WAR North Korea Main Thread - All things Korea April 20th - 26th - CLOSED

[Housecarl]

North Korea Main Thread - All things Korea April 12th - 19th
Started by Warm Wisconsiný, 04-12-2017 05:35 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...-Main-Thread-All-things-Korea-April-12th-19th

(Figured I'd better start the next week thread else something might happen...HC)


North Korean commandos ready to kidnap Americans, says defector
Started by Coco82919ý, 04-18-2017 02:48 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...andos-ready-to-kidnap-Americans-says-defector

My prediction regarding North Korea
Started by Meadowlarký, 04-18-2017 02:59 PM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?515442-My-prediction-regarding-North-Korea

US said preparing strike to ‘utterly destroy’ N. Korean nuclear program
Started by China Connectioný, 04-18-2017 05:49 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...1utterly-destroy%92-N.-Korean-nuclear-program

Putin 'moves military forces' to North Korean border as world prepares for WAR
Started by Buick Electraý, 04-16-2017 01:34 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...North-Korean-border-as-world-prepares-for-WAR

Three US Aircraft Carriers Directed Toward South Korean Shores
Started by Shacknasty Shagratý, 04-17-2017 06:47 AM
http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...-Carriers-Directed-Toward-South-Korean-Shores

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-usa-idUSKBN17L2QZ

WORLD NEWS | Thu Apr 20, 2017 | 3:56am EDT

North Korea says don't 'mess with us' as U.S. plans next move

By Ju-min Park | SEOUL
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the United States was looking at ways to pressure North Korea over its nuclear program as North Korean state media warned the Americans of a "super-mighty preemptive strike" and said don't "mess with us".

U.S. President Donald Trump has taken a hard line with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has rebuffed admonitions from sole major ally China and proceeded with nuclear and missile programs in defiance of U.N. Security Council sanctions.

Reclusive North Korea regularly threatens to destroy Japan, South Korea and the United States and has shown no let-up in its belligerence after a failed missile test on Sunday, a day after putting on a huge display of missiles at a parade in Pyongyang.

"We're reviewing all the status of North Korea, both in terms of state sponsorship of terrorism as well as the other ways in which we can bring pressure on the regime in Pyongyang to re-engage with us, but re-engage with us on a different footing than past talks have been held," Tillerson told reporters in Washington on Wednesday.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, on a tour of Asian allies, has said repeatedly the "era of strategic patience" with North Korea is over.

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said during a visit to London the military option must be part of the pressure brought to bear.

"Allowing this dictator to have that kind of power is not something that civilized nations can allow to happen," he said in reference to Kim.

Ryan said he was encouraged by the results of efforts to work with China to reduce tensions, but that it was unacceptable North Korea might be able to strike allies with nuclear weapons.

North and South Korea are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

"MAX THUNDER"

South Korea's acting president, Hwang Kyo-ahn, at a meeting with top officials on Thursday, repeatedly called for the military and security ministries to maintain vigilance.

The defense ministry said U.S. and South Korean air forces were conducting an annual training exercise, codenamed Max Thunder, until April 28. North Korea routinely labels such exercises preparations for invasion.

"We are conducting a practical and more intensive exercise than ever," South Korean pilot Lieutenant Colonel Lee Bum-chul told reporters. "Through this exercise, I am sure we can deter war and remove our enemy's intention to provoke us."

South Korean presidential candidates clashed on Wednesday night in a TV debate over the planned U.S.-supplied Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system, which has angered China. Frontrunner Moon Jae-in was criticized for leaving his options open before the May 9 election.

On Monday, Hwang and Pence reaffirmed their plans to go ahead with the THAAD, but the decision will be up to the next Korean president. For its part, China says the system's powerful radar is a threat to its security.

The North has warned of a nuclear strike against the United States if provoked. It has said it has developed a missile that can strike the mainland United States, but officials and experts believe it is some time away from mastering the necessary technology, including miniaturizing a nuclear warhead.

RUSSIA, U.S. AT ODDS

The United States and Russia clashed at the United Nations on Wednesday over a U.S.-drafted Security Council statement to condemn North Korea's latest failed ballistic missile test. Diplomats said China had agreed to the statement.

Such statements by the 15-member council have to be agreed by consensus.

Previous statements denouncing earlier missile launches "welcomed efforts by council members, as well as other states, to facilitate a peaceful and comprehensive solution through dialogue". The latest draft statement dropped "through dialogue" and Russia requested it be included again.

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"When we requested to restore the agreed language that was of political importance and expressed commitment to continue to work on the draft ... the U.S. delegation without providing any explanations canceled the work on the draft," the Russian U.N. mission said in a statement.

There has been some confusion over the whereabouts of a U.S. aircraft carrier group after Trump said last week he had sent an "armada" as a warning to North Korea, even as the ships were still far from Korean waters.

The U.S. military's Pacific Command explained that the USS Carl Vinson strike group first had to complete a shorter-than-planned period of training with Australia. It was now heading for the Western Pacific as ordered, it said.

China's influential Global Times newspaper, which is published by the People's Daily, the Communist Party's official paper, wondered whether the misdirection was deliberate.

"The truth seems to be that the U.S. military and president jointly created fake news and it is without doubt a rare scandal in U.S. history, which will be bound to cripple Trump's and U.S. dignity," it said.

North Korea did not refer to the mix-up but said the United States and its allies "should not mess with us".

The Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the North's ruling Workers' Party, did not mince its words.

"In the case of our super-mighty preemptive strike being launched, it will completely and immediately wipe out not only U.S. imperialists' invasion forces in South Korea and its surrounding areas but the U.S. mainland and reduce them to ashes," it said.

For a graphic on nuclear North Korea, click here

(Additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton in WASHINGTON, William James in LONDON, Michelle Nichols at the UNITED NATIONS, Idrees Ali in RIYADH, Ben Blanchard in BEIJING and Kim Do-gyun in GUNSAN, South Korea; Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by Paul Tait)

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...n-nuke-bomb-designed-just-to-hit-n-korea.html

MOPPING UP?

Trump’s Got a Mega-Bomb Designed to Hit North Korea

The Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) makes a MOAB look like an M-80. Carried in stealth bombers, it’s custom-made to blow up Pyongyang’s very deep underground facilities.
David Axe
04.19.17 6:26 AM ET

Forget the U.S. Marine Corps F-35 stealth fighters that practiced bombing runs on the Korean Peninsula in late March. Forget the contingent of U.S. Army soldiers—part of the 29,000-strong American ground force in South Korea—that Vice President Mike Pence visited Sunday, just a day after Pyongyang’s latest missile test failed.

No, if the United States seriously intends to punish North Korea for continuing to develop nuclear warheads and the rockets to deliver them, then the punitive blow will likely come from Missouri.

That is, in the form of stealth bombers carrying America’s biggest non-nuclear bombs.

Not the 11-ton Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) fuel-air bomb that U.S. forces dropped on suspected ISIS positions in eastern Afghanistan on April 13. Rather, an even bigger munition.

Since the 1990s, the U.S. government has been preparing to attack North Korea’s most heavily protected military facilities, specifically in order to slow or halt Pyongyang’s nuclear program.

The American plan involves long-range, radar-evading stealth bombers hauling gigantic, earth-penetrating bombs. The scheme began in the mid-1990s, as President Bill Clinton and hawkish Republican lawmakers sparred over a nascent nuclear pact with the reclusive North Korean regime.

The plan advanced further in the early 2000s under President George W. Bush’s policy of pre-emptive military strikes—the same policy that mired the United States in Iraq for, so far, 14 years of grinding warfare.

In the early 1990s, North Korea was not yet a nuclear power—but it certainly possessed the potential to become one. The Clinton administration aimed to head off Pyongyang’s atomic ambitions and by some accounts an attack was imminent, at the risk of an enormous casualty count, until former President Jimmy Carter stepped in and offered another remedy by diplomatic means.

In early 1994, the U.S. State Department signed the “Agreed Framework” with North Korea. The deal was simple. Pyongyang would suspend development of weapons-grade nuclear reactors if, in exchange, Washington helped the impoverished country build nuclear reactors that weren’t weapons-grade.

The Bush administration labeled the framework “appeasement” and, by 2004, had abandoned it.

Two years later, North Korea triggered its first nuclear test blast.

Under Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, the Pentagon hewed to a policy of preemption. In November 2001, just a few weeks after the 9/11 terror attacks, Cheney announced that if there was even a 1 percent chance that a threat was real, “we have to treat it as a certainty in terms of our response.”

Cheney’s 1-percent doctrine drove the United States to war with Iraq over that country’s purported—and to this day unsubstantiated—efforts to field weapons of mass destruction. The doctrine shaped America’s approach to North Korea, as well.

