovereignty.

If I were to guess, I'd venture that the US will be brought into the global fold of world government, and may even be outright changed constitutionally away from a republic to a full blown democracy, even to the point of basically a coupe of sorts claiming the country has been mishandled and they are taking the country back for "Americans, blah, blah, blah".

Total collapse? For some reason, I just don't see it. MAJOR trouble, even public uprisings, I don't doubt, and even expect it, but it won't destroy the country, but instead set the stage for political powers to step in and "save the day".

"...let God be true..."

oh i do, right now and for the last 60 years Amerika has been Israels sole protector, besides the Lord of course. During the END TIMES, it will be the antichrist and his European allies. NOT Amerika. So something has to happen. Just imagine how quickly support for Israel would drop if there were no Christians around, IE: the Rapture.

But a more easily one to see is Amerika being taken out by a couple 3rd world nations, Heck i could do it if i was in charge of N Korea. Its not like we are a defended nation with anti missile batteries on the shores. We arent like other countries, we have no defenses at the ready. I can fully see that happen, and its not like we are a God Fearing nation. And i fully believe that we are under Judgment, and punishment is coming, and I fully believe it will happen BEFORE the end times start.

There are only a couple of nations guaranteed to make it to the end times, and well Amerika isnt one of them.

http://news.yahoo.com/nkoreas-twitter-account-hacked-amid-091726564.html
NKorea's Twitter account hacked amid tension

NKorea's Twitter account hacked amid tension; Anonymous allegedly grabs NKorea data
4/4/13

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Hackers apparently broke into at least two of North Korea's government-run online sites Thursday, as tensions rose on the Korean Peninsula.

The North's Uriminzokkiri Twitter and Flickr accounts stopped sending out content typical of that posted by the regime in Pyongyang, such as photos of North's leader Kim Jong Un meeting with military officials.

Instead, a picture posted Thursday on the North's Flickr site shows Kim's face with a pig-like snout and a drawing of Mickey Mouse on his chest. Underneath, the text reads: "Threatening world peace with ICBMs and Nuclear weapons/Wasting money while his people starve to death."

Another posting says "We are Anonymous" in white letters against a black background. Anonymous is a name of a hacker activist group. A statement purporting to come from the attackers and widely circulated online said that they had compromised 15,000 user records hosted on Uriminzokkiri.com and other websites. The authenticity of the statement couldn't be confirmed, but the North's official website did not open Thursday.

Tweets on the North's Twitter account said "Hacked" followed by a link to North Korea-related websites. One tweet said "Tango Down" followed by a link to the North's Flickr page.

more

Kim is the most hated person in the world right now

Well, we'll see how this turns out - the MSM seems to be pushing this a bit now. Saw a bit of CNN tonight, and Gingrich was discussing this on Piers Morgan. Apparently too, this is one of the hot-potato NWO agendas of the Illuminati.

North Korea asks Russia to consider possible evacuation of Russian embassy staff in Pyongyang; Russia says no plans at this point - @Reuters

that really bothers me

Get out of North Korea, now! ALL embassies told to evacuate staff from Pyongyang after madman dictator warns he 'cannot guarantee safety of foreigners'

Rogue communist state issued a deadline of April 10 to every government
Russia in 'contact with U.S., China and South Korea' about staff safety
About two dozen countries, including the U.K., have embassies in North Korea - although the U.S. has no diplomatic relations
N Korea has moved second Musudan missile with 3,000km range
South Korea deployed two warships with missile-defence systems

All government embassies have been instructed to evacuate staff from Pyongyang after dictator Kim Jong-un warned he could not 'guarantee the safety of foreigners.'

The rogue communist state issued a deadline of April 10 to every government that is represented in North Korea in a dramatic new escalation of the nuclear crisis.

Today the British Foreign Office confirmed it had been told its staff were at risk while Russia said it was in 'close contact with the U.S, China and South Korea' about airlifting workers out.

Advice for tourists is set to change after North Korea moved a second missile to its east coast, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

Scroll down for videos

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2304287/North-Korea-latest-Get-ALL-embassies-told-evacuate-staff-Pyongyang-Kim-Jong-Uns-warning.html#ixzz2PbDNxDLY

http://rt.com/news/earthquake-russia-korea-china-395/
6.2 magnitude earthquake shakes Russia's Far East, close to China and North Korea

An earthquake of 6.2 magnitude was registered in the border area between Russia, China and North Korea, the US Geological Survey said Friday.

The epicenter of the quake was 9km from the Russian village of Zarubino, about 60km northeast of the North Korean city of Aodzhiri and approximately 608 km from the capital Pyongyang. No casualties or damage have been reported.

The earthquake struck at a depth of 561.9 km.

As the epicenter of the quake is not within North Korea itself, the South Korean Defense Ministry said that the quake did in fact result from natural causes, and not a nuclear test.

Both earthquakes and nuclear tests create seismic waves, and the earthquake comes as Pyongyang has recently threatened to launch a nuclear strike against the US.

On Friday, North Korea warned that it would be unable to guarantee the safety of embassies and international organizations in the country in the event of conflict starting from April 10.

In March, a 6.1-magnitude earthquake shook the northern part of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula in the country’s Far East, and a 6.9 earthquake struck south of the peninsula in late February. 

Neither resulted in causalities or significant damages.

An underground formation in the area known as the Kuril-Kamchatka arc is one of the most seismically active regions in the world.

The USGS says that since 1900, seven massive earthquakes registering 8.3 on the Richter Scale or higher have occurred along the arc.

NK's blustering history really makes me hesitate to consider this serious, yet. But things like this seem to be a bit more than the past, and yes, that's bothersome. But it's a head-scratcher. Why now? Why NK? It's like a little yapping old dog with no teeth. Who could they really mess with and why? They, by all indications, would lose BIG time, and fast. You start tossing around the word "nuclear" and suddenly you got everybody's serious attention. It's one thing to be running your mouth back and forth over two fishing vessels that bump each other fighting over some boundary in the water, but this is another level of stupid.

"The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly." John 10:10 (KJB)

http://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-asks-embassies-consider-moving-diplomats-022658803--business.html
Embassies staying put in North Korea despite tension
4/6/13

By Jane Chung

SEOUL (Reuters) - Staff at embassies in North Korea appeared to be remaining in place on Saturday despite an appeal by authorities in Pyongyang for diplomats to consider leaving because of heightened tension after weeks of bellicose exchanges.

North Korean authorities told diplomatic missions they could not guarantee their safety from next Wednesday - after declaring that conflict was inevitable amid joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises due to last until the end of the month.

Whatever the atmosphere in Pyongyang, the rain-soaked South Korean capital, Seoul, was calm. Traffic moved normally through the city center, busy with Saturday shoppers.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted a government official as saying diplomats were disregarding the suggestion they might leave the country.

"We don't believe there's any foreign mission about to leave Pyongyang," the unidentified official was quoted as saying. "Most foreign governments view the North Korean message as a way of ratcheting up tension on the Korean peninsula."

North Korea has been angry since new U.N. sanctions were imposed following its third nuclear weapons test in February. Its rage has apparently been compounded by joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises that began on March 1.

China's Xinhua news agency on Friday had quoted the North's Foreign Ministry as saying the issue was no longer whether but when a war would break out.

Most countries saw the appeal to the missions as little more than strident rhetoric after weeks of threatening to launch a nuclear strike on the United States and declarations of war against the South.

But Russia said it was "seriously studying" the request.

A South Korean government official expressed bewilderment.

"It's hard to define what is its real intention," said the official, who asked not to be identified. "But it might have intensified these threats to strengthen the regime internally or to respond to the international community."

The United Nations said its humanitarian workers remained active across North Korea. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, however, remained "deeply concerned" about tensions, heightened since the imposition of U.N. sanctions against the North for its third nuclear arms test in February.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi repeated Beijing's calls for dialogue to resolve the tensions in a phone call with Ban.

"We oppose provocative words and actions from any party in the region and do not allow troublemaking on China's doorstep," a statement on the ministry's website said, citing Wang.

The appeal to diplomats followed news reports in the South that North Korea, under its 30-year-old leader Kim Jong-un, had moved two medium-range missiles to a location on its east coast. That prompted the White House to say that Washington would "not be surprised" if the North staged another missile test.

Kim Jong-un is the third member of his dynasty to rule North Korea. He took over in December 2011 after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, who staged confrontations with South Korea and the United States throughout his 17-year rule.

North Korea has always condemned the exercises held by U.S. forces and their South Korean allies. But its comments have been especially vitriolic this year as the United States dispatched B-2 bombers from its home bases to stage mock runs.

"MADCAP NUCLEAR WAR"

North Korea's government daily newspaper said tension remained high because the United States was "waging madcap nuclear war maneuvers".

"This is aimed at igniting a nuclear war against it through a pre-emptive strike," the Minju Joson said in a commentary. "The prevailing situation proves that a new war, a nuclear war, is imminent on the peninsula."

A television documentary broadcast on Friday quoted North Korean leader Kim as saying, during a provincial tour last month, that the country needed to "absolutely guarantee the quality of our artillery and shells to ensure a rapid pre-emptive attack on our enemies".

But some commentators examining the outcome of meetings in Pyongyang last week - of the ruling Workers' Party and of the rubber-stamp legislature - concluded that Kim and his leadership were more concerned with economic than military issues.

Internet site 38 North, which specializes in North Korean affairs, cited the reappointment of reformer Pak Pong Ju as prime minister, the limited titles given to top military and security officials and the naming of a woman to a senior party post.

"These personnel appointments make a great deal of sense in the context of Pyongyang's declarations ... that its economic policy will be modified by introducing systemic reforms while also continuing the development of nuclear weapons," 38 North commentator Michael Madden wrote.

"(They) appear to be important steps in moving key economic development products and production away from the control of the military to the party and government."

North Korea has not shut down one symbol of joint cooperation, the Kaesong industrial zone just inside its border. But last week it prevented South Koreans from entering the complex and about 100 of them who have since remained were due to return home on Saturday, leaving a further 500 there.

The barrage of North Korean threats has created jitters in South Korea's financial markets.

Shares slid on Friday, but analysts said much of the decline was linked to the Bank of Japan's monetary easing policies and one analyst said further major falls were unlikely.

"In a sense, for now the yen is of greater concern than the North Korea risk," said Ko Seunghee, a market analyst at SK Securities. "There is a sense that the KOSPI (index) will not fall sharply or drop below the 1,900 level unless big news about North Korea breaks out."

(Additional reporting by Michael Martina in Beijing, Writing by Ron Popeski; Editing by Robert Birsel and Stephen Powell)

http://news.sky.com/story/1074718/north-korea-us-deploys-spy-plane-to-japan
North Korea: US Deploys Spy Plane To Japan
The US brings forwards its drone deployment to Japan after North Korea moves two missiles on mobile launchers to its east coast.

Tensions remain high on the Korean Peninsula amid reports the US has deployed an unmanned spy plane to Japan to boost its surveillance after North Korea readied missile launchers on its east coast.

The Global Hawk will be stationed at the US airbase in Misawa, northern Japan, in the first ever deployment of the aircraft in the country, the Sankei Shimbun reported, quoting government sources.

The US military informed Japan last month about plans to deploy the plane between June and September but has brought the date forward.

It comes after North Korea warned foreign diplomats they may not be safe in the country if war breaks out.

Pyongyang asked foreign embassies whether they were considering evacuating staff, saying the government could not guarantee their safety in the event of conflict from April 10.

The British Foreign Office dismissed the warning as "rhetoric".

However, an urgent international effort to defuse the situation is under way.

The heads of EU missions are to meet to hammer out a common position on the crisis, while the US works its diplomatic channels to resolve the stand-off with Pyongyang.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has been holding talks with officials in South Korea, as well as China - historically North Korea's ally - to see if the Chinese can put any more pressure on North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un to back down.

Reporting from the South Korean capital Seoul, Sky's Asia Correspondent Mark Stone, said: "In the skies above the Korean Peninsula there are spy planes operating.

"There will be drones - American drones - operating before long from a base in Japan.

"They are trying to get as much of a sense as possible of what it is that Kim Jong-Un is doing on the ground with his weaponry.

"We know he has some pretty sophisticated weaponry.

"There are artillery rounds just over the border. They could in theory hit Seoul. That's a big concern for South Korea.

"That's why they are trying to put these intelligence reports together, as well as the diplomacy behind the scenes, to try and work out what Kim Jong-Un might be up to."

He continued: "The diplomats were warned by Pyongyang to leave by April 10 - no one quite knows why that date should be significant.

"It seems pretty clear, certainly speaking to western diplomats based in Pyongyang, their belief is this is just the latest round of rhetoric from North Korea.

"You would assume that if North Korea was planning some sort of war, it would actually want the diplomats from foreign countries to remain there so that they could be used as some sort of a bargaining chip - not kicked out of North Korea.

"I think it is alarming, but I think it's also probably just more rhetoric," he added.

Most governments have made it clear they have no immediate plans to withdraw personnel from the area.

Western tourists returning from organised tours in Pyongyang - which have continued despite the crisis - said the situation on the ground appeared calm, with life going on as normal.

"We're glad to be back but we didn't feel frightened when we were there," said Tina Krabbe, from Denmark, arriving in Beijing after five days in North Korea.

The embassy warning on Friday coincided with reports that North Korea had loaded two mid-range Musudan missiles on mobile launchers and hidden them in underground facilities on its eastern coast.

The Musudan have never been tested but are believed to have a range of around 3,000km (1,860 miles), which could theoretically be pushed to 4,000km (2,485 miles).

That would cover any target in South Korea and Japan, and possibly even reach US military bases located on the Pacific island of Guam - which Pyongyang has threatened to strike.

Tensions have soared on the Korean peninsula since December, when the North test-launched a long-range rocket. In February, it conducted its third nuclear test and drew fresh UN sanctions.

If that is true, then this whole thing is a media sideshow. If diplomats aren't going anywhere, I'd say it's a pretty good bet NK is just rattling the media.

This is no different from the days of our "battle" with Communism with the Soviet Union - despite all the talk of "nuclear destruction", it never happened, and it turned out it was nothing but Hegelian Dialectic talk. What we're seeing here is likely no different.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ6k2_pa6Nc

Personally, the way I see the end times scenario playing out is not necessarily world war(or any kind of war), but the entire world being in a state of confusion and fear, where they are BEGGING for some kind of "global leader" to help them. We actually saw shades of that in the late 80's prior to communism falling.

http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-4364583,00.html
North Korea increases artillery production

Documentary shows Kim Jong-un telling industry chiefs to prepare for 'preemptive strike', according to South Korean news agency

The situation in North Korea  continues to escalate: Leader Kim Jong-un has recently ordered to increase production of artillery in expectation of the coming hostilities.

"When war breaks, we'll have to wipe out the enemy's bases and institutions in one blow," Kim said in a video released on Saturday.

"We have to be sure we posses quality artillery and shells," he added.

more

As North Korea readies missile launch, fear growing of major cyber attack to disable US computer networks this week...

The North Korean media continued to describe the standoff in dramatic terms at the weekend, accusing the US and South Korea of "waging madcap nuclear war manoeuvres".

"This is aimed at igniting a nuclear war against it through a pre-emptive strike," the Minju Joson, a government daily newspaper, said. "The prevailing situation proves that a new war, a nuclear war, is imminent on the peninsula."

The prospect of a North Korean missile test is causing concern in Japan, which is easily within range. In Tokyo, Yoshihide Suga, a government spokesman, said that Japan was preparing for a "worst-case" scenario, and urged China and Russia to play "significant roles" in defusing tensions. Experts and officials have dismissed Pyongyang's threats to launch nuclear strikes against the US, given the rudimentary state of its weapons capability. But it could cause widespread disruption with a cyberattack, according to a defector who worked for the regime's 3,000-member cyberwarfare unit.

The regime's next move could be to break into US computer networks to steal information and spread viruses, Jang Se-yul, who defected to the South in 2008, told the Observer. North Korea's hackers are suspected of being behind recent cyberattacks that paralysed computer networks at several South Korean banks and broadcasters.

"It would demonstrate that North Korea is a strong cyberpower," Jang said. "Their prime target is the US, and they've been preparing for something like this for years, including when I was there in the 1990s. I can't say how successful they would be, but it's a possibility."

http://redflagnews.com/headlines/as-north-korea-readies-missile-launch-fear-growing-of-cyber-attack-to-disable-us-computer-networks-this-week

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/north-korea-cuts-off-economic-ties-south-tensions-145102720.html
North Korea Cuts Off Economic Ties With South as Tensions Escalate
4/8/13

North Korea announced Monday that it would pull all workers and suspend operations from the joint-Korean Kaesong industrial zone, one of the last relics of cooperation between North and South Korea.

In a statement released by the state-run North Korean News Agency, Kim Yang-gon, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, claimed that South Korea is attempting to turn the industrial zone “into a hotbed of confrontation between compatriots and war against the DPRK, hurting its dignity.”

More than 50,000 North Korean workers will be recalled from the zone. There are currently 475 South Korean managers in the industrial area that is located north of the 38th parallel but their situation is unclear.

The Kaesong industrial zone combines South Korea’s technological prowess with North Korea’s cheap labor and provides Pyongyang with $90 million in annual wages. Around 123 companies operate in the zone and mostly produce cheap clothing and footwear.

The announcement comes after a barrage of nuclear tests by North Korea and escalating tension between the two countries. North Korea’s young leader, Kim Jong-un, has threatened both South Korea and the United States with missiles and other provocative actions over the past weeks.

North Korea’s aggression is particularly difficult to respond to says Paul Carroll, program director of Ploughshares Fund.

“We don’t know, and that’s really the crux of the problem,” he says in an interview with The Daily Ticker. “We just don’t know what it is they want because we don’t have a continuous conversation with them. Everyone is speculating that this is about Kim Jong-un consolidating his power, showing that he’s strong, and getting internal domestic support behind him."

This sudden aggression could also be North Korea’s way of sending a message to China to continue sending monetary and trade support to Pyongyang. Chinese president Xi Jinping said on Sunday that "no one should be allowed to throw a region and even the whole world into chaos for selfish gain," which has been interpreted as a thinly veiled rebuke at North Korea.

Carroll says the U.S. should not fear a nuclear fallout.

“I don’t think we should take the threats about nuclear attack very seriously, but we need to take the situation on the Korean peninsula much more seriously than we have,” he explains. “North Korea really should be getting more respect from Washington and Beijing. Yes they are impoverished, yes they are a dictatorship, but they’ve detonated three nuclear weapons.”

North Korea’s rhetoric may be over the top but their weaponry is becoming more sophisticated and warrants a closer eye, he adds.

Carroll’s sentiment closely follows Ian Bremmer's, president of the Eurasia Group. Bremmer told The Daily Ticker that while most of North Korea’s threats are “classic propaganda,” we shouldn’t discount them entirely.

Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to make a trip to the Korean peninsula next week where he is scheduled to address the rising tensions in the area. “I think sending the Secretary of State to the area is a lot better than sending B2s and B52s,” says Carroll.

Sometimes maybe one way to examine a situation is to step back and observe what is not being said or discussed. What's missing in this? No clearly defined reason given for NK's actions. Articles have briefly mentioned the North is upset about military exercises, but they do those type things all the time, so why the dust up now? It seems like they just gloss over why North Korea is acting up, which I think that means somebody ain't telling the whole story in the media. Propaganda is a two-sided coin.

I really doubt if the media would tell us the truth anyway.

Warns Foreigners to Leave South Korea...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/09/us-korea-north-idUSBRE93408020130409


Japan Deploys Patriot Missiles to Defend Tokyo...
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/454992/20130409/north-korea-missile-japan-interceptor-tokyo-pyongyang.htm

NKOREA 'TO LAUNCH MISSILE TOMORROW'
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/390452/North-Korea-to-launch-missile-TOMORROW-after-warning-foreigners-to-evacuate-South??

Let them launch it, if what the media has been saying is true. That would mean they have about 1 and a half missiles left, and that ain't enough to blow up anything really, based on the size it's claimed they might be able to make. Maybe make a real big mess in some small town, but that's it for a 1 megaton. Those people don't care about loosing a few lives for the sake of the "collective", so I'm not seeing them getting overly bothered with these threats.

It's like a person standing about 100 yards away pointing a single shot .22 cal revolver at you, threatening to shoot you. I'd take my chances on that all day long. Good luck even hitting the target, much less doing any real damage. Besides, we have Jesus on our side, so they could put it to my forehead if they want, nothing will happen to us unless God says so, and even then, all that will happen is that we are taken from this temporal world at His will, but we are still His sons.

This also is another verse that proves one cannot lose salvation! But one must believe it with all their heart...

"For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's." Romans 14:8 (KJB)

Video: 1/3 Of US Air Force Grounded: ‘Sequester’ N. Korean Nuclear False Flag On The Horizon?

Something isn't right here! For YEARS and years the US government has found a way to print enough money to make sure that they could build a thousand more bombs and for some reason, the Department of Homeland Security has found enough money to buy BILLIONS of rounds of hollow point bullets but, in this hour of potential WORLD CRISIS, the US government can't find enough money to fund an entire ONE-THIRD of the United States Air Force because of the 'sequester'? Something stinks to high heaven as North Korea gets ready for a missile fired over Japan and has notified that they may soon conduct another nuclear test. This breaking story below from Asbury Park Press stinks to high heaven.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NjTceMsEv_I

http://beforeitsnews.com/global-unrest/2013/04/13-of-us-air-force-grounded-sequester-n-korean-nuclear-false-flag-on-the-horizon-2454622.html

http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/11/world/asia/koreas-tensions/index.html
North Korean missile in upright firing position, official says
By Jethro Mullen. Barbara Starr and Joe Sterling, CNN

updated 12:47 PM EDT, Thu April 11, 2013

(CNN) -- North Korea has raised at least one missile into its upright firing position, feeding concerns that a launch is imminent, a U.S. official told CNN Thursday.

This comes amid another round of daily tough talk from the North. A government agency is quoted by the state-run media as saying that "war can break out any moment."

So far, South Koreans -- who've heard the cross-border bombast before -- are taking the swagger in stride. Washington regards much of the North's saber rattling as bluster.

But no one is taking any chances as the daily clamor of threats from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's government shows no sign of letting up.

War of words escalates - Timeline of a crisis

After the raising of the missile Wednesday, it was not clear why the North Korean government did not proceed with the firing.

The U.S. official cautioned that the raising of the missile could have been just a trial run to ensure the equipment works or an effort to "mess" with the United States and the allies that are watching for a launch at any time.

The official declined to specify what type of intelligence led the United States to conclude the medium-range missile -- a Musudan -- was in a firing position.

Should I stay or should I go? Expats mull future as Korean tensions rise

The Musudan is an untested weapon that South Korea says has a range as far as 3,500 kilometers (2,175 miles).

It could reach as far as Guam, a Western Pacific territory that is home to U.S. naval and air bases, and where the United States recently said it was placing missile defense systems.

The United States and South Korean militaries have been monitoring the movements of mobile ballistic missiles on the east coast of North Korea. Japan has deployed defense systems.

Opinion: Why North Korea worries Dick Cheney

The mood in South Korea? 'Very ordinary'

Life is generally continuing as normal in the region, however, despite the North's barrage of recent threats, which have included warnings to foreigners on the peninsula about their safety in the event of conflict,

South Koreans, who have experienced decades of North Korean rage and posturing -- and occasional localized attacks -- have gone about their daily business without alarm.

"South Korea has been living under such threats from the past, and we are always prepared for it," South Korean Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae told CNN Wednesday. He called the current climate "a very ordinary situation."

Tourist visits to the North appear not to have been significantly affected by the situation. China says that while some tour groups have canceled trips, the border between the two countries is still operating normally.

