Xtra News Community 2

North Korea has warned Wednesday it will fire an intercontinental ballistic missile - or even carry out another nuclear test - unless the UN apologises for condemning the regime's April 5 rocket launch.

By flaunting its rogue nuclear and missile programs, Pyongyang has raised the stakes in the escalating diplomatic tit for tat with the outside world. North Korea also said it would start generating nuclear fuel - an indication the regime will begin enriching uranium, another material used to make an atomic bomb.

North Korea is known for its use of brinksmanship and harsh rhetoric to force the West to react, but the threat of a nuclear test is significant.

Pyongyang conducted its first atomic test in 2006, and is thought to have enough plutonium to make at least half a dozen nuclear bombs. There are no indications, however, that scientists in the North have mastered the technology needed to make a nuclear warhead small enough to fit onto a missile.

Still, North Korea's April 5 rocket launch drew widespread international concern. Pyongyang claims the liftoff was a peaceful bid to send a communications satellite into space, but the US, Japan and others saw it as a furtive test of a delivery system capable of sending a long-range missile within striking range of Alaska.

The UN Council denounced the launch as a violation of 2006 resolutions barring the North from missile-related activity, and later imposed new sanctions on three North Korean firms.

http://www.3news.co.nz/North-Korea-threatens-nuke-test-if-UN-doesnt-apologise/tabid/209/articleID/101863/cat/61/Default.aspx?ArticleID=101863

North Korea said it would start a uranium enrichment programme and vowed to weaponise all of its plutonium in response to UN punishment for its nuclear test.


Pyongyang also threatened military action if the United States and its allies tried to isolate it.


The Security Council approved a resolution on Friday which banned all weapons exports from North Korea and most arms imports into the state. It authorised UN member states to inspect North Korean sea, air and land cargo, requiring them to seize and destroy goods shipped that violate the sanctions.


"We'll take firm military action if the United States and its allies try to isolate us," KCNA news agency quoted an unnamed Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying in a statement.

http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/n-korea-threatens-nuclear-action-2782530

Someone needs to practise a nuke on NK.

(https://cdn.smfboards.com/Smileys/smf/afro.gif)


Either that or just take out the sick buggers running the place... the whole family and govt structure.
Problem is - they have a very large ground army don't they?

Perhaps a bomb would be best...

Nah - I dont want to see the innocents in NK harmed in that way.  Thats just sick.

Agree

There has to be some way that the people of North Korea can be empowered to get rid of the current leadership.

But, then again, maybe they like it that way. The North Korean regime bears a striking similarity to KTJ's Railway Union in the way it deals with those who have the ability to think for themselves.

First of all they have to be educated - but how do you reach them when they are locked up like they are?

You would need to remove the powers that be first wouldn't you?

Yeh true - but nuking him isnt imo the way to go - we need to send James Bond in  ;D  at least someone who can pick him off and get out leaving no trace - just like they do in the movies.

The United States has deployed anti-missile defences around Hawaii amid reports that North Korea may fire its most advanced ballistic missile towards the US islands next month, adding to already high tensions in the region.A report in a Japanese newspaper said Pyongyang might test-fire its Taepodong-2 towards Hawaii around the US holiday of Independence Day.

North Korea test-fired a similar long-range missile on July 4 three years ago, but it failed seconds after liftoff.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the extra defences around Hawaii consisted of a ground-based mobile missile system and a radar system nearby. Together they could shoot an incoming missile in midair.

"Without telegraphing what we will do, I would just say ... we are in a good position should it become necessary, to protect Americans and American territory," Gates said in Washington yesterday.

A new missile launch - though not expected to reach US territory - would be a brazen slap in the face of the international community, which punished North Korea with new United Nations sanctions for conducting a second nuclear test on May 25 in defiance of a UN ban.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10579637&ref=rss

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I was day dreaming the other day - thinking about all the bombings that have gone off throughout the world since 9/11.  Sometimes we read about bomb making equipment found in Britain - and the world heaves a sigh of relief.  All over the world baddies are making preparations - except in the USA  :o  We do not hear of anything even resembling an attempt to bomb something there - always - always the baddies are caught before they do any harm.  Im getting too cynical now and find I hardly believe those news items.

Makes me even more convinced that 9/11 was a deliberate move by the US to enable them to become involved in the 'terrorist war' - just like Pearl Harbour.  Why havent they been hit again -- and again -- I do not believe its their Homeland Security.  Other countries have just as good if not better Homeland Security and still suffer terrorism bombings.

This could prove interesting - cos NK cant reach Hawaii -should be good target practice for the yanks though.

At the last minute the missile might turn in another direction  ;D  or - without the US being aware they could have missiles that will reach US land and territories.

This must be pissing Mr Hussein Obama off - he wants to bring peace to the world - fat chance!

Report: North Korea ship suspected of carrying missiles
Mon, 22 Jun 2009 7:26a.m.


A US Navy destroyer is tailing a North Korean ship suspected of carrying illicit weapons toward Myanmar in what could be the first test of new UN sanctions against the North over its recent nuclear test, a leading TV network said.

The South Korean news network YTN, citing an unidentified intelligence source in the South, said the US suspects the cargo ship Kang Nam is carrying missiles and related parts. Myanmar's military government, which faces an arms embargo from the United States and the European Union, has reportedly bought weapons from North Korea.

YTN said the US has deployed a destroyer and is using satellites to track the ship, which was expected to travel to Myanmar via Singapore.

South Korea's Defence Ministry, Unification Ministry and National Intelligence Service said they could not confirm the report. Calls to the US military command in Seoul were not answered late Sunday.

The ship is reportedly the first North Korean vessel to be tracked under the new UN sanctions.

Two US officials said Thursday that the US military had begun tracking the ship, which left a North Korean port Wednesday and was travelling off the coast of China.

One of the officials said it was uncertain what the Kang Nam was carrying, but that it had been involved in weapons proliferation before. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence.
http://www.3news.co.nz/Report-North-Korea-ship-suspected-of-carrying-missiles/tabid/209/articleID/109459/cat/61/Default.aspx?ArticleID=109459

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Is this going to be another case of unfound WMD??

I reckon it's a decoy while they slip the real cargo through the back door (Myanmar and China are neighbors).

Seems dumb for China to send anything to Myanmar via boat...

N Korea fears nuclear attack  

North Korea has accused the US of plotting atomic war, saying President Obama's recent reaffirmation of nuclear protection of S Korea, exposed his government's intention to attack.

