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Bechorg
03-09-2009, 00:59
"SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea put its armed forces on standby for war Monday and threatened retaliation against anyone seeking to stop the regime from launching a satellite into space in the latest barrage of threats from the communist regime.

The warning came as U.S. and South Korean troops kicked off their annual war games across the South, exercises the North has condemned as preparation for an invasion. Pyongyang last week threatened danger to South Korean passenger planes flying near its airspace during the drills.

Analysts say the regime is trying to grab President Barack Obama's attention as his administration formulates its North Korea policy.

The North also indicated it was pushing ahead with plans to fire a communications satellite into space, a provocative launch neighboring governments believe could be a cover for a missile test.

U.S. and Japanese officials have suggested they could shoot down a North Korean missile if necessary, further incensing Pyongyang.

"Shooting our satellite for peaceful purposes will precisely mean a war," the general staff of the North's military said in a statement carried Monday by the official Korean Central News Agency.

Any interception will draw "a just retaliatory strike operation not only against all the interceptor means involved but against the strongholds" of the U.S., Japan and South Korea, it said.

The North ordered military personnel "fully combat ready" for war, KCNA said in a separate dispatch.

South Korea's Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae downplayed the threats as "rhetoric" but said the country's military was ready to deal with any contingencies.

Analysts say a satellite or missile launch could occur late this month or in early April when the North's new legislature, elected Sunday, is expected to convene its first session to confirm Kim Jong Il as leader.

Obama's new special envoy on Pyongyang, Stephen Bosworth, met with South Korean officials Monday to discuss the tensions. Bosworth has urged Pyongyang to refrain from firing a satellite or missile, and to stop threatening its neighbors. He said Washington wants Pyongyang to defuse tensions through dialogue.

Ties between the two Koreas have plunged since South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office a year ago halting aid unless the North fulfills an international promise to dismantle its nuclear program.

An angered North Korea suspended the reconciliation process and key joint projects with Seoul, and has stepped up the stream of belligerence toward the South.

On Monday, North Korea also cut off a military hot line with the South for the duration of the 12-day joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises, leaving the nations without any means of communication at time when even an accidental skirmish could develop into a full-blown battle.

The two Koreas have used the hot line to exchange information about the crossing of goods and people through the industrial North Korean border city of Kaesong. Its suspension halted traffic and stranded about 570 South Koreans working in Kaesong.

About 700 South Koreans who had planned to enter Kaesong on Monday were stranded on the South Korean side, the Unification Ministry said. Seoul urged Pyongyang to restore the line immediately.

The two Koreas technically remain in a state of war since their three-year conflict ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty, in 1953. Hundreds of thousands of troops are amassed on each side of the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, making the Korean border one of the world's most heavily armed.

The United States, which has 28,5000 troops in South Korea, hold military exercises with the South every year. Pyongyang routinely condemns them as rehearsals for invasion despite repeated assurances from Seoul and Washington that the drills are purely defensive.

The exercises, which will involve some 26,000 U.S. troops, an unspecified number of South Korean soldiers and a U.S. aircraft carrier, are "not tied in any way to any political or real world event," Gen. Walter Sharp, commander of the U.S. troops, said Monday."

I just smell something fishy here. You dont get the troops rattled up for no reason. There has been very few issues with satellites being "shot down" in the past (I believe China tested it) So why would NKorea put this much emphasis on it? Seems like the "satellite" could house some strategic spying equipment. Unless they have had threats of disabling sat's, whats the big deal here? Threating war with the country who intervenes and their allies...strong words to throw out there.

:cool:
What do you think?

Pete S
03-09-2009, 02:22
North Korea flexing for the new POTUS.
Which is the only thing they know how to do.
They have seen the administrations weak posture when dealing with countries like Cuba, Venezuela, Russia, etc.

I wonder what they would need a satellite for in the first place.:munchin

Alterflow
03-09-2009, 03:57
I'm thinking North Korea is just trying to put on a new show. It has been a year or two since they threatened world domination hasn't it? :D I'm watching this with interest, but the last thing POTUS wants is another front. Despite North Koreas puffing up, I really doubt they want war either.

Richard
03-09-2009, 08:03
This subject was already posted on this web-site 2 hours before your posting. Learning to use the "SEARCH" function can be your friend here and help prevent multiple (and confusing) threads of the same topic. ;)

Richard's $.02 :munchin

LarryW
05-28-2010, 02:22
IMHO, NK is trying to draw the POTUS into a pissing contest with China. Any "nuclear talk" from the US will do just that. So the nuclear topics will probably not be in Hillary's vocabulary. NK is now and has been since 1953, in a no-lose situation as far as controlling the regional publicity goes. SK and the US are part of a UN mission and any unilateral action against NK (except to counter an all out attack) by either one without UN Security Council endorsement IMO is not going to happen. If NK launched a border incursion into SK the retaliation from SK would be immediate. What that would do is open the flood of NK refugees into the South as the NK fell back. (Yes, I think they would fall back to play the role of victim and allow public opinion in China to line up with them. They'd come out in a no-lose situation again.) Unfortunately (can't believe I'm saying this), the best course right now is probably the one Hillary is following, and that is to smooze the Chinese to apply pressure on the NK's to ease off the dialogue and posturing. Just my opinion.