Chinese tourism: The good, the bad and the backlash

Foreign athletes are expected to compete in a marathon Sunday in Pyongyang, one of many sporting events organized by North Korean authorities to celebrate the 101st anniversary next week of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea and the grandfather of leader Kim Jong Un.

"Our group just boarded a full plane for #Pyongyang," Uri Tours, a U.S.-based travel agency that arranges trips to North Korea, tweeted late Wednesday.

North Korea's missile capabilities

South urges dialogue over industrial zone

The difficulties at the Kaesong industrial zone, a key symbol of inter-Korean cooperation, are among the few tangible signs of the tensions.

Pyongyang repeated a threat to permanently close the industrial zone, which it jointly operates with the South, accusing South Korean President Park Geun-hye of putting the manufacturing complex at risk.

The South Korean government, meanwhile, urged Pyongyang to work to resolve the situation through dialogue.

"Pyongyang should come to the bargaining table immediately," Ryoo said.

North Korea has pulled its more than 50,000 workers out of the complex, which is on the northern side of the heavily fortified border that divides the two Koreas, and blocked personnel and supply trucks from entering it from South Korea.

In a statement reported Thursday by state-run media, the North Korean government said that what happens at the complex in the coming days "entirely depends on the attitude of the South Korean authorities."

DMZ: Tensions high at knife-edge of Korean conflict

U.S. intelligence cites direct threats

The dangers posed by North Korea came up Thursday at a House Intelligence Committee hearing about worldwide threats.

James R. Clapper, director of U.S. national intelligence, said the United States believes the primary objective of Kim's bellicose rhetoric is to "consolidate and affirm his power" and to show he is "in control of North Korea."

Clapper said he doesn't think Kim "has much of an endgame" other than to get recognition from the world as a nuclear power which "entitles him to negotiation, accommodation and, presumably, aid."

But in a statement for the record before the committee, Clapper reiterated that the nation's "nuclear weapons and missile programs pose a serious threat to the United States and to the security environment in East Asia."

Since December, North Korea has put a satellite in orbit atop a long-range rocket; conducted a nuclear bomb test, its third since 2006; and claimed to be prepared for pre-emptive nuclear attacks on the United States, though most analysts believe it does not yet have that capability.

Its most recent nuclear test, in February, resulted in tougher U.N. sanctions, which infuriated Pyongyang, prompting it to sharpen its threats.

Annual military exercises in South Korea by U.S. and South Korean troops, which often upset the North, have added to the tensions, especially when the United States drew attention to shows of strength such as a practice mission by B-2 stealth bombers.

It may be that North Korea is being used to forward an agenda, but it does look like the world's governments are not particularly concerned.

As for the US military cuts, I think that's just pure politics as it's McCain and the Republicans that are war hawks, so no surprise Democrats are cutting the military like they claim they are. Thing is, all those military units can be back up and running in a few hours at most, so it's not that big a deal.

DRUDGE REPORT: NUCLEAR WAR 'UNAVOIDABLE'
http://www.drudgereport.com/

North Korea states 'nuclear war is unavoidable' as it declares first target will be Japan
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/391376/North-Korea-states-nuclear-war-is-unavoidable-as-it-declares-first-target-will-be-Japan

NORTH KOREA has warned Japan that Tokyo would be the first target in the event of a war on the Korean Peninsula, as it increased threats of an attack.

In a commentary carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the communist country lashed out at Tokyo's standing orders to destroy any missile heading toward Japan, threatening such actions will result in a nuclear attack against the island nation.

If Japan executes its threat to shoot down any North Korean missile, such a “provocative” intervention would see Tokyo — an enormous conurbation of 30 million people — “consumed in nuclear flames”, KCNA warned.

“Japan is always in the cross-hairs of our revolutionary army and if Japan makes a slightest move, the spark of war will touch Japan first,” the report added.

An official at Japan’s defence ministry said that the country “will take every possible measure to respond to any scenario”, while the US Secretary of State John Kerry warned that a North Korean missile launch would be a “huge mistake”.

“The rhetoric that we are hearing from North Korea is simply unacceptable by any standards,” he told a news conference in Seoul alongside South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-Se.

“The United States, South Korea and the entire international community… are all united in the fact that North Korea will not be accepted as a nuclear power,” Kerry added.

However, the North has declared it is "confident of final victory" against its enemies.

"The enemies should know that it is the era of the great Marshal Kim Jong Un, leader of the most powerful country and invincible great Paektusan nation," KCNA stated.

"The DPRK has won victories in confrontation with the U.S. in spirit and is waging an all-out action with it, with confidence in final victory."

The torrent of war cries is seen outside Pyongyang as an effort to raise fears and pressure Seoul and Washington into changing their North Korea policies, and to show the North Korean people that their young leader is strong enough to stand up to powerful foes.

South Korea fears Pyongyang could launch now launch multiple missiles after weeks of threats, according to local reports.

Observers believe a launch is most likely in the build-up to Monday’s anniversary of the birth of late founder Kim Il-Sung, for which celebrations are already well under way in Pyongyang.

The Korean Peninsula has "been reduced to the biggest nuclear hotspot in the world", the North said in more fiery rhetoric today, "making the outbreak of a nuclear war on this land unavoidable."

The reclusive state is dedicated to "defending the sovereignty and dignity of the country with its own strike mode and means," it said.

"No force on earth can block the just cause of the army and people of the DPRK," the chilling message concluded.

So they are going to fire a test missile over Japan, as I've seen mentioned will likely happen, and now claiming Japan is their first target for a nuclear strike? What part of that scenario makes them think Japan will wait to see if it's a test? And how do we even know who is really running North Korea? They could easily be the "bad cop" in the worldly delusion being used to justify stricter "security" etc. for the "good guys" of the western world.

Till somebody takes action, it's all rhetoric.

^^ I was kind of thinking the same thing too(kind of, that is) - remember the whole "Cold War" stuff where over and over again, the USA was threatened with nuke attacks. Never happened, b/c it was part of the Hegelian Dialectic process. By the time Reagan and Gorbachev signed that "peace" treaty in the 80's, you could see them exchanging Freemasonic handshakes.(and Reagan at the time worked with the Pope to help "bring down communism")

Well, no one ain't seen anything yet!

Rev 13:11  And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
Rev 13:12  And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
Rev 13:13  And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,
Rev 13:14  And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
Rev 13:15  And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
Rev 13:16  And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
Rev 13:17  And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Rev 13:18  Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

And i believe that Harry Truman was a freemason as well who gave the go for the US to nuke Hiroshima and Nagasaki, doesn't this thing about North Korea wanting to nuke Japan make you think of WW2? Kim Jong Un is just as devil possessed as Truman was. i pray each day that there will be no war in the Koreas, i dont want to see war, i trust that God is in control of world history.

First off, SBC Prez Fred Luter should be much more concerned about all of the false prophets like Dallas Willard and Richard Foster, false teachers like Rick Warren and Billy Graham, ecumenicists/collectivists like Russell Moore being appointed to high level positions, and sodomites infiltrating the Southern Baptist Convention, b/c judgment must begin at the house of the Lord.

And besides, it was GOD who reigned his fury on Sodom and Gomorrah, and NOT some North Korea dictator. ::)

http://allchristiannews.com/southern-baptist-convention-president-fred-luter-called-a-frightened-puppy-for-retracting-remarks-on-cnn/
Southern Baptist Convention President Fred Luter Called a “Frightened Puppy” for Retracting Remarks on CNN
4/11/13

Radio show host, Rick Wiles, has criticized Fred Luter, Southern Baptist Convention President, for going back on his own comments during an interview on Wiles show.  During the interview, Luter agreed with Wiles that maybe the moral downslide in America has something to do with North Korea’s nuclear threat, prophetically speaking.

Wiles said, “Poor pastor Luter, he wilted under the heat of CNN’s cameras.” Wiles went on to say that he thought that Luter had “tucked his tail between his legs like a frightened puppy,” after he withdrew the comments he made on Wiles show. He continued, “He made Joel Osteen look like the winner of the tough-man contest.”

In the interview with Wiles, Luter said that although he was no expert on prophecy, he would not be surprised if there was not a connection between the U.S. bickering about gay marriage in the U.S. Supreme Courts and the fact that Kim Jong-un, North Korean dictator, was making noise about going to war with the U.S.

Luter continued to point out that historically, Scripture had been proven right when the people who claim to be of God are breaking His laws. “I would not be surprised that at the time when we are debating same-sex marriage, at a time when we are debating whether or not we should have gays leading the Boy Scout movement, I don’t think it’s just a coincidence that we have a madman in Asia who is saying some of the things that he’s saying,” said Luter.

**So does that include YOU, Mr. Luter, who happens to be a member of the New Orleans RCC Archdiocese's INTERFAITH group?
http://endtimesandcurrentevents.freesmfhosting.com/index.php/topic,6030.0.html

During an interview with Anderson Cooper’s of CNN, Luter recanted his previous comments to Wiles and claimed that he had been misunderstood. He said that the views were Wiles’, not his own. Luter also said that while some of this could be true, he wasn’t entirely sure if Wiles was correct or not.

Uh, no, you said so right out of your mouth...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TddbuAVZklU

Wiles, now has his own ministry, but previously worked for the Christian Broadcasting Network and Trinity Broadcasting Network. He said that he doesn’t take back the words that he said to Luter and he still thinks the same way. You be the judge:  Is Fred Luter a coward for saying something and then backing down on national television?

Personally, I couldn't care less. Just more false prophet propaganda.

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/14/17745795-japan-us-agree-north-korea-must-not-have-nuclear-weapons?lite
4/14/13
Japan, US agree North Korea must not have nuclear weapons

Japan and the United States cannot allow North Korea to possess nuclear weapons, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishia said Sunday after a meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry, according to Reuters.

Kerry is in Japan on a regional tour aimed at solidifying support for curbing North Korea's nuclear program.

Earlier, he was in Beijing – for the first time as secretary of state – where he sought to persuade President Xi Jinping to rein in North Korea, China's traditional ally, arguing that Pyongyang's erratic young leader, Kim Jong Un, is threatening the stability of the entire region.

Pyongyang has threatened for weeks to attack the United States, South Korea and Japan since new U.N. sanctions were imposed in response to its latest nuclear arms test in February, fuelling speculation of a new missile launch or nuclear test.

"China and the United States must together take steps in order to achieve the goal of a denuclearized Korean Peninsula, and today we agreed to have further discussions, to bear down very quickly with great specificity on exactly how we will accomplish this goal," Kerry said Saturday before flying on to Japan, the last stop on his Asian tour.

more

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/456840/20130414/north-korea-threat-missile-launch-birthday-kim.htm
4/14/13
North Korea's Kim Jong-un missing in Public for Two Weeks

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has not been seen in public for the past two weeks sparking widespread speculation amid escalating tensions in the Korean Peninsula.
 
Unconfirmed reports which suggested a coup against the leader have been rubbished by experts in Seoul citing no unusual military movement in the country.

Alongside a flurry of threats from North Korea, Kim's absence has set rumour mills rolling. One question being asked is whether Pyongyang has been forced to tone down its war rhetoric against the US and South Korea.

Kim was last seen in public on 1 April when he headed a parliamentary session. The leader has been missing in action for the last 15 days at a time when the country is set to mark the birth anniversary of his grandfather and former leader of North Korea Kim Il-sung.

It is widely speculated that North Korea will launch a ballistic missile to mark the occasion.

A source familiar with matter told the Seoul-based Yonhap news agency that Kim's absence is a "psychological warfare that could grab attention from South Korea and the United States".

Experts also believe that Pyongyang will not scale down its provocative posture against the US.

Meanwhile, North Korea's staunch ally China has pledged to work together with the US in a bid to restrain Pyongyang.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, who was in Beijing holding talks with top Chinese leaders, said the two largest economies are looking forward to peacefully defusing the tensions.

"To properly address the Korean nuclear issue serves the common interests of all parties. China will work with other relevant parties including the United States to play a constructive role," said Beijing's State Councillor Yang Jiechi.

Neither Washington nor Beijing has spelt out the steps the parties intend taking against North Korea if the situation turns worse.

Kerry, who earlier visited Seoul, is on the last leg of his Asia tour and will shortly visit Japan. Tokyo has also deployed several Patriot missiles to defend its territory in the wake of the North Korean threats.

http://news.yahoo.com/british-university-attacks-bbc-over-covert-north-korea-141125944.html
British university attacks BBC over covert North Korea trip
4/15/13

LONDON (Reuters) - A leading British university has criticised the BBC for arranging an academic trip to North Korea to make an undercover documentary, saying it had put students who were unaware of the plans in danger.

The London School of Economics (LSE) said three BBC journalists - including the respected reporter John Sweeney - joined a student society trip at the end of March, posing as tourists to make a film about the secretive state.

The university said the students had been told "a journalist" would accompany them, but it had not been made clear the BBC's aim was to use the visit to record an undercover film for "Panorama", a current affairs programme.

more

North Korea vows blitz attack on South warning 'retaliation will start without notice'
NORTH Korea's military has today issued a stark warning saying it will launch retaliation against South Korea without warning if "anti-North Korean" activities continue.

"The supreme command of the Korean People's Army Tuesday issued an ultimatum to the South Korean puppet group," Pyongyang's official news agency, KCNA, said.

Threatening that it would not give any advance notice before attacking South Korea, the North warned: "Our retaliatory action will start without any notice from now."

North Korea said it was responding to insults from the "puppet authorities" in the South, who yesterday held a rally against the North in Seoul.

Anti-North Korea protesters burnt effigies of past and present leaders of the secretive state while the North celebrated the 101st anniversary of its founder's birth.

Branding the rally a "monstrous criminal act," the North warned "all the service personnel and people of the DPRK are simmering with towering resentment" towards the South.

"Our retaliatory action will start without any notice from now as such thrice-cursed criminal act of hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK is being openly committed in the heart of Seoul under the patronage of the puppet authorities."

"The DPRK's revolutionary armed forces will start immediately their just military actions to show how the service personnel and people of the DPRK value and protect the dignity of the supreme leadership."

"The military demonstration of the DPRK's revolutionary armed forces will be powerful sledge-hammer blows at all hostile forces hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK."

The renewed threats came a day after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged the regime in Pyongyang to halt its nuclear program and tame its fiery rhetoric if it wants to hold talks.

However, today the North responded by saying "if the puppet authorities truly want dialogue and negotiations, they should apologize for all anti-DPRK hostile acts, big and small, and show the compatriots their will to stop all these acts in practice."

The Secretary of State's visit followed weeks of dramatic threats by Kim Jong Un's regime, including that of a nuclear strike on the United States and South Korea.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/392335/North-Korea-vows-blitz-attack-on-South-warning-retaliation-will-start-without-notice

(http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/80450F/fun107.com/files/2013/04/kim-jong-un-meme-e1365295475770.jpg)

North Korea Sets Conditions for Return to Talks

North Korea on Thursday demanded the lifting of United Nations sanctions and an end to joint American-South Korean military exercises as preconditions for starting dialogue to defuse tension on the Korean Peninsula.

By making demands that both the United States and South Korea had no intention of accepting, North Korea signaled that it would not stand down anytime soon from a military standoff that has lasted for weeks.

But the fact that North Korea has recently begun responding to American and South Korean offers for dialogue, even though they came with steep preconditions, has raised cautious hopes among South Korean analysts that the North might be ready to wind down weeks of hostile rhetoric that at times appeared to bring the peninsula close to a point of conflict.

rest: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/19/world/asia/north-korea-tension.html?_r=0

http://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-moves-two-more-missile-launchers-report-035049930.html
North Korea moves two more missile launchers: report
4/20/13

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has moved two short-range missile launchers to its east coast, apparently indicating it is pushing ahead with preparations for a test launch, a South Korean news agency reported on Sunday. South Korea and its allies have been expecting some sort of North Korean missile launch during weeks of heightened hostility on the Korean peninsula. An unidentified South Korean military source told the South's Yonhap news agency that satellite imagery showed that North Korean forces had moved two mobile missile launchers for short-range Scud missiles to South Hamgyeong province. "The military is closely watching the North's latest preparations for a missile launch," the source said.

South Korea 'to withdraw staff' from Kaesong zone in North

South Korea says it is withdrawing its remaining workers from a jointly-run industrial complex in North Korea.

The announcement came from the unification minister shortly after Pyongyang rejected an offer of talks.

North Korea blocked access to the Kaesong zone - once a symbol of inter-Korean co-operation - earlier this month and later pulled its workers out.

The move followed weeks of high tension in the wake of North Korea's third nuclear test in February.

"Because our nationals remaining in the Kaesong industrial zone are experiencing greater difficulties due to the North's unjust actions, the government has come to the unavoidable decision to bring back all remaining personnel in order to protect their safety," Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae said.

"North Korea must guarantee the safe return of our personnel and fully protect the assets of the companies with investment in Kaesong," he added.

He did not give a timescale for the withdrawal. A total of 175 South Korean workers are currently in the complex, which is home to South Korean factories staffed by North Korean workers.

The remaining South Koreans were believed to be running out of food and medicines, because the North had refused to allow fresh supplies in.

But an association representing the South Korean companies in Kaesong had earlier suggested staff could be reluctant to pull out, because they wanted to protect their assets from seizure.

In 2011 North Korea said it seized assets from Mount Kumgang, a mothballed tourism site run by the two countries.

South Korea called for talks on the issue on Thursday, asking for a response by noon on Friday. Pyongyang rejected the offer, saying the South Korean "ultimatum" risked exacerbating tensions.

'Litmus-test'
 
The Kaesong complex is the biggest contributor to inter-Korean trade and provides the North with much-needed hard currency.

The stoppage has also taken a heavy toll on South Korean firms, Yonhap news agency quoted South Korean President Park Geun-hye as saying.

The zone is seen as a litmus-test of relations between the two countries, and analysts consider such an extended shut-down to be a considerable setback.

In 2009 North Korean authorities briefly shut off entry to Kaesong industrial park after US-South Korean military drills, leaving hundreds of South Korean workers effectively trapped.

The current Kaesong ructions follow weeks of strong rhetoric from North Korea, which has been angered by tightened UN sanctions imposed after its 12 February nuclear test and by current joint US-South Korean military drills.

The past two months have seen unusually high tensions on the Peninsula, and while the rhetoric on both sides has softened slightly, the situation remains unresolved, the BBC's Lucy Williamson in Seoul reports.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22308808

North Korea withdraws missiles from launch site

Two North Korean Musudan missiles have been withdrawn from a launch site in the eastern part of the country and sent to a storage facility, a U.S. official confirmed Monday.
 
The United States had been worried about the prospects of the regime firing the missiles.
 
For weeks last month, North Korea dished out daily sabre-rattling threats aimed at South Korea and the United States.
 
The North's rhetoric intensified after the U.N. Security Council voted in March to slap tougher sanctions on the regime and amid U.S.-South Korean military drills in the region.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/06/world/asia/nkorea-missiles-withdrawn/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

"psyche!" , your turn!  ::)

N. Korea Vows to Strike South Korean Islands

North Korea is once again threatening the United States and South Korea -- this time over joint naval drills taking place in the Yellow Sea.

The drills come ahead of a joint summit in Washington by the leaders of the two allies.

North Korea says it will hit back if any of the shells fall on its side of the disputed maritime border during scheduled South Korean-U.S. military drills. If the allies respond, Pyongyang vows to strike five South Korean islands.

"It's premature to make a judgment about whether the North Korean provocation cycle is going up, down or zigzagging," said Danny Russel, senior director for East Asia on Obama's National Security Council.
 
"Many analysts have anticipated that the North Korean provocation cycle would culminate in some sort of a grand fireworks display, and no one can rule that out," Russel said.

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/May/N-Korea-Vows-to-Strike-South-Korean-Islands/

North Korea is like that yapping dog next door that just won't shut up!  ::)

Yet it is the media that is amplifying the noise

Or your typical schoolyard bully that does nothing more than create fear.

http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Two-Koreas-in-1st-talks-in-over-2-years-without-argument-315899
Two Koreas in 1st talks in over 2 years 'without argument'

By REUTERS

06/09/2013 07:37

PAJU, South Korea- North and South Korea opened their first official talks in two years on Sunday at a border village "without argument", the South said, building on an easing in tensions from nearly daily threats two months ago of impending nuclear war.

The meeting in Pammunjon, where the armistice was signed in the 1950-53 Korean War, was taking place hours after U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed at a summit that the North had to abandon its nuclear program.

The hour-long morning session appeared to pave the way for ministerial-level discussions next Wednesday. Such a meeting would be the first such encounter in more than six years.

A spokesman for the South's Unification Ministry, said the two sides discussed technical issues for the ministerial meeting, including the venue and size of delegations.

North Korean ship with 'military cargo' held by Panama

Panama's president says his country has seized a North Korean-flagged ship carrying "undeclared military cargo". President Ricardo Martinelli told local media that the ship, which was sailing from Cuba, contained suspected "sophisticated missile equipment" ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23324170



South Korea blames North for cyberattack

 SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea is to blame for last month's cyberattacks on the websites of South Korean media companies and the president and prime minister's offices, a South Korean ...

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/07/16/korea-cyberattacks/2520017/

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/dennis-rodman-says-he-met-north-korean-leader-kim-jong-un-again-090613
Rodman says he met Kim again
9/7/13

Retired NBA star Dennis Rodman left North Korea Saturday, professing his affection for autocratic leader Kim Jong Un and angrily rejecting calls to lobby for the release of imprisoned American citizen Kenneth Bae.

Despite earlier calling on Kim to set Bae free, Rodman said the Christian missionary's fate was none of his business.

"Guess what? That's not my job to ask about Kenneth Bae," Rodman told reporters upon arrival at the airport in China's capital, Beijing.

"Ask (President Barack) Obama about that. Ask Hillary Clinton," a visibly agitated Rodman shouted, referencing the former secretary of state.

Chomping an unlit cigar, the typically flamboyant Rodman displayed a stack of photos showing him hugging Kim, laughing and conversing with him over a meal, and the two of them watching a basketball game together.

The NBA Hall of Famer and five-time championship winner said the two had formed a close bond over the course of his two visits to the isolated communist dictatorship.

"He's my friend for life. I don't care what you guys think about him," Rodman said.

Wearing designer sunglasses and a stocking cap adorned with metallic spangles, Rodman quickly flashed with anger when asked about Bae, hurling obscene remarks back at reporters who quizzed him about the purpose of his trip. At one point, he had to be restrained by a member of his entourage before being bundled into a waiting car.

Rodman told The Associated Press as he was leaving his hotel in Pyongyang that Kim had spoken about his visiting again, and that Kim "really actually wants to change things."

He said Kim had encouraged Rodman when he goes back to the United States to "say some very good, positive, and very good things about this country, that's what we talked about a lot."

North Korea's official news agency, KCNA, said in a brief report that the two had "a cordial talk," and that Kim invited Rodman back again "any time."

The report said they watched a basketball game together, and Kim hosted a dinner for the sports star.

Rodman first met Kim — a basketball fan — during a visit in February to promote the sport and make a film. The two-time defensive player of the year has suggested "basketball diplomacy" could warm relations and has called Kim an "awesome guy."

The KCNA report did not mention Bae, an ethnic Korean US citizen who has been held in North Korea since last year.

Rodman once asked on his Twitter account for Kim to "do me a solid" and release Bae.

Bae was arrested in November and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for what Pyongyang described as hostile acts against the state. Kim has the power to grant special pardons under the North's constitution.

http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/North-Korea-puts-army-on-alert-warns-US-of-horrible-disaster-328123
North Korea puts army on alert, warns US of 'horrible disaster'

By REUTERS

10/08/2013 02:58

SEOUL - North Korea said on Tuesday its military would be put on high alert and be ready to launch operations, stepping up tension after weeks of rhetoric directed against the United States and South Korea, who it accuses of instigating hostility.