In what would be the first test for the new UN sanctions against the North, South Korean media also reported on Sunday that a North Korean ship sailing toward Myanmar via Singapore was being shadowed by the US military, over suspicion that it may be carrying illicit weapons.

US officials said on Thursday that the US military had begun tracking the ship, Kang Nam, which left a North Korean port on Wednesday.

South Korean television network YTN, citing an unidentified intelligence source in the South, reported that the US suspected the 2,000-tonne-class ship was carrying missiles and other related weapons towards Myanmar - which has faced an arms embargo from the United States and the European Union and has reportedly bought weapons from North Korea.

The report said the US had also deployed a navy destroyer and had been using satellites to track the ship.

South Korea's Defence Ministry, Unification Ministry and the National Intelligence Service said they could not confirm the report.

Tension on the Korean peninsula has spiked since the North defiantly conducted its second nuclear test on May 25.

North Korea later declared it would bolster its atomic bomb-making program and threatened war in protest at UN sanctions for its test.

Obama reaffirmed Washington's security commitment to South Korea, including through US nuclear protection, after a meeting on Tuesday in Washington with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.

Obama also said the UN sanctions would be aggressively enforced.

In its first response to the summit, North Korea's government-run weekly Tongil Sinbo said that Obama's comments only revealed a US plot to invade the North with nuclear weapons.

"It's not a coincidence at all for the US to have brought numerous nuclear weapons into South Korea and other adjacent sites, staging various massive war drills opposing North Korea every day and watching for a chance for an invasion," said the commentary published on Saturday.

The weekly also said the North will also "surely judge" the Lee government for participating in a US-led international campaign to "stifle" the North.

North Korea says its nuclear program is a deterrent against the US, which it routinely accuses of plotting to topple its communist regime.

Washington, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, has repeatedly said it has no such intention and has no nuclear weapons deployed there.

On Saturday, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said Seoul had proposed five-way talks with the US, China, Russia and Japan to find a new way to deal with the North's threats.

The US and Japan have agreed to participate, while China and Russia have yet to respond, the official said.

North Korea and the five countries began negotiating under the so-called "six-party talks" in 2003 with the aim of giving the communist regime economic aid and other concessions in exchange for dismantling its nuclear program.

In April, however, the North said it was pulling out of the talks in response to international criticism of its controversial April 5 long-range rocket launch.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/2523275/N-Korea-fears-nuclear-attack

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The NK leaders are sick in the head.

There's just no other way to describe it!
 ???

from The Washington Post....

Signs of possible nuclear test in North Korea

By ANNA FIFIELD | 10:15PM EST - Tuesay, January 05, 2016

(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Washington%20Post%20Pix%202016/20160105kju_KimJongUn_zpsctwzimtb.jpg) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2016/01/06/Interactivity/Images/North_Korea_Koreas_Tension.JPEG-02937-6641.jpg)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. — Photograph: Associated Press.

TOKYO — There were signs of unusual seismic activity around North Korea's main nuclear test site Wednesday morning, sparking fears that Pyongyang ordered the detonation of another atomic device two days before Kim Jong Un's birthday.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said it would make a special announcement at noon Pyongyang time (10:30 p.m. EST).

This came after earthquake agencies in China, Japan and the United States all recorded unusual seismic activity in the northeastern corner of North Korea at about 10:30 a.m. local time Wednesday.

The U.S. Geological Survey (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/#%7B%22feed%22%3A%221day_m25%22%2C%22search%22%3Anull%2C%22listFormat%22%3A%22default%22%2C%22sort%22%3A%22newest%22%2C%22basemap%22%3A%22grayscale%22%2C%22autoUpdate%22%3Atrue%2C%22restrictListToMap%22%3Atrue%2C%22timeZone%22%3A%22utc%22%2C%22mapposition%22%3A%5B%5B14.008696370634658%2C78.57421875%5D%2C%5B59.80063426102869%2C176.044921875%5D%5D%2C%22overlays%22%3A%7B%22plates%22%3Atrue%7D%2C%22viewModes%22%3A%7B%22list%22%3Atrue%2C%22map%22%3Atrue%2C%22settings%22%3Afalse%2C%22help%22%3Afalse%7D%7D) recorded a shallow 5.1-magnitude quake about 20 miles from the facility at Punggye-ri,where North Korea has carried out its three previous nuclear tests. Japan's Meteorological Agency said that it appeared to be some kind of artificial explosion and that the waveform was very similar to the ones detected at the nuclear tests in the past, public broadcaster NHK reported.

(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Washington%20Post%20Pix%202016/20160105nkq_NorthKoreaQuake_zpsucabtc0d.jpg) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_480w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2016/01/06/Foreign/Graphics/2300-northkoreaquake0106.jpg)

In both Seoul and Tokyo, the government's called emergency national security meetings to discuss the possibility of a nuclear test.

Joel Wit, a former American diplomat who runs the 38 North website that specializes in North Korea's weapons systems, said that while it was too soon be definitive, the location of the earthquake was “highly suspicious.”

“If this was the fourth North Korean nuclear test, its exact purpose — whether to develop smaller nuclear warheads for missiles or higher-yield bombs — remains unclear,” Wit said. “What is clear is that North Korea is moving forward with its nuclear weapons program and that the United States, China and the international community need to come up with more effective ways to deal with this growing threat.”

North Korea has conducted three nuclear tests since 2006 but only one during Kim Jong Un's reign, in February 2013.

Many analysts have been surprised that such a long period has passed without another test, since it is by testing that North Korea can advance its program.

Still, with typical North Korean bluster (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/kim-jong-un-north-korea-ready-for-any-kind-of-war-against-us/2015/10/10/6270cf60-6dc1-11e5-91eb-27ad15c2b723_story.html), Kim has repeatedly boasted of North Korea's increased nuclear capacity. He has declared that his regime has been able to make a device small enough to fit on a missile, and that it has the capability to make a hydrogen bomb, a device that is exponentially more powerful than an atomic one.

• Anna Fifield is The Washington Post's bureau chief in Tokyo, focusing on Japan and the Koreas. She previously reported for the Financial Times from Washington DC, Seoul, Sydney, London and from across the Middle East.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/signs-of-possible-nuclear-test-in-north-korea/2016/01/05/d8f300e7-995d-40de-a082-3171f0cc0ea9_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/signs-of-possible-nuclear-test-in-north-korea/2016/01/05/d8f300e7-995d-40de-a082-3171f0cc0ea9_story.html)

...mmmm..a need for political reform there.....perhaps a little persuasion is required :P

from The Washington Post....