The Reaper
05-28-2010, 03:36
IMHO, NK is trying to draw the POTUS into a pissing contest with China. Any "nuclear talk" from the US will do just that. So the nuclear topics will probably not be in Hillary's vocabulary. NK is now and has been since 1953, in a no-lose situation as far as controlling the regional publicity goes. SK and the US are part of a UN mission and any unilateral action against NK (except to counter an all out attack) by either one without UN Security Council endorsement IMO is not going to happen. If NK launched a border incursion into SK the retaliation from SK would be immediate. What that would do is open the flood of NK refugees into the South as the NK fell back. (Yes, I think they would fall back to play the role of victim and allow public opinion in China to line up with them. They'd come out in a no-lose situation again.) Unfortunately (can't believe I'm saying this), the best course right now is probably the one Hillary is following, and that is to smooze the Chinese to apply pressure on the NK's to ease off the dialogue and posturing. Just my opinion.

Larry:

I disagree.

The ROKs will not cross the DMZ.

I think in the event of any serious escalation, NK will infiltrate SOF sabotage/UW teams and start shelling population and industrial centers with long range artillery and rockets until the South cries uncle and pays them a huge ransom

TR

Dozer523
05-28-2010, 06:10
I was talking with some people who say that they think the notion that if North Korea did launch a full-scale attack on SK at some point, and in the process slaughtered the American troops stationed there, that the notion that the U.S. would respond with nuclear bombs on NK (they say this would be the only option as trying to conventionally bomb NK would be far too difficult (it wouldn't be like Iraq), I have no idea how true that is or not) is a flimsy argument, that they do not believe the American government would have the will (especially our current government) to retaliate in such a manner.

They think we'd just leave Korea altogether with our tail between our legs. Anyone think this would happen (it would not surprise me with our current administration). OTOH, I could imagine the Chinese railing up and down as well if we launched nukes at NK because it is so close to China. The people you're talking too might not be well informed. I served at Camp Casey in Korea (1-17Inf (Mech) BUFFALO!).
I don't remember anything in OUR plans about getting slaughtered. I also got a chance to see the SK Barrier Plan. There isn't going to be to many NK vehicles getting very far south.
But, I would rather not be in Seoul when the arty 'Fire For Effect" starts. (There is only so much Counter-Battery.)

Green Light
05-28-2010, 20:08
Kim Jong Il throws his tantrum and gets everyone into a lather. The two sides talk. Kim asks for what he really wants (in mind the whole time) and the US gives it to him. He wants something and knows that the US doens't want another war. He also knows that if the Allies are backed into a small perimeter, they'll fire nukes to relieve the siege.

We need to find out what he really wants and get that public asap.

SOT-Aj KIA 4th July 2010
05-28-2010, 21:27
Each of the arguments has it's merit and truth. NK has the troop strength to be a problem as well as countless artillery pieces (that Seoul is in range of). IMHO this is just their yearly flex. They always flex during the spring training exercise. The satellite is either a missile test or a harmless communications satellite, it doesn't really matter, either way there is little we will do about it.

War kicks off - Seoul is demolished by artillery fire before we can knock out ALL of the artillery, much of which is dug into the sides of mountains - we put into place the plans that SK/US/NATO have been planning for 57 years - mass refugees - counter insurgency that we honestly can't win.

We can't win a counter insurgency in NK because the people are bred to love Kim Jung Il. When Kim Il Sung died people who had defected years prior still broke down crying. These were people who had the sense and determination to get out of NK and were leading comfortable lives in SK. The entire populace is like this. When aid workers and medical personnel are allowed into NK to do operations like cure cataracts the people drop to their knees and praise "the dear leader" for granting them their eye sight back.

We are too spread out to handle a war on another front. If a war breaks out, NK will have had to have done something on a large scale to provoke full action on SK/US/NATO's part.

SOT-Aj KIA 4th July 2010
05-28-2010, 21:30
Kim Jong Il throws his tantrum and gets everyone into a lather. The two sides talk. Kim asks for what he really wants (in mind the whole time) and the US gives it to him. He wants something and knows that the US doens't want another war. He also knows that if the Allies are backed into a small perimeter, they'll fire nukes to relieve the siege.

We need to find out what he really wants and get that public asap.

I do not believe that we would fire nukes. Even when our forces were pushed back to the Pusan perimeter we did not fire nukes. We cut their supply lines and pushed them to China.

The Reaper
05-29-2010, 03:12
I do not believe that we would fire nukes. Even when our forces were pushed back to the Pusan perimeter we did not fire nukes. We cut their supply lines and pushed them to China.

The commander, GEN MacArthur requested them, but the POTUS, Harry S. Truman denied the request.

TR

SOT-Aj KIA 4th July 2010
05-30-2010, 18:53
Exactly, and peace nobel laureatte Obama would make the same call in my opinion.

SOT-Aj KIA 4th July 2010
06-03-2010, 07:37
Yes, but he will have to TRY to show that he deserved it.

Box
06-03-2010, 20:31
...maybe the POTUS could be awarded a courageous restraint medal