North Korea threatens South with "final destruction" "WAR 'imminent"

[Mark]

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

[Mark]

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

[Mark]

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

[Mark]

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

[Mark]

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

[Psalm 51:17]

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.

[Psalm 51:17]

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.

[Mark]

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

[Mark]

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

[Mark]

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

[Mark]

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

[Mark]

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 

[Mark]

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

[Mark]

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

[Mark]

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

[Psalm 51:17]

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.

[Mark]

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

[Mark]

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/

[Mark]

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

[Mark]

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

[Mark]

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/

[christistruth]

Do you guys think it's likely the rapture would occur right before a nuclear war?

[Mark]

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

[Mark]

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/

[Mark]

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

[Mark]

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/

[Mark]

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

[Mark]

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

[Mark]

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

[Mark]

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