North Korea says it conducted successful hydrogen bomb test

By FOSTER KLUG and KIM TONG-HYUNG - Associated Press | 11:08PM EST - Tuesday, January 05, 2016

(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Washington%20Post%20Pix%202016/20160105kjux_KimJongUn_zpsuisvk76f.jpg) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2016/01/06/Foreign/Images/2016-01-01T225114Z_01_PYO000_RTRIDSP_3_NORTHKOREA-KIM-5312.jpg)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gives a New Year's address for 2016 in Pyongyang, in this photo released on January 1st.
 — Photograph: Kyodo/Reuters.

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said on Wednesday (local time) it had conducted a hydrogen bomb test, a defiant and surprising move that, if confirmed, would put Pyongyang a big step closer toward improving its still-limited nuclear arsenal.

A television anchor read a typically propaganda-heavy statement on state TV that said North Korea had tested a “miniaturized” hydrogen bomb, elevating the country's “nuclear might to the next level” and providing it with a weapon to defend against the United States and its other enemies.

The statement said the test was a “perfect success.”

The test, if confirmed by outside experts, will lead to a strong push for new, tougher sanctions at the United Nations and further worsen already abysmal relations between Pyongyang and its neighbors.

North Korean nuclear tests worry Washington and others because each new blast is seen as pushing North Korea’s scientists and engineers closer to their goal of an arsenal of nuclear-tipped missiles that can reach the United States.

While a hydrogen bomb is much more powerful than an atomic bomb, it is also much harder to make. In a hydrogen bomb, radiation from a nuclear fission explosion sets off a fusion reaction responsible for a powerful blast and radioactivity.

North Korea is thought to have a handful of rudimentary nuclear bombs and has spent decades trying to perfect a multistage, long-range missile to eventually carry smaller versions of those bombs. After several failures, it put its first satellite into space with a long-range rocket launched in December 2012.

Experts say that ballistic missiles and rockets in satellite launches share similar bodies, engines and other technology. The U.N. called the 2012 launch a banned test of ballistic missile technology.

Some analysts say the North hasn't likely achieved the technology needed to manufacture a miniaturized warhead that could fit on a long-range missile capable of hitting the U.S. But there is a growing debate on just how far the North has advanced in its secretive nuclear and missile programs.

In the first indication of a possible test, the U.S. Geological Survey measured an earthquake Wednesday morning with a magnitude of 5.1. An official from the Korea Metrological Administration, South Korea’s weather agency, said the agency believed the earthquake was caused artificially based on an analysis of the seismic waves and because it originated 49 kilometers (30 miles) north of Kilju, the northeastern area where North Korea's main nuclear test site is located. The country conducted all three previous atomic detonations there.

The test is a surprise, both in its purported type and its timing.

North Korea hadn't conducted an atomic explosion since early 2013, and leader Kim Jong Un did not mention the country's nuclear weapons in his New Year's speech. Outside analysts speculated that Kim was worried about deteriorating ties with China, the North's last major ally, which has shown signs of greater frustration at provocations and a possible willingness to allow strong U.N. sanctions.

The size of Wednesday's quake is bigger than seismic activity reported in previous atomic bomb tests. Yonhap news agency reported that quake monitoring agencies detected magnitudes of seismic activity of 3.7 in 2006; 4.5 in 2009 and 4.9 in 2013.

After the North's third atomic test, in February 2013, Pyongyang launched a campaign of bellicose rhetoric that included threats to launch a nuclear attack on the United States and Seoul. North Korea claimed in 2013 that it had scrapped the 1953 armistice that ended fighting in the Korean War. Pyongyang has also restarted a plutonium nuclear reactor shuttered after a 2007 nuclear deal that later fell apart.

Since the elevation of young leader Kim Jong Un in 2011, North Korea has ramped up angry rhetoric against the leaders of allies Washington and Seoul and the U.S.-South Korean annual military drills it considers invasion preparation.

• Associated Press writer Hyung-jin Kim contributed to this story from Seoul.


More on this topic:

 • GRAPHIC: Eight countries. 2,054 nuclear tests. 70 years. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/world/nuclear-tests)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/earthquake-detected-in-north-korea-not-clear-if-nuke-test/2016/01/05/31ddb454-b41a-11e5-8abc-d09392edc612_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/earthquake-detected-in-north-korea-not-clear-if-nuke-test/2016/01/05/31ddb454-b41a-11e5-8abc-d09392edc612_story.html)

...good idea...a coalition of which NZ plays a minor role....let's wait to see what Hillary says ;)

from The Washington Post....

North Korea’s claims of testing its first hydrogen bomb draws skepticism, condemnations

By ANNA FIFIELD | 2:04AM EST - Wednesday, January 06, 2016

(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Washington%20Post%20Pix%202016/20160106_SeoulRailwayStation_zpsshzqo4hl.jpg) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2016/01/06/Foreign/Images/South_Korea_North_Korea_Nuclear-0ed4b-5310.jpg)
People watch a television news program showing North Korea's announcement, at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea.
 — Photograph: Ahn Young-Joon/Associated Press.

TOKYO — North Korea claimed on Wednesday that it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb, a claim that, if true, would mark a huge step forward in its nuclear capability.

“The first H-bomb test was successfully conducted,” the official Korean Central News Agency said in a statement issued shortly after a special announcement was broadcast on state-run television.

Calling the device an “H-bomb of justice,” North Korea said it needed the weapon for defense against the United States, which it described as “the chieftain of aggression, watching for a chance for attack on it with huge nukes of various types.”

“Nothing is more foolish than dropping a hunting gun before herds of ferocious wolves,” the statement said in North Korea's trademark colorful prose.

But there was some skepticism about the claim, with nuclear experts noting that the yield appeared to be similar to North Korea's three previous atomic tests, rather than the “enormous” yield that would be expected if it had been a thermonuclear explosion.

In Washington, the State Department said it was monitoring the situation.

“While we cannot confirm these claims at this time, we condemn any violation of UN Security Council Resolutions and again call on North Korea to abide by its international obligations and commitments,” said John Kirby, the State Department spokesman. “We have consistently made clear that we will not accept it as a nuclear state. We will continue to protect and defend our allies in the region, including [South] Korea, and will respond appropriately to any and all North Korean provocations.”

Either way, Pyongyang's provocative action will present a new challenge to the outside world, which has struggled to find ways to bring about an end to North Korea's nuclear defiance.