In mid-2002, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld directed the Pentagon to rewrite its plan for war with North Korea—OPLAN 5027—to allow for preemptive air raids on Pyongyang’s nuclear facilities.

But the North Korean regime had been busily burying its most important military sites. Starting in the 1960s, Pyongyang constructed as many as 8,000 underground facilities, Maj. Park Sung-man, a South Korean military officer, told wire service UPI in 2015. Park claimed he got those numbers from a U.S. source.

Under Bush, the U.S. armed forces lacked the means to destroy the deepest facilities. During the 1991 Gulf War, the military had rushed production of 5,000-pound bunker-busting bombs capable of punching through 100 feet of earth or 20 feet or concrete. A few years later, the Pentagon developed 2,000-pound bombs that it concluded were 25 percent more effective against underground sites. More than a decade later, these two munitions remained America’s best weapons for destroying North Korea’s underground military infrastructure.

They weren’t enough.

“Neutralization of an underground facility... is a formidable task,” Air Force Col. Russell Hart wrote in a 2012 paper. To collapse the most “hardened” subterranean facilities, the Defense Department determined that it would need to skip a 10- to 15-ton bomb into a tunnel entrance in order to blow through the door and send a shock wave into the site.

The Bush administration considered fielding a “Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator”—in essence, a tactical nuclear weapon with a harder-than-usual shell that could burrow deeper into the ground than other atomic bombs. The Union of Concerned Scientists concluded that the RNEP could “produce tremendous radioactive fallout.”

Congress balked at preemptively nuking North Korea’s nukes. Lawmakers wanted a non-nuclear alternative. In 2004, the Pentagon began development of the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, a 15-ton conventional bomb specifically designed to collapse all but the deepest buried facilities in Iran and North Korea.

MOP was ready for combat in 2011. Each of the Air Force’s 20 B-2 stealth bombers based at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri can carry two of the 21-foot-long munitions. So, forget carriers, stealth fighters, and ground troops. The B-2s and the massive bombs are, at present, America’s only non-nuclear options for destroying Pyongyang’s best-protected weapons sites.

Also ignore Trump when he threatens to send a naval armada toward Pyongyang. Disregard Pence as he inspects Army formations along the Korean Demilitarized Zone. If you want to know if, and when, the United States intends to attack North Korea, look to Missouri—and stealth bombers hauling massive, ground-penetrating bombs.

 

[Housecarl]

For links see article source.....
Posted for fair use.....
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...f/news-story/e8305400c619fa410ac3c71247f15f91

THE TIMES

US navy blunder, or bluff amid Kim Jong-un stand-off

Video
MICHAEL EVANS
The Times
2:43PM April 20, 2017
Comments 90

The mystery over the vanishing American carrier strike group could have been part of an elaborate plot to deceive Kim Jong-un into believing North Korea was about to be attacked.

Deception has always played a crucial role in wars: the Allied D-Day landing in Normandy succeeded in part because Germany was fooled into believing it would take place in the Pas-de-Calais.

The liberation of the Falklands in 1982 would start, the MoD told reporters, with “smash-and-grab” operations - when in fact there was a full-scale landing.

In 1991 the US-led coalition hit the Iraqi Republican Guard from the rear and flanks while US Marines feinted an imminent attack from the sea on Kuwait City.

However, the real story of the USS Carl Vinson strike group, which failed to arrive off North Korea last week as promised, had nothing to do with deception: it was a political and military blunder that raises alarming questions about communication between the Pentagon and the White House.

President Trump was not involved in authorising any diversion of the carrier group. He spotted the statement put out by the US Navy that the Carl Vinson had been ordered to leave Singapore and head for the western Pacific - and so he spoke of a “wonderful armada” on the way to the Korean peninsula.

It seems no one told him that the ships would first be sailing off in the opposite direction, to fulfil a longstanding commitment with the Australian navy.

General James Mattis, the defence secretary, added further confusion when he announced that the exercise with Australia had been cancelled because of the crisis in the Korean peninsula.

The only event cancelled was a visit to Fremantle.

The Carl Vinson, with two destroyers, a cruiser and a submarine in tow, is, at last, heading for the Sea of Japan and should be in position next week. A Pentagon spokesman said yesterday that the vessels entered the western Pacific on Tuesday after a “curtailed” exercise with the Australian navy.

The embarrassment over the mixed messages in Washington is a painful lesson for Mr Trump - but it may, at least, have convinced Kim not to carry out a sixth nuclear test, as had been expected.

READ MORE
Kim puts on a blast of a show
Strike group yet to start journey

 

[China Connection]

Trump’s ‘armada’ turns toward North Korea as White House defends misleading remarks
Published time: 20 Apr, 2017 03:17
Edited time: 20 Apr, 2017 09:03

The White House stood by President Donald Trump’s recent talk of a Navy strike force on its way to the Korean peninsula, after the USS Carl Vinson was spotted thousands of miles away, headed in the opposite direction. The fleet has since turned around.

On Wednesday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer denied that Trump misled the public about the location of the USS Carl Vinson strike force, which he said was heading to North Korea during an interview with Fox News earlier this month.

“We have submarines. Very powerful, far more powerful than the aircraft carrier, that I can tell you,” Trump told Maria Bartiromo in a pre-taped interview that aired April 12.

Several tweets from Trump at the time also signaled that rising tensions were leading to the US taking action against North Korea over the country’s nuclear program.

On April 11, Spicer confirmed that the Vinson strike force was “steaming out toward the Sea of Japan” to give the president “options in the region.”

“I think when you see a carrier group steaming into an area like that, the forward presence of that is clearly, through almost every instance, a huge deterrence. So I think it serves multiple capabilities,” Spicer said, according to the White House.
Read more
US Vice President Mike Pence speaks aboard the USS Ronald Reagan in Yokosuka, Japan, April 19, 2017 © Tomohiro Ohsumi ‘Sword stands ready’: Pence vows ‘overwhelming & effective’ response to N. Korean attacks

That same day, Defense Secretary James Mattis added to the confusion when he told reporters that the strike group was on its way to the Sea of Japan, but added, “There's not a specific demand signal or specific reason why we're sending her up there,” according to the Department of Defense website.

On April 15, the Navy posted a photograph to Flickr with a description that said the USS Carl Vinson was heading through the Sunda Strait, putting it several hundred miles south of Singapore, around 3,500 miles from the Korean Peninsula.

On Wednesday, Spicer denied that the Trump administration misled or failed to correct the reports that the Vinson strike force was en route to North Korea.

“The president said that we have an armada going toward the peninsula. That’s a fact. It happened. It is happening, rather,” Spicer said during a press briefing.

Pressed by reporters as to why the White House did not clarify the conflicting information, Spicer said that his statements were not false.

“I think we were asked very clearly about the use of a carrier group in terms of deterrence and foreign presence and what that meant. That’s what we discussed,” Spicer told reporters.

Speaking on a visit to Saudi Arabia, Mattis also denied that he had said anything misleading about the Vinson.

“We’re doing exactly what we said we were going to do,” Mattis told reporters in a video posted to the Department of Defense website.

“She will be on her way, and I’ll determine when she gets there and where she actually operates, but the Vinson is going to be part of our ensuring that we stand by our allies in the northwest Pacific,” Mattis added.
Read more
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un © KCNA North Korea ‘bombs US’ in mock-up video for Kim Il Sung’s 105th birthday (VIDEO)

The Vinson Strike Group consists of the USS Carl Vinson, a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, two destroyers and one cruiser.

On April 9, the Navy announced that Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of US Pacific Command, ordered the strike group to forgo the previously planned port visits to Australia and return to the Western Pacific Ocean.

Reports from the Korea Herald say that the strike force is now on its way to the Korean Peninsula, citing the US Pacific Fleet Command’s Flickr account.

The Vinson is currently expected to arrive at the Korean Peninsula on April 25, the same day as the 85th anniversary of the foundation of the North Korean army, according to the Korea Herald.

https://www.rt.com/usa/385357-vinson-armada-korea-spicer/

 

[China Connection]

James Mattis in Riyadh to boost US-Saudi alliance

US Defense Secretary travels to Saudi Arabia to heal ties, solve regional issues.
Contact Editor
AFP, 19/04/17 07:16
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James Mattis
James MattisReuters

US Defense Secretary James Mattis is in Saudi Arabia Wednesday to reinvigorate the Riyadh-Washington alliance, with both seeing a common adversary in Iran and its "destabilizing" activities.

The United States and Saudi Arabia have a decades-old relationship based on the exchange of American security for Saudi oil.

But ties between Riyadh and Washington became increasingly frayed during the administration of US President Barack Obama.

Saudi leaders felt Obama was reluctant to get involved in the civil war in Syria and was tilting toward Riyadh's regional rival Iran.