Reclusive North Korea has often issued threats to attack the South and the United States but has rarely turned them into action. Such hostile rhetoric is widely seen as a means to perpetuate its domestic and international political agenda.

In the latest outburst, a spokesman for the North's military warned the United States of "disastrous consequences" for moving a group of ships, including an aircraft carrier, into a South Korean port.

"In this connection, the units of all services and army corps level of the KPA received an emergency order from its supreme command to reexamine the operation plans already ratified by it and keep themselves fully ready to promptly launch operations any time," the spokesman said, referring to the Korean People's Army (KPA).

"The US will be wholly accountable for the unexpected horrible disaster to be met by its imperialist aggression forces' nuclear strike means," the spokesman said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.

http://news.yahoo.com/n-korea-developing-electromagnetic-pulse-weapons-135357380.html
N.Korea developing 'electromagnetic pulse weapons'
11/4/13

Seoul (AFP) - South Korea's spy agency said Monday that North Korea was using Russian technology to develop electromagnetic pulse weapons aimed at paralysing military electronic equipment south of the border.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said in a report to parliament that the North had purchased Russian electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weaponry to develop its own versions.

EMP weapons are used to damage to electronic equipment. At higher energy levels, an EMP event can cause more widespread damage including to aircraft structures and other objects.

The spy agency also said the North's leader Kim Jong-Un sees cyberattacks as an all-purpose weapon along with nuclear weapons and missiles, according to lawmakers briefed by the NIS.

The North is trying to hack into smartphones and lure South Koreans into becoming informants, it said.

It has collected information on where South Korea stores chemical substances and oil reserves as well as details about subways, tunnels and train networks in major cities, it said.

The spy agency also said North Korean spies were operating in China and Japan to distribute pro-Pyongyang propaganda.

North Korea is believed to run an elite cyber warfare unit of 3,000 personnel.

A South Korean lawmaker, citing government data, said last month that the North had staged thousands of cyberattacks against the South in recent years, causing financial losses of around $805 million.

In addition to military institutions, the North's recent high-profile cyberattacks have targeted commercial banks, government agencies, TV broadcasters and media websites.

North Korea has denied any involvement in cyberattacks and accused Seoul of fabricating them to fan cross-border tension.

North Korea Threatens To Strike South ‘Without Notice’

Tensions between North and South Korea kicked up a notch after a threatening fax was sent from Pyongyang to Seoul on a special communications line between the two rival capitals.
 
In it, the North’s National Defense Commission warned it could strike “without notice,” reports South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.
 
The move came as conservative groups and North Korean defectors held rallies against Kim Jong-Un regime.
 
The protests were timed to coincide with the second anniversary of the death of his father, Kim Jong-Il.
 
The North Korean military condemned those rallies as an insult to the country’s “highest dignity.”
 
Kim Jong-Il recently ordered the execution of his uncle Jang Song-Thaek in order to consolidate his grip on power.
 
After the execution, South Korean President Park Geun-Hye ordered military leaders to revise plans to cope with the changing situation on the peninsula.
 
South Korea responded to the threat by sending its own message to Pyongyang vowing to “sternly react” to any provocation from the North.
 
http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/12/20/north-korea-threatens-to-strike-south-without-notice/

Chinese Troops Begin Drills in Region Bordering N. Korea

State-run Chinese media say around 100-thousand Chinese troops defending the border region with North Korea have begun winter exercises.
 
 Reports say the troops, which are managed by the Shenyang Military Region, are drilling to determine whether military equipment is operating properly in the cold weather. They also say the exercises of infantry and artillery units are being held to strengthen command and control capabilities.
 
 Shenyang is one of seven military regions in China, and it is known to be responsible for preparing for a contingency on the Korean Peninsula, such as a massive influx of North Korean escapees.
 
 The 39th Group Army of the Shenyang region also mobilized three thousand of its troops in the Baekdu Mountain area early last month following the execution of Kim Jong-un’s uncle.
 
 A mobile battalion based in Dandong, Liaoning province also conducted a tactical drill late last month.

http://world.kbs.co.kr/english/news/news_In_detail.htm?No=100268

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26131487
12 February 2014 Last updated at 07:29 ET
North and South Korea hold rare high-level talks

North and South Korea have held their highest level talks in years, exploring ways to improve their tense relations.

Two rounds of meetings - requested by Pyongyang - took place at the border village of Panmunjom. More may follow.

There has been no word on how the talks went. Family reunions planned for this month were expected to be discussed, but the agenda was left open.

Pyongyang has threatened to cancel the reunions because of annual South Korea-US military exercises due in February.

China, Pyongyang's main ally, welcomed the talks, the highest-level meeting with the North and South have held since 2007.

The BBC's Lucy Williamson, who was at the border area, says the delegations appeared to greet each other cordially.

The two sides met for 90 minutes in the morning at South Korea's side of Panmunjom and then reconvened for three hours in the afternoon, after which the two chief delegates held one-to-one discussions.

South Korean officials say they were pleasantly surprised when North Korea's invitation arrived. It is the first time in more than six years, they say, that a meeting at this level has taken place. A similar attempt last year fell victim to a spat over protocol, but this time both sides appear more willing to talk.

The meeting comes after weeks of pointed diplomatic overtures by Pyongyang that have raised hopes in some quarters that the mood on the peninsula is changing.

But others point out that previous North Korean charm offensives have been followed by renewed confrontation, and that Pyongyang's new cordiality has come with a warning: that the joint military exercises scheduled to take place this month between the US and South Korea are incompatible with friendlier inter-Korean ties.

'Open mind'
 
South Korea's Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Kyou-hyun is leading Seoul's delegation at the Panmunjom talks.

Ahead of the meeting, Mr Kim said: "This is an opportunity to open a new era of the Korean peninsula.

"I would like to attend the meeting with 'open attitude and mind' to study the opportunity.

"We will make an effort to proceed with the separated families reunion event as agreed," he added.

North Korea's delegation is being headed by Won Tong-yon, a senior official specialising in inter-Korean ties, South Korean officials said.

In a news conference in Geneva on Tuesday, North Korea's ambassador to the UN, So Se-pyong, spoke of the need to terminate all hostile military actions, which he described as the main obstacles to peace.

He called for the US and South Korea to suspend their planned military exercises, describing them as "of a sinister and dangerous nature".

The two Koreas are due to hold reunions of families, divided by the partitioning of the Korean Peninsula at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, for five days from 20 February.

The last such reunions took place in 2010. But these reunions coincide with the start of the US-South Korea joint military drills - annual exercises that anger North Korea.

The drills last year led to a prolonged rise in tensions, as North Korea threatened pre-emptive nuclear strikes and withdrew its workers from a joint industrial zone.

Many in South Korea see Pyongyang's reaction as a test of its new approach, the BBC's Lucy Williamson in Seoul reports.

Last week Pyongyang threatened to cancel the family reunions, warning that "dialogue and exercises of war" could not go hand-in-hand.

More than the talks, the exercises are for many people the real test of whether Pyongyang's charm offensive is a sign of change, or simply a prelude to more confrontation, our correspondent says.

South Korea exchanges artillery with North Korea after live-fire drill ordered by Pyongyang dropped shells over border

    North Korea conducted live-fire drill at 12.15 (3.15am GMT), firing into disputed waters near a South Korean island
    Reclusive nation sent unusual 'warning fax' to South Korea before military practice, which alarmed officials
    When shots crossed border, South Korean military responded by firing back 300 rounds and scrambling F-15 jets
    Heated exchange happened during South's annual training with US, which North brands 'rehearsal for invasion'
    Residents of five border islands evacuated to shelters, in 2010 four islanders were killed by North Korea military
    Test-fire drills are normal for North Korea, but they usually don't issue warning ahead of time

South Korea has fired shells into North Korean waters after their rivals sent more than 100 rounds below the disputed sea boundary during a live-fire drill.

The heated artillery exchange was prompted by an unusual warning fax sent from the North to the South, informing them of their live-fire drill.

Though it is not unusual for the reclusive nation to practice at sea, South Korean officials were alarmed by the alert, which they claim 'indicates their hostile intention'.

It comes just days after Kim Jong Un's reclusive nation threatened to launch a 'new form' of nuclear power tests - and coincidentally during the annual South Korea-US military practice, which North Korea dubs a rehearsal for invasion.

Scroll down for video

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2593090/SKorea-fires-shells-NKorean-waters-drills.html#ixzz2xXClhoql

Obama Warns N. Korea About Nuclear Test

Yep, because your stern warnings work so well, maybe you should sanction some N. Korean citizens.

President Barack Obama is in South Korea on the second leg of an Asian tour, where he gave a warning to North Korea against conducting a fourth nuclear test.
 
In a newspaper interview with South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo, released just before his arrival Friday, Obama said: "If North Korea were to make the mistake of engaging in another nuclear test, it should expect a firm response from the international community."
 
At a joint news conference later Friday with South Korean President Park Geun-hye, Obama said America's commitment to South Korea will never waiver, and the U.S. and South Korea will stand "shoulder to shoulder" against North Korean provocation.
 
The U.S. leader also expressed condolences to the families of the hundreds of children lost in last week's ferry accident.
 
Before Obama wrapped up a two-day visit to Japan earlier Friday, the two nations released a joint statement on security and trade. The countries said they share strong concern about China's air defense zone in the East China Sea, but reaffirmed interest in building productive ties with Beijing.
 
Following a Thursday meeting in Tokyo with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Obama explicitly stated the disputed Senkaku Islands fall under the treaty obliging the United States to defend Japan if attacked. Beijing also claims the islands, known as Diaoyu in China.
 
After two days in Seoul, Obama will head to Malaysia, where he will hold talks and attend a state dinner with Prime Minister Najib Razak. He will be the first sitting U.S. president to visit Malaysia since Lyndon Johnson traveled there in 1966.
 
Obama's last stop will be the Philippines, which is also involved in a territorial standoff with China and has deepened its military cooperation with Washington as a result.
 
This is Obama's fifth visit to Asia since taking office in 2009. He has promised to make the Pacific region a greater economic, diplomatic and military priority for the United States.

http://www.voanews.com/content/obama-warns-north-korea-against-nuclear-test/1900856.html

S. Korean navy fires warning shots on N. Korean ships
Incident comes as US President Obama lands in the country for two days of talks

SEOUL – A South Korean naval vessel fired warning shots after two North Korean patrol boats crossed the disputed maritime border Friday, just before US President Barack Obama arrived in Seoul for a two-day visit.

The two North Korean boats, which normally serve to keep fishing boats on the right side of the boundary, crossed “one nautical mile south” into South Korean waters, a defense ministry official told AFP.

The pre-dawn incursion prompted a South Korean naval ship to fire several warning rounds, after which the two vessels retreated to the North side of the border.

The official said the patrol boats might have been chasing some Chinese crabbing boats fishing illegally in the area.

“Or the North might have wanted to check the South’s military vigilance,” he added.

The North does not officially recognize the Yellow Sea boundary, which was unilaterally drawn by the US-led United Nations forces after the 1950-53 Korean War.

The border has been the scene of brief but bloody naval clashes in 1999, 2002 and 2009.

The Korean conflict ended in an armistice instead of a peace treaty and technically the two Koreas are still at war.

It is not rare for North Korean patrol boats and fishing boats to cross the unmarked sea border into the South, but the timing was sensitive Friday with Obama’s arrival.

Tensions are high on the Korean peninsula, with multiple indications that North Korea might be planning to carry out a fourth nuclear test.

North Korea has conducted three tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013.

Read more: S. Korean navy fires warning shots on N. Korean ships | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/s-korean-navy-fires-warning-shots-on-n-korean-ships/#ixzz2ztlThx43

Kim urges N.Korea soldiers to ready for 'impending conflict'

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has chided his soldiers, telling them to be ready for "impending conflict with the United States," Pyongyang media reported on Saturday as satellites showed a nuclear test could be near   

http://news.yahoo.com/kim-urges-n-korea-soldiers-ready-impending-conflict-030702645.html

China plans for North Korean regime collapse leaked
Beijing's lack of faith in rule of Kim Jong-un exposed in contingency plans to detain key North Korean leaders, set up border refugee camps and respond to "foreign forces"

 China has drawn up detailed contingency plans for the collapse of the North Korean government, suggesting that Beijing has little faith in the longevity of Kim Jong-un’s regime.

Documents drawn up by planners from China’s People’s Liberation Army that were leaked to Japanese media include proposals for detaining key North Korean leaders and the creation of refugee camps on the Chinese side of the frontier in the event of an outbreak of civil unrest in the secretive state.

The report calls for stepping up monitoring of China’s 879-mile border with North Korea.

Any senior North Korean military or political leaders who could be the target of either rival factions or another “military power,” thought to be a reference to the United States, should be given protection, the documents state.

 According to Kyodo News, the Chinese report says key North Korean leaders should be detained in special camps where they can be monitored, but also prevented from directing further military operations or taking part in actions that could be damaging to China’s national interest.

The report suggests “foreign forces” could be involved in an incident that leads to the collapse of internal controls in North Korea, resulting to millions of refugees attempting to flee. The only route to safety the vast majority would have would be over the border into China.

 The Chinese authorities intend to question new arrivals, determine their identities and turn away any who are considered dangerous or undesirable.

“This only underlines that all the countries with a stake in the stability of north-east Asia need to be talking to each other,” Jun Okumura, a visiting scholar at the Meiji Institute for Global Affairs, told The Telegraph.

“What we have learned from the collapse of other dictatorships – the Soviet Union, Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya – is that the more totalitarian the regime, the harder and faster they fall,” he added.

“This is why we need contingency plans and I am sure that the US and South Korea have extensive plans in place, but the release of Chinese measures is new,” he said.

Okumura believes that the timing of the leak of the study is significant, given that China can have been expected to have similar contingency plans in place for the past two decades that North Korea has been teetering on the edge of implosion.

The release of the study comes just days after Beijing issued a thinly veiled warning to Pyongyang, ahead of a fourth anticipated nuclear test, that China would “by no means allow war or chaos to occur on our doorstep.”

China, which is North Korea’s sole remaining significant supporter, also refused to export any crude oil over its border to the North in the first three months of the year.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/10808719/China-plans-for-North-Korean-regime-collapse-leaked.html

Koreas exchange fire near disputed sea boundary

North and South Korean warships exchanged artillery fire Thursday in disputed waters off the western coast, South Korean military officials said, in the latest sign of rising animosity between the bitter rivals in recent weeks.

Officials from the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff and Defense Ministry said a South Korean navy ship was engaged in a routine patrol near the countries' disputed maritime boundary in the Yellow Sea when a North Korean navy ship fired two artillery shells. The shells did not hit the South Korean ship and fell in waters near it, they said.

The South Korean ship then fired several artillery rounds in waters near the North Korean ship which also did not hit it, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of office rules.

South Korea was trying to determine if the North Korean ship had attempted to hit the South Korean vessel but missed, or if the shells were not meant to hit the ship.

Officials said that residents on the frontline Yeonpyeong Island were evacuated to shelters, and fishing ships in the area were ordered to return to ports. In 2010, North Korea fired artillery at the island, killing two civilians and two marines.

Kang Myeong-sung, a Yeonpyeong resident, said in a phone interview that hundreds of residents were in underground shelters after loudspeakers ordered them there. He heard the sound of artillery fire and said many people felt uneasy at first but later began to stop worrying.

Both Koreas regularly conduct artillery drills in the disputed waters. The sea boundary is not clearly marked, and the area has been the scene of three bloody naval skirmishes between the rival Koreas since 1999.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman said Thursday the United States was closely monitoring the situation on the Korean Peninsula in coordination with allied South Korea. She urged North Korea "to refrain from provocative actions that aggravate tensions" and exercise restraint.

North Korea has in recent weeks conducted a string of artillery drills and missile tests and has unleashed a torrent of racist and sexist rhetoric at the leaders of the U.S. and South Korea.

On Tuesday, South Korean navy ships fired warning shots to repel three North Korean warships that briefly violated the disputed sea boundary. On Wednesday, North Korea's military vowed to retaliate.

North Korean military ships and fishing boats have routinely intruded into South Korean-controlled waters that the North doesn't recognize. The Yellow Sea boundary was unilaterally drawn by the U.S.-led U.N. Command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

http://news.yahoo.com/koreas-exchange-fire-near-disputed-sea-boundary-120749771.html

http://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-says-rights-dialogue-expected-eu-190920966.html
North Korea, at UN, mentions its labor camps
10/7/14

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A North Korean official publicly acknowledged to the international community the existence of his country's "reform through labor" camps Tuesday, a mention that appeared to come in response to a highly critical U.N. human rights report earlier this year.

Diplomats for the reclusive, impoverished country also told reporters that a top North Korea official has visited the headquarters of the European Union and expressed interest in dialogue, with discussions on human rights expected next year.

North Korea's deputy U.N. ambassador Ri Tong Il said the secretary of his country's ruling Workers' Party had visited the EU, and that "we are expecting end of this year to open political dialogue between the two sides." The human rights dialogue would follow.

In Brussels, an EU official confirmed a recent North Korea meeting with the EU's top human rights official, Stavros Lambrinidis, but said any dialogue currently planned is limited to rights issues.

Choe Myong Nam, a North Korean foreign ministry official in charge of U.N. affairs and human rights issues, said at a briefing with reporters that his country has no prison camps and, in practice, "no prison, things like that."

But he briefly discussed the "reform through labor" camps. "Both in law and practice, we do have reform through labor detention camps — no, detention centers — where people are improved through their mentality and look on their wrongdoings," he said.

Such "re-education" labor camps are for common offenders and some political prisoners, but most political prisoners are held in a harsher system of political prison camps.

The North Korean officials took several questions but did not respond to one about the health of leader Kim Jong Un, who has made no public appearances since Sept. 3 and skipped a high-profile recent event he usually attends.

The officials said they don't oppose human rights dialogue as long as the issue isn't used as a "tool for interference." Their briefing seemed timed in advance of the latest resolution on North Korea and human rights that the EU and Japan put to the U.N. General Assembly every year.

The North Korean briefing concerned a lengthy human rights report it released last month in response to a U.N. commission of inquiry that concluded the authoritarian government had committed crimes against humanity. "We dare say that the case of human rights in the DPRK exceeds all others in duration, intensity and horror," commission head Michael Kirby told the U.N. Security Council in April.

The report's release in February put the North on the defensive. Its public acknowledgement Tuesday of the reform camps, and its overture to the EU rights chief, were signs that Pyongyang now realizes the discussion of its human rights record won't fade away, said Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of the Washington-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.

He said the mention of the reform camps was the first direct acknowledgement by a North Korean official speaking before an international audience. Last month, a senior court official mentioned the reform camps' existence in an interview with the pro-Pyongyang website Minjok Tongshin.

"While the North Korean human rights record remains abysmal, it is very important that senior North Korean officials are now speaking about human rights, and expressing even pro forma interest in dialogue," Scarlatoiu said in an email. "The North Korean strategic approach to human rights issues used to be to simply ignore reports by international NGOs, government agencies or U.N. bodies. Human rights used to just go away, out-competed by nukes, missiles, and military provocations."

While he called the mention of the reform through labor camps "a modest step in the right direction," he stressed that this wasn't an acknowledgement by North Korea of the harsher system of political prison camps, which are estimated to hold 120,000 people.

The North's own report on its human rights system accuses the United States and its allies of a campaign aimed at interfering in Pyongyang's affairs "and eventually overthrowing the social system by fabricating 'human rights issue' of the DPRK to mislead international opinions," its preface says.

Param-Preet Singh, a senior counsel for Human Rights Watch who attended the briefing along with a number of diplomats from other countries, said the significance of the event was that North Korea held it at all. The country used to be seen as "impervious to pressure," she said.

http://news.yahoo.com/warships-rival-koreas-exchange-warning-shots-123301165.html
Warships of rival Koreas exchange warning shots
10/7/14

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Warships from the rival Koreas exchanged warning shots Tuesday after a North Korean ship briefly violated the disputed western sea boundary, a South Korean defense official said.

The shots were fired into the sea and there were no reports of injuries and damage to the ships of either side, the official said on condition of anonymity, citing office policy.

Such exchanges are not uncommon at the sea boundary, the scene of several deadly maritime skirmishes between the Koreas in recent years. But the latest incident happened three days after a group of high-profile North Korean officials made a surprise visit to South Korea and agreed to resume senior-level talks.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye on Monday stressed the need to hold high-level talks on a regular basis, saying she hopes North Korea would show how sincere it is about improving ties.

The South Korean official said the North Korean ship was in South Korea-controlled waters for about 10 minutes before it retreated to its waters. He said a South Korea navy ship first broadcast a warning and then fired warning shots before the North Korean ship fired back at waters near the South Korean ship. The South Korean ship returned fire into the sea near the North Korean ship, the official said.

North Korean navy ships and fishing boats frequently violate the boundary drawn by the American-led U.N. command at the end of the Korean War in the early 1950s without the North's consent. The line cuts North Korea off from rich fishing waters.

The Korean Peninsula remains at a technical state of war because the Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

A war between North and South Korea 'could go nuclear,' experts warn: live

Kim Jong-un has ordered North Korea's troops to be on a war footing as tensions with South Korea escalate following an exchange of shells - follow the latest updates

 • Japan urges North Korea to avoid taking "provocative action"
• Tensions had been rising after an exchange of artillery shells across the border
• North Korea accuses South Korea of being "war maniacs"
• South Korea given until 5pm on Saturday night to dismantle propaganda speakers
• North Korean troops ordered put on a war footing by Kim Jong-un
• The bizarre photoshoots of Kim Jong-un

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/11815637/North-Korean-troops-ordered-onto-war-footing-by-Kim-Jong-un-live.html

No Sign of End to Korea Talks as Kim Steps Up Force Mobilization



Talks between North Korea and South Korea on how to lower tensions continued into the early hours of Monday, as Kim Jong Un stepped up the mobilization of his forces.

Neither side showed any indication of when the meeting between Kim’s top military aide Hwang Pyong So and South Korean President Park Geun Hye’s chief security adviser Kim Kwan Jin, which began at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, might end. It follows a 10-hour session between the officials earlier in the weekend.

As the dialog went on at the border village of Panmunjom, a South Korean military official said North Korea had dispatched more than two thirds of its submarines from ports and doubled its front-line artillery forces.

The standoff, with both countries’ forces on a high alert for any possible military clashes, is one of the most serious since Kim became Supreme Leader in late 2011. An uneasy truce on the peninsula is periodically disrupted by exchanges of rockets or gunfire that peter out before they escalate, though the unpredictable regime in Pyongyang keeps tensions high.

Tensions have escalated in recent weeks across the DMZ that bisects the peninsula more than 60 years after the Korean War. Two South Korean soldiers were injured Aug. 4 by land mines that the government in Seoul said were recently laid by North Korea. North Korea denied setting the devices.

South Korea retaliated for the mine blasts by resuming propaganda broadcasts through loudspeakers for the first time since 2004. North Korea views any criticism of its leader as an offense to the nation and restricts the flow of information about the outside world.

South Korea said Thursday North Korea fired shells into its territory, and responded with a barrage of artillery.
‘Provocations’

“Raise the stakes and seize the initiative, that is, leave the big powers hanging and eager for negotiations in the face of provocations -- that’s Pyongyang’s time-tested mode of operation,” Lee Sung-Yoon, a professor of Korean studies at Tufts University, said by e-mail.

Park refused to accept Kim’s demand on Thursday that South Korea stop propaganda broadcasts across the demilitarized zone within 48 hours or face dire consequences.