“North Korea's fourth test — in the context of repeated statements by U.S., Chinese, and South Korean leaders — throws down the gauntlet to the international community to go beyond paper resolutions and find a way to impose real costs on North Korea for pursuing this course of action,” said Scott Snyder, a Korea expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Kim Jong Un's regime hinted in December that it had built a hydrogen bomb (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/north-korea-says-its-ready-to-detonate-h-bomb-but-skepticism-abounds/2015/12/10/fe69922e-17ef-4020-8342-1b07fde0a55b_story.html) to “defend its sovereignty and the dignity of the nation.” Some analysts were doubtful, saying the young leader appeared primarily concerned with trying to bolster his legitimacy.

Hydrogen, or thermonuclear, bombs are exponentially more powerful and destructive than atomic devices. An atomic bomb uses fission to break up the atomic nucleus and release energy, while a hydrogen or thermonuclear bomb uses fusion to add to the nucleus. This leads to an enormous explosion resulting from an uncontrolled, self-sustaining chain reaction.

Kim has repeatedly asserted North Korea's status as a nuclear-armed country (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/pyongyang-says-it-has-technology-to-make-small-submarined-mounted-nuclear-warheads/2015/05/20/0e96d0bc-fec0-11e4-833c-a2de05b6b2a4_story.html) and has resolutely refused to return to multilateral talks aimed at persuading it to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

North Korea had conducted three nuclear tests since 2006 but only one during Kim's reign, in February 2013.To the surprise of many analysts, there had been no fourth test.

Then, there were signs of unusual seismic activity around North Korea’s main nuclear test site Wednesday morning, sparking fears that Pyongyang had ordered the detonation of another atomic device two days before Kim's birthday.

Earthquake agencies in China, Japan and the United States all recorded unusual seismic activity in the northeastern corner of North Korea at 10 a.m. local time. The U.S. Geological Survey (http://www.usgs.gov) recorded a 5.1-magnitude quake at ground level about 20 miles from the facility at Punggye-ri, where North Korea has carried out its three previous nuclear tests.

Many analysts have been surprised that such a long period has passed without another test, because it is by testing that North Korea can advance its program.

“I think they have a technological path in mind,” said Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, California.

In December, Lewis noted that satellite pictures showed North Korea appeared to be building a new tunnel (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/north-korea-building-new-tunnel-at-nuclear-test-site-satellites-show/2015/12/02/9e707f56-9940-11e5-aca6-1ae3be6f06d2_story.html) at its nuclear test site, warning that the Pyongyang regime might be preparing to conduct a fourth atomic test. “There is a lot of tunneling at the test site, which could mean they have a bunch of tests planned,” he said.

Although analysts were still awaiting more data, Lewis said that Wednesday's explosion looked very similar to past tests and was not enormous, suggesting it was not a hydrogen bomb.

Joel Wit, a former U.S. diplomat who runs the 38 North website (http://38north.org) dedicated to North Korea, added that the purpose of the test remained unclear.

“What is clear is that North Korea is moving forward with its nuclear weapons program and that the United States, China and the international community need to come up with more effective ways to deal with this growing threat,” he said.

Previous nuclear tests have been met with international condemnation, including resolutions from the U.N. Security Council, but have done nothing to deter Pyongyang. The Security Council Wednesday scheduled an emergency meeting to discuss the test.

In Seoul and Tokyo, the governments called emergency national security meetings. “This nuclear test by North Korea is a major threat to our country's security, and I absolutely cannot accept it,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters. “Also, it is clearly a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions so … we will take strong measures, including steps within the U.N. Security Council.”

South Korean President Park Geun-hye said North Korea would pay the price for the test, which she called a “grave provocation.”

“Now, the government should closely cooperate with the international community to make sure that North Korea pays the corresponding price for the nuclear test,” Park said in a national security council meeting, according to the Yonhap News Agency.

China, North Korea's closest ally and a veto-wielding permanent member of the security council, also condemned the test.

“Today the DPRK ignored the general objection from the international community and conducted a nuclear test once again. As to this matter, China strongly opposes,” Hua Chunying, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman told reporters in Beijing Wednesday.

“China will resolutely promote the goal of denuclearization on the peninsula, and stick to solving the peninsula nuclear issues through the six party talk framework,” she said, referring to long-defunct multilateral talks aimed at convincing North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions.

She said China knew nothing in advance about the nuclear test.

“China will keep fulfilling its international obligations that it should fulfill, and make efforts together with the international community to realize the denuclearization of the peninsula,” she told reporters.

“China strongly opposes North Korea's nuclear test and will summon North Korean high officials, ambassador, to lodge our solemn representations,” she said.

Although China remains North Korea's biggest patron, relations have been severely strained since Kim took power and detonated a nuclear device a month before Xi Jinping took over as president of China.

In Russia, which has bolstered its ties with North Korea in recent years, one senior official condemned the detonation.

“Any action of the DPRK in this area directly affects the national security of our country,” wrote Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the foreign affairs committee of Russia's upper house of parliament, on Facebook.

But turning the focus on Russia's conflict with the west, Kosachev complained that the United States had not ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. He said that the failure to do so had emboldened North Korea to do as it pleased.

• Simon Denyer in Beijing, Michael Birnbaum in Moscow, Yoonjung Seo in Seoul and Yuki Oda in Tokyo contributed to this report.

• Anna Fifield is The Washington Post's bureau chief in Tokyo, focusing on Japan and the Koreas. She previously reported for the Financial Times from Washington DC, Seoul, Sydney, London and from across the Middle East.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/north-korea-says-it-has-conducted-a-successful-hydrogen-bomb-test/2016/01/06/9add0e52-b436-11e5-a76a-0b5145e8679a_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/north-korea-says-it-has-conducted-a-successful-hydrogen-bomb-test/2016/01/06/9add0e52-b436-11e5-a76a-0b5145e8679a_story.html)

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from The Washington Post....

Q&A: Why is North Korea’s hydrogen bomb test such a big deal?

By ANNA FIFIELD | 3:10AM EST - Wednesday, January 06, 2016

(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Washington%20Post%20Pix%202016/20160106a_KimJongUn_zpspfkf6ila.jpg) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_908w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2015/07/30/Production/Daily/A-Section/Images/2015-07-30T122835Z_01_SIN406_RTRIDSP_3_NORTHKOREA-POLITICS.jpg&w=1484)
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un claps his hands during a photo session with participants of the Fourth National Conference
of War Veterans in front of the Fatherland Liberation War Martyrs Cemetery in this undated photo released by North Korea's
Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on July 30th, 2015.