The Sunni Muslim kingdom "felt marginalized" during international negotiations on a nuclear accord with Shiite Iran, an American defense official said.

That deal, signed in July 2015 by the Obama administration, saw the lifting of international sanctions in exchange for guarantees that Tehran will not pursue a nuclear weapons capability.

Mattis arrived in Riyadh Tuesday afternoon, wishing to "reinvigorate" ties by listening to Saudi leaders and learning "what are their priorities," the official said.

The retired four-star Marine general will meet King Salman, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, and Salman's son Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who holds the defense portfolio.

The deputy crown prince last month met US President Donald Trump in Washington.

Saudi leaders worry about Iran interfering in Arab countries by using Shiite communities to advance their pawns, as in Bahrain, Lebanon and Yemen.

Bordering Saudi Arabia, Yemen has been torn for more than two years by a civil war between Iran-backed Huthi rebels, their allies, and pro-government forces aided by a Saudi-led military coalition that receives some military support from the US.

The Saudis have found a more favorable ear in Washington under Trump, who denounces Iran's "harmful influence" in the Middle East.

Mattis has called Iran "the single biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world."

In February, Trump imposed new sanctions on Tehran after a ballistic missile test launch, and in response to its support for Yemen's rebels.

The US military is watching Huthi activities along the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait connecting the Red Sea with the Indian Ocean.

Rebels in late January attacked a Saudi warship in the Red Sea, and they are also believed to have fired missiles towards US warships in the area.

The United States accuses the rebels of deploying coastal defense missiles and other weapons which threaten free navigation in the waterway which is vital to global trade.

"I am extraordinarily concerned about another contested maritime chokepoint in the region," US Central Command chief General Joseph Votel told the House Armed Services Committee in March.

Tensions with Iran were already high over another waterway, the Strait of Hormuz which links the Gulf and the Indian Ocean.

Iran aims to become the "predominant power" in the Middle East, Votel said.

Trump's Yemen focus has so far been on a major escalation of attacks against jihadists from the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula group in Yemen.

Pentagon officials have so far remained cautious on what they might do to support Saudi Arabia.

The Trump administration could, for example, lift a freeze on the delivery of precision guided bombs to the kingdom.

Obama's government blocked their transfer in December because of concerns over civilian casualties in Yemen.

Trump could also decide to reinforce support for the Arab coalition in Yemen, even if his administration wants the return "as quickly as possible" of UN-backed peace talks, as Mattis said at the start of his Saudi trip.

Washington would also like Riyadh to step up its participation in the campaign against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

Options include the kingdom intensifying its aerial operations or its humanitarian aid, the American defense official said, describing the fight against IS as "our number one concern."

Mattis is expected to evoke with the Saudis Washington's intentions towards Syria, where Riyadh has aided some rebel groups.

For the first time in six years of Syria's war, the American military intervened directly against the regime of Bashar al-Assad by firing 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian government airbase.

Saudi Arabia applauded this month's strike after a suspected chemical bombing of a rebel-held town which the US blamed on Assad.

After Saudi Arabia, Mattis travels Thursday to Egypt and then to Israel on Friday before returning to the Gulf Saturday for talks in Qatar.

Some conservative American analysts say the US should build a common front between Israel and the Gulf monarchies, who have no diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/228265

 

[night driver]

Is the MOP the one they built by pouring explosive (as a liquid which later set up) into canon barrels?
The one they tested that they dug down 250 or 300 or so feet and STILL didn't find it??

 

[Housecarl]

Is the MOP the one they built by pouring explosive (as a liquid which later set up) into canon barrels?
The one they tested that they dug down 250 or 300 or so feet and STILL didn't find it??

What your asking about were the 5000 lb laser guided GBU-28 predesessor of the MOP.... of course before that we had the WW2 "Grand Slam" or "Earthquake Bomb"; 22,000 lbs. total weight with 9100 lbs. worth of HE (Torpex) in effectively a thick cased lawn dart.

 

[Warm Wisconsin]

Do you think this is related to China not fixing the North Korean problem yet?

Strategic Sentinel‏ @StratSentinel
Trump has launched a trade probe meant to target Chinese steel

Trump did say fix it and get a better trade deal, which really means if you don't fix it your trade will get worse

 

[Warm Wisconsin]

I was wondering if the head fake on the US strike group was to help deplete NK resources, since they would have to be at a high level of readiness for an extended period of time. I think we are seeing signs that this might be the case.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-N...ping-with-shortage-of-gasoline/6841492708259/

Report: North Korea coping with shortage of gasoline

April 20 (UPI) -- Gas stations in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang have suspended services due to a gasoline shortage in the country, according to Chinese state media.

China's Global Times reported Thursday several fueling stations in the city were shut down and the price of 4 gallons of gasoline had risen from $13 to $22.

Fuel for cars was only being provided to vehicles with diplomatic license plates, according to the report.


A Chinese investment official in the country who spoke anonymously said that stations servicing foreign envoys "never shut down."

The restricted service is unprecedented and possibly a forewarning of rising oil prices, the official told the Global Times.

The report, however, did not provide details on why the measures were being taken, or whether China was signaling to North Korea of impending sanctions.

China is expected to take bold measures against North Korea if Pyongyang goes ahead with a sixth nuclear test.

Beijing could cut its supply of crude oil, a heavy form of punishment that could cut into the 1 million tons of oil China supplies to the relatively isolated country annually.

North Korea relies on China for 75-90 percent of its oil imports and the fate of North Korea's economy depends heavily on Chinese actions.

The two countries have shown signs of a new rift following the summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

State media have been more outspoken in criticism of the Kim Jong Un regime, and North Korea in turn may be cracking down on the viewing of Chinese media, according to sources in the country.

An ethnic Chinese resident in North Korea told Radio Free Asia authorities have cracked down on foreign media in Chongjin, North Hamgyong Province.

The crackdown extends to the ethnic Chinese population who were once free to watch the movies in their homes, the source said.

 

[Warm Wisconsin]

Steve Herman‏ @W7VOA
“Some very unusual moves have been over the last two or three hours” by #China regarding #DPRK, says @POTUS.

 

[Doomer Doug]

Um, this can't be good, Housecarl

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-...alert-ahead-potential-north-korea-contingency

China Puts Bombers On High Alert "For A Potential North Korea Contingency"


by Tyler Durden
Apr 20, 2017 1:34 PM

The 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.

The official added that the US has also seen an extraordinary number of Chinese military aircraft being brought up to full readiness through intensified maintenance.

The official said that these recent steps by the Chinese are assessed as part of an effort to "reduce the time to react to a North Korea contingency."

Among the contingency options listed is the "risk of an armed conflict breaking out as tensions on the peninsula have risen in the wake of multiple North Korean missile tests."

There has also been ratcheted up rhetoric from the US and Pyongyang, with the latter's state media warning Thursday that a pre-emptive strike by North Korea would result in the US and South Korea being "completely destroyed in an instant."

Beijing has long been concerned about potential instability in North Korea should the regime in Pyongyang collapse, fearing both an influx of refugees and the potential of reunification under a South Korean government closely allied to the US.
Meanwhile, China remains opposed to the US military's presence in South Korea, protesting the recent US and South Korea decision to begin deploying elements of the THAAD missile defense system.

Given the close economic links between North Korea and China, US military officials have said that Beijing is critical to solving the North Korean situation, with President Donald Trump recently commending Chinese President Xi Jinping for Chinese efforts to curb Pyongyang's activities.

Earlier on Thursday, Nikkei reported that as a form of ratcheting up pressure on North Korea, China may halt crude exports to North Korea should Pyongyang conduct its sixth nuclear test, "signalling a tougher attitude by Beijing."

* * *

Meanwhile, with much confusion over the current whereabouts of the Carl Vinson aircraft carrier, and various other US naval forces around the globe, here is the latest map courtesy of Stratfor.

 

[Warm Wisconsin]

Syria’s War Has Been a ‘Goldmine’ for North Korea—and Don’t Expect It to Change Anytime Soon

http://www.defenseone.com/threats/2...pect-change-anytime-soon/137194/?oref=d-river

Weapons from North Korea have ended up in Syria, ultimately enriching the Kim regime and prolonging Bashar al-Assad’s grip on power.

The civil war in Syria, which began in 2011, has been a tragedy for millions of people, including refugees fleeing the violence and residents caught in the crossfire. But for North Korea’s ruling elite, the conflict has in many ways been a good thing.

Since the 1960s, North Korea has sold arms and equipment to Syria, and provided other sorts of military-to-military assistance, such as training and technical assistance. Of particular importance, Pyongyang has helped develop Syria’s chemical weapons and ballistic missile programs.