North Korean troops are eagerly awaiting an order “to inflict a shower of fire” on their foes, North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said Sunday. South Korea is continuing the broadcasts, according to its defense ministry.

Kim declared a “semi-state of war” and ordered his front-line troops into a “wartime state” over the broadcasts earlier this week. The U.S. and South Korea scrambled eight fighter jets on Saturday in a show of force, while their top generals agreed in a phone call to respond “strongly” to any North Korean attack, according to Colonel Jeon Ha Kyu, a spokesman for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

South Korea’s central bank is closely watching the results of the talks and will hold a meeting Monday on the situation, it said in an e-mailed statement on Sunday.

The iShares MSCI South Korea Capped ETF, the largest exchange-traded fund tracking the country’s stocks, had the biggest weekly withdrawal since inception in 2000 amid investor concern over a revival of tensions on the Korean peninsula and an escalating sell-off in emerging markets.

Traders pulled $195.4 million from the ETF, whose top holdings include Samsung Electronics Co. and Hyundai Motor Co., in the five trading days ended Aug. 21, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-23/koreas-resume-high-level-talks-as-kim-keeps-army-on-war-footing

North Korea deploys amphibious landing crafts carrying special forces despite ongoing talks with South Korea to defuse military tension, military sources tell @YonhapNews

North Korea Has Restarted Operations at Nuclear Bomb Fuel Plant

 On Tuesday, North Korea announced it had restarted operations at its nuclear bomb fuel production plant.

    The secretive state says it is fully ready to use nuclear weapons against the United States "and other hostile forces" at any time if they "persistently seek their reckless hostile policy towards the (North) and behave mischievously."

    In state media, the North said its plutonium and highly enriched uranium facilities at the main Nyongbyon nuclear complex had been “rearranged, changed or readjusted and they started normal operation.”

Pyongyang issued a warning on Monday, saying it was ready to launch "satellites" on long-range rockets to mark the celebration next month of the communist party's anniversary.  The West considers these "satellites" to be banned long-range missiles.

    The director of the North’s National Aerospace Development Administration told Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency that scientists were pushing forward on a final development phase for a new earth observation satellite for weather forecasts.

South Korea responded to the news by saying a rocket launch would be a "serious provocation," a military threat and a violation of U.N. resolutions, Yonhap reported.

The Sourth Korean defense ministry’s spokesman Kim Min-seok said, "South Korea and the United States are jointly watching for all possibilities with regard to North Korea's (potential) long-range missile launch,” according to the news agency. “So far, no particular signs have been seen."

http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/north-korea-has-restarted-operations-nuclear-bomb-fuel-plant

h
North Korea announces it has conducted 'successful' hydrogen bomb test - @YonhapNews

h
Japan PM Shinzo Abe says North Korea nuclear test can not be tolerated, is a threat to Japan - @Reuters

South Korean President Park to preside over National Security Council meeting on North Korea's hydrogen bomb test - @YonhapNews

South Korea vice foreign minister says North Korea's hydrogen bomb test violates UN Security Council resolutions - @YonhapNews

UN Security Council expected to meet Wednesday at 11am ET on North Korea hydrogen bomb test, UN diplomats tell @Reuters

White House on North Korea hydrogen bomb claim: 'We are monitoring and continuing to assess the situation' with regional partners, condemn any violation of UN Security Council resolutions - @Acosta

Obama has tee off at 0900  :P

Tensions High on Korean Border as North Raises Threat of War

Tensions remained high on the fortified border dividing North and South Korea as the resumption of propaganda broadcasts prompted Pyongyang to raise the risk of war, overshadowing diplomatic efforts to respond to North Korea’s surprise nuclear test.

South Korea turned on the powerful loudspeakers on Friday in retaliation for the nuclear test conducted on Wednesday. The South Korean military also fortified its positions near the huge banks of loudspeakers that can broadcast miles into North Korea. The broadcasts risk pushing the two sides “toward the brink of war,” Yonhap News cited North Korean Workers’ Party Secretary Kim Ki Nam as saying at a rally in Pyongyang.

Threats of war are routinely issued by North Korea. Still, the Kim Jong Un regime has become particularly belligerent over the broadcasts that offer troops and civilians near the border a rare glimpse of the contrasting realities between the two Koreas. Tensions are spiking as South Korea and the U.S. seek to build international support to punish Pyongyang for the test. The success of that effort may hinge on how willing China is to try to bring its unruly ally to heel.

“North Korea’s fourth nuclear test could become a true test of the collective will of the global community to deal with a common security challenge,” Scott Snyder, a senior fellow for Korea studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, said in a report. “Escalation of a crisis with North Korea would likely open a Pandora’s box of difficult geopolitical, humanitarian and potentially military challenges.”

Negotiations Needed
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his South Korean counterpart Yun Byung Se by phone on Friday that efforts should be made to pave the way for negotiations to end North Korea’s nuclear arm program, according to a text message from South Korea’s foreign ministry on Saturday. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged China on Thursday to support a more aggressive approach with Pyongyang.

The international community needs to work together to draft additional United Nations sanctions, Yun told Wang. Previous rounds of UN sanctions have failed to convince North Korea to reverse its arms development and return to the disarmament talks that broke down in 2009, leading Pyongyang to revive and accelerate its production of nuclear devices.

Kerry also said that China’s policy of propping up the regime with economic support while trying to coax it back to the negotiating table had proven to be a failure, and China needed to turn up the pressure. China provides almost all of North Korea’s imported energy, and Chinese food goods have helped the Kim regime limit the effects of famine and shortages. China accounted for 79 percent of North Korea’s trade in 2014, the most recent year available, up from 56 percent in 2010.

China Pushback
China has begun pushing back against the notion that it holds the key to resolving the Korea crisis.

“China is not the cause and crux of the Korean nuclear issue, nor is it the key to resolving the problem,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a briefing in Beijing on Friday. “Nevertheless, having in mind the international nuclear non-proliferation regime as well as peace and stability of Northeast Asia, the Chinese side has been calling for and seeking proper settlement of different parties’ reasonable concerns and fundamental approach to enduring peace on the peninsula.”

In an editorial, China’s official Global Times newspaper blamed the “hostile policy” of the U.S. toward North Korea for prompting the nuclear tests. North Korea has repeatedly said that its weapons program is defensive and the only way to prevent a U.S.-led invasion of the country,.

Each of North Korea’s three previous atomic tests has resulted in a tightening of international sanctions. As United Nations diplomats work toward a new Security Council resolution, the world is looking to China to convince its unruly neighbor to stop its nuclear arms development.

“China had a particular approach that it wanted to make and we agreed and respected to give them the space to be able to implement that,” Kerry told reporters on Thursday. “But today in my conversation with the Chinese I made it very clear that has not worked and we cannot continue business as usual.”

The second nuclear test since Kim came to power four years ago may have angered China President Xi Jinping, who in October sent a high-ranking envoy to Pyongyang with a handwritten letter seeking deeper cooperation. China wasn’t informed in advance of the detonation and is “steadfast in its position that the Korean peninsula should be denuclearized,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said.

Still, China may be reluctant to crackdown hard on North Korea for fear of destabilizing the Kim regime, which could send millions of refugees across China’s border, or lead to an eventual unification with the South, leaving a well-armed U.S. ally on China’s frontier.

“Beijing’s concern is first and foremost about North Korea’s stability,” said Liu Ming, director of the Korean Peninsula Research Center at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. “It didn’t, and still doesn’t want to see the regime collapse, which would cause unimaginable chaos on the borders.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-09/tensions-high-on-korean-border-as-north-raises-threat-of-war

POWERFUL US BOMBER FLIES OVER S. KOREA AS STANDOFF DEEPENS

A powerful U.S. B-52 bomber flew low over South Korea on Sunday, a clear show of force from the United States as a Cold War-style standoff deepened between its ally Seoul and North Korea following Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test.

North Korea will read the fly-over of a bomber capable of delivering nuclear weapons - seen by an Associated Press photographer at Osan Air Base near Seoul - as a threat. Any hint of America's nuclear power enrages Pyongyang, which links its own pursuit of atomic weapons to what it sees as past nuclear-backed moves by the United States to topple its authoritarian government.

The B-52 was joined by South Korean F-15 and U.S. F-16 fighters and returned to its base in Guam after the flight, the U.S. military said.

"This was a demonstration of the ironclad U.S. commitment to our allies in South Korea, in Japan, and to the defense of the American homeland," said Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., commander U.S. Pacific Command, in a statement. "North Korea's nuclear test is a blatant violation of its international obligations."

The B-52 flight follows a victory tour by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to celebrate the country's widely disputed claim of a hydrogen bomb test. Kim is seeking to rally pride in an explosion viewed with outrage by much of the world and to boost his domestic political goals.

There was no immediate reaction from North Korea's state media to the B-52 fly-over, which also happened after North Korea's third nuclear test in 2013.

Kim's first public comments about last week's test came in a visit to the country's military headquarters, where he called the explosion "a self-defensive step" meant to protect the region "from the danger of nuclear war caused by the U.S.-led imperialists," according to a dispatch Sunday from state-run Korean Central News Agency.

"It is the legitimate right of a sovereign state and a fair action that nobody can criticize," Kim was reported as saying during his tour of the People's Armed Forces Ministry.

The tone of Kim's comments, which sought to glorify him and justify the test, is typical of state media propaganda.

But they also provide insight into North Korea's long-running argument that it is the presence of tens of thousands of U.S. troops in South Korea and Japan, and a "hostile" U.S. policy that seeks to topple the government in Pyongyang, that make North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons absolutely necessary.

During his tour, Kim posed for photos with leading military officials in front of statues of the two members of his family who led the country previously - Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung. He also sought to link the purported success of the nuclear test to a ruling Workers' Party convention in May, the party's first since 1980. He's expected to use the congress to announce major state policies and shake up the country's political elite to further consolidate his power.

World powers are looking for ways to punish the North over a nuclear test that, even if not of a hydrogen bomb, still likely pushes Pyongyang closer to its goal of a nuclear-armed missile that can reach the U.S. mainland. Many outside governments and experts question whether the blast was in fact a powerful hydrogen test.

In the wake of the test on Wednesday, the two Koreas have settled into the kind of Cold War-era standoff that has defined their relationship over the past seven decades. Since Friday, South Korea has been blasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda from huge speakers along the border, and the North is reportedly using speakers of its own in an attempt to keep its soldiers from hearing the South Korean messages.

A top North Korean ruling party official's recent warning that the South's broadcasts have pushed the Korean Peninsula "toward the brink of war" is typical of Pyongyang's over-the-top rhetoric. But it is also indicative of the real fury that the broadcasts, which criticize the country's revered dictatorship, cause in the North.

North Korea considers the South Korean broadcasts tantamount to an act of war. When Seoul Korea briefly resumed propaganda broadcasts in August after an 11-year break, Seoul says the two Koreas exchanged artillery fire.

South Korean troops, near about 10 sites where loudspeakers started blaring propaganda Friday, were on the highest alert, but have not detected any unusual movement from North Korea along the border, said an official from Seoul's Defense Ministry, who refused to be named, citing office rules.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said Seoul had deployed missiles, artillery and other weapons systems near the border to swiftly deal with any possible North Korean provocation. The ministry would not confirm the report, nor another by Yonhap that said North Korea had started its own broadcasts likely meant to keep its soldiers from hearing the South Korean messages.

Officials say broadcasts from the South's loudspeakers can travel about 10 kilometers (6 miles) during the day and 24 kilometers (15 miles) at night. That reaches many of the huge force of North Korean soldiers stationed near the border, as well as residents in border towns such as Kaesong, where the Koreas jointly operate an industrial park that has been a valuable cash source for the impoverished North.

While the South's broadcasts also include news and pop music, much of the programming challenges North Korea's government more directly.

"We hope that our fellow Koreans in the North will be able to live in a society that doesn't invade individual lives as soon as possible," a female presenter said in parts of the broadcast that officials revealed to South Korean media. "Countries run by dictatorships even try to control human instincts."

Marathon talks by the Koreas in August eased anger and stopped the broadcasts, which Seoul started after blaming North Korean land mines for maiming two soldiers. It might be more difficult to do so now. Seoul can't stand down easily, some analysts say, and it's highly unlikely that the North will express regret for its nuclear test, which is a source of intense national pride.

Responding to the North's bomb test, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged China, the North's only major ally and biggest aid provider, to end "business as usual" with North Korea.

Diplomats at a U.N. Security Council emergency session pledged to swiftly pursue new sanctions. For current sanctions and any new penalties to work, better cooperation and stronger implementation from China is seen as key.

It may take weeks or longer to confirm or refute the North's claim that it successfully tested a hydrogen bomb, which would mark a major and unanticipated advance for its still-limited nuclear arsenal.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_NKOREA_NUCLEAR?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-01-09-22-35-38

North Korea fires rocket seen as covert missile test

 North Korea on Sunday defied international warnings and launched a long-range rocket that the United Nations and others call a cover for a banned test of technology for a missile that could strike the U.S. mainland.

The rocket was fired from North Korea's west coast and tracked separately by the governments Japan and South Korea, which immediately convened a an emergency national security council meeting. South Korean media reported that the rocket may have failed, but provided no other details. The South Korean government couldn't immediately confirm the reports.

The launch came about two hours after an eight-day launch window opened Sunday morning. It follows North Korea's widely disputed claim last month to have tested a hydrogen bomb. Washington, Seoul and their allies will consider it a further provocation and will push for more tough sanctions in the United Nations.

A South Korean defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of office rules, said the rocket disappeared from South Korean military radars around six minutes after its launch. The official said there were no immediate reports of debris landing on South Korean territory or damaging property. The rocket's first stage fell off South Korea's west coast, the official said.

Japan's NHK broadcaster showed footage of an object visible in the skies from the southern island of Okinawa that was believed to be the rocket. Japanese chief Cabinet spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters that no debris fell on Japanese territory.

North Korean rocket and nuclear tests are seen as crucial steps toward the North's ultimate goal of a nuclear armed long-range missile arsenal. North Korea under leader Kim Jong Un has pledged to bolster its nuclear arsenal unless Washington scraps what Pyongyang calls a hostile policy meant to collapse Kim's government.

The global condemnation began almost immediately.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the North Korean rocket launch and the recent nuclear test violations of U.N. agreements.

"We absolutely cannot allow this," he told reporters at the prime minister's residence. "We will take action to totally protect the safety and well-being of our people."

U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice said in a statement that "North Korea's missile and nuclear weapons programs represent serious threats to our interests - including the security of some of our closest allies - and undermine peace and security in the broader region."

The United States and Japan requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Sunday morning. Their request said that North Korea has violated a Security Council ban on ballistic missile launches.

Kim Jong Un has overseen two of the North's four nuclear tests and three long-range rocket tests since taking over after the death of his father, dictator Kim Jong Il, in late 2011. North Korea says its rocket launches are satellite missions, but the U.S., South Korea and others say they are a covert test of ballistic missile technology. The U.N. Security Council prohibits North Korea from nuclear and ballistic missile activity. Experts say that ballistic missiles and rockets in satellite launches share similar bodies, engines and other technology.

The Jan. 6 nuclear test has led to another push in the U.N. to tighten sanctions. North Korea in 2013 also did a nuclear test and then unnerved the international community by orchestrating an escalating campaign of bombast, including threats to fire nuclear missiles at the U.S. and Seoul.

The Korean border is the world's most heavily armed and the rivals' navies occasionally trade gunfire near a disputed boundary in the Yellow Sea.

North Korea has spent decades trying to develop operational nuclear weapons.

It is thought to have a small arsenal of atomic bombs and an impressive array of short- and medium-range missiles. But it has yet to demonstrate that it can produce nuclear bombs small enough to place on a missile, or missiles that can reliably deliver their bombs to faraway targets.

Still, the North's nuclear tests and steadily improving long-range rocket launches push its nuclear aims further along.

North Korea has said that plutonium and highly enriched uranium facilities at its main Nyongbyon nuclear complex are in operation. The country is thought to have a handful of rudimentary nuclear bombs but there is debate about whether it is capable of building warheads small enough to mount on a missile that could threaten the United States.

North Korea has spent decades trying to perfect a multistage, long-range rocket. After several failures, it put its first satellite into space with a long-range rocket launched in December 2012.

Six-nation negotiations on dismantling North Korea's nuclear program in exchange for aid fell apart in early 2009.

Under Kim Jong Un, a February 2012 deal for the United States to provide 240,000 metric tons of food aid in exchange for a freeze in nuclear and missile activities collapsed after a rocket launch by the North that April.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_NKOREA_ROCKET_LAUNCH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-02-06-19-48-08

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/north-korea-quietly-putting-global-weapons-arsenal-into-place/

Kim Jong-Un And North Korea Quietly Putting Global Weapons Arsenal Into Place

At an emergency meeting Sunday, members of the U.N. Security Council "strongly condemned" the launch and reaffirmed that "a clear threat to international peace and security continues to exist, especially in the context of the nuclear test."
2/9/16

The new satellite passed almost right over Levi’s Stadium about an hour after the Super Bowl ended.

Go ahead and keep laughing at Kim Jong-Un and North Korea, that’s exactly how they want it. Focus on his wacky haircut in the same way our parents and grandparents laughed at Hitler’s “funny, little moustache“. Did you know that North Korea had a satellite circling over the Super Bowl on Sunday? Yeah, keep laughing.

Whatever motives Pyongyang may have about using its rocket launches to develop nuclear-tipped long-range missiles, it now has two satellites circling the Earth, according to NORAD, the North American Aerospace Command, which monitors all satellites in orbit.

Both of the Kwangmyongsong, or “Shining Star,” satellites complete their orbits in about 94 minutes and based on data released by international organizations tracking them, the new one passed almost right over Levi’s Stadium about an hour after the Super Bowl ended.

U.N. Security Council condemns North Korean rocket launch

At an emergency meeting Sunday, members of the U.N. Security Council “strongly condemned” the rocket launch by North Korea and reaffirmed that “a clear threat to international peace and security continues to exist, especially in the context of the nuclear test.”

Security Council members have previously threatened “further significant measures” if there was another North Korean launch and now will “adopt expeditiously a new Security Council resolution with such measures in response to these dangerous and serious violations,” according to a statement read by Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Nations after the meeting.


U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the launch is “deeply deplorable” and in violation of Security Council resolutions “despite the united plea of the international community against such an act.

U.S. Agreed to North Korea Peace Talks Before Latest Nuclear Test
Pyongyang rejected condition that nuclear arms would be on the agenda—then carried out atomic test


Days before North Korea’s latest nuclear-bomb test, the Obama administration secretly agreed to talks to try to formally end the Korean War, dropping a long standing condition that Pyongyang first take steps to curtail its nuclear arsenal.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-agreed-to-north-korea-peace-talks-1456076019

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wants nukes ready to go

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered nuclear weapons to be readied for use, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported Thursday, citing the official North Korean state news agency.

The shift in military posture would allow North Korea to carry out pre-emptive attacks, North Korea's Central News Agency said.

The move follows the U.N. Security Council's unanimous approval Wednesday of tough new sanctions against North Korea in response to its recent nuclear and missile tests. The resolution contains the toughest set of sanctions imposed by the Security Council in more than two decades, Secretary of State John Kerry said.

The sanctions require North Korean cargo ships and aircraft to be inspected before entering and after leaving the reclusive country. They would also prohibit small arms and other conventional weapons sales to North Korea.

Just hours after the Security Council resolution passed, North Korea fired several short-range projectiles into the sea, according to the South Korean defense ministry.

The extent of North Korea's nuclear arsenal is unknown. The nation claimed in January that it had successfully detonated a hydrogen bomb at a test site, but third-party experts and U.S. leaders expressed doubts.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said at the time that initial analysis by U.S. intelligence agencies was “not consistent with North Korean claims of a successful hydrogen bomb test.” Seismic activity was consistent with some kind of atomic detonation, however.

The United States is building a network of ground-based missile interceptors designed to counter a threat from countries such as North Korea. The Pentagon said it is on track to have 44 such interceptors ready by the end of next year. Some are already on line.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/03/03/north-korea-readies-nuclear-weapons/81284690/

North Korean tyrant Kim Jong Un threatens to 'clearly show the end' of South Korean president after demanding his nuclear missiles be readied for immediate launch

    Kim Jong-Un threatens to 'clearly show the end' to South Korea's President
    It is the first time Kim Jong-Un has openly denounced Park Geun-hye
    North Korean media previously called her 'a devil, not a woman'
    For more of the latest on Kim Jong-un visit www.dailymail.co.uk/kimjongun

Kim Jong-Un has increased his outspoken war of words by threatening to 'clearly show the end' to South Korea's President Park Geun-hye, in one of his most outspoken outbursts in public.

It is the first time Kim Jong-Un has openly denounced the South Korean President in such strong words, with the state's media usually responsible for issuing the threats.

The North Korean media has rarely held back in criticising Seoul, once describing the South Korean president as a 'bat living in a cave' and going as far as calling her 'a devil, not a woman.'

'In order to prevent future leaders from silly behaviour like Park's, it is necessary to clearly show the end of Park,' said Mr Kim, according to the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA).

'Park should be considerate and behave reasonably, ceasing her rash behaviour toward our nuclear armament,' he said.

Perhaps inspired by the North's recent short-range missile launches, which ended up in the sea, Kim boasted that South Korea could be obliterated in a nuclear strike at 'any time'.

'If Park carries out trivial military behaviour, then there won't be any time to regret,' he claimed.

South Korea has remained relatively calm amid its neighbour's heightened threats although President Park has vowed to retaliate if the North is militarily aggressive towards them.

Kim may be enjoying a war of words towards South Korea but the secret state is now facing fresh diplomacy problems further afield.

The Philippines confirmed it has impounded a North Korean vessel in response to tough new United Nations sanctions introduced in response to Pyongyang's recent nuclear and ballistic missile tests.

The 6,830-tonne cargo ship Jin Teng will not be allowed to leave Subic port, northeast of the capital Manila, where it had been docked for three days and its crew will be deported.

The news was revealed by the country's presidential spokesman Manolo Quezon, speaking on state-run radio station Radyo ng Bayan.

It was the first reported case of the sanctions - the toughest to date, which were adopted late Wednesday by the UN Security Council - being enforced.

'The world is concerned over North Korea's nuclear weapons programme and as a member of the UN, the Philippines has to do its part to enforce the sanctions,' Quezon said.

A team from the UN is expected to inspect the ship in the port, located near a former United States naval base, foreign affairs spokesman Charles Jose said.

Jose told AFP the ship was impounded 'in compliance with the UN resolution' and did not depend on the results of the inspections.

The Jin Teng, carrying palm kernels, was searched for the second time today, this time using electronic weapons sensors, coastguard spokesman Commander Armand Balilo told AFP.

Balilo said no explosives, drugs or banned substances have been found so far and he confirmed the 21 crewmen were 'very cooperative'.

North Korea has no embassy in the Philippines. Its embassies in Thailand and Indonesia were unavailable for comment when contacted by AFP.

There are no other North Korean ships docked in Subic, according to the coastguard.

The Jin Teng arrived in Subic from Palembang, Indonesia Thursday afternoon, just hours after the latest sanctions were unanimously passed.

In response to the UN's move, Pyongyang fired six short-range missiles into the sea on Thursday, while North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un ordered its nuclear arsenal put on standby for pre-emptive use at any time.

On Friday, the European Union also tightened sanctions against North Korea by adding 16 people and 12 entities to a list of some 60 individuals and groups who were hit with travel bans and asset freezes.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3477829/North-Korean-tyrant-Kim-Jong-threatens-clearly-end-South-Korean-president-demanding-nuclear-missiles-readied-immediate-launch.html#ixzz426jUkUbE

South Korea and US set for 'largest ever' war games

The US and South Korea are set to begin their largest ever joint military exercises amid high tensions on the Korean peninsula.