NORTH KOREA's claim on Wednesday that it had tested a hydrogen bomb (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/signs-of-possible-nuclear-test-in-north-korea/2016/01/05/d8f300e7-995d-40de-a082-3171f0cc0ea9_story.html) alarmed Pyongyang's Asian neighbors — and the rest of the world. We take a look at what's behind this new North Korean claim.

Is this a big deal? We already knew they had nukes, right?

It's a big deal because a hydrogen, or thermonuclear, bomb is much, much more powerful.

The “Little Boy” atomic bomb that the United States dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945 had a yield of 15 kilotons, while the “Fat Man” dropped on Nagasaki a few days later had a yield of 20 kilotons. By comparison, the dry fuel hydrogen bomb (https://www.ctbto.org/specials/testing-times/1-march-1954-castle-bravo) that the U.S. tested at Bikini Atoll in 1954 had a yield of 15 megatons — making it more than 1,000 times as powerful as the Hiroshima bomb.

Here's how Kim Du-yeon of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace explains it:

It's basically a difference in the technical process by which an explosion is obtained and in the explosive power (measured in yield). An atomic bomb uses fission and an H-bomb uses fusion.  An H-bomb (thermonuclear bomb) has an exponentially greater yield (thousands of times more powerful). It includes an atomic bomb inside its core that acts as a trigger.

Was this a surprise?

Not really. North Korea had hinted that this might be coming. In December, Kim Jong Un said his country was “a powerful nuclear weapons state ready to detonate self-reliant A-bomb and H-bomb to reliably defend its sovereignty and the dignity of the nation.” And before that, the North Korean ambassador to London had said in a speech that North Korea had weapons that were “ten times as powerful” as the nuclear devices it had previously detonated.

It sounds like the end is nigh. Is it really?

Hold on there. There's still a considerable degree of skepticism about whether this really was a hydrogen bomb that was tested today. Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, says a few words of caution are in order.

Here's what he wrote on 38 North (http://38north.org/2015/12/jlewis121415) after Kim’s claim in December:

Building a staged thermonuclear weapon — one in which the radiation from a fission primary compresses a secondary stage of thermonuclear fuel — seems to be a bit of a stretch for the North Koreans. That is the sort of device one normally thinks about when someone says “H-bomb”. Thermonuclear weapons are tricky; making one work requires a bit of test experience. While the North Koreans finally conducted an unambiguously successful nuclear test in 2013, the 2006 and 2009 tests were less so.

South Korean lawmakers on the parliamentary intelligence committee told local reporters that the supposed hydrogen bomb that North Korea tested Wednesday had a yield of about 6 kilotons — making it about the same size as North Korea's 2013 atomic test and a much smaller explosion than usually associated with hydrogen.

Why now?

It's Kim Jong Un's birthday on Friday — probably his 33rd, although it could be his 32nd, such is the paucity of our knowledge about the “Great Successor” — so the launch could be an early gift for him. The leaders' birthdays are always celebrated with a lot of fanfare in North Korea, although this is more true of Kim Il Sung, the founding president and the current leader's grandfather, and of Kim Jong Il, the second in the dynasty.

More likely this is all about preparing for the much-awaited Seventh Congress of the Korean Workers' Party in May this year, the first in 36 years.

As Toshimitsu Shigemura, a North Korea specialist at Waseda University in Tokyo, puts it:  “Kim Jong Un needs great results before the party congress in May. His father didn't test a hydrogen bomb but now he can say that he has. That's a very great result for him.”

So what happens now?

Regardless of whether the explosion was atomic or thermonuclear, it was a brazen provocation and a clear defiance of international treaties. So get ready for lots of international condemnation and some stern words at the United Nations. Already North Korea's neighbors — South Korea, Japan and China — have sternly criticized the test, and the the United States is getting ready to do so, once it's confirmed. The U.N. Security Council is set to hold an emergency meeting.

The question is: will the Security Council be able to pass a resolution with teeth?

The Security Council has adopted four major resolutions (https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/UN-Security-Council-Resolutions-on-North-Korea) since North Korea's first nuclear test in 2006 — one after each of the 2006, 2009 and 2013 tests, and another after a satellite launch in December 2012. All have imposed sanctions on North Korea and sought to both stop it from getting the equipment it needs to develop its nuclear weapons program and to convince it to give up the pursuit of nuclear capability. Clearly, none of these have had much, if any, impact.

Will this time be different?

Well, it really depends how mad China is. In 2013, China — North Korea's closest ally and a veto-wielding permanent member of the council — was so angry with Pyongyang that it did support a resolution that expanded the sanctions regime, notably by making it more difficult for North Korea to transfer money.

But as mad as Beijing gets, it still has its eye on the bigger picture: it doesn't want North Korea to collapse and send millions of hungry refugees over China's north-eastern border, and nor does it want the American troops currently in South Korea up on that border. So China's primary interest is stability. But don't expect Xi Jinping to be at the Congress in May.

• Anna Fifield is The Washington Post's bureau chief in Tokyo, focusing on Japan and the Koreas. She previously reported for the Financial Times from Washington DC, Seoul, Sydney, London and from across the Middle East.


Read more on this topic:

 • China ‘firmly opposes’ North Korea’s claimed bomb test (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/china-firmly-opposes-north-koreas-claimed-bomb-test/2016/01/06/5bf09d06-b44c-11e5-8abc-d09392edc612_story.html)

 • The Latest: Australia, France, China condemn nuke test (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/the-latest-un-detects-unusual-seismic-event-in-n-korea/2016/01/05/27ee6668-b42f-11e5-8abc-d09392edc612_story.html)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/01/06/qa-why-is-north-koreas-hydrogen-bomb-test-such-a-big-deal (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/01/06/qa-why-is-north-koreas-hydrogen-bomb-test-such-a-big-deal)

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CYCfY9PVAAA3xYP.jpg) (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CYCfY9PVAAA3xYP.jpg)

from The Washington Post....

Kim Jong Un celebrates his birthday with a bang as he seeks to cement rule

By ANNA FIFIELD | 12:34PM EST - Thursday, January 07, 2016

(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Cartoons%202016/20160107_KimJongUnChristmasPresent_zpssnqm6tiu.jpg) (http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/5b07e3037a927a402b170ca884727564?width=1024&api_key=zw4msefggf9wdvqswdfuqnr5)

TOKYO — Kim Jong Un turns 33 on Friday, and from the North Korean leader's perspective, he has plenty to celebrate: Everyone's talking about him again.

After several years of being overshadowed by the more imminent threat of the Islamic State and jockeying with Iran for the title of scariest nuclear regime, North Korea is back on the international agenda.