Today, North Korea, faced with United Nations sanctions over its ongoing missile and nuclear tests, denies providing such assistance to Syria. But evidence has emerged suggesting that in one way or another, via front companies and elaborate logistics, war materials from North Korea have ended up in Syria, ultimately enriching the Kim regime.

“It’s a gold mine for North Korea,” said Bruce Bechtol, a political science professor at Angelo State University in Texas who’s penned a handful of books on the country. “This is the best thing that’s ever happened to North Korea—as long as Syria doesn’t fall, which could happen.”

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Pyongyang has reportedly also supplied troops and advisors, who have gained valuable real-world experience from the Syrian conflict. Any lesson learned by the North Koreans in Syria, of course, could be applied to future battles on the Korean peninsula.

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“Korean analysts should take note of how chemical weapons were used in the Syrian civil war because this is likely going to be a test-bed for future North Korean actions in a conflict with the South,” Bechtol noted in a 2015 research paper (pdf, p.1) entitled “North Korea and Syria: Partners in Destruction and Violence.”

Cordial relations

North Korea and Syria have much in common. Both are dictatorial regimes and former clients of the Soviet Union. Both face economic sanctions imposed by the US, which considers them rogue states that sponsor terrorism. As such, they share similar anti-imperialist world views that help bind them together.

Those ties have proven resilient through the decades. The current leaders, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, have sustained the strong relations set by their late fathers, Hafez al-Assad and Kim Jong-il, respectively. (Or by the grandfather, in the case of Kim Jong-un, with Pyongyang-Damascus relations going back to Kim Il-sung.)

Frequent visits, warm gestures, and correspondence between the regimes in Pyongyang and Damascus add to the sense of fraternity. While most of the world reacted in horror to Syria’s latest chemical attack on civilians, the Kim regime ignored the tragedy and instead sent a warm congratulatory note to the Assad regime on the anniversary of the ruling Ba’ath party’s establishment. The state-run Korean Central News Agency routinely recaps such notes between the two nations. (The lack of shock from Pyongyang wasn’t surprising: Defectors from North Korea have described horrific chemical experiments on humans in concentration camps holding political prisoners.)

In 2014, Syria asked North Korea to help monitor its presidential elections. In late 2015 Syria dedicated a park in Damascus to Kim Il-sung.

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Arms supplier

“Syrians frequently visit North Korea because of arms deals, but these are events that get little to no publicity,” noted Bechtol in his paper.

But Pyongyang has needed to get creative to deliver goods to its customers, which it does mostly through shipping. In 2012 a UN report said that North Korea was, in violation of sanctions, still sending materials like artillery components to Syria but using “elaborate techniques” to avoid interception, including shipping goods through China and Malaysia.

Indeed, seizures of ships have provided some of the best clues about North Korean deliveries to Syria during the current conflict. In 2013, Turkish authorities intercepted a Libya-registered vessel headed to Syria. It contained arms, ammunition, and gas masks from North Korea. Authorities believed the supplies were meant to be offloaded in Turkey and sent overland to the Assad regime. That same year Syria killed hundreds of civilians in a chemical attack in Ghouta in the suburbs outside Damascus.

In May 2012 South Korean authorities seized a cargo ship bound for Syria laden with North Korean missile parts. The ship was registered in China.

It’s not just sea transport. In September 2012 Iraq denied permission for a Syria-bound North Korean plane to pass through its airspace, due to suspicions it was transporting weapons to the Assad regime.

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Front companies help North Korea, too. In February a UN report revealed that North Korean intelligence agents were selling battlefield radio equipment to various customers through a Malaysian front company called Glocom.

North Korea also helped Syria build a nuclear facility, which Israel destroyed in an air raid in 2007.

As Bechtol observed:

North Korea has become a key aspect of the support that the current Assad regime needs to survive and fight on against the rebels. The DPRK is also benefitting a great deal from the civil war in Syria. If a nation is fighting a war, it must use artillery, tanks, ballistic missiles, small arms of all kinds, ammunition, and yes (in the case of the Assad regime), WMD [weapons of mass destruction]. As the war continues (if it does so), these expensive and vital items must be replaced and/or refurbished. Thus, Syria has gone from being one of North Korea’s most important customers for many years, to being almost on par with Iran as an important customer for Pyongyang.

Boots on the ground

In 2013 the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that over a dozen North Korean helicopter pilots were hired by an Assad regime contending with defections among its own pilots. It also said Arabic-speaking North Korean officers were in the field providing logistical and planning support, as well as supervising artillery bombardments.

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Last year, a leader of the Syrian rebels, Asaad al-Zoubi, told Russian media that two North Korean units were fighting on behalf of the Assad regime, describing them as “fatally dangerous.”

North Korean advisors also appear to have played a role. Indeed, “given the history of DPRK-Syrian relations, despite what the North might say in public, it would be surprising if the North had not dispatched a small contingent of military advisors and instructors to aid the brotherly Assad regime in its fight against the anti-government rebels,” wrote political scientist Alexandre Mansourov in late 2013 on 38 North, an analysis website affiliated with the US-Korea Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

In an interview with NK News in January, Syria’s ambassador to North Korea, Tammam Sulaiman, denied that scientists and weapons experts from North Korea aided the Damascus government in the early part of the war.

The benefits for Pyongyang of boots on the ground are numerous, Mansourov noted. Soldiers get “real-world” experience. Technical advisors gain insights on how equipment behaves in the field. Officers get battlefield intelligence on Western arms, and exposure to the tactics of rebels trained by the US and its allies. (Not to be overlooked, Mansourov added: Should the Assad regime fail, “there is no doubt that North Korean military advisors are also tasked with erasing any traces of Pyongyang’s past assistance to Assad’s programs to build weapons of mass destruction.”)

As has been noted previously in Quartz, North Korea’s missile tests and nuclear explosions are in some ways sales pitches to countries like Iran, Syria, and Pakistan. Meanwhile China, North Korea’s main trading partner and economic lifeline, seems to be getting more serious about imposing sanctions on its unruly neighbor, for example by recently turning back a fleet of coal-laden cargo ships.

That could mean income from selling military gear becoming all the more important to Pyongyang. With Syria still struggling against insurgents, the symbiotic relationship between the two regimes could be set to continue for some time.

 

[Housecarl]

Um, this can't be good, Housecarl

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-...alert-ahead-potential-north-korea-contingency

China Puts Bombers On High Alert "For A Potential North Korea Contingency"


by Tyler Durden
Apr 20, 2017 1:34 PM

The 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.

The official added that the US has also seen an extraordinary number of Chinese military aircraft being brought up to full readiness through intensified maintenance.

The official said that these recent steps by the Chinese are assessed as part of an effort to "reduce the time to react to a North Korea contingency."

Among the contingency options listed is the "risk of an armed conflict breaking out as tensions on the peninsula have risen in the wake of multiple North Korean missile tests."

There has also been ratcheted up rhetoric from the US and Pyongyang, with the latter's state media warning Thursday that a pre-emptive strike by North Korea would result in the US and South Korea being "completely destroyed in an instant."

Beijing has long been concerned about potential instability in North Korea should the regime in Pyongyang collapse, fearing both an influx of refugees and the potential of reunification under a South Korean government closely allied to the US.
Meanwhile, China remains opposed to the US military's presence in South Korea, protesting the recent US and South Korea decision to begin deploying elements of the THAAD missile defense system.

Given the close economic links between North Korea and China, US military officials have said that Beijing is critical to solving the North Korean situation, with President Donald Trump recently commending Chinese President Xi Jinping for Chinese efforts to curb Pyongyang's activities.

Earlier on Thursday, Nikkei reported that as a form of ratcheting up pressure on North Korea, China may halt crude exports to North Korea should Pyongyang conduct its sixth nuclear test, "signalling a tougher attitude by Beijing."

* * *

Meanwhile, with much confusion over the current whereabouts of the Carl Vinson aircraft carrier, and various other US naval forces around the globe, here is the latest map courtesy of Stratfor.

Yeah. I'm wondering what alert status their air defense network and missile troops are on to compliment that.

By rights we should be seeing everything "spun up".

On top of the northern and central major metro areas all being within range of Pyongyang's missiles, the Party and the PLA have ghosts they need to excise from their last than successful 1979 invasion of Vietnam...

 

[Vegas321]

If the report is true, and i would not doubt, that the Norks have a gas shortage. It's because, they need to save it for the military.

The MSM has taken the Norks off of the top story. But i can feel this spring getting tighter by the hour.

 

[Doomer Doug]

China is loathe to admit the dismal failure of their 1979 "invasion" of North Vietnam. The Chinese army faced battle tested, combat veteran troops, along with a vast amount of captured US weaponry. North Vietnam actually became a major arms exporter from selling off the staggering amounts of military supplies the US left the South Vietnamese Army. When Iran was invaded by Iraq in 1980, it was Vietnam that kept them supplied with parts for their F-4 Phantoms, M-60 tanks, along with enough small arms ammo to sustain them for 8 years.