More than 300,000 South Korean and 15,000 US troops will take part in the drills, Yonhap news agency reported, citing a military official.

South Korean defence minister Han Min-koo has said the exercises will be twice the size of last year.

The drills start days after the UN passed new sanctions on North Korea.

Security tensions have increased since the North tested a nuclear device in January, followed by a rocket launch.

The North responded to the sanctions by saying it was readying nuclear weapons for 'pre-emptive' use, and firing short-range missiles into the sea.

Military analysts doubt the country has the ability to put nuclear warheads on its missiles.

The exercises, which begin on Monday and run until 30 April, are intended to warn North Korea against provocations, Mr Han was reported as saying.

North Korea sees the annual war games as a rehearsal for invasion.

The US and South Korea on Friday also began formal talks on the deployment of the US missile defence system to the peninsula, a move strongly opposed by North Korea, Russia and China.

Beijing says the Thaad anti-missile system compromises its security and would undermine its nuclear deterrent.

What is the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System (Thaad)?

Shoots down short and medium-range ballistic missiles in the terminal phase of their flight

Uses hit-to-kill technology - where kinetic energy destroys the incoming warhead

Has a range of 200km and can reach an altitude of 150km

US has previously deployed it in Guam and Hawaii as a measure against potential attacks from North Korea

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35739110

Joint exercises prompt new nuclear threat from North Korea

North Korea warned it would make a "preemptive and offensive nuclear strike" in response to joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises set to begin Monday.

The news was announced in a statement by the National Defense Commission of North Korea and published in the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

"As the joint military exercises to be staged by the enemies are regarded as the most undisguised nuclear war drills aimed to infringe upon the sovereignty of the DPRK, its military counteraction will be more preemptive and offensive nuclear strike to cope with them," the statement read.

The bellicose words are typical around the time of annual military exercises, according to CNN's Paula Hancocks.

"They (North Korea) have threatened this before, and these kinds of threats are to be expected this time of year," she said.

But Hancocks noted that tensions this year are even higher than normal following recent action at the United Nations.

The Security Council voted last week to impose an array of sanctions against North Korea because of that nation's recent nuclear test and missile launch, both of which defied international sanctions. The resolution that brought about the sanctions aims to cripple the economic factors that fuel the North's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The North Korean news agency has blasted the sanctions as "unprecedented and gangster-like."

Discussions about new sanctions started after North Korea claimed to have successfully tested a hydrogen bomb in January, its fourth nuclear test.

Then, in February, Pyongyang said it had successfully launched an Earth satellite into orbit via the long-range Kwangmyongsong carrier rocket.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/06/asia/north-korea-preemptive-nuclear-strike-threat/

Do you guys think it's likely the rapture would occur right before a nuclear war?

North Korea fires missiles, says will liquidate South assets

North Korea looked to ratchet up already elevated tensions on the Korean peninsula still further Wednesday, firing a pair of short-range missiles and announcing the liquidation of all remaining South Korean assets on its territory.

The moves were a direct response to unilateral sanctions announced by South Korea on Tuesday to punish the North for its January nuclear test and last month's long-range rocket launch.

Military tensions have been on the rise ever since the January test -- the fourth nuclear device North Korea has detonated in defiance of UN resolutions.

The UN Security Council responded with tough, new sanctions, which Pyongyang condemned as a "gangster-like" provocation orchestrated by the United States.

The North also reacted furiously to the start earlier this week of large-scale South Korea-US military drills, threatening pre-emptive nuclear strikes against both Seoul and the US mainland.

The asset seizure announced on Thursday referred to two now-shuttered joint projects, the Mount Kumgang tourism resort and the Kaesong joint industrial complex.

"We will completely liquidate all assets of South Korean firms and related institutions left behind in our region," the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in statement carried by the North's official KCNA news agency.

- 'Nullify all agreements' -

"From this time on, we nullify all agreements adopted by North and South Korea on economic cooperation and exchange programmes," the committee said.

The South announced the suspension of operations at the Seoul-funded Kaesong industrial complex last month, saying that money Pyongyang made from the venture was going towards its nuclear weapons programme.

The shock announcement prompted the North to expel all South Koreans from the estate and freeze all assets there, shutting down the last symbol of cross-border economic cooperation.

An association representing the 120 firms operating factories in Kaesong, which lies just across the North Korean border, estimated the value of the assets left behind at 820 billion won ($663 million).

The head of the association, Jeong Gi-Seob, described the liquidation order as "outrageous".

"No one can liquidate private assets unilaterally. I appeal to both the South and the North to consider the companies' interests and allow us to come to the North and wrap things up," Jeong told AFP.

The Kaesong estate employed more than 53,000 North Koreans making items such as textiles, footwear and cheap electronics.

Mount Kumgang was the first major inter-Korean cooperation project, and thousands of South Koreans visited the Seoul-funded resort between 1998 and 2008.

The South suspended the tours in 2008 after a North Korean soldier shot dead a female tourist from the South who strayed into a restricted zone.

In response, the North scrapped a deal with the resort's developer -- Seoul's Hyundai Asan company -- and seized its properties there.

- Flatlined economic ties -

With the exception of Kaesong, economic cooperation between North and South effectively ended in 2010 after a South Korean naval corvette was sunk by what Seoul said was a North Korean submarine.

Consequently, any economic "sanctions" imposed by either side on the other are more symbolic than damaging.

The unilateral measures announced by Seoul on Tuesday included urging South Koran citizens to boycott North Korean restaurants operating overseas.

Earlier Thursday, the North fired a pair of short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off its eastern coast.

Short-range missile launches are a regular and relatively low-level item on North Korea's long list of provocative gestures, and one it often employs to register annoyance.

It fired six high-calibre rockets into the sea a week ago just hours after the UN Security Council adopted its new sanctions package, which included the toughest measures imposed on Pyongyang to date over its nuclear weapons programme.

The package broke new ground by sanctioning specific sectors key to the North Korean economy -- such as mineral exports -- and seeking to undermine the North's use of, and access to, international transport systems.

http://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-says-liquidate-south-assets-joint-projects-025316445.html

China deploying troops along North Korea border
Beijing’s military is worried North Korea could soon conduct its fifth nuclear test.

China is deploying troops along its border with North Korea, as Pyongyang could be preparing a fifth nuclear test ahead of its Seventh Party Congress in May.

The Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, a nongovernmental organization in Hong Kong, announced Wednesday that Beijing has dispatched 2,000 soldiers along the border, South Korean news service Newsis reported.

China has previously deployed troops along its border with North Korea.

In January after Pyongyang announced a "successful" hydrogen bomb test, China reportedly sent 3,000 soldiers to its northeastern region, and also sent troops during the North-South land mine provocation last August. In late 2013, China also dispatched troops in response to the execution of Kim's uncle-in-law, Jang Sung Taek.

The center also said more Chinese military personnel were stationed at two major observation posts, and the guards are acting as lookouts 24 hours a day.

Some of the troops are responsible for measuring the radioactive material that could be emitted in the event of a North Korea nuclear test, the Center said.

Relations between Beijing and Pyongyang have deteriorated since Kim Jong Un fully assumed power in 2012. North Korea has continued to announce tests of nuclear weapons even as Beijing has repeatedly urged the country to work toward denuclearization.

According to the Hong Kong-based organization, the fraying ties could have been a driving force in a Chinese decision to stop providing fossil fuels to the North. That decision was made around the same time North Korea's Moranbong Band canceled its tour of China in December.

Kim had ordered the band's return in response to Beijing, the center stated.

North Korea movements at its Punggye-ri nuclear site have raised concerns regarding Pyongyang's plans for a test.

In Seoul, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Cho Tae-yong, deputy chief of South Korea's presidential national security office, agreed to strengthen pressure along different dimensions to force North Korea to change its nuclear strategy, Yonhap reported.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2016/04/20/China-deploying-thousands-of-troops-along-North-Korea-border/9411461165635/

N. Korea Vows to Rapidly Advance Nuclear Attack Capabilities

North Korea vowed to make rapid advancements on nuclear attack capabilities if South Korea and the U.S. continue with joint military drills, with the warning coming days before predictions that the nation may conduct its fifth nuclear test for the Worker’s Party Congress on May 6.

“Our capability to make nuclear attacks will make fast advancement every time enemies conduct war exercises,” the regime’s official news agency reported, citing an unidentified spokesman at its foreign ministry. North Korea called a joint military drill between South Korea and the U.S. “the worst military provocation.”

The statement came after North Korea’s failed attempts to fire missiles this week, and days before Kim Jong Un’s regime is scheduled to hold its first ruling party congress in decades. South Korean President Park Geun Hye said Pyongyang has completed preparations to conduct its fifth nuclear test and vowed to seek stronger sanctions against North Korea if it conducts the test.

In an interview with the AP, North Korea offered to halt its nuclear test if the U.S. and South Korea would suspend defensive drills. U.S. President Barack Obama dismissed the proposal.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-04-30/n-korea-vows-to-rapidly-advance-nuclear-attack-capabilities

North Korea threatens South’s ships after sea border chase

North Korea on Saturday threatened to fire at South Korean warships if they cross a disputed western sea border, a day after the South’s navy fired warning shots to chase away two North Korean ships that briefly crossed the boundary.

In a statement released through state media, the General Staff of North Korea’s Korean People’s Army called the South’s action a “reckless military provocation” meant to kill the chances for dialogue between the countries.

The KPA said that the North Korean ships repelled by the South Korean navy were unarmed and said it will directly fire without warning at South Korean warships if they intrude the sea border by “even 0.001 millimeters.”

“This reckless military provocation was evidently prompted by a premeditated sinister plot to bedevil the North-South relations and further aggravate the tension on the Korean Peninsula,” the KPA said about Friday’s incident.

South Korea’s navy on Friday morning fired five rounds of warning shots to chase away a North Korean military vessel and a fishing boat that briefly crossed into South Korea-controlled waters. The South had also fired warning shots after a North Korean patrol boat moved south of the boundary in February.

Minor incidents are not unusual on the western sea border, which was drawn unilaterally by the American-led U.N. command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War and which the North does not recognize. However, the Koreas have also fought three bloody naval skirmishes in the area since 1999.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff released a statement saying that the country’s military followed proper procedures to chase away the North Korean ships and called the KPA’s claim of the response being a military provocation “ridiculous.”

Since North Korea held a rare ruling party congress earlier this month, it has been demanding the South accept its calls to resume talks after months of animosities touched off by Pyongyang’s nuclear test in January and long-range rocket launch in February. South Korea has rejected the overture, saying the North must show tangible commitment to nuclear disarmament first.

http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/north-korea-threatens-souths-ships-after-sea-border-chase/

North Korea restarts plutonium production for nuclear bombs

North Korea has restarted production of plutonium fuel, a senior U.S. State Department official said on Tuesday, showing that it plans to pursue its nuclear weapons program in defiance of international sanctions. The U.S. assessment came a day after the U.N. nuclear watchdog said it had “indications” that Pyongyang has reactivated a plant to recover plutonium from spent reactor fuel at Yongbyon, its main nuclear complex. 

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-nuclear-usa-exclusive-idUSKCN0YT2I1

North Korea military threatens physical response against U.S. THAAD deployment

North Korea's military said on Monday it will take "physical response" to a move by the United States and South Korea to deploy the advanced THAAD missile defense system to the Korean peninsula to counter the threat from the North.

The United States and South Korea said on Friday that the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system will be used as defense against North Korea's growing nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities.

The announcement was the latest move by the allies against the North which conducted its fourth nuclear test this year and launched a long-range rocket, resulting in tough new U.N. sanctions and a series of bilateral sanctions against it.

"There will be physical response measures from us as soon as the location and time that the invasionary tool for U.S. world supremacy, THAAD, will be brought into South Korea," the North's military said in a statement.

"It is the unwavering will of our army to deal a ruthless retaliatory strike and turn (the South) into a sea of fire and a pile of ashes the moment we have an order to carry it out," the statement carried by the official KCNA news agency said.

The North frequently threatens to attack the South and U.S. interests in Asia and the Pacific.

The move to deploy the THAAD system, which drew a swift and sharp protest from China, came a day after the U.S. Treasury Department blacklisted leader North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for human rights abuses.

North Korea called this "a declaration of war" and vowed a tough response.

A South Korean Defence Ministry official said selection of a site for THAAD could come "within weeks," and the allies were working to have it operational by the end of 2017.

It will be deployed to U.S. Forces Korea "to protect alliance military forces," the South and the United States said on Friday. The United States maintains 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean war.

It will be focused solely on North Korean nuclear and missile threats and would not be directed toward any third-party nations, the two countries said last week.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/north-korea-military-threatens-physical-response-against-u-221910276.html

US planning surprise nuclear attack on North Korea, claims Pyongyang
North Korea heaps scorn on US' latest decision to deploy three B-2 bombers in Guam base.

The US is planning to mount a surprise nuclear attack on North Korea when it stages a joint military exercise with South Korea in the coming days, Pyongyang has claimed. The North pledged the country would launch a "merciless retaliatory counteraction" against the US-South Korean forces.

With tensions in the Korean peninsula constantly escalating, Pyongyang has yet again stepped up its rhetoric against the US, leading to a further deterioration of the situation. The North's comments are sharply aimed at Washington's recent decision to deploy sophisticated B-2 Spirit nuclear-capable bombers in the US territory of Guam.

Responding to Washington's decision, Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), said: "What should not be overlooked is that the massive forward-deployment of nuclear war hardware is under way with the approach of the Ulji Freedom Guardian," referring to the upcoming annual joint exercises between Seoul and Washington. The drills are set to begin on 22 August.

"They are now mulling creating an opportunity of surprise nuclear attack in the course of the Ulji Freedom Guardian. A preemptive nuclear attack is not a monopoly of the US," KNCA added.

Pyongyang has constantly dubbed the joint military exercises as a rehearsal for an actual attack on its country. But the US and South Korea have maintained they are necessary defensive measures undertaken to combat the emerging threats from the North.

This year's simulated exercises are to take place when the North has been engaged in several defiant acts, including the launch of medium-range Rodong missiles.

Amid the ongoing tensions, the US moved three B-2 stealth bombers in the Pacific island of Guam on 9 August. Washington usually mobilises the bombers in the Andersen Air Force Base on a rotational basis due to training and other military purposes.

"Our strategic bomber force routinely operates around the globe and with our regional allies and partners, and this deployment is one such demonstration of the US commitment to supporting global and regional security. Bomber training missions ensure crews maintain a high state of readiness and proficiency and demonstrate our ability to provide an always-ready global strike capability, whenever and wherever we are called to do so," said Admiral Cecil D Haney, commander of Strategic Command.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/us-planning-surprise-nuclear-attack-north-korea-claims-pyongyang-1575436

North Korean soldiers 'given nuclear backpacks' as tensions rise over joint US-South Korean military exercises

Elite North Korean soldiers are being armed with “nuclear backpacks”, a source has claimed as tensions increase over the authoritarian state’s attempts at military escalation. An anonymous source told Radio Free Asia special units have been formed since March to carry the weapons and had been taking part in simulated training exercises with dummy bombs. 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/north-korea-news-latest-soldiers-nuclear-backpacks-kim-jong-un-tensions-us-south-korean-military-a7217401.html

Well, its always good to get some different news every now and then...

South Korea Tires of North, Vows to Reduce Pyongyang 'to Ashes' - Breitbart

A South Korean military source told the national outlet Yonhap that his government is ready to reduce Pyongyang “to ashes” after the latest North Korean nuclear test, with “every Pyongyang district… completely destroyed.”

While not an official statement from Seoul, these are the sternest words to come out of South Korea’s government against the belligerent north in recent memory and a sign that South Korea is losing patience with Pyongyang’s repeated threats to attack its neighbor with nuclear weapons.

The military source told Yonhap that a plan is in place to destroy Pyongyang if necessary. “Every Pyongyang district, particularly where the North Korean leadership is possibly hidden, will be completely destroyed by ballistic missiles and high-explosive shells as soon as the North shows any signs of using a nuclear weapon,” the source said. “In other words, the North’s capital city will be reduced to ashes and removed from the map.”

While the South Korean Defense Ministry did not use such language, it did respond to this weekend’s nuclear test with its own official warning that Pyongyang should refrain from threatening it neighbors. Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee called the nuclear test “really deplorable” and urged officials working under dictator Kim Jong-un to cease nuclear development. South Korea also announced the existence of a plan called “Korea Massive Punishment & Retaliation” (KMPR) last week, a comprehensive approach to destroying North Korea should they use nuclear weapons against the south.

South Korea has increasingly used stern language to condemn North Korea. In March, President Park Geun-hye delivered her most strident statement yet, calling for the world to unite to “end the tyranny that has deprived North Koreans of their freedom and human rights.” “I once again strongly urge North Korea to throw away the delusion that the nuclear programs guarantee the regime safety and to walk down the path of genuine change as soon as possible,” she concluded then. North Korea has clearly not abandoned those intentions.

North Korea, in turn, has used belligerent and, at times, vulgar language to refer to the South Korean president. In a three-part series published in 2014 called “We Accuse Park the ****,” North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun described the president as, among other epithets, a “****,” “cold-blooded animal,” “pumpkin,” and “old cat groaning in her sickbed.”

This weekend, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) once again “warned the traitor, hideous confrontation manic [sic] and the nation’s biggest trouble-maker” Park that North Korea plans to attack the south.” KCNA also accused South Korea of “recklessly talking nonsense like psychopaths, utterly fear-stricken by the daily-growing might of the DPRK.”

The communist North Korean government confirmed reports that a nuclear blast had occurred in the country over the weekend, though the tone of North Korean media has been slightly more reserved than in the aftermath of the nation’s fourth nuclear test in January. “Scientists and technicians of the DPRK carried out a nuclear explosion test for the judgment of the power of a nuclear warhead newly studied and manufactured by them at the northern nuclear test ground under the plan of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) for building strategic nuclear force,” the state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun reported, adding, “The nuclear test finally examined and confirmed the structure and specific features of movement of nuclear warhead that has been standardized to be able to be mounted on strategic ballistic rockets.”

A nuclear bomb that can be mounted on ballistic missiles would pose a threat to South Korea, Japan, China, and nations with vested territorial interests near the Korean peninsula. The South Korean government believes that another nuclear test could occur at any time.

“North Korea appears to be fully ready to carry out a nuclear test at its Punggye-ri test site on short notice. We are closely watching for any moves indicating another test,” an unnamed South Korean official told Yonhap Monday.

http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2016/09/12/south-korea-reduce-pyongyang-ashes/

North Korea broadcasts ‘coded message to sleeper agents’ on radio, sparking fears of an attack

North Korea has broadcast a ‘coded message’ to sleeper agents on state radio – sparking fears of an imminent attack.

The announcement was made as part of a cryptic broadcast and analysts believe it is a ‘book cipher’ for agents in foreign countries.

The radio announcer said: ‘(I’m giving) chemistry review work to No 21 expedition agents,’ before continuing with the numbers, which spies can decode using a reference book.

Similar broadcasts were reportedly made on November 6 and 11 and the latest is the 14th since June.

A source in the South Korean ministry told the Daily Star that their neighbours could launch an attack ‘at any time’.

They have also detected many missiles moving around the country.

http://usdefensewatch.com/2016/11/north-korea-broadcasts-coded-message-to-sleeper-agents-on-radio-sparking-fears-of-an-attack/

North Korea reportedly test fires missile, challenging US

North Korea reportedly fired a ballistic missile early Sunday in what would be its first such test of the year and an implicit challenge to President Donald Trump, who stood with the Japanese leader as Shinzo Abe called the move “absolutely intolerable.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/south-korea-says-north-korea-test-fires-missile-001217956.html

THE COMING SHOWDOWN BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND NORTH KOREA HAS HAWAII IN THE CROSSHAIRS

President Donald Trump rejected Kim's assessment, tweeting after the statement: "It won't happen!" The administration has not yet established a missile defense plan that would protect the United States from a North Korean ICBM, though it is in the process of reviewing U.S. policy toward North Korea.

NORTH KOREA COULD SOON HAVE THE CAPACITY TO LAUNCH AN ATTACK ON HAWAII THAT WOULD DEVASTATE AMERICA’S PACIFIC MILITARY BASES, ACCELERATING THE NEED FOR THE UNITED STATES TO UPGRADE MISSILE DEFENSES IN THE AREA.

The United States today relies on ground-based ballistic missile interceptors deployed in California and Alaska to protect Hawaii, but these defenses would do little to guard U.S. territory in the Pacific against a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which officials believe is nearing completion.

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency in February test fired a new SM-3 Block IIA missile from Hawaii that successfully intercepted an incoming ballistic missile, but the Pentagon does not maintain a permanent missile defense installation or detection capabilities on the Hawaiian Islands.

rest: http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/prepared-missile-strike-hawaii-north-korea-experts-say-coming/

Exclusive: Japan plans to send largest warship to South China Sea, sources say

Japan plans to dispatch its largest warship on a three-month tour through the South China Sea beginning in May, three sources said, in its biggest show of naval force in the region since World War Two.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-navy-southchinasea-exclusive-idUSKBN16K0UP

Reuters: North Korea Warns of ‘Merciless’ Strikes as U.S. Carrier Joins South Korea Drills

North Korea warned the United States on Tuesday of “merciless” attacks if an aircraft carrier strike group led by the USS Carl Vinson, which is joining South Korean forces for exercises, infringes on its sovereignty or dignity. North Korea, which has alarmed its neighbors with two nuclear tests and a string of missile launches since last year, said the arrival of the U.S. strike group was part of a “reckless scheme” to attack it....

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-southkorea-usa-aircraft-carrier-north-idUSKBN16L0BD

North Korea Puts Army Into "Combat Mode"

It's been at least 24 hours since any further sabers were rattled between China, US, South Korea, and North Korea (oh and Japan), but it according to DailyNK.com, Kim Jong Un has ordered the entire North Korean army into "combat mode" to tighten security and consolidate sentiment in response to military drills conducted by South Korea and the US, which began in early March.

http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?num=14412&cataId=nk01500

A source in South Pyongan Province told Daily NK that following the order from Kim Jong Un, every last soldier-- even if away on business, on leave, off-base for training, or even those with a recent death in the family--were ordered back to their units. The authorities have ordered the military police in each region to summon all soldiers back to their bases.

    "The 1st Corps was ordered to fully prepare for combat. In particular, they were instructed to move mechanized combat equipment to strategic areas, including artillery pieces and tanks that were housed underground,” he said.

    "The Civilian Affairs Administrative Police Unit comprises soldiers located in the Panmunjom area and along the border with South Korea. With the new orders, they must stay in battle uniform at all times, and all cadres below the rank of the commander are prohibited from commuting from their homes. The atmosphere is very tense as the soldiers on watch-keeping duty are replaced by officers of higher ranks," a source in North Pyongan Province said.

    "The authorities have told the troops to be ‘impervious to enemy provocation’ and the forward units are currently under a system of monitoring that requires immediate reporting. The Local Reserve Forces and the Worker-Peasant Red Guard (the largest civil defense force in North Korea) have been ordered to create fake base camps and cannons and deploy them in order to confuse satellite surveillance and complicate air strikes.”