Governments around the world rushed to condemn Wednesday's nuclear test (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/signs-of-possible-nuclear-test-in-north-korea/2016/01/05/d8f300e7-995d-40de-a082-3171f0cc0ea9_story.html) — regardless of whether it involved a hydrogen bomb, as Pyongyang claimed, or an atomic device in line with its three previous tests — and the U.N. Security Council called an emergency meeting. In the United States, presidential hopefuls piled on with denunciations of Kim. Hillary Clinton called him a “bully”, Marco Rubio said he was a “lunatic”, and Ted Cruz dubbed him a “megalomaniacal maniac”.

Kim, like his father, Kim Jong Il, is often viewed as a caricature: a rotund man with a bad haircut and a worse standard outfit who spews invective at the outside world and watches basketball games in his luxurious palaces.

But with this week's test, Kim has shown that he is no joke. He is playing the cards he has and is exactly where he wants to be, said Michael Madden, who runs the North Korea Leadership Watch (https://nkleadershipwatch.wordpress.com) website.

“It's less than a month before the Iowa caucuses, and he's trying to put North Korea at the top of the debate and the discussion among U.S. presidential candidates,” Madden said. “All of the people running for the position of commander in chief now have to talk about North Korea.”

The Kims have a habit of using their weapons program as a bargaining chip, launching missiles and detonating nuclear devices to try to extract rewards from the international community for not doing so again. North Korea has repeated this pattern for more than 20 years.

Analysts are split on whether this week's test is a sign that Pyongyang wants to return to negotiations, despite its repeated assertions that the world must accept it as a nuclear state, or an indication that it has given up on the prospect of talks.

“North Korea had come to a fork in the road where it could either pursue diplomacy or brinksmanship,” said Ken Gause, a leadership expert at CNA, a research company in Arlington, Virginia.

There were intermittent attempts last year to bring representatives of the United States and North Korea to the table, but those efforts went nowhere.

“Kim Jong Un came to the conclusion that the diplomatic strategy was not showing progress, so he made the decision to double down on the nuclear side,” Gause said.

(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Washington%20Post%20Pix%202016/20160107_NorthKoreaBombTest_zpsvo3gxrv9.jpg) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rw/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2016/01/07/Foreign/Images/Hkg10242734.jpg)
A picture released by KCNA showing a document attributed to Kim Jong Un authorizing
the country's first hydrogen bomb test. — Picture: Kns/AFP/Getty Images.

North Korea said that the “Great Successor” himself ordered Wednesday's explosion.

“Respected Kim Jong Un … issued an order on conducting a test of the first hydrogen bomb of [North] Korea,” the state-run Korean Central Television station said in a broadcast this week, showing pictures of Kim sitting at his desk and shots of handwritten instructions bearing Kim's name.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2LxMiosBew (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2LxMiosBew)

Indeed, as much as Kim apparently wants to work his way into the international spotlight, this week's test also served an important purpose at home.

Kim is presenting himself as a strong leader who is taking his country forward in the face of “hostile policies” from a “gang of cruel robbers”, as the North's state media characterized the United States this week.

“North Korea is extremely careful about timing,” said Sue Mi Terry, a former CIA analyst who is now at the business consultancy Bower Group Asia. “Now it's time to show that he's a strong, powerful, legitimate leader. And it's his birthday. So why not?”

The bigger reason for Kim to flex his nuclear muscles now, after almost three years without a test, is the May congress of the Korean Workers' Party (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/10/08/north-korea-gets-ready-to-party), the backbone of the communist state. Such a gathering has not been held in 36 years, since Kim Jong Il was announced as heir to his father, founding president Kim Il Sung, in 1980.

Just a week ago, Kim — wearing new glasses that served to make him look even more like his grandfather — delivered a New Year's address (http://www.ncnk.org/resources/news-items/kim-jong-uns-speeches-and-public-statements-1/kim-jong-uns-2016-new-year-address) in which he said the congress would “unfold an ambitious blueprint for hastening final victory for our revolution.”

Some analysts expect the regime to revise the party charter, the organizing document of North Korea's political system, at the congress and enshrine Kim's two-track “byungjin” policy — the idea that North Korea can develop its economy (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/north-koreas-growing-economy-and-americas-misconceptions-about-it/2015/03/13/b551d2d0-c1a8-11e4-a188-8e4971d37a8d_story.html) and its nuclear program simultaneously. “Instead of being just some new flowery language in an otherwise boring political document, they will be able to hold up a tangible accomplishment to that effect,” Madden said.

Being able to claim that he is presiding over advances in the economic and the nuclear spheres will help Kim to bolster his legitimacy. Although it has been four years since he inherited the world’s only communist dynasty, Kim lacks the mythological aura that attended his father and grandfather.

Kim Il Sung was heralded as a brave, anti-imperialist revolutionary, and Kim Jong Il was said to have been born on Korea's sacred mountain (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the-switzerland-of-china-offers-busy-chinese-a-go-slow-vacation/2015/08/10/97bec4a0-3c3f-11e5-a312-1a6452ac77d2_story.html) under a bright star. But because of the suddenness of Kim Jong Il's death, there was no time to manufacture a story for Kim Jong Un, who was educated partly in Switzerland, and to similarly deify him in the propaganda.

This, plus the fact that he is so young in a society that prizes seniority, continues to prompt questions about the legitimacy of his leadership and the strength of his grip on power.

The critical messages assaulting his legitimacy that were broadcast into the North from South Korea during the summer were thought to be a driving factor behind Pyongyang's eagerness to strike a deal with Seoul. After the North agreed to express regret for severely wounding two South Korean soldiers, Seoul agreed to turn off the speakers.

But in response to the “grave provocation” of this week's nuclear test, South Korea's government said on Thursday it would resume the broadcasts (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/after-nuclear-test-south-korea-ready-to-resume-anti-north-broadcasts/2016/01/07/5cd89d35-0fae-4af2-b715-93816d789916_story.html) at noon local time Friday.

The questions about the legitimacy of his rule have made the consolidation of power Kim's top priority.

Claiming to have overseen the development of a hydrogen bomb — and North Korea's cloistered populace will not hear the skepticism about this claim that now abounds outside — will help him further stake his claim.

As Gause puts it: “He wants to be able to say: ‘My father developed the nuclear capability. Now I'm taking it to the next level’.”

• Anna Fifield is The Washington Post's bureau chief in Tokyo, focusing on Japan and the Koreas. She previously reported for the Financial Times from Washington DC, Seoul, Sydney, London and from across the Middle East.