China, well China got its ass kicked hard. Granted, China has spent the last 38 years trying to deal with all the shortcomings exposed by their failed invasion. Still, the PLA is a vast, corrupt and borderline effective military. It is a simple fact that the PLA is a dual entity, part business corporation, and part military one. The result is it has low morale because the officers and senior enlisted steal large amounts of money, and treat their troops badly. Chinese media is full of corruption reports of politicians and military officers, even after they censor madly.

I have serious doubts about the combat effectiveness of the PLA in actual combat against Western forces.

 

[danielboon]

Steve Herman @W7VOA some very unusual moves by#CHINA in the last 2 or 3 hours regarding#DPKR says @POTUS

 

[Warm Wisconsin]

April 21, 2017

Four N. Korean ships, three with troubled pasts, allowed into Chinese coal port

Three of the vessels have strong ties to sanctions-breaking
Four North Korean vessels, three of which have been linked to illicit sanctions-breaking networks, were allowed to enter a Chinese port which handles coal between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, analysis of positional information from ship tracking site Marine Traffic shows.

The four vessels are all owned by Pyongyang-based companies and have been waiting near the port for over two weeks.

Satellite imagery of the facility – located near Tangshan in China’s northeast – shows that the area of the port where three of the vessels are docked mainly handles coal, while the fourth is located at a nearby pier that handles both coal and iron.

“This port appears to be mainly for coal handling, though there is other bulk ore handling as well. Coal appears to be the main bulk product handled here,” Scott LaFoy, a Washington-based satellite imagery analyst told NK News.

North Korea’s coal exports to China have been under the spotlight since November, when a UN resolution limited member states from importing the DPRK’s most valuable commodity. DPRK iron imports are also banned, though can be exempted if they are for livelihood purposes.

China followed up on Resolution 2321 in February, when it announced it would no longer import North Korean coal for the remainder of 2017.

Beijing doubled down on the claims earlier this month, when General Administration of Customs (GAC) spokesperson Huang Songping said that China had ceased imports at 2.7 million tonnes.

While it’s difficult to ascertain the direction of the trade from ship tracking data and satellite imagery, Marine Traffic also shows the vessels are approaching their maximum draught, a measure of how low the ships are sitting in the water and by extension, an indicator that ships are loaded with cargo.

TROUBLED PAST

The vessels’ backgrounds are also unlikely to inspire confidence that their current activity is above board. Two of the three ships in the coal handling part of the port were previously owned by companies that were integral parts of an illicit, sanctions breaching network.

The Jin Hung 9 and Pu Hae were formerly owned or managed by Aoyang International and Hua Heng Shipping, a pair of companies associated with Hiroshi Kasatusgu and Li Anshan: both individuals that have been identified in numerous UN Panel of Expert (PoE) reports as facilitators of North Korean sanctions evasion.

According to the PoE, Kasatsugu and Anshan had business relationships with Ocean Maritime Management (OMM), a sanctioned North Korean arms smuggler working under the Ministry of Land and Marine Transport.

“The Director of Mirae HK, Hiroshi Kasatsugu, has owned and controlled nine companies, including those involved in the operation of seven vessels using crews from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Any business transactions relating to those vessels and companies could contribute to sanctions evasion by Mirae/OMM,” the 2016 PoE report reads.

Li Anshan has also featured in numerous PoE reports, though was most recently identified as having played a “key role” in activities linked to an Egyptian seizure of North Korean weapons, the largest since the beginning of the sanctions regime in 2006.

The Egyptian authorities captured a DPRK-linked vessel called the Jie Shun in August last year, which was smuggling 30,000 rocket-propelled grenades hidden under a shipment of (also sanctioned) iron. The Panel of Experts said that one of Anshan’s companies was the “the de-facto owner of the Jie Shun”.

Another of the vessels in the nearby coal and iron port has an equally troubled past. Formerly known as the Light, the 4650-tonne cargo ship is also linked to Kasatusgu and his associates, though was additionally identified as a likely smuggler by the U.S. and the Panel of Experts.

In 2011, the U.S. said it had reasonable grounds to believe the Light – now called the Ryon Hwa 2 – was transporting sanctioned items. A U.S. Navy vessel intercepted the ship and attempted to inspect it. Despite sailing under a Belize flag, the crew said it was a North Korean ship and refused to be boarded. According to the PoE, the ship eventually abandoned its journey and returned to North Korea.

A fifth North Korean vessel currently waiting outside the same port is also less than reputable. As with the four ships which were allowed into Tangshan port, tracking data shows the Victory 2 has been holding position there for more than two weeks.

The ship and its previous owner Buyon Shipping were sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in March last year.

“North Korea has used the transportation industry to facilitate illicit shipments of WMD and related material,” an OFAC press statement released at the time reads, before adding Buyon to the list of designated entities.

While the vessels currently in the Chinese port are no longer directly owned by Hua Heng and Aoyang, the transfer of their ownership to Pyongyang-based companies does not necessarily indicate they’ve turned over a new leaf.

New, stricter UN measures passed last year make it more challenging for vessels to occlude their links to North Korea, so the ownership changes were unlikely to be totally voluntary, and their simultaneous appearance in a Chinese coal port could imply they’re being used for a newer kind of sanctions evasion.

The group’s movements contrast with earlier reports from Reuters that China had turned away North Korean vessels fully laden with coal. But the report did not name the vessels or indicate how the ship cargos were known.

Previous NK Pro analysis has also identified other movements between North Korean coal export facilities and Chinese terminals. While some shipments originated from Rason – and may have subsequently been exempted from UN sanctions – others appeared to leave from ports on the DPRKs east coast

https://www.nknews.org/2017/04/four...roubled-pasts-allowed-into-chinese-coal-port/

 

[CnMO]

In post #12 by W Wis.

in the section Boots on the Ground.

I was just wondering if everyone was aware of who "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights" is.

if not LOOK it up.

Rami Abdul is just one guy living in UK, is a tailor/dressmaker, and never lived in Syria since Assad took over.. Yet this ONE Guy gives all Western Press , UN, etc, the Data on how many were killed ..

That right there will make you think twice or more about how many people really get killed, or if the pictures are real...

just fyi, more need to be dug up on Abdul.

 

[Housecarl]

China is loathe to admit the dismal failure of their 1979 "invasion" of North Vietnam. The Chinese army faced battle tested, combat veteran troops, along with a vast amount of captured US weaponry. North Vietnam actually became a major arms exporter from selling off the staggering amounts of military supplies the US left the South Vietnamese Army. When Iran was invaded by Iraq in 1980, it was Vietnam that kept them supplied with parts for their F-4 Phantoms, M-60 tanks, along with enough small arms ammo to sustain them for 8 years.

China, well China got its ass kicked hard. Granted, China has spent the last 38 years trying to deal with all the shortcomings exposed by their failed invasion. Still, the PLA is a vast, corrupt and borderline effective military. It is a simple fact that the PLA is a dual entity, part business corporation, and part military one. The result is it has low morale because the officers and senior enlisted steal large amounts of money, and treat their troops badly. Chinese media is full of corruption reports of politicians and military officers, even after they censor madly.

I have serious doubts about the combat effectiveness of the PLA in actual combat against Western forces.

A key point to the war's outcome was the supplying of real time IMINT and ELINT to Hanoi by Moscow against the invading PRC forces.

If the PRC and Russia are on the same page as the US and the West on this, Pyongyang won't have such a leg up.

 

[Lilbitsnana]

HC, is this something, maybe something or nothing to worry about? (lots of tweets to wade thru)

I can't find agreement on twitter, some say meh, some perked up a bit.


GeorgeWilliamHerbert‏ @GeorgeWHerbert 10h10 hours ago

GeorgeWilliamHerbert Retweeted Tal Inbar

1/n Regarding last nights' discovery of fiber composite in the North Korean paraded sub missiles.. https://twitter.com/inbarspace/status/854963244691226625 …
(Good spot, Tal)

GeorgeWilliamHerbert added,

Tal Inbar @inbarspace
Confirmed: NK is using fiber filament winding for the casings of it's solid rocket motors of the BK-1. Type of fibers still unknown.

GeorgeWilliamHerbert‏ @GeorgeWHerbert 10h10 hours ago

2/ Disclaimer first. This is seen only on parade so far, no idea if this is real, mockup or test of real, or fake to deceive


GeorgeWilliamHerbert‏ @GeorgeWHerbert 10h10 hours ago

3/ Assuming these are not fake, the use of fiber composites significantly lowers the casing weight in solid rocket motors.