For now, it seems North Korea, the chaotic South Korea, and Washington are unwilling to follow China's advice to ratchet down the rhetoric.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-14/north-korea-puts-army-combat-mode

Tillerson says diplomacy with NKorea has 'failed'; Pyongyang warns of war...
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170317000859

Military action 'on the table'...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/rex-tillerson-military-action-north-korea-option-table/story?id=46196141

PREEMPTIVE STRIKE?
https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-03-17/tillerson-doesn-t-rule-out-preemptive-strike-against-north-korea

Sirens blare as Japan holds first missile drill...
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-japan-drill-idUSKBN16O0TG?il=0

North Korea issues SHOCK war warning: ‘If a single bullet is fired, we WILL nuke the US’
NORTH Korea has pledged to launch a nuclear strike on the US if a “single bullet is fired” as US forces flood the Korean Peninsula.

Kim Jong-un’s rogue state issued the stunning warning as Washington and South Korea carry out war games in the region.

Pyongyang blames the rest of the world for rising nuclear tensions as the DPRK continues its quest for nuclear missiles capable of striking the US mainland.

Last week, US President Donald Trump’s White House admitted war is now “on the table” with North Korea.

US warships, soldiers and warplanes are carrying out military exercises alongside their allies in Seoul.

Nuclear-powered aircraft carrier the USS Carl Vinson arrived in the peninsula with its strike group of destroyers.

Drills are being carried out to test plans to “decapitate” the leadership in Pyongyang should nuclear tensions rise too high.

In a statement, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said: "The Korean People’s Army will reduce the bases of aggression and provocation to ashes with its invincible Hwasong rockets tipped with nuclear warheads and reliably defend the security of the country and its people’s happiness in case the US and the South Korean puppet forces fire even a single bullet at the territory of the DPRK."

North Korea has sparked international fury by launching four missiles into the Sea of Japan, not long after the alleged assassination of Kim's brother Kim Jong-nam.

Kim Jong-un is believed have fired up an H-Bomb factory in North Korea in a bid to produce a nuclear weapon 14-times more powerful than their previous test.

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/598029/North-Korea-Nuclear-Kim-Jong-un-US-Strike-Single-Bullet-South-Japan-Foal-Eagle-USS-Carl

Kim Jong-Un Vows To Reduce US 'To Ashes' With Nukes

Kim Jong-un has threatened to reduce the US “to ashes” as tensions with North Korea continue to increase. The secretive state released a statement earlier this month warning Donald Trump of nuclear destruction if America fires “even a single bullet” towards Pyongyang.
Kim Jong-un has threatened to reduce the US 'to ashes' with nuclear strikes....

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3131278/kim-jong-un-nuclear-weapons-donald-trump-north-korea/

This could be a very real vow. North Korea most likely has a nuke orbiting the Earth and is perfect for an EMP strike on America, it passes over the US twice a day.

Is The United States About To Bomb North Korea? The White House Says ‘The Clock Has Now Run Out’

I got chills when I saw a CNN report that said that a White House official has just warned that “the clock has now run out” on North Korea’s nuclear program and that “all options are on the table”.  That second phrase has been repeatedly used by members of the Trump administration in recent days, and everyone knows what it means.  When I wrote that a conflict with North Korea could be “Trump’s first war” last month, I was still hoping that cooler heads would prevail and that a military conflict could be avoided.  Unfortunately, it appears that a peaceful solution is not in the cards, and that means that the United States may soon start bombing North Korea.  And of course if that happens the North Koreans will strike back with whatever they can, and that includes nuclear weapons.

I don’t know if I have the words to effectively communicate how serious this situation could become.  We have gotten to the point where the White House is openly talking of going to war with a nuclear power…

    A senior White House official issued a dire warning to reporters Tuesday on the state of North Korea’s nuclear program, declaring “the clock has now run out and all options are on the table.”

    “The clock has now run out, and all options are on the table,” the official said, pointing to the failure of successive administration’s efforts to negotiate an end to North Korea’s nuclear program.

Later this week, President Trump is going to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Florida.  The eyes of the entire world will be on this summit, because everyone knows that Trump is going to press the Chinese leader for help on resolving the crisis with North Korea.

But what can China actually do?

The Chinese could cut off trade with North Korea, and that would definitely hurt, but North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appears to have become convinced that long range nuclear missiles are the key to the survival of his regime, and so he will never give up his nuclear program.

And the Chinese will certainly not strike North Korea militarily, and so ultimately if something is going to be done to stop North Korea from getting long range nuclear missiles it will be up to the United States.

On Tuesday morning, North Korea once again showed their defiance by firing yet another test missile into the Sea of Japan…

    The missile was fired from the Sinpo region at 10.40pm GMT (6.10am local time) on the communist nation’s east coast and landed into the sea off the Korean peninsula, South Korean military officials confirmed.

    The rocket is believed to have flown around 37 miles before crashing into the sea. Specific details about the type of projectile were not immediately available.

Kim Jong Un conducted more missile tests in 2016 than his father did in nearly two decades.

It has become crystal clear that North Korea is not going to back down.

President Trump is still hoping that China will step up to the plate, but if the Chinese don’t he has already stated that the United States is fully prepared to “act alone”.  In fact, he made headlines all over the planet when he told the Financial Times the following: “Well if China is not going to solve North Korea, we will. That is all I am telling you.”

It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out what Trump is saying there.

Previous administrations have tried sanctions and negotiations for decades, and they all failed.

In the end, Trump is going to be faced with a choice whether to bomb North Korea or not, and four-star general Jack Keane says that bombing North Korea “may be the only option left”…

    A four-star general with close ties to Donald Trump has warned that military strikes are ‘rapidly’ becoming the only solution to North Korea’s nuclear program.

    Jack Keane, who declined the President’s offer to become Defense Secretary last year, said bombing Kim Jong-un’s nuclear facilities ‘may be the only option left.’

But bombing North Korea is not like bombing Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya or Syria.

The North Koreans already have nuclear weapons, and the U.S. better destroy them all in an overwhelming initial assault, because Kim Jong Un will use any that survive to strike back.

If you doubt this, just consider what a very high level North Korean defector just told Lester Holt of NBC News…

    A senior North Korean defector has told NBC News that the country’s “desperate” dictator is prepared to use nuclear weapons to strike the United States and its allies.

    Thae Yong Ho is the most high profile North Korean defector in two decades, meaning he is able to give a rare insight into the secretive, authoritarian regime.

    According to Thae, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is “desperate in maintaining his rule by relying on his [development of] nuclear weapons and ICBM.” He was using an acronym for intercontinental ballistic missiles — a long range rocket that in theory would be capable of hitting the U.S.

North Korea is currently developing an intercontinental ballistic missile known as the “Taepodong 2” that will have a range of approximately 8000 kilometers.

In other words, it would be capable of striking cities in the western portion of the United States.

It is unthinkable that we would allow a tyrannical leader that is literally insane and that is obsessed with destroying the United States to have such a weapon.

But the moment that we start dropping bombs on North Korea we will start a war in which millions could die.  Whatever nuclear weapons are missed in the first assault will likely be fired at U.S. military bases in Japan or at South Korea’s capital city of Seoul.  Approximately 10 million people live in Seoul, so the death toll would be absolutely enormous.  And even if all North Korean nuclear devices are destroyed by the first attack, the North Koreans still have thousands of artillery guns and rocket launchers trained on Seoul, and they would not hesitate to use their vast stockpile of chemical warheads.

After the initial North Korean barrage, the fourth largest military on the entire planet would start pouring across the border in a massive invasion of South Korea.  The U.S. military would be forced to respond with large scale ground forces if South Korea would have any chance of surviving, and just like in the first Korean War the Chinese may decide to respond to that move by committing their own troops to the war on the side of North Korea.

This is a season of “wars and rumors of wars”, and most Americans have no idea how dangerously close we are to the beginning of World War III.  My hope is that a peaceful way out of this crisis can still be found, but at this point that is becoming increasingly difficult to imagine.

If Donald Trump decides to go to war with North Korea, he needs to hit them with an absolutely overwhelming first strike that takes out every single North Korean nuke, the bulk of North Korea’s artillery and rockets, and the entire North Korean leadership team within the first few minutes of the attack.

It is hard to imagine a scenario that does not involve nukes that would accomplish that.

And Donald Trump better get the public approval of South Korean and Japanese leadership before ever attempting such an attack, because they will likely pay the highest price if North Korea is able to strike back.

If South Korea or Japan balk at backing such an operation and then they get hit by North Korean nukes, the United States could lose them as friends and allies forever.

The stakes are incredibly high, and there are so many things that could go wrong.

So let us pray for peace, because the alternative is almost too horrible to imagine.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/is-the-united-states-about-to-bomb-north-korea-the-white-house-says-the-clock-has-now-run-out

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/china-moves-150000-troops-north-korea-border-event-pre-emptive-strike-united-states/
China Moves 150,000 Troops To North Korea Border In Event Of Pre-Emptive Strike By United States
According to Korean news agency Chosun, the "Chinese army has deployed about 150,000 troops to the North Korean border in two groups to prepare for unforeseen circumstances." The reason: the prospect of "military options", such as preemptive attacks on North Korea, like the one the United States launched on Syria.
4/10/17

While the catalyst is unclear, it appears the market dropped as headlines of further sanctions against Russia appeared and reports of China deploying 150,000 troops to its North Korea border.

According to Korean news agency Chosun, the “Chinese army has deployed about 150,000 troops to the North Korean border in two groups to prepare for unforeseen circumstances.” The reason: the prospect of “military options”, such as preemptive attacks on North Korea, like the one the United States launched on Syria.
Translated into English via Google Translate:

    As the United States announced its independent North Korean behavior and moved the United States Navy’s nuclear-powered Calvinus (CVN-70) carrier class to Singapore, the Chinese army has deployed about 150,000 troops in two groups to prepare for unforeseen circumstances.

    “The report said. It is because of the prospect of taking “military options”, such as preemptive attacks on North Korea, just as the United States has launched an air raid on Syria.

    Japan’s Sankei Shimbun reported on the 9th that the Syrian missile strike in the United States shocked China, suggesting that the People’s Liberation Army forces are moving toward the Yalu River, .

    The newspaper said the video was also broadcast on the Internet, but the authorities removed the relevant information, saying the move was a medical and aft support unit for the Shenyang bulb (the northern light bulb).

    There is an observation that medical and back-up support units will be dispatched to “train for North Korean refugees,” the newspaper added.

    On the same day, the Northern Bulb of China’s Tohoku District Defense Command issued the orders for full-scale pre-emptive orders to all the submarine and submarine units on the same day, while the 16th, 23, 39, and 40th group troops in the North Korean border area.

    These media assume that the Kiryuolbun and the eagle training of the two countries will end the month of this month when the emergency situation on the Korean peninsula is eradicated and Kim Jong Eun and the North Korean leadership are removed and the weapons of mass destruction of North Korea are destroyed. And that he took the same action.

    The core units that respond immediately to the drastic changes in North Korea are the 39th group and the 40th group, each of which has its headquarters in Yingkou and Jinzhou in Liaoning Province. The 39th group is a heavy army mechanized unit and the 40th group is the rapid reaction group. (translated from South Korean site chosun.com)

Kim Jong-Un ‘orders IMMEDIATE EVACUATION of Pyongyang’ as tensions with US escalate

The North Korean leader has ordered an evacuation of the Capital

Reports in Russian newspaper Pravda Report claim more than 600,000 people - around 25 per cent of the city’s population - are being urgently evacuated, as tensions escalate between North Korea and the United States.

According to South Korean media, residents in the kingdom have said goodbye to each other, sparking concerns the tyrannical leader could be about to act after months of nuclear weapon testing.

Foreign reporters have been told to prepare for a “big and important event" on North Korea's biggest national celebration, called ‘Day of the Sun’.

A tweet from Channel NewsAsia’s Beijing Correspondent Jeremy Koh said: “We’ve been told to be ready to move out at 6.20am, but no idea why. Also, no cell phones allowed.”

More than 200 foreign journalists are in Pyongyang as the country marks the 105th birthday of its founding president Kim Il Sung on April 15.

Officials in North Korea have already warned nuclear war could break out at any minute thanks to the "extremely tense" situation on the Korean Peninsula.

The US sent a navy strike group towards the Western Pacific in a show of force, with North Korea retorting with warnings of a nuclear attack in retaliation to any show of aggression.

rest: http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/791251/kim-jong-un-north-korea-imminent-war-pyongyang-immediate-evacuation

Foreign journalists in North Korea told to prepare for 'big' event

 Foreign journalists visiting North Korea have been told to prepare for a "big and important event" on Thursday, although there were no indications it was directly linked to tensions in the region over the isolated state's nuclear weapons program.

Around 200 foreign journalists are in Pyongyang as the country marks the 105th birth anniversary of its founding president Kim Il Sung on April 15, North Korea's biggest national day called "Day of the Sun".

Officials gave no details as to the nature of the event or where it would take place, and similar announcements in the past have been linked to relatively low-key set pieces.

In 2016, for example, foreign journalists underwent hours of investigation by North Korean officials ahead of what turned out to be a pop concert to mark the finale of a ruling Workers' Party congress.

But tensions are running high, with a U.S. Navy strike group steaming toward the western Pacific in a show of force and North Korea warning of a nuclear attack on the United States at any sign of American aggression.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/foreign-journalists-north-korea-told-prepare-big-event-173549254.html

China’s National Airline Just Suspended All Flights to North Korea

hina’s national airline, Air China, suspended flights from Beijing to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, from late on Friday, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said.

It did not say why the flights, which operate on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, were being suspended.

CCTV did not give a source for its news report published on its website and Air China could not immediately be reached for comment after business hours.

The last flight between the two cities took place on Friday, with the return flight to Beijing arriving in the early evening, the broadcaster said.

http://libertynews.com/2017/04/breaking-chinas-national-airline-just-suspended-all-flights-to-north-korea/

If War Breaks Out, These Are North Korea's 'Aces In The Hole' - This Is Why Kim Jong Un And North Korea Pose A 'Nightmare Scenario' To America And The World

Saturday April 15th is the 'Day of the Sun' in North Korea. The 105th anniversary since the birth of the founder of NKorea Kim II Sung, the 'Day of the Sun' has traditionally seen the North testing new weapons and this April 15th may be no different with current leader Kim Jong Un allegedly planning something huge that day.

The new story from Pravda is called "North Korea: Nuclear War To Start On The Day Of The Sun" within which they report upon comments recently made by a North Korean Foreign Ministry official: "We will take most severe countermeasures against the provocateurs to defend ourselves with the might of our weapons." According to Yevgeny Kim, an expert with the Center for Korean Studies at the Institute of the Far East, "I do not think that the Americans are crazy enough to attack North Korea, given the situation that has developed so far. The Northerners can answer. This is not Syria! They will certainly attack US ships and army bases. They have their own missiles for the purpose."

It's clear that what's happening now in North Korea is much different from Syria. Having already tested several nuclear weapons, NKorea poses an 'existential threat' to America while Syria did not.

In this new story from the Daily Mail they report that according to a new poll, the majority of Americans feel 'uneasy' about President Trump's ability to handle 'the North Korean problem'. In fact within the story, Trump himself makes clear that NKorea, an issue that has bedeviled policy makers for decades, is "not as simple as people would think".

As Yevgeny Kim mentioned, Kim Jong Un and North Korea will answer any attacks upon them. And while Trump's recent visit with China's President Xi seems to have cemented China's cooperation with Trump and the US to 'deal with the North Korean problem', NKorea has several 'aces in the hole' that we may not be able to account for until it's too late.

As Dr. Peter Vincent Pry has reported, all North Korea needs is ONE successful attack upon America and Kim could bring down our entire nation. If the two North Korean satellites allegedly capable of carrying miniaturized nuclear weapons capable of launching an EMP attack against America aren't enough, Kim's other aces in the hole are a large number of NKorean submarines that are apparently capable of 'disappearing without a trace' and 'sleeper agents of North Korean terror' already spread throughout the world, just waiting for the word to 'go live' so they can deliver biological terror.

As we reported nearly two years ago on ANP back in August of 2015, 50 North Korean subs 'went off radar', spooking South Korea and Japan, with several of them unable to be located for several days. According to one national security expert, "We didn't know where they were at the time. One would hope that we would keep very close tabs on those that could launch the submarine-launched ballistic missiles [SLBMs]. All of that is very worrisome because that may very well have a nuclear weapon someday." Well that 'someday' has flown the coop as we all know that North Korea has nuclear weapons now. Might they be capable of launching nuclear weapons from their subs?

While 'China flaunts their mighty missiles' on state TV, another clear message to North Korea along with the recent 'MOAB' mother-of-all-bombs that Trump recently had dropped on ISIS in Afghanistan, this April 10th story from the Daily Mail asked "Is There A Russian Or Chinese Submarine Off The Coast Of California" after unusual Naval Aircraft patrol searches sparked fears that something very strange was going on off of the West coast.

This new story from The Express asked if Kim is planning a secret nuclear attack using a 'secret submarine', once again bringing up the danger posed by 50 submarines that simply 'disappeared' back in 2015.

Expert Joseph Bermudez, from website 38 North, said that although the secretive state's intentions are unclear, the images suggest that North Korea is now capable of deploying missiles larger than a KN-11 submarine-launched ballistic missile which was tested in August.

It is believed that dictator Kim Jong-un’s nuclear submarine system is inspired by the Golf-class submarines used by the Soviet Union before the fall of the Iron Curtain.

According to this November 2014 story from RT, such subs are capable of carrying missiles armed with nuclear warheads. In the first video below we hear a new warning about North Korea's 'hidden submarine threat'.

Another NKorean 'ace in the hole' is outlined by Michael Snyder who asks in this new story over at End Of The American Dream, where will Americans go if NKorean agents of terror release biological agents in US cities? While North Korea is half the world away, Snyder's story reports agents of Kim's regime could still bring America to a total standstill in no time at all.

As we reported on ANP on April 12th, the NKorean regime recently sent out a series of coded messages to their spies around the world. Were those messages received by NKorean agents in America and if so, how would a few spies here in the US be able to shut America down? While the 2nd video below outlines NKorea's biological weapons threats, the scenario outlined by Snyder is chilling:

In the aftermath of a massive U.S. military strike on North Korea’s nuclear facilities, North Korean agents that have been embedded inside the United States for years quickly start going to work. In Washington D.C., New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, small containers that had been covertly smuggled into the U.S. are opened and dropped on the ground in the middle of large groups of people.

At first nothing seems to happen, but pretty rapidly those that have been exposed start developing puffy white sores and blisters on their skin. When this hits the news, panic begins to spread as people realize that this appears to be a coordinated attack. Before too long, others that have been exposed to a different bioweapon start bleeding profusely from their eyes, ears, mouths and noses. People drop dead by the thousands, and a national health crisis is declared.

Economic activity comes to a complete halt as everyone becomes deathly afraid of leaving their own homes. Hospitals and other medical facilities are completely overwhelmed because they can only treat a small fraction of those that are dying. Because these weaponized diseases were designed to spread like wildfire, pretty soon nearly every community in America is affected.

The federal government attempts to intervene, but it is powerless to stop the spread of these pandemics. Thousands of dead bodies lie rotting in the streets of our major cities because there aren’t enough people willing to take the risk of burying them. And because virtually everyone is camping out at home, essential public services start to break down very rapidly and our society descends into a state of utter chaos.

As we have reported time and again on ANP, possibly the greatest danger that North Korea poses to America is its ability to deliver an electromagnetic pulse attack upon our nation, an attack that experts have warned will nearly instantly send America back to the dark ages and could easily lead to the deaths of 90% of Americans or more.

Nearly instantly wiping out the electricity for all America at once, experts warn one North Korean EMP would do more long-term damage to this nation than 10 nuclear bombs being detonated in large cities across our nation. Leaving an America without any power, no banking system, no public utilities, no public transportation system, and no electronic communications, we're happy to report that finally, the Pentagon is preparing to protect America from such a devastating attack after 8 years of Obama administration inactivity on America's achilles heal.

Yet, will it be too late? The Washington Examiner story reports the new defense mechanisms being developed by the Pentagon to protect our electric grid from a cyber attack or EMP won't be ready until the year 2020.

According to this new Daily Caller story, Texas's power grid is completely vulnerable to an EMP from North Korea as well and such an attack could lead to total devastation. Reporting that the biggest obstacle to hardening our electrical grid has long been political and not technological, we see why hardening the grid by 2020 may be way too late.

“The electric power grid is vulnerable to what legitimate experts classify as high impact threats,” state Sen. Bob Hall, a co-sponsor of Senate Bill 83, said while introducing the bill before the Senate Committee on Business and Commerce on Wednesday — the same day Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said relations between the U.S. and Russia are “at a low point.” An EMP attack, Hall said, would be the “most debilitating to critical infrastructure because it has the ability to disrupt, disable and irreparably destroy electronics over a wide geographic area.”

“For some, the threat posed by an EMP can be hard to conceptualize,” Hall added. “However, this threat is not science fiction and its consequences cannot be overstated.”

“Electricity is the third most important thing to sustaining life. The only two things more important to sustaining life are air and water,” added Hall, a former Air Force officer and engineer. “This bill would provide our state with a golden opportunity to ensure that when the lights go out in the rest of the country, they stay on in Texas.”

In the final video below, Prepper Recon is joined by Brad Harris from Full Spectrum Survival to talk about the EMP threat the Kim Jong Un and North Korea pose to America with solid action steps we should be taking to prepare for such a grave possibility that we dutifully pray never arrives upon American shores.


http://allnewspipeline.com/The_Day_Of_The_Sun_NKorea.php

Japan Prepares For North Korea "Emergency"

Judging by the precautionary actions of North Korea's neighbors, the next 48 hours on the Korean peninsula could see substantial volatility, because at the same time as China's largest carrier was said to suspend flights to Pyongyang, the Japanese government has asked the U.S. to provide advance consultation if it is about to launch military action against North Korea, and "has ramped up preparations for emergency situations" according to Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun, including the potential evacuation of some 57,000 Japanese citizens currently in South Korea.

According to the Japanese publication, PM Shinzo Abe stressed that the region is becoming increasingly tense. “[U.S. President Donald Trump] has stated that all options are on the table. It’s a fact tensions are rising,” he said at the Prime Minister’s Office after receiving a written proposal calling for tougher sanctions on North Korea from the Liberal Democratic Party’s Eriko Yamatani, chief of the headquarters for the abduction issue.

He added that "if an unexpected situation occurs, we’ll ask the United States to cooperate in rescuing the abduction victims."

The Japanese government, like its South Korean peer, has asked for advance consultation regarding any U.S. military action against North Korea during a series of meetings between Japanese and U.S. officials. The U.S. side is said to have responded positively to the request. This is because Japan would need to take appropriate precautions given that, as an ally of Washington, it could be a target for retaliation should the U.S. military attack North Korea, although in order to preserve the "element of surprise" it would not be at all
surprising if Trump proceeded to launching a strike unannounced.

rest: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-04-14/japan-prepares-north-korea-emergency

‘We will pulverize the headquarters of evil and ruthlessly ravage US troops’: North Korea makes menacing boast it will take on Donald Trump with ‘merciless’ strikes on South Korea and US bases as China warns of 'war at any moment'
Vice Minister Han Song Ryol accused Trump of building up a 'vicious cycle' of tensions on the Korean Peninsula and pointed to his 'aggressive tweets'
The military said it would target US bases and 'headquarters of evils' including the South Korean presidential Blue Houseif it was attacked
Han blamed the US and Trump for growing tensions, citing military exercises with South Korea and the deployment of a US aircraft carrier to the peninsula
Han ominously warned the US the state would 'go to war if they choose' and vowed to continue accumulating nuclear arms
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said anyone provoking conflict would 'pay the price'
Pyongyang is preparing to mark its national 'Day of the Sun' tomorrow to commemorate the birth anniversary of its founding president Kim Il Sung
US officials told NBC the US was prepared to launch a pre-emptive strike to halt a nuclear test, but a member of the Trump administration denied the report
US Vice President Mike Pence will travel to South Korea on Sunday in what his aides said was a sign of the U.S. commitment to its ally


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4411108/North-Korea-hits-Trump-ahead-Day-Sun.html#ixzz4eGTqJ5hf

North Korean ballistic missile launch FAILS: Kim Jong-un launches new 'game changer missile' hours after it was introduced at a military parade - but it BLOWS UP almost immediately in embarrassing failure

    North Korea is thought to have attempted to fire a missile amid rising tensions
    But the launch failed according to local media in what could prove to be embarrassing for the country
    Comes hours after North Korea unveiled 'game-changer' ballistic missiles during a display of the country's military might


North Korea has attempted to fire a missile it introduced just hours ago at a military parade - but the launch was an embarrassing failure after the weapon blew up almost immediately.