Read more on this topic:

 • Global powers condemn North Korea's nuclear weapons test (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/north-korea-says-it-has-conducted-a-successful-hydrogen-bomb-test/2016/01/06/9add0e52-b436-11e5-a76a-0b5145e8679a_story.html)

 • The slow death of the nuclear deal with North Korea (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/01/06/the-slow-death-of-the-nuclear-deal-with-north-korea)

 • Who Will Succeed Kim Jong Il? (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/15/AR2009071503930.html)

 • Why is North Korea’s ‘hydrogen bomb’ test such a big deal? (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/01/06/qa-why-is-north-koreas-hydrogen-bomb-test-such-a-big-deal)

 • North's latest test also tests limit of its ties with China (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/a-snub-for-china-north-koreas-reported-nuclear-test-shows-beijings-waning-influence/2016/01/06/b0d309e9-a5a4-4cd4-b12a-ab352a53c0cc_story.html)

 • North Korea's growing economy — and U.S. misconceptions about it (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/north-koreas-growing-economy-and-americas-misconceptions-about-it/2015/03/13/b551d2d0-c1a8-11e4-a188-8e4971d37a8d_story.html)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/kim-jong-un-celebrates-his-birthday-with-a-bang-as-he-seeks-to-cement-rule/2016/01/07/c454f522-b492-11e5-8abc-d09392edc612_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/kim-jong-un-celebrates-his-birthday-with-a-bang-as-he-seeks-to-cement-rule/2016/01/07/c454f522-b492-11e5-8abc-d09392edc612_story.html)

from The Washington Post....

North Korea is a joke. And that's the problem.

By JEFFREY LEWIS | 2:49PM EST - Friday, January 08, 2016

(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Washington%20Post%20Pix%202016/20160108a_Moranbong_zps1cgyxmy3.jpg) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2016/01/08/Outlook/Images/China-North_Korea-Canceled_Concerts-07b6d-294.jpg)
U.S. intelligence officials speculated that Pyongyang's nuclear test may have been prompted by China's treatment of North Korean
pop band Moranbong, pictured here. — Photograph: Charles Dharapak/Associated Press.

NORTH KOREA sometimes seems less of a place than an idea or an absurdist fantasy. The latest New Yorker depicts Kim Jong Un on its cover as a child playing with toy missiles (http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/cover-story-anita-kunz-2016-01-18). What other world leader gets this treatment? What other country is so alien, so downright weird, that it celebrates the anniversary of its independence by creating its own time zone (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/08/07/north-koreas-new-time-zone-is-perfectly-bizarre)? What other country could prompt U.S. intelligence officials to seriously speculate (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/07/world/asia/north-korea-hydrogen-bomb-claim-reactions.html) that a nuclear test was retaliation for disrespecting a state-run all-female pop group? What other country has a state-run all-female pop group?

The North Koreans don't think they are absurd. The country continually touts its scientific, technological and industrial developments to show that it is a modern, dynamic world power. Nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles have a starring role in this narrative. “The spectacular success made by the DPRK in the H-bomb test this time is a great deed of history, a historic event of the national significance as it surely guarantees the eternal future of the nation,” the Korean Central News Agency stated this past week, trying a bit too hard. North Korea is threatening our security, sure, but it really wants to threaten our notion of where it fits in the world — or, rather, our notion that it does not.

It wasn't that long ago that North Korea merely aspired to the nuclear club. When the Soviet Union collapsed, North Korea was left in a bad way. It seemed plausible, back then, that the North might bargain away its nascent nuclear program in exchange for an end to international isolation and assistance from the outside. Unlike, for example, the recent nuclear deal reached with Iran, the 1994 Agreed Framework between the United States and North Korea explicitly exchanged nuclear capabilities for better relations with the United States. North Korea wanted to be seen as normal and for the Kims to be treated as legitimate world leaders. And the United States was happy to pat the Kims on the head for a while, presuming that their regime would collapse sooner rather than later.

Yet here we are, 20 years later. The Kims have held on, even while much of their country has starved. After the Agreed Framework collapsed in 2003, North Korea was left to develop its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. North Korea’s leader, a grandson of founder Kim Il Sung, welcomed 2016 “with the thrilling explosion of our first hydrogen bomb.”

While the explosion on Wednesday was too small to be caused by what we normally think of as a thermonuclear weapon — a two-staged device with megatons of nuclear yield — the more likely possibilities are not comforting. What North Korea probably did was test a “boosted” device that uses a gas of deuterium and tritium, two hydrogen isotopes. This is an essential technology for reducing the size and weight of nuclear weapons. If North Korea is going to fit nuclear warheads on the long-range missiles it has paraded through Pyongyang, boosting is a significant step.

Would North Korea still trade away its nuclear technology for legitimacy? From time to time, it's looked like Pyongyang might be open to making concessions and cutting another deal. When North Korea kidnapped two American journalists in 2009, it was willing to release them in exchange for a meeting with former president Bill Clinton. It is bizarre to use a kidnapping to force a high-level meeting for the sake of appearing normal, but that's North Korea for you.

Not long after that, however, North Korea released a film that turns the Clinton story on its head. It is called “The Country I Saw” (http://38north.org/2012/08/jlewis083012), and the title is instructive: This is a (terrible) movie dramatizing how North Koreans want others to see them. Like any good piece of propaganda, it has long scenes dedicated to didactic dialogue in which characters explain the message in the most painfully earnest way. The movie ends with Clinton visiting North Korea — this time to pay tribute to the country's leaders, who have humiliated the United States and Japan by conducting successful tests of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons . A country that produces that sort of storyline doesn't seem like a country ready to bargain away its nuclear weapons.

Indeed, North Korea's announcement of a hydrogen bomb seems to rule out disarmament except under conditions that might as well include gracing Kim's ample posterior with a gentle peck. The North Koreans also have denigrated the nuclear deal with Iran and ascribed the fall of Libya's Moammar Gaddafi (http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/10/what-kim-jong-il-learned-from-qaddafis-fall-never-disarm/247192) to his disarmament agreement with the United States. It seems inconceivable now that this North Korean government would abandon the nuclear weapons programs it has developed at such a great cost.

It is understandable that we would want to deny the North Korean regime any legitimacy. It is an ugly government that does ugly things to its own people and its neighbors.