GeorgeWilliamHerbert‏ @GeorgeWHerbert 10h10 hours ago

4/ Two stage Pukguksong-1 and -2 missiles tested to date are remarkably inefficient regarding range given weight & payload


GeorgeWilliamHerbert‏ @GeorgeWHerbert 10h10 hours ago

5/ Both surface features and performance on earlier flights indicated heavy aluminum alloy casings.


GeorgeWilliamHerbert‏ @GeorgeWHerbert 11h11 hours ago

6/ I suspect from details such as @inbarspace 's highlight that new missiles used underlying aluminum structure and fibers


GeorgeWilliamHerbert‏ @GeorgeWHerbert 11h11 hours ago

7/ you can see a clear weld line aft of the fiber wrap section on Tal's photo. That would be aluminum. No joint before fibers


GeorgeWilliamHerbert‏ @GeorgeWHerbert 11h11 hours ago

8/ there is a type of composite structure for tanks where you wrap unidirectional fiber around the tank like we see here. Common


GeorgeWilliamHerbert‏ @GeorgeWHerbert 11h11 hours ago

9/ the combination solves a tricky problem with pressurized tanks. Different forces around the tank (hoop stress) and along length (axial)


GeorgeWilliamHerbert‏ @GeorgeWHerbert 11h11 hours ago

10/ Hoop stress is twice axial stress in a pressurized cylinder like a solid rocket, due to shape and engineering mechanics


GeorgeWilliamHerbert‏ @GeorgeWHerbert 11h11 hours ago

11/ metal is generally equally strong in all directions. So sized for hoop stress, its twice as strong axially as needed


GeorgeWilliamHerbert‏ @GeorgeWHerbert 11h11 hours ago

12/ overwrap combines a weaker metal liner, strong enough for all the axial stress and half the hoop stress, with fibers


GeorgeWilliamHerbert‏ @GeorgeWHerbert 11h11 hours ago

13/ fibers in one direction (unidirectional) are much stronger than metals. And easy to wrap around and around. So a thin layer is enough


GeorgeWilliamHerbert‏ @GeorgeWHerbert 11h11 hours ago
Replying to @GeorgeWHerbert

13/ implications are that almost half the case wall cylinder weight went away with these paraded motor configurations. Maybe 25% overall (?)


GeorgeWilliamHerbert‏ @GeorgeWHerbert 11h11 hours ago
Replying to @GeorgeWHerbert

15/ (sorry for two 13s doing this by hand) this is not full fiber construction yet, if I read it right, but headed in that direction.


GeorgeWilliamHerbert‏ @GeorgeWHerbert 11h11 hours ago
Replying to @GeorgeWHerbert

16/ This direction is headed towards significant range and payload improvements. Be ready.



xutianran‏ @stoa1984 10h10 hours ago

steel is common for early solid missile casings.


GeorgeWilliamHerbert‏ @GeorgeWHerbert 10h10 hours ago

That is true. However, larger motors in mid range get much heavier than Aluminum. And AlMg6 known commonly in other NK missiles


Mike Elleman‏ @StuckinArabia 9h9 hours ago

But rolling large diameter pieces of thick AlMg6 alloy forSRM is far more difficult than thin sheets for Unha. Nice observation by Tal.


GeorgeWilliamHerbert‏ @GeorgeWHerbert 9h9 hours ago

on the PGS-2 we saw on ground and being launched, we saw few thin long plates rolled + welded into hoop sections


GeorgeWilliamHerbert‏ @GeorgeWHerbert 9h9 hours ago

bunch of those hoop / barrel sections then stacked and welded around


Mike Elleman‏ @StuckinArabia 9h9 hours ago

Understood. And if Al alloys are being used, the solid-propellant made by the Norks is of even poorer quality than I assumed previously.



GeorgeWilliamHerbert‏ @GeorgeWHerbert
Replying to @StuckinArabia @stoa1984

we see white (implication Aluminum oxide) suggests metalized AP binder (HTPB?). So not that lousy. But ����*
1:45 PM - 20 Apr 2017


GeorgeWilliamHerbert‏ @GeorgeWHerbert 5h5 hours ago

GeorgeWilliamHerbert Retweeted Michael Duitsman

Great thread on wider implications of the North Korean fiber wound casings. I live this stuff; Michael explains it well for everyone else!

GeorgeWilliamHerbert added,

Michael Duitsman @DuitsyWasHere
1/ Ability to make wound-filament solid rocket casings would be very significant for North Korea's solid fuel ballistic missile program. https://twitter.com/inbarspace/status/854963244691226625 …

 

[Housecarl]

^

If correct it is significant in terms of potential range for such a launch system as well as where the North Koreans got the technology.

 

[Lilbitsnana]

More info on that bottom quoted tweet in post #20.

This is a tweet thread with lots (20 tweets) of interesting info and lots of pics, but since I can't post pics, I am just going to link to it all.


https://twitter.com/DuitsyWasHere/status/855240261831598080

 

[Housecarl]

Another good site....

Norbert Brügge, Germany

- Table of contents -
www.b14643.de/Spacerockets
http://www.b14643.de/

-

What is the new North Korean three-stage long-range missile KN-08 ?

(it is North Korea's nuclear missile HS-13 !)

Norbert Brügge, Germany
Update: 18.04.2017
http://www.b14643.de/Spacerockets/Specials/Hwasong-13/index.htm

Also John Schillings postings over at 38 North...http://38north.org/tag/john-schilling/

 

[China Connection]

North Korea threatens to 'burn Manhattan to ashes' with a hydrogen bomb
The claim is the latest in a string of increasingly bold threats made by the hermit regime's leader, Kim Jong-un
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un salutes during a visit to the Ministry of the People's Armed Forces
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un salutes during a visit to the Ministry of the People's Armed Forces Photo: REUTERS/KCNA/Files

By Danielle Demetriou, in Tokyo

1:33PM GMT 14 Mar 2016

North Korea has claimed it could “burn Manhattan down to ashes” by firing a hydrogen bomb into the heart of the city on an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The claim is the latest in a string of increasingly bold threats made by Pyongyang against a backdrop of South Korea and the United States conducting major military exercises on the Korean peninsula.

The statement, which was made via the state-run outlet DPRK Today, claimed that North Korea’s hydrogen bomb was more powerful than technology developed by the former Soviet Union.


Many experts believe that Kim Jong-Un, North Korea’s leader, is overstating the regime’s technical capabilities and doubt its ability to launch a long-range missile to the east coast of the United States.

The increasingly strong rhetoric emerging from Pyongyang appears to reflect the leader’s anger at the international community’s tough new sanctions recently imposed in response to recent nuclear and missile tests.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) attending the KPA (Korean People's Army) tank crew competition.North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) attending the KPA (Korean People's Army) tank crew competition. Photo: AFP

“Our hydrogen bomb is much bigger than the one developed by the Soviet Union.” DPRK Today was quoted as saying in the Washington Post.

“If this H-bomb were to be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile and fall on Manhattan in New York City, all the people there would be killed immediately and the city would burn down to ashes.”

The newly-developed hydrogen bomb “surpasses our imagination,” a scientist named Cho Hyong-Il is quoted as stating, adding: “The H-bomb developed by the Soviet Union in the past was able to smash windows of buildings 1,000 kms away and the heat was strong enough to cause third-degree burns 100 kms away.”

North Korea angered the international community in January when a fourth nuclear test was conducted, although the regime’s claims that it was a hydrogen bomb as opposed to an atomic device were doubted by experts.

The following month, North Korea proceeded to launch what was claimed to be a rocket into orbit, although it was widely regarded to form part of the regime’s long-range ballistic missile programme.

Tensions are currently running high in the region, with the largest ever war exercises so far staged on the Korean peninsula launched last week, involving an estimated 290,000 South Korean troops alongside 15,000 US military.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (C), talking with scientists and technicians involved in research of nuclear weapons, at an undisclosed location, North Korea. North Korea has developed the technology to fit a nuclear warhead on a missile, leader Kim Jong-un was quoted as saying by state media. The isolated regime has until now not been thought able to make its nuclear bombs small enough to be delivered by missile. 'The nuclear warheads have been standardized to be fit for ballistic missiles by miniaturizing them,' Kim was cited as saying by state-run Korean Central News Agency. 'This can be called true nuclear deterrent.' The report came two days after Pyongyang threatened a pre-emptive nuclear strike as US and South Korean forces started annual joint military drills in the region. North Korea says the manoeuvres are a rehearsal for invasion. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un talks to scientists and technicians involved in nuclear weapons research at an undisclosed location in North Korea. The country claims it has developed the technology to fit a nuclear warhead on a missile. Photo: EPA/KCNA

There are reports that one potential scenario included in the annual drills, which run until the end of April and are twice as big as last year, is exploring military responses to the collapse of the North Korea regime.