It is thought to be one of the country's new 'game-changer' intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) which was revealed to the world in a display of military might yesterday.

The South Korean defence ministry said it had detected a failed launch from Sinpo - where North Korea's biggest submarine base is located.

According to a military official the weapon is 'presumed to be a new ICBM' as it is longer than the existing KN-08 or KN-14 missiles.

The South Korean defence ministry said in a statement: 'North Korea attempted to test an unidentified type of missile from Sinpo area in the South Hamkyong Province this morning, but we suspect the launch has failed.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4415314/North-Korea-attempts-launch-missile-fails.html#ixzz4eMqdKi4s

China Puts Bombers On High Alert "For A Potential North Korea Contingency"

he US has seen evidence that the Chinese military is preparing "for a potential North Korea contingency", CNN reports citing a US defense official, and adds that Chinese air force land-attack, cruise-missile-capable bombers were put "on high alert" on Wednesday.

link?

Entire Senate being called to White House for North Korea briefing

The entire U.S. Senate has been invited to the White House for a briefing Wednesday on the North Korea situation, amid escalating tensions over the country’s missile tests and bellicose rhetoric.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer confirmed the upcoming briefing, for all 100 senators, on Monday.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats plan to provide the update to lawmakers.

It is rare for the entire Senate to be invited to such a briefing.

Spicer clarified that while the event will take place on the White House campus, it is technically a Senate briefing and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is the one who convened it.

The briefing, first reported by Reuters, was confirmed after President Trump earlier spoke to the leaders of both China and Japan.

Trump spoke by phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Xi told Trump that China strongly opposed North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and hoped “all parties will exercise restraint and avoid aggravating the situation,” according to Chinese broadcaster CCTV. Trump hopes China could increase pressure on its isolated ally instead of using military options or trying to overthrow Kim Jong Un’s regime.

Trump and Abe agreed to urge North Korea to refrain from provocative actions.

Meanwhile, U.S. commercial satellite images indicated increased activity around North Korea’s nuclear test site, while Kim has said that the country’s preparation for an ICBM launch is in its “final stage.”

South Korea’s Defense Ministry has said the North appears ready to conduct such "strategic provocations" at any time. South Korean Acting Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn has instructed his military to strengthen its "immediate response posture" in case North Korea does something significant on the April 25 anniversary of its military. North Korea often marks significant dates by displaying military capability.

On Monday, Trump also had lunch with ambassadors of countries on the U.N. Security Council. Ahead of the meeting, Trump called for “big reforms” at the U.N. and criticizing its handling of recent events in Syria and North Korea – but said it has “tremendous potential.”

"You just don't see the United Nations, like, solving conflicts. I think that's going to start happening now," he said.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/04/24/entire-senate-being-called-to-white-house-for-north-korea-briefing.html

North Korea Could Already Be Ready To Use an EMP
By John R. Moore April 25, 2017
6-7 minutes

Fifty-five years ago, the U.S. tested a nuclear weapon high above the atmosphere over the Pacific. At the time, my father -- a nuclear weapons engineer -- was listening on our ham radio.

When the device exploded, we heard nothing in Albuquerque. But, in Honolulu, 1000 miles from the detonation, the sky turned red as streetlights and telephones went out. EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) effects from the distant nuclear explosion had struck.

Today we hear concern that cities might be destroyed by North Korean nuclear tipped missiles, but Starfish Prime should alert us to a more imminent danger: EMP. North Korea can launch an EMP attack before it has developed nuclear missile technology, and EMP may be far more deadly.

An EMP disaster from a high-altitude blast seems like science fiction: There is a silent flash high in the sky, and everything using electricity just … stops. Cars stop, power goes out, the Internet dies, satellites quit working, landline and mobile phone systems go out, and computers are destroyed. In a moment, we are back to 1850, as was dramatized in William Forstchen's 2009 novel One Second After.

While the total wipeout depicted in One Second After is probably exaggerated, the effects could knock out our power grid for months, and destroy critical communications and computer systems. As former CIA chief James Woolsey recently said:

    If you look at the electric grid and what it's susceptible to, we would be moving into a world with no food delivery, no water purification, no banking, no telecommunications, no medicine. All of these things depend on electricity in one way or another.

In such a situation, there simply is no way to rule out the possibility that hundreds of millions could die.

To nuke one of our cities, the North needs to master ICBM construction, nuclear weapons miniaturization, precision long-range guidance technology, atmospheric re-entry vehicles, and fusing to trigger detonation at the right time after the hazardous re-entry. In contrast, an EMP attack requires only a small, light nuclear weapon and the ability to launch it as a satellite. Once over the U.S., it is detonated.

Already, two satellites launched by North Korea cross the U.S. every day.

Do they contain nuclear weapons? Probably not, but how can we know? Nuclear weapons don't emit much radiation until they go off, so they are hard to detect. I used to fly in a nuclear bomber with the weapon station just a few feet from my station with no shielding -- no need.

Meanwhile, North Korea continues striving to miniaturize its nukes -- and may have already succeeded. They have released pictures of a miniaturized bomb, although that may just be propaganda.

Starfish Prime used a thermonuclear weapon, a “hydrogen bomb,” which was very powerful but which the North is still striving to build -- a difficult task. But only a fission weapon or “atomic bomb” is needed for an EMP, and North Korea has tested several. The yield would probably need to be increased over their latest test, but getting there is only a matter of time. Fusion boosting the weapon to higher yield is not a difficult step. The North recently restarted its Yongbyon reactor, which can produce the necessary tritium.

The EMP danger isn’t only from North Korea. Iran has the capability to launch missiles from ships at sea -- the EMP attack depicted in Forstchen’s novel.

We currently have little defense against this threat. Our land based anti-ballistic missile systems are oriented towards warheads coming across the North Pacific, while North Korea launches satellites to the south, which later cross the U.S. from the south or north. The anti-satellite ability of the Navy’s AEGIS ships is unclear -- one satellite in a very low orbit has been intercepted, and ships need to be positioned within range of the orbit. Shooting a satellite down before it reaches orbit is another possibility, but AEGIS has a very limited window for such a “boost phase” intercept.

A decision to intercept would have to be quick – within a few seconds after launch for boost phase, or before the first partial orbit is completed for a satellite intercept. Complicating the decision process is the difficulty in knowing that the launch is of a nuclear device -- and any intercept is an act of war. Even if we have the capability, the knowledge, the decision time, and the will, our missile defense system is nowhere near foolproof.

If our infrastructure were better protected, at least we might survive an attack with few deaths. One estimate says $20 billion might be enough protect the power grid -- a drop in the bucket of national spending. Hardening communications and computing systems would also be needed.

A recent Electric Power Research Institute study reported that the damage from the delayed “E-3” pulse of EMP probably would not be crippling, although they cannot be sure. Moreover, the “E-1” pulse was not addressed, but it would take out the control systems, and might destroy power transformers from flashover. Other critical systems -- such as the internet and parts of the transportation system -- are very vulnerable to both.

Because a modern state has never suffered an EMP attack, our knowledge is limited.

An EMP strike would be suicidal for North Korea, but they may see it differently, or in some crisis, not care. In any case, the threat of an EMP strike would be a powerful deterrent.

James Woolsey and Newt Gingrich are right and it is time to listen: we need a national program to counter this threat. And we need to defang North Korea and Iran -- soon.

https://pjmedia.com/homeland-security/2017/04/25/the-emp-threat-from-north-korea-is-real-and-terrifying/

North Korea 'tests ballistic missile' amid reports Pyongyang stating war 'imminent'
Barney Henderson, New York 29 April 2017 • 3:21am
2-3 minutes

Quoting an American official,  Reuters is reporting that the  Trump administration could respond to North Korea's latest failed missile test by speeding up its plans for new U.S. sanctions against Pyongyang, including possible measures against specific North Korean and Chinese entities.

With North Korea acting in defiance of pressure from the United States and North Korea's main ally, China, Washington could also conduct new naval drills and deploy more ships and aircraft in the region as a show of force, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"It's possible that something could be sped up," the official said of the potential for imposing a limited package of targeted sanctions on North Korea. "Something that's ready to go could be taken from the larger package and expedited."

The source said the ballistic missile launch was the kind of "provocation" that had been anticipated ahead of South Korea's May 9 election, and President Donald Trump could use the test-firing to further press China to do more to rein in North Korea.

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the missile fired from a region north of Pyongyang was probably a medium-range missile known as a KN-17 and appears to have broken up within minutes of taking off.

Should North Korea test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile as it has threatened, Washington would consider it a more dangerous milestone, the administration official told Reuters, suggesting it would draw a much tougher U.S. response.

The Trump administration is especially worried about Pyongyang's work to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the United States. Washington is also watching closely for the possibility of North Korea's sixth nuclear test.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/28/north-korea-tests-ballistic-missile-amid-reports-pyongyang-stating/

http://redstatewatcher.com/article.asp?id=75998
BREAKING: It's Happening!! The Carrier Has Just Been Deployed!!!

Japan has just deployed a helicopter carrier and authorized it to use weapons if necessary to protect a US Supply vessel.

RT reported: Japan has reportedly deployed a helicopter carrier and authorized it to use weapons, if necessary, to escort and protect a US supply vessel. The mission, performed under the country’s expanded military doctrine, marks the first such mission since WWII.
Defense Minister Tomomi Inada ordered the Izumo Maritime Self-Defense Force helicopter carrier to protect a US Navy supply ship, which is heading towards the Pacific to resupply the American armada sent by Donald Trump to keep North Korean nuclear ambitions at bay, sources told Kyodo news.

The Japanese helicopter carrier is set to depart Yokosuka port in Kanagawa Prefecture to Monday to escort the US Navy supply ship from waters off the Boso Peninsula, near Tokyo, to the area off Shikoku, one of the four main islands of Japan.

Japanese media reports that the US ship could be delivering supplies to the aircraft carrier – the USS Carl Vinson striking group, that is now conducting a joint exercise with South Korea’s navy in the Sea of Japan.

To ensure success of their escort mission, the Japanese seamen have been authorized the “minimum necessary use of weapons,” to deter any attacks amid North Korean threats to sink US ships, the Japan Times reports.

It has not been specified if this is a one-time mission and how many American ships Izumo will protect.

Read story @ (Link: www.rt.com)
What do you think? Please share and comment

Posted Monday, May 01, 2017

http://redstatewatcher.com/article.asp?id=76114
BREAKING: More Apocalyptic Threats Come From North Korea!
5/2/17
 
North Korea has threatened "final doom" after the U.S. military few two B-1B "Lancer" bombers on a training mission near the Korean peninsula yesterday.

From Zerohedge:

Another day, another jawboning escalation out of North Korea, which on Tuesday accused the US of pushing the Korean peninsula "to the brink of nuclear war" after two strategic U.S. bombers flew training drills with the South Korean and Japanese air forces in another show of strength. As Reuters reports, the two supersonic B-1B Lancer bombers were deployed amid rising tensions over North Korea's pursuit of its nuclear and missile programs.

North Korea said the bombers conducted "a nuclear bomb dropping drill against major objects" in its territory at a time when Trump and "other U.S. warmongers are crying out for making a preemptive nuclear strike" on the North.

"The reckless military provocation is pushing the situation on the Korean peninsula closer to the brink of nuclear war," the North's official KCNA news agency said on Tuesday.

"Any military provocation against the DPRK will precisely mean a total war which will lead to the final doom of the US."

The US air force said in a statement the bombers had flown from Guam to conduct training exercises with the South Korean and Japanese air forces.

The DoDBuzz website first reported yesterday that two Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers flew near the Korean Peninsula Monday, just days after North Korea conducted another failed ballistic missile launch.

The bombers departed Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, to conduct “bilateral training missions with their counterparts from the Republic of Korea and Japanese air forces,” said Lt Col Lori Hodge, PACAF public affairs deputy director. Hodge did not specify how close the bombers flew to the Korean Demilitarized Zone, known as the DMZ, but said they were escorted by South Korean fighter jets.

 When asked if the bombers were carrying weapons, the command wouldn’t disclose, citing standard operating policy. In September, the service put on a similar show of force over South Korea, deploying B-1B bombers alongside South Korean fighter jets after another nuclear test from North Korea. The U.S. military has maintained a deployed strategic bomber presence in the Pacific since 2004.

 While Hodge said the training was routine, the recent flyover marks another in a series of events the U.S. has taken to deter North Korea’s Kim Jong Un from additional ballistic missile tests — the latest which occurred April 28.

Ironically, the flight of the two bombers on Monday took place roughly at the same time as Donald Trump said he would be "honored" to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the right circumstances, and as his CIA director landed in South Korea for talks. South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun told a briefing in Seoul that Monday's joint drill was conducted to deter provocations by the North.

Also overnight, Reuter reported that the U.S. military's THAAD anti-missile defense system has reached operational capacity in South Korea, although they added that it would not be fully operational for some months. China has repeatedly expressed its opposition to the system, whose powerful radar it fears could reach inside Chinese territory. Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang again denounced THAAD on Tuesday. "We will resolutely take necessary measures to defend our interests," Geng said, without elaborating.

Asked about Trump's suggestion he could meet Kim, Geng said China had noted U.S. comments that it wanted to use peaceful means to resolve the issue. Trump has been recently been full of praise of Chinese President Xi Jinping's efforts to rein in its neighbor. "China has always believed that using peaceful means via dialogue and consultation to resolve the peninsula's nuclear issue is the only realistic, feasible means to achieve denuclearisation of the peninsula and maintain peace and stability there, and is the only correct choice," Geng told a daily news briefing.

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/u-s-commandos-place-ready-strike-north-korea-nuclear-sites/
STANDING BY: U.S. Special Operations Forces In Place And Ready To Strike At North Korea Nuclear Sites
Special forces troops would be responsible for locating and destroying North Korean nuclear weapons and missile delivery systems, such as mobile missiles. They also would seek to prevent the movement of the weapons out of the country during a conflict.

by Geoffrey Grider May 3, 2017
U.S. special operations forces are set to conduct operations against North Korean nuclear, missile, and other weapons of mass destruction sites in any future conflict, the commander of Special Operations Command told Congress Tuesday.

Army Gen. Raymond A. Thomas stated in testimony to a House subcommittee that Army, Navy, and Air Force commandos are based both permanently and in rotations on the Korean peninsula in case conflict breaks out.

The special operations training and preparation is a warfighting priority, Thomas said in prepared testimony. There are currently around 8,000 special operations troops deployed in more than 80 countries.
North Korea says they’re ready to face the American military:

“We are actively pursuing a training path to ensure readiness for the entire range of contingency operations in which [special operations forces], to include our exquisite [countering weapons of mass destruction] capabilities, may play a critical role,” he told the subcommittee on emerging threats.

“We are looking comprehensively at our force structure and capabilities on the peninsula and across the region to maximize our support to U.S. [Pacific Command] and [U.S. Forces Korea]. This is my warfighting priority for planning and support.”

Disclosure of the commander’s comments comes as tensions remain high on the peninsula. President Trump has vowed to deal harshly with North Korea should another underground nuclear test be carried out. Test preparations have been identified in recent weeks, U.S. officials have said.

Trump said on Sunday that China appears to be pressuring North Korea but that he would be upset if North Korea carries out another nuclear test.

“If he does a nuclear test, I will not be happy,” he said on CBS Face the Nation. Asked if his unhappiness would translate into a U.S. military response, Trump said: “I don’t know. I mean, we’ll see.”
Gen. Thomas’ testimony did not include details of what missions the commandos would carry out.

A spokesman for the Special Operations Command referred questions about potential operations in Korea to the Pacific Command.

Special forces troops would be responsible for locating and destroying North Korean nuclear weapons and missile delivery systems, such as mobile missiles. They also would seek to prevent the movement of the weapons out of the country during a conflict.

Special operations missions are said by military experts to include intelligence gathering on the location of nuclear and chemical weapons sites for targeting by bombers. They also are likely to include direct action assaults on facilities to sabotage the weapons, or to prevent the weapons from being stolen, or set off at the sites by the North Koreans.

A defense official said U.S. commandos in the past have trained for covert operations against several types of nuclear facilities, including reactors and research centers. Scale models of some North Korean weapons facilities have been built in the United States for practice operations by commandos.

The most secret direct action operations would be carried out by special units, such as the Navy’s Seal Team Six or the Army’s Delta Force.

Thomas said the command in January took over the role of coordinating Pentagon efforts to counter weapons of mass destruction from the Strategic Command. The mission includes stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction and dealing with the aftermath of such weapons’ use.

North Korea is believed to have around 20 nuclear devices and is developing nuclear warheads small enough to be carried on long-range missiles. It also has stockpiles of chemical weapons and biological warfare agents.

Many of North Korea’s nuclear facilities are believed to be located underground in fortified locations spread around the country.

The last rotation of special operations forces to South Korea took place in February when parts of the 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) and the 75th Ranger Regiment joined South Korean troops for training.
The United States has a message for North Korea:

A great video of the US Military sending it’s most deadly message to the leadership of the North Korean Military in Military exercise. “This exercise is yet another example of the strength and resolve of the combined U.S. and the ROK naval force,” said Rear Adm. James Kilby, commander, Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group. “The U.S. and the Republic of Korea share one of the strongest alliances in the world and we grow stronger as an alliance because of our routine exercises here in South Korea and the close relationship and ties that we forge from operating at sea together.”

The training took place in mountainous parts of South Korea in a bid to simulate the rough terrain commandos would experience during operations in North Korea. Other training took place on the seas.

Gen. Thomas, in his testimony, identified North Korea as one of five “current and enduring” military threats outlined in a new military strategy produced by Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The four other threats are terrorism, Russia, Iran, and China.

Asked about the new strategy, a Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman said the latest national military strategy is secret. “A classified [National Military Strategy] will make it more difficult for adversaries to develop counter-strategies and also enables the chairman to give the best military advice to the president and secretary of defense,” Navy Capt. Greg Hicks said.

The command “has recently focused more intently on the emerging threat that is of growing concern to us as well as most of our DoD teammates—the nuclear threat of an increasingly rogue North Korea,” Thomas said.

“Although previously viewed as a regional threat, North Korea’s relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles, facilitated by a trans-regional network of commercial, military, and political connections, make it a threat with global implications,” the four-star general added.

South Korea’s special operations forces are said to be highly trained but lack the advanced equipment used by American commandos, such as stealth helicopters and aircraft as well as other high technology and advanced weaponry.

A Pentagon report on North Korea’s military published in February 2016 states that North Korea continues to advance its nuclear program.

The North Koreans announced in September 2015 that the nuclear facilities at Yongbyon including a uranium enrichment plant and a reactor that were upgraded for the purpose of building nuclear forces, the report said.

Pacific Command commander Adm. Harry Harris said in congressional testimony last week that North Korea is an immediate threat to the security of the United States and the Asia Pacific region.

“With every test, Kim Jong Un moves closer to his stated goal of a preemptive nuclear strike capability against American cities, and he’s not afraid to fail in public,” Harris said. source

EXCLUSIVE – Congressional Expert: North Korea Prepping EMP Catastrophe Aimed At U.S. Homefront

TEL AVIV – While the international community and news media focus on North Korean missile tests and the country’s nuclear program, one expert warned on Sunday that North Korea may be secretly assembling the capability to take out significant parts of the U.S. homeland via an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack.
Dr. Peter Vincent Pry is executive director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security and is the chief of staff of the Congressional EMP Commission.

Speaking on this reporter’s talk radio program, Pry pointed to two North Korean satellites that are currently orbiting the U.S. at trajectories he says are optimized for a surprised EMP attack. “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio” is broadcast on terrestrial radio on New York’s AM 970 The Answer and NewsTalk 990 AM in Philadelphia and online.

Click below to listen to the entire interview:

http://www.breitbart.com/jerusalem/2017/05/08/exclusive-congressional-expert-north-korea-prepping-emp-warfare-aimed-u-s-homefront/

Pry was referring to the KMS 3-2 and KMS-4 earth observation satellites launched by North Korea in April 2012 and February 2016 respectively.

He warned: “They are positioning themselves as sort of a nuclear missile age, cyberage version of the battleship diplomacy in my view. So that they can always have one of them (satellites) very close to being over the United States or over the United States.

“Then if a crisis comes up and if we decide to attack North Korea, Kim Jong Un can threaten our president and say, ‘Well, don’t do that because we are going to burn your whole country down.’ Which is basically what he said. I mean, he has made threats about turning the United States into ashes and he connected the satellite program to this in public statements to deter us from attacking.”

“If you wanted to win a New Korean war,” added Pry, “one of the things you would certainly consider doing is taking out the United States homeland itself.”

Pry surmised the North Koreans may be taking the idea from a Soviet plan during the Cold War to attack the U.S. with an EMP as part of a larger surprise assault aimed at crippling the U.S. military.

“During the Cold War, the Russians had a secret weapon they called a fractional orbital bombardment system,” he explained. “And the idea was to do a surprise EMP attack against the United States by disguising a warhead as a satellite. Because a satellite trajectory is different from an ICBM trajectory that is aiming to go into a city. You know, for accuracy on an ICBM you launch it on a lower energy, 45-degree angle that follows a classic ballistic trajectory. Like a rifle. To land your missile on a city.”

Pry continued of the original Russian plan:

But if you put a satellite in orbit it follows a different trajectory. It doesn’t have accuracy but it puts the satellite up there so that it stays in permanent orbit so it looks different in terms of the trajectory. And guys watching their radar screens tend not to get alarmed when they see a missile being launched on that satellite trajectory. Because they assume it is for peaceful purposes. …

So, the idea was to put a nuclear weapon on a satellite. Launch it on a satellite trajectory toward the south so it is also flying away from the United States. Orbit it over the South Pole and come up on the other side of the earth so that it approaches us from the south.

Because we didn’t during the Cold War and even today we still don’t have ballistic missile early radar warnings looking south. We don’t have any national missile defenses to the south. We are blind and defenseless to the south. We can’t see anything coming from that direction. Then when this gets over the United States you light it off so that it does an EMP attack.

Pry stated that in the Soviet plan, “They were mainly interested in paralyzing our strategic forces, our strategic command and control and communications so that we couldn’t talk to our forces. Maybe take out some of the forces themselves. And that would give them time to then launch their mass attack across the North Pole to blow up our ICBMs. So, kill them once with the EMP. Kill them twice by blasting our bases by using their long-range missiles. That was the Russian plan. But the cutting edge of the plan was this surprise EMP attack.”

North Korea, by contrast, “doesn’t have enough missiles or sophisticated missiles to blow up our missile bases and bomber bases. What they seem to be doing with the satellites is the EMP part of the Soviet plan.”

“I think what they are mainly going for is the unhardened electric grid,” Pry surmised. “Transportation, communications, all of the other civilian critical infrastructure that we depend upon to keep our population alive.”

Pry spotlighted recent North Korean nuclear and missile tests minimized by the news media for reported failures. When viewed through the lens of potential preparations for an EMP attack, Pry warned, the tests were actually successes.