The launch of the war games coincided last week with Pyongyang warning that Washington and Seoul would be turned into “flames and ashes”, according to North Korean state media.

The regime fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea on Thursday in an expression of its discontent, while it also warned it would make a “pre-emptive and offensive nuclear strike” in response to the exercises.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...-Manhattan-to-ashes-with-a-hydrogen-bomb.html

 

[Lilbitsnana]

38 North‏ @38NorthNK 10m10 minutes ago

Work seems to have resumed at #DPRK's nuclear test site around the North Portal and Main admin area. http://bit.ly/2p0gvhK


there are images at link

posted for fair use and discussion
http://38north.org/2017/04/punggye042117/

North Korea’s Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site: Back to Work We Go


By 38 North
21 April 2017

A 38 North exclusive with analysis by Joseph S. Bermudez Jr. and Jack Liu.

Commercial satellite imagery of the Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site from April 19 indicates probable trailers near the North Portal, the tunnel that North Korea appears to have been preparing for a nuclear test. While no recent dumping is observed, there are at least five mining carts along the tracks leading to the spoil pile and one probable small equipment trailer adjacent to the support building. A net canopy remains in place, presumably concealing equipment, and the pumping of water out of the tunnel to maintain an environment optimal for instrumentation and stemming seems to have ceased.

Figure 1. Probable trailers observed near the North Portal.
Image © 2017 DigitalGlobe, Inc. All rights reserved. For media licensing options, please contact thirtyeightnorth@gmail.com.

Image © 2017 DigitalGlobe, Inc. All rights reserved. For media licensing options, please contact thirtyeightnorth@gmail.com.

At the Main Administrative Area, no volleyball games are observed, but the outline of the court in the north courtyard is still visible. There is a small truck or van present in the south courtyard along with several unidentified objects and activities. While the imagery is not high enough resolution to determine what these objects are, some may be supplies or equipment with tarps or netting draped over them.

Figure 2. Several unidentified objects and activities observed at the Main Administrative Area.
Image © 2017 DigitalGlobe, Inc. All rights reserved. For media licensing options, please contact thirtyeightnorth@gmail.com.

Image © 2017 DigitalGlobe, Inc. All rights reserved. For media licensing options, please contact thirtyeightnorth@gmail.com.

No activity of significance is noted at the West Portal, South Portal, Command Center Area or elsewhere in the facility.

It is unclear if the noted activity represents a “tactical pause” before a forthcoming nuclear test, a broader more prolonged “stand down” from testing or normal facility operations. Regardless, satellite imagery continues to indicate that the Punggye-ri nuclear test site appears able to conduct a sixth nuclear test at any time once the order is received from Pyongyang.
Found in section: Satellite Imagery

Tags: jack liu, joe bermudez, main support area, mining carts, north portal, nuclear test site, punggye, satellite imagery
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[Lilbitsnana]

I would edit the above post, but it seems I can't.....just a blank screen and nothing works to pull it up.....:sb:

 

[Lilbitsnana]

38 North‏ @38NorthNK 31m31 minutes ago

Work seems to have resumed at #DPRK's nuclear test site around the North Portal and Main admin area. http://bit.ly/2p0gvhK


Steve Herman‏Verified account @W7VOA 18m18 minutes ago

"No activity of significance is noted at the West Portal, South Portal, Command Center Area or elsewhere in the facility." - @38NorthNK

 

[The Mountain]

In post #12 by W Wis.

in the section Boots on the Ground.

I was just wondering if everyone was aware of who "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights" is.

if not LOOK it up.

Rami Abdul is just one guy living in UK, is a tailor/dressmaker, and never lived in Syria since Assad took over.. Yet this ONE Guy gives all Western Press , UN, etc, the Data on how many were killed ..

That right there will make you think twice or more about how many people really get killed, or if the pictures are real...

just fyi, more need to be dug up on Abdul.

On the other hand, "I'm just plain, simple Garak" (Star Trek DS9 reference); Garak was (apparently) nothing but a tailor on the alien space station captured by the Federation, a left-behind member of the species that had previously owned the station. Over the course of the show, we eventually learn that "plain, simple Garak" was second-in-command of the most elite Intelligence agency in his species' government. A paramount spy, elite assassin, and highly-skilled military leader.

All of which immediately sprang to mind when I saw "tailor/dressmaker" and "never lived in Syria since Assad". The possible parallel is stark.

 

[cowboy]

Kinda like the local Barber, everyone's coming and going with every story around.

 

[Illini Warrior]

Is the MOP the one they built by pouring explosive (as a liquid which later set up) into canon barrels?
The one they tested that they dug down 250 or 300 or so feet and STILL didn't find it??

the naval gun barrel earth penetrators were a quiky stop gap used in the initial phase of Desert Storm - they couldn't get thru the Iraq jet aircraft protective domes - surprised the hell out of the US .... after they started destroying the aircraft Hussain flew them off to Iran and surrendered them ....

 

[Michiana MaJo]

Post #12, by Warm Wisconsin said that Assad used chemicals on his people, in 2013. That was proven to be untrue.

 

[Lilbitsnana]

Steve Herman‏Verified account @W7VOA 1h1 hour ago

Steve Herman Retweeted Steve Herman

Just now in #Australia @VP said @CVN70 will be in Sea of Japan, within days — before end of the month.

Steve Herman added,
Steve HermanVerified account @W7VOA
I’m now informed by @US7thFleet the incident with the F/A-18E Super Hornet occurred ~10:30 UTC April 21. https://twitter.com/W7VOA/status/855472755642433536 …

 

[Countrymouse]

Steve Herman‏Verified account @W7VOA 1h1 hour ago

Steve Herman Retweeted Steve Herman

Just now in #Australia @VP said @CVN70 will be in Sea of Japan, within days — before end of the month.

Steve Herman added,
Steve HermanVerified account @W7VOA
I’m now informed by @US7thFleet the incident with the F/A-18E Super Hornet occurred ~10:30 UTC April 21. https://twitter.com/W7VOA/status/855472755642433536 …

bumping this----

some on another Korea thread are pooh-poohing this....

 

[bsharp]

bumping this----

some on another Korea thread are pooh-poohing this....

I couldn't find what happened to the plane. Countrymouse did you possibly see an update about it yet?

 

[Countrymouse]

not a peep---but to be honest haven't really had time to look...

 

[Lilbitsnana]

I couldn't find what happened to the plane. Countrymouse did you possibly see an update about it yet?

U.S. Pacific Fleet‏Verified account @USPacificFleet 23h23 hours ago

#USSCarlVinson pilot ejects safely at sea with no apparent injuries: https://go.usa.gov/x5bKV via @US7thFleet [file photo]



posted for fair use and discussion
http://www.cpf.navy.mil/news.aspx/110263


USS Carl Vinson pilot ejects safely at sea

From U.S. 7th Fleet Public Affairs

Posted April 21, 2017
File photo of an F/A-18E Super Hornet on final approach for an arrested landing aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70). (U.S. Navy/MC2 Sean M. Castellano)

YOKOSUKA, Japan - A pilot safely ejected and was quickly recovered by a helicopter assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 4 aboard USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) while conducting routine flight operations during a transit in the Celebes Sea, April 21.

The incident occurred as the F/A-18E assigned to Carrier Air Wing 2 was on final approach to Carl Vinson.

The incident is currently under investigation. The pilot is being assessed by the medical team aboard Carl Vinson and there are no apparent injuries at this time.

 

[Lilbitsnana]

Steve Herman‏Verified account @W7VOA 2h2 hours ago

Steve Herman Retweeted Chad O'Carroll

Up 83% in past three days amid speculation #China will halt crude oil supplies if #DPRK conducts another #nuclear test:

Steve Herman added,

Chad O'Carroll @chadocl
Gas prices in Pyongyang just shot up massively according to NK News data from the city https://www.nknews.org/2017/04/gas-...-increase-by-upto-83-pyongyang-residents-say/ … @Dest_Pyongyang @curtismelvin

https://www.nknews.org/2017/04/gas-...-increase-by-upto-83-pyongyang-residents-say/

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Some more crazy talk from NK's main newspaper. This reminds me of the election period when anything the dems (falsely) accused Trump of was something they themselves did or were doing...

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/north-korea-warns-wipe-america-10276331
(fair use applies)

North Korea warns it will 'wipe America off face of the Earth' after accusing US of plotting chemical weapons attack
North Korea claimed evidence had been uncovered suggesting the US transported chemical weapons to South Korea in preparation for war
ByScarlet Howes
18:31, 22 APR 2017; Updated19:35, 22 APR 2017

North Korea has warned it will wipe America "off the face of the Earth" after accusing the US of planning a chemical weapons attack.

In an explosive new report published today, the secretive country has claimed the US is plotting an 'unprecedented disaster' on its nation.

However, the country says it will not remain a 'passive onlooker' - instead vowing to destroy the US, or 'empire of evils', in a catastrophic retaliation.

State newspaper The Rodong Sinmun says: "The DPRK will never remain a passive onlooker to the moves of the U.S. to provoke a biochemical war against it but will conclude the standoff with the U.S., the empire of evils, by wiping it off the face of the Earth.

"The U.S. must not disregard the warning of the DPRK that its reckless military moves would lead to its most miserable final doom."

The report, entitled 'U.S. Biochemical War Plan against Korean Nation under Fire', claimed the US is plotting a chemical weapons attack on the country.

It claimed that evidence had been uncovered suggesting the US transported chemical weapons to the South Korean port city of Busan in preparation for war.

The state newspaper adds: "The U.S. has fully revealed its criminal scenario to make no scruple of using biochemical weapons to exterminate the Korean nation in order to realize its wild ambition for dominating the world.

"Recently, the U.S. is busy floating the wild rumor about "threat from biochemical weapons" of the DPRK. Lurking behind this is its sinister design to secure a pretext for provoking a biochemical war against the DPRK."

It added: "The South Korean puppet group of traitors should not run riot, thinking twice about the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by their treacherous acts of conniving and backing the thrice-cursed and inhuman moves of the U.S. for igniting a biochemical war by playing the role of its stooge.

"All Koreans in the north, the south and abroad should turn out as one in the nation-wide struggle to frustrate the foolhardy north-targeted war moves of the U.S., the harasser of human peace and the most brutal mastermind of aggression, and the south Korean puppet group of traitors toeing the U.S. line."

For years Pyongyang has claimed the US government was preparing the so-called 'Plan Jupiter', a biochemical attack on the Korean Peninsula intended to topple the government of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un .

North Korea is one of six nations that has not signed the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention.

The Nuclear Threat Initiative, a US-based non-profit opposed to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, estimated in its 2015 report that North Korea possessed somewhere between 2,500 and 5,000 tons of chemical weapons

The claim came as North Korean soldiers were spotted getting in some R&R by playing volleyball at its nuclear test site this week.

The astonishingly pin sharp images captured during the latest satellite flyby of the zone show players out on at least three separate courts at the same time.

The implication is that it could mean that all the hard work is done and they are just awaiting orders from maniac dictator Kim Jong-un to test fire a nuclear weapon.

They come after speculation reported by MirrorOnline last week that Pyongyang is preparing for its sixth nuclear test at the North Portal of the Punggye-ri test site - amid a building political crisis between Pyongyang and Washington

The photographs were published by 38 North , the widely respected North Korea monitoring station at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland.

It has been observing changing activity at the site over the last eight weeks - around "the tunnel that North Korea appears to have been preparing for another nuclear test" - and the concern is that it could mean they are relaxing before the 'big day'.

38 North reports: "Imagery does show what may be three volleyball games underway at different locations throughout the facility, and possibly another volleyball net set up at the command center area."

Its analysts - Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., Jack Liu and Frank Pabian - claim that there could be two reasons for the unexpected activity at the test site:

- The soldiers are on stand-by for an imminent nuclear test "with personnel being allowed some down-time for recreation"

- Communist leader Kim Jong-un is fully aware of the satellite's flyby and this is part of a deliberate 'deception plan' - "delaying the sixth nuclear test until a time when a detonation would achieve the greatest political advantage".

There had been speculation that Jong-un intended to test fire a bomb - the biggest the country has ever tested - to coincide with the country's nationwide celebrations last Saturday, known as "The Day of the Sun".

He had been warned not to provoke action in the region by US President Donald Trump - with Washington already having warned it is "ready to hit back with nuclear attacks".

Pyongyang claims to have miniaturised nuclear warheads for use on missiles - and North Korea has been conducting a series of ballistic missile launches in recent months.

38 North reported: "Regardless, satellite imagery continues to indicate that the Punggye-ri nuclear test site appears able to conduct a sixth nuclear test at any time once the order is received from Pyongyang.

"Possible explanations for the most recent developments are the site and associated preparations for a sixth nuclear test have transitioned to a 'stand-by' status, with personnel being allowed some down-time for recreation.

"(Or) Pyongyang has initiated a tactical pause in activity at the test site as part of an overall deception plan, delaying the sixth nuclear test until a time when a detonation would achieve the greatest political advantage."

The US and South Korea held last month 'Warrior Strike 6' drills, which included disarming and securing simulated North Korean chemical weapons stockpiles.

 

[Heliobas Disciple]

Since the volleyball games were referenced in the above article, I'll post this update from the NYT's - volleyball games are over.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/22/world/asia/north-korea-nuclear-test-preparations.html
(fair use applies)

Volleyball Over, North Koreans Go Back to Work at Nuclear Site, Analysts Say
By CHOE SANG-HUNA
APRIL 22, 2017

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea appears to have resumed work at its nuclear test site after a perplexing series of volleyball matches were held there, according to analysts who studied satellite images of the site, renewing concerns that a major weapons test could be imminent.

Many observers had feared that North Korea would test a nuclear device at the site around April 15, the birthday of Kim Il-sung, the North’s founding president and the grandfather of the current leader, Kim Jong-un. But Mr. Kim’s government celebrated the day instead with a military parade in Pyongyang, the capital, during which a fleet of missiles were rolled out, including what analysts believed were never-before-seen long-range ballistic missiles.

North Korea carried out a missile test on Sunday, but it was considered an embarrassing failure, with the projectile exploding immediately after liftoff.

But North Korea is preparing to celebrate another major holiday this coming week: Tuesday will be the 85th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People’s Army, and the North often uses such occasions to show off its military advances.

“Given the North’s recent provocative words and actions and its April 25 People’s Army anniversary, there is concern that the North can attempt a provocation at any time,” South Korea’s acting president, Hwang Kyo-ahn, said Thursday.

On Friday, the analysts Joseph S. Bermudez Jr. and Jack Liu posted new satellite images of the nuclear test site in Punggye-ri, in northeastern North Korea, on 38 North, a website affiliated with the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

From the commercial imagery dating from Wednesday, they noted what looked like trailers near the portal of a tunnel where they said North Korea appeared to have been preparing for a nuclear test, which would be its sixth. They also noted mining carts along the tracks leading to a spoil pile and a net canopy, presumably concealing equipment.

The North Koreans appeared to have stopped pumping water out of the tunnel. In an earlier report, the analysts said this might mean that the tunnel had been sealed for a possible test.

In their previous study of satellite photos, taken last Sunday, the analysts noted several teams at the test site playing volleyball, a popular sport in the North. That left observers wondering whether the North Koreans were engaged in some sort of deception — they are believed to know when commercial satellites that take such images will fly overhead — or were simply taking Sunday off.

No one was playing volleyball in the images taken Wednesday.

Mr. Bermudez and Mr. Liu said it was unclear whether the latest activity from Punggye-ri reflected a “tactical pause” before a coming nuclear test, a prolonged “stand-down” from testing or normal operations at the site.

“Regardless, satellite imagery continues to indicate that the Punggye-ri nuclear test site appears able to conduct a sixth nuclear test at any time once the order is received from Pyongyang,” they concluded.

If the North tests another nuclear device, it would be a major show of defiance by Kim Jong-un, coming after President Trump’s repeated warnings against his country. Speaking on Monday in Seoul, the South Korean capital, Vice President Mike Pence said North Korea would do well not to test Mr. Trump’s “resolve or the strength of armed forces of the United States in the region.”

On Saturday in Sydney, Australia, Mr. Pence said that an American naval strike group led by the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson was expected to be in the Sea of Japan, which borders the Korean Peninsula, by the end of April.

Senior aides to Mr. Trump have said that military options are not off the table in dealing with North Korea’s rapidly advancing nuclear and missile technologies. Those remarks prompted fears in the region that the new American president might order a pre-emptive strike at North Korea’s weapons sites, which could set off a war.

North Korea has conducted a series of nuclear and ballistic missile tests since 2006 as it seeks to develop a small, sophisticated nuclear warhead and an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, capable of reaching targets as far away as the United States.

In a New Year’s Day speech, Mr. Kim said his country was almost ready to conduct its first ICBM test.

 

[Shacknasty Shagrat]

tick tock
If the tunnel is sealed, due to the nature of the test, they cannot wait too long.
SS

'he Intel Crab Retweeted
InsideNK‏ @inside_nk 2h2 hours ago

#NorthKorea have stopped pumping water out of the tunnel. Analysts said this might mean that the tunnel had been sealed for a possible test.
4 replies 38 retweets 21 likes

https://twitter.com/intelcrab?lang=en