Pry wrote about some of those tests in a Newsmax piece last week:

I am looking at an unclassified U.S. Government chart that shows a 10-kiloton warhead (the power of the Hiroshima A-Bomb) detonated at an altitude of 70 kilometers will generate an EMP field inflicting upset and damage on unprotected electronics. …

On April 30, South Korean officials told The Korea Times and YTN TV that North Korea’s test of a medium-range missile on April 29 was not a failure, as widely reported in the world press, because it was deliberately detonated at 72 kilometers altitude. 72 kilometers is the optimum burst height for a 10-Kt warhead making an EMP attack. …

According to South Korean officials, “It’s believed the explosion was a test to develop a nuclear weapon different from existing ones.” Japan’s Tetsuro Kosaka writes in Nikkei, “Pyongyang could be saying, ‘We could launch an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack if things get really ugly.'”

“The April 29 missile launch looks suspiciously like practice for an EMP attack,” Pry wrote. “The missile was fired on a lofted trajectory, to maximize, not range, but climbing to high-altitude as quickly as possible, where it was successfully fused and detonated — testing everything but an actual nuclear warhead.”

This weekend, an editorial published in the North Korean state-run media agency KNCA threatened the White House would be “reduced to ashes.”

The same news agency warned last week that “any military provocation against the DPRK will precisely mean a total war which will lead to the final doom of the US.” DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or North Korea.

http://www.breitbart.com/jerusalem/2017/05/08/exclusive-congressional-expert-north-korea-prepping-emp-warfare-aimed-u-s-homefront/

http://redstatewatcher.com/article.asp?id=80928
BREAKING! North Korea has fired "possible missile" - South Korea responds!

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North Korea has fired what appears to be another missile, and South Korea has called for an emergency meeting in response.

https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/868942145293619200


breaking911.com reports: North Korea launched a possible missile from it’s East Coast Sunday, the South Korean military said.

South Korean President Moon has ordered a National Security Council meeting in response.

5/28/17

N. Korea fires ‘Scud-type’ ballistic missile
North Korea fired a ballistic missile from its eastern coast early Monday morning, dealing another blow to efforts by South Korea’s new government to improve inter-Korean ties. The missile, presumed to be a Scud type, was launched eastward from the vicinity of Wonsan, Gangwon Province, at around 5:39 a.m., according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). “The flight distance is around 450 kilometers,” it said.
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/northkorea/2017/05/29/0401000000AEN20170529000653320.html


PM Abe: Japan will take steps with US to deter North Korea
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday condemned North Korea’s latest missile launch and vowed action along with other nations to deter Pyongyang’s repeated provocations. “As we agreed at the recent G7, the issue of North Korea is a top priority for the international community,” Abe told reporters in brief televised remarks. “Working with the United States, we will take specific action to deter North Korea.”
http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/PM-Abe-Japan-will-take-steps-with-US-to-deter-North-Korea-494190


Trump says North Korea shows ‘great disrespect’ to China with missile
U.S. President Donald Trump said North Korea showed disrespect to its major ally China after it fired a short-range ballistic missile on Monday that landed in the sea off its east coast.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-trump-idUSKBN18P18X?il=0


Pentagon Deploys 3rd US Naval Strike Force To Deter North Korea From Their Nuclear Ambitions
May 28, 2017
The United States is sending a third aircraft carrier strike force to the western Pacific region in an apparent warning to North Korea....
http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/pentagon-sends-3rd-us-naval-strike-force-deployed-deter-north-korea/

http://redstatewatcher.com/article.asp?id=81437
Just In: North Korea just got some bad news!

6/3/17
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Due to the ongoing missile tests by North Korea, the UN Security Council has expanded sanctions on the threatening country.

thehill.com reports: The United Nations Security Council unanimously voted to increase sanctions on North Korea on Friday after weeks of negotiations between the U.S. and China, citing the regime’s repeated missile tests.


China’s support comes after the Trump administration has repeatedly pressured China to rein in its aggressive southern neighbor.

"The security council is sending a clear message to North Korea today - stop firing ballistic missiles or face the consequences," U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said after the vote.

United States Tells North Korea That We Are ‘Ready To Go To War’ To Stop Your Nuclear Missile Program

The U.S. warned North Korea that it is ready to fight if provoked, as U.S. officials said they had concluded that North Korea for the first time had launched an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching Alaska. The test prompted an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday, which ended in a standoff between the U.S. and Russia after U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley warned diplomats that “time is short” and that all countries must pressure North Korea, including through new sanctions, to change course.
July 5, 2017

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/united-states-tells-north-korea-ready-go-war-stop-nuclear-missile-program/

http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2017/07/11/u-s-moves-toward-unilateral-action-amid-u-n-security-council-stalemate/
7/11/17
Report: U.S. Moves Toward Unilateral Action on North Korea, as U.N. Security Council Stalls

NEW YORK CITY–The Trump administration is reportedly moving toward acting alone against North Korea, a sign of increasing U.S. frustration with the stalemate on the issue in the United Nations Security Council.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the administration is moving unilaterally toward tightening sanctions on North Korea, particularly targeting Chinese companies and banks funding the rogue regime’s weapons program. The focus from the administration comes after Pyongyang launched an intercontinental ballistic missile with the ability to potentially reach U.S. cities this month.

The Journal cites recently unsealed court filings as offering clues that the White House is ready to act on its own in sanctioning banks. In those filings, the Justice Department pointed to a network associated with five companies linked to a Chinese national that hid transactions to help finance the North Korean regime.

Analysts told the Journal that some Chinese banks handle allegedly laundered money that could be targeted. While efforts to shut down North Korea’s missile program have stumbled in recent years, officials said the missile launch was a game changer, particularly as it put Alaska within reach.

The Trump administration has shown a more muscular stance on North Korea and had been eyeing more sanctions even before the launch. However, the unilateral option will look more enticing to U.S. officials considering the stalemate in the U.N. Security Council.

While the U.S. has shown a desire to work through the Security Council, with U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley promising a tough resolution on the matter, the chances of its success seem limited judging from the rhetoric coming from China and Russia during an emergency session called in the wake of the July 4 missile launch.

At that session, China called on all parties to “exercise restraint” and avoid “belligerent rhetoric.” Russia, meanwhile, expressed skepticism as to whether the missile launched was indeed an ICBM, claiming data shows it to be in line with mid-range ballistic missiles.

“This requires thorough clarification and investigation,” Deputy U.N. Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov said, adding that Russia was against any actions that could lead to a “hardening of antagonisms” and “warmongering.”

Safronkov rejected sanctions and military action and instead hailed a joint initiative based on a Chinese proposal involving a “dual suspension and parallel progress” for North Korea, involving a moratorium on missile tests, and would include the U.S. ceasing to conduct training exercises in the region.

Haley was clearly angered by the attitudes of the Russians and Chinese and warned that the U.S. was prepared to go it alone, saying:

    If you are happy with North Korea’s actions, veto it. If you want to be a friend of North Korea, veto it.  But if you see this as a threat, if you see this for what it is—North Korea showing its muscle—then you need to stand strong and vote with the international community to strengthen sanctions on North Korea and if you choose not to, we will go our own path.

In her initial remarks, Haley also warned that the U.S. was not going to repeat the failed attitudes of the past that had allowed the North Korean crisis to escalate.

“We will not repeat the inadequate approaches of the past that have brought us to this dark day,” she said.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/07/14/kim-jong-un-sends-north-korean-laborers-to-russia-to-earn-cash-for-regime.html
7/14/17
Kim Jong Un sends North Korean slaves to Russia to earn cash for regime

Brutal North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is shipping tens of thousands of impoverished citizens to Russia for the hard currency his cash-strapped regime desperately needs, Fox News has found.

Alarmed human rights groups say the North Korea workers in Russia are little more than slaves, subjected to everything from cruel and violent acts to ruthless exploitation at the hands of corrupt officials, while being forced to turn over large chunks of their pay to the North Korean government.

A report issued earlier this year by the Seoul-based Data Base Center for North Korean Human Rights estimates that about 50,000 North Korean laborers are working low-paying jobs in Russia. They send at least $120 million every year to the regime in Pyongyang.

“The North Korean government maintains strict controls over their workers’ profits, in some cases probably taking 90 percent of their wages,” Scott Synder, director of the Program on U.S.-Korea Policy at the Council of Foreign Relations, told Fox News. “This is an issue that has been going on under the radar for a long time.”

International sanctions have crippled North Korea’s economy. The country produces few goods suitable for export. Kim needs money any way he can get it.

North Koreans helped construct a new soccer stadium in St. Petersburg. They also helped build a luxury apartment complex in Moscow.

more

North Korea seriously considering strike on Guam: Reports, citing state media

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/08/north-korea-seriously-considering-strike-on-guam-reports-citing-state-media.html


TRUMP VOWS 'FIRE AND FURY'

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-warns-north-korea-not-to-make-further-threats-1502221218

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/president-trump-says-american-military-locked-loaded-ready-take-north-korea/

GAME TIME: President Trump Says American Military Is ‘Locked And Loaded’ And Ready To Address North Korea Threat
"Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!" Trump wrote on Twitter, a day after his defense secretary said the United States was ready to counter any threat from Pyongyang.
8/11/17

U.S. President Donald Trump issued another warning to North Korea on Friday with a reference to American weapons as being “locked and loaded.”

“The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him. The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.” Exodus 15:2,3 (KJV)

“Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!” Trump wrote on Twitter, a day after his defense secretary said the United States was ready to counter any threat from Pyongyang.

North Korea’s threat on Thursday to test-fire ballistic missiles soon near the American territory of Guam deepened the challenge confronting the Trump administration: how to defang Pyongyang’s missile programs without risking all-out war.

    Military solutions are now fully in place,locked and loaded,should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!

    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 11, 2017

President Trump has made clear that his goal is to deny North Korea the capability to field a long-range nuclear-tipped missile that could strike the United States.
U.S. can obliterate North Korea using submarine force alone: Gen. Jack Keane

And though the Pentagon still hopes for a diplomatic solution, highly classified military options are at the ready, last seriously debated when the Clinton administration pondered pre-emptive action to try to thwart North Korea’s nuclear program.

Even a limited strike against a North Korean missile on its launching pad or the shooting down of a missile in midair would pose risks that the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, might retaliate, setting off a spiral of escalation that could plunge the Korean Peninsula into war.

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http://redstatewatcher.com/article.asp?id=89648
8/13/17

BREAKING: Satellite Images Show North Korea's Military Could Be Taking A MAJOR Step!

Satellite images have suggested that North Korea could be preparing a submarine ballistic missile launch.

From Zerohedge:

On Friday afternoon as the market was about to close, we discussed an unconfirmed report that North Korea had issued "emergency standby orders" to its civil defense units, and we said that at the same time, "traders are furiously hitting refresh on the website of 38North.org for the daily satellite image update of North Korea's missile launch preparedness, which has yet to hit and which could mean the difference between another sleepy, boring open on Monday and a VIX surging above 20, 30 or more depending on what "path" Kim Jong-Un picks over the next 48 hours."


Shortly after the note, 38North, best known for its real-time satellite imagery of North Korean military operations and slightly less known for a pro-war spin according to some (hence, take their conclusions with caution), reported that recent satellite photos suggests that North Korea is preparing for fresh submarine-based missile tests even as Trump has repeatedly stated that any new provocation from North Korea could be grounds for a military operation.

Referring to photographs taken on August 7, Joseph Bermudez, a North Korea specialist, claimed that they could indicate preparations for a new test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). "Recent commercial satellite imagery reveals several developments suggesting that North Korea may be accelerating the development of the sea-based leg of its nuclear forces," he said.

Of particular interest in the imagery is that netting or tarps have been suspended above both the fore and aft decks of the SINPO-class submarine obscuring any activity taking place beneath them. This was last done prior to the July 9, 2016 test of the Pukguksong-1, suggesting that the North may be preparing for a new series of “at sea” test launches, has undertaken modifications or upgrades to the submarine’s launch systems, or is developing a more advanced version of the Pukguksong-1. Recent ejection tests of an SLBM also support the assessment that an at-sea SLBM test may be forthcoming.

Figure 1. Netting or tarps suspended over SINPO-class SSBA in the secure boat basin



Some further details:

As noted in our July report, sometime during the last week in May, the SINPO-class submarine was repositioned forward along its dock and the submersible test stand barge was moved to a position aft of the submarine (both had previously been in their former positions since December 9, 2016). Since the July report, netting or tarps have been suspended above both the fore and aft decks of the submarine obscuring any activity taking place beneath them. The only other time this was seen was during May-July 2016 and prior to the failed July 9, 2016 Pukguksong-1 test. It is unclear if this activity is signaling a forthcoming at sea SLBM test, although the recent ejection tests would support such an assessment. No activity is noted on or near the submersible test stand barge in the latest image.

Figure 2. Netting or tarps suspended over SINPO-class SSBA observed in May 2016.



Separately, Bermudez said that imagery of the Mayang-do Navy Shipyard and Submarine Base shows the same number of ROMEO-class submarines that are usually berthed there, indicating that a recent spike in ROMEO activity in the East Sea (Sea of Japan) was a singular rather than force-wide event.

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/boom-north-korea-successfully-tests-nuclear-bomb-showdown-rogue-state-draws-ever-closer/
BOOM! North Korea Successfully Tests Nuclear Bomb As Showdown With Rogue State Draws Ever Closer
In a televised statement, North Korea described the underground explosion, which triggered a large earthquake, as a “perfect success in the test of a hydrogen bomb for an ICBM.” Pyongyang said “the creditability of the operation of the nuclear warhead is fully guaranteed.” The explosion at the nuclear test site at Punggye-ri in North Korea’s mountainous northeast triggered an initial magnitude-6.3 earthquake, followed by a magnitude-4.1 temblor that was possibly caused by a structural collapse, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
9/3/17

North Korea said it conducted a sixth and significantly larger nuclear test Sunday, stepping up pressure on President Donald Trump in what is shaping up to be his biggest foreign policy crisis.

EDITOR’S NOTE: North Korea is a nuclear power today because the capabilities for those weapons of global destruction were given to him by former Democrat President Bill Clinton. Today’s detonation of a massive hydrogen nuclear bomb by North Korea makes it clear that the only thing that will stop them is military force. Sanctions accomplish nothing. President Trump, at some point, must call for military action to curb Kim Jong-Un’s appetite for destruction.

In a televised statement, North Korea described the underground explosion, which triggered a large earthquake, as a “perfect success in the test of a hydrogen bomb for an ICBM.” Pyongyang said “the creditability of the operation of the nuclear warhead is fully guaranteed.”

The test came just hours after leader Kim Jong Un showed off what he described as a hydrogen bomb capable of being mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The explosion at the nuclear test site at Punggye-ri in North Korea’s mountainous northeast triggered an initial magnitude-6.3 earthquake, followed by a magnitude-4.1 temblor that was possibly caused by a structural collapse, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

While it was unclear what set off the second quake, satellite imagery has captured evidence of tunneling activity at the nuclear test site in recent months. Any structural collapse might have been related to that.

According to the logarithmic scale used to measure earthquakes, the initial magnitude-6.3 tremor was 10 times bigger than the one triggered by the North’s previous nuclear test in September 2016, which the USGS said had a magnitude of 5.3.
The Korea Meteorological Administration in Seoul put the magnitude of Sunday’s initial earthquake at 5.7

The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization said seismic signals were picked up by 35 monitoring stations, suggesting that the size of the explosion was much larger than last time, when signals were picked up by 26 stations.

The latest nuclear test was estimated to have a yield of as high as 100 kilotons—about 10 times the power of the North’s previous test and roughly five times that of the atomic bomb that the U.S. dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945, according to Kim Young-woo, a South Korean lawmaker who is chairman of the legislature’s defense committee and received a briefing from military authorities.
A spokesman for the defense ministry declined to comment.

South Korea’s national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, said after a 90-minute emergency meeting of the National Security Council that Seoul would consider the possible deployment of what he described as the “most powerful strategic assets that the U.S. possesses,” without elaborating, according to a statement from the presidential Blue House.

The phrase “strategic assets” typically refers to stealth bombers, aircraft carriers or possibly nuclear weapons. The U.S. withdrew the last of its nuclear weapons from South Korea in 1991.

Mr. Chung, who also spoke by phone with Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, his counterpart at the White House, said that Moon Jae-in, the South Korean president, had called for the “strongest punitive measures” against Pyongyang. That includes diplomatic measures and a new United Nations Security Council resolution to “completely isolate North Korea.”

    In Sunday morning tweets, Mr. Trump said North Korea’s “words and actions continue to be very hostile and dangerous to the United States.” He added: “North Korea is a rogue nation which has become a great threat and embarrassment to China, which is trying to help but with little success.” He also added: “South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing!”

While North Korea has made steady advances in both its nuclear and missile programs over the course of decades, Mr. Kim has greatly accelerated the pace of testing as the isolated country nears the ability to deliver a nuclear-tipped missile to the continental U.S.

Just this year, it has conducted a string of successful missile tests that have extended the proven range of its arsenal and introduced new capabilities that allow Pyongyang to fire missiles more quickly and with less warning. In July, it test-fired two ICBMs that experts say they believe are capable of reaching many parts of the U.S. mainland. source

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/wwiii-fears-sparked-north-korea-fires-missile-pyongyang-japan-air-space/
WWIII Fears Sparked As North Korea Fires Nuclear-Capable Missile From Pyongyang Into Japanese Air Space
North Korea carried out its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3, worsening already fraught U.S.-North Korea relations. In response, the United Nations Security Council voted to intensify sanctions, including imposing a limit on oil imports, against the hermit state. While the duration and scope of such a conflict would be difficult to measure, North Korea remained an immense risk, Fordham said.
9/14/17

Japan issued a missile alert to mobile phones and on national television, notifying citizens that a missile may have been launched by North Korea, Bloomberg News reports.

EDITOR’S NOTE: With each passing few weeks, North Korea keeps firing missiles, many of them nuclear capable. President Trump has been showing tremendous restraint, choosing for the time being to use sanctions instead of a military option. But as the missiles continue to fly across Japanese airspace, the military option is growing more and more likely.

The unidentified missile passed over Japan airspace near Hokkaido on Friday at 7.06 am local time. The missile was fired from North Korea in an eastern direction, according to South Korea military.

The outbreak of military conflict on the Korean Peninsula would be destabilizing and could possibly result in a global war, according to Citi’s top global political analyst.

While it was impossible to put a number on the scale of the North Korea risk, war games carried out through history have simulated what could happen as a result, said Tina Fordham, managing director and chief global analyst at Citi.

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http://redstatewatcher.com/article.asp?id=97866
10/3/17

Breaking: North Korea Has Just Partnered With Russia!!

According to a new report, North Korea has partnered with Russia in adding a new internet company.

Axios reported: North Korea added a new Internet connection with Russian telecommunications company TransTeleCom, per 38 North. For the last few years, North Korea had relied on a single link from China's Unicom to access the Internet.

Why it matters: The Russian Internet link came just after the United States concluded a major denial of service attack against North Korean state hackers, as The Washington Post reported over the weekend. And it comes at a time when the U.S. is doing all it can to isolate North Korea from the outside world via sanctions — all with the specter of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election lurking in the background.

US Air Force Preparing To Put Nuclear-Equipped Bombers Back On 24-Hour Ready Alert Status As Global Tensions Rise

The U.S. Air Force is preparing to put nuclear-armed bombers back on 24-hour ready alert, a status not seen since the Cold War ended in 1991.

That means the long-dormant concrete pads at the ends of this base’s 11,000-foot runway — dubbed the “Christmas tree” for their angular markings — could once again find several B-52s parked on them, laden with nuclear weapons and set to take off at a moment’s notice.

“This is yet one more step in ensuring that we’re prepared,” Gen. David Goldfein, Air Force chief of staff, said in an interview during his six-day tour of Barksdale and other U.S. Air Force bases that support the nuclear mission. “I look at it more as not planning for any specific event, but more for the reality of the global situation we find ourselves in and how we ensure we’re prepared going forward.”

Goldfein and other senior defense officials stressed that the alert order had not been given, but that preparations were under way in anticipation that it might come. That decision would be made by Gen. John Hyten, the commander of U.S. Strategic Command, or Gen. Lori Robinson, the head of U.S. Northern Command. STRATCOM is in charge of the military’s nuclear forces and NORTHCOM is in charge of defending North America.
This B-52 Air Force Bomber Can Hold 70,000 Lbs. in Weapons:

Putting the B-52s back on alert is just one of many decisions facing the Air Force as the U.S. military responds to a changing geopolitical environment that includes North Korea’s rapidly advancing nuclear arsenal, President Trump’s confrontational approach to Pyongyang, and Russia’s increasingly potent and active armed forces.

Goldfein, who is the Air Force’s top officer and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is asking his force to think about new ways that nuclear weapons could be used for deterrence, or even combat.

“The world is a dangerous place and we’ve got folks that are talking openly about use of nuclear weapons,” he said. “It’s no longer a bipolar world where it’s just us and the Soviet Union. We’ve got other players out there who have nuclear capability. It’s never been more important to make sure that we get this mission right.”

During his trip across the country last week, Goldfein encouraged airmen to think beyond Cold War uses for ICBMs, bombers and nuclear cruise missiles.

“I’ve challenged…Air Force Global Strike Command to help lead the dialog, help with this discussion about ‘What does conventional conflict look like with a nuclear element?’ and ‘Do we respond as a global force if that were to occur?’ and ‘What are the options?’” he said. “How do we think about it — how do we think about deterrence in that environment?”

Asked if placing B-52s back on alert — as they were for decades — would help with deterrence, Goldfein said it’s hard to say.

“Really it depends on who, what kind of behavior are we talking about, and whether they’re paying attention to our readiness status,” he said.

    Already, various improvements have been made to prepare Barksdale — home to the 2d Bomb Wing and Air Force Global Strike Command, which oversees the service’s nuclear forces — to return B-52s to an alert posture. Near the alert pads, an old concrete building — where B-52 crews during the Cold War would sleep, ready to run to their aircraft and take off at a moment’s notice — is being renovated.

Inside, beds are being installed for more than 100 crew members, more than enough room for the crews that would man bombers positioned on the nine alert pads outside. There’s a recreation room, with a pool table, TVs and a shuffleboard table. Large paintings of the patches for each squadron at Barksdale adorn the walls of a large stairway.
A Rare Peek Inside The E-4B 'Doomsday' Plane:

One painting — a symbol of the Cold War — depicts a silhouette of a B-52 with the words “Peace The Old Fashioned Way,” written underneath. At the bottom of the stairwell, there is a Strategic Air Command logo, yet another reminder of the Cold War days when American B-52s sat at the ready on the runway outside.

Those long-empty B-52 parking spaces will soon get visits by two nuclear command planes, the E-4B Nightwatch and E-6B Mercury, both which will occasionally sit alert there. During a nuclear war, the planes would become the flying command posts of the defense secretary and STRATCOM commander, respectively. If a strike order is given by the president, the planes would be used to transmit launch codes to bombers, ICBMs and submarines. At least one of the four nuclear-hardened E-4Bs — formally called the National Airborne Operations Center, but commonly known as the Doomsday Plane — is always on 24-hour alert.

Barksdale and other bases with nuclear bombers are preparing to build storage facilities for a new nuclear cruise missile that is under development. During his trip, Goldfein received updates on the preliminary work for a proposed replacement for the 400-plus Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles, and the new long-range cruise missile.

“Our job is options,” Goldfein said. “We provide best military advice and options for the commander in chief and the secretary of defense. Should the STRATCOM commander require or the NORTHCOM commander require us to [be on] a higher state of readiness to defend the homeland, then we have to have a place to put those forces.” source

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