Yet we should be honest with ourselves about what our revulsion entails. We are refusing to deal with the North Koreans — whether we justify it, as President George W. Bush did, by comparing them to children who throw their food on the floor or whether we hide behind meaningless policy catchphrases, like the Obama administration's “strategic patience” (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/north-korea-got-less-attention-as-obama-focused-on-iran-nuke-deal/2016/01/06/5f3544da-b497-11e5-9388-466021d971de_story.html). We are forgoing any meaningful opportunity to slow or constrain their nuclear development. We are not making any effort to open their appalling system; in fact, we are helping close it off.

Perhaps one day we'll stop laughing and notice that a brutal, nuclear-armed North Korea that terrorizes its citizens and its neighbors isn't all that funny. They'd like that.

• Jeffrey Lewis is the director of the East Asia nonproliferation program at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/north-korea-is-a-joke-and-thats-the-problem/2016/01/08/b9c7c278-b55b-11e5-9388-466021d971de_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/north-korea-is-a-joke-and-thats-the-problem/2016/01/08/b9c7c278-b55b-11e5-9388-466021d971de_story.html)

Yes..I agree..North Korea has some good looking women.... ;D

Sexist pig.

Yes....he is that also ;)

(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Cartoons%202016/20160109_NorthKoreanNutter_zpsm7y06c8o.jpg) (http://static1.squarespace.com/static/52aca146e4b06d986ca82df3/52c0ec1ce4b0f4346e9358a5/568f746569492ea8356a095d/1452242049369/KJNutsW.jpg)

from The Washington Post....

Powerful US bomber flies over S. Korea as standoff deepens

By FOSTER KLUG and AHN YOUNG-JOON | 1:31PM EST - Sunday, January 10, 2016

(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Washington%20Post%20Pix%202016/20160110a_B52_zps9y3hehuc.jpg) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/Wires/Online/2016-01-10/AP/Images/APTOPIXSouthKoreaNorthKoreaNuclear-01a55.jpg)
A U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber flies over Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea on Sunday, January 10th, 2016. — Photograph: Ahn Young-joon/Associated Press.

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

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

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

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

White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said the B-52 flight was intended to underscore to South Korean allies “the deep and enduring alliance that we have with them.” Interviewed on CNN's “State of the Union”, McDonough said the United States would work with South Korea, Japan, China and Russia “to deeply isolate the North Koreans” and “squeeze” them until they live up to prior commitments to get rid of their nuclear weapons.

“That's the baseline requirement they have to rejoin the international community,” McDonough said. “Until they do it, they'll remain where they are which is an outcast — unable to provide for their own people.”

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

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

(http://i365.photobucket.com/albums/oo92/RasputinDude/Washington%20Post%20Pix%202016/20160110b_B52_zpseuxggylf.jpg) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2016/01/10/Production/WashingtonPost/Images/South_Korea_North_Korea_Nuclear-04495.jpg)
A U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber accompanied by South Korean F-15 and U.S. F-16 fighters flies over Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea
on Sunday, January 10th, 2016. — Photograph: Ahn Young-joon/Associated Press.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Klug reported from Seoul. Associated Press writers Kim Tong-hyung and Hyung-jin Kim contributed to this report.


Read more on this topic:

 • Facts about B-52 bomber, which flew over South Korea (https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/facts-about-b-52-bomber-which-flew-over-south-korea/2016/01/10/c537cb5a-b757-11e5-8abc-d09392edc612_story.html)

 • South Korea resumes anti-North Korea propaganda broadcasts (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/south-korea-to-resume-anti-north-propaganda-broadcasts/2016/01/07/db343942-b5aa-11e5-8abc-d09392edc612_story.html)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/kim-visits-military-as-koreas-slide-into-cold-war-standoff/2016/01/09/7c5a8212-b732-11e5-8abc-d09392edc612_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/kim-visits-military-as-koreas-slide-into-cold-war-standoff/2016/01/09/7c5a8212-b732-11e5-8abc-d09392edc612_story.html)

Just delete the N Korean leadership and install democracy....problem solved ;D

NORTH KOREA

China reportedly preps for crisis along border with North Korea
Published July 25, 2017 Fox News
 
NOW PLAYING
US tests anti-ballistic missile system in response to NKorea
The Chinese military has reportedly been building up defenses along its border with North Korea that coincide with warnings by President Trump that he is considering military action over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons push.

The Wall Street Journal, citing a review of official military and government websites and interviews with experts, reported that Beijing has built bunkers to protect against nuclear blasts, established a new border brigade and a 24-hour surveillance of the mountainous frontier.

The preparations are intended to respond to worst-case scenarios, like an economic collapse, nuclear contamination or a conflict, the experts told the paper.

The Chinese government has not spoken out about the report of preparations. An official from its defense ministry said in a statement that the forces “maintain a normal state of combat readiness and training.”

“Military means shouldn’t be an option to solve the Korean Peninsula issue,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

Mark Cozad, who works at the Rand Corp think tank, told the paper these preparations “go well beyond” creating a buffer zone at the border.

“If you’re going to make me place bets on where I think the U.S. and China would first get into a conflict, it’s not Taiwan, the South China Sea or the East China Sea: I think it’s the Korean Peninsula,” he said.

The Trump administration is searching for more effective ways to ramp up pressure on North Korea over its nuclear weapons program. Pyongyang’s recent successful test of an intercontinental ballistic missile — the first by the North — has created even more urgency as the U.S. seeks to stop North Korea before it can master the complex process of putting a nuclear warhead atop a missile capable of hitting the United States.

President Trump has expressed frustration that his initial strategy — enlisting China’s help and influence to squeeze the North economically and diplomatically — has not yielded major results. Trump’s administration is also considering other economic steps including “secondary sanctions” that could target companies and banks — mostly in China — that do even legitimate business with North Korea, officials said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
Fox

Excellent news....yet another country will shortly have a nuclear deterrent against American aggression, just like America has a nuclear deterrent against aggression from other countries.

---

from The Washington Post....

North Korea could cross ICBM threshold next year,
U.S. officials warn in new assessment

“Alarming” advances in its missile program are forcing analysts to dramatically alter their forecasts.

By ELLEN NAKASHIMA, ANNA FIFIELD and JOBY WARRICK | 1:38PM EDT - Tuesday, July 25, 2017

(https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_950w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/07/24/National-Security/Images/North_Korea_The_Nuclear_Pricetag_17450-5ca5c.jpg) (https://img.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_1484w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2017/07/24/National-Security/Images/North_Korea_The_Nuclear_Pricetag_17450-5ca5c.jpg)

NORTH KOREA will be able to field a reliable, nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile as early as next year, U.S. officials have concluded in a confidential assessment that dramatically shrinks the timeline for when Pyongyang could strike North American cities with atomic weapons.

The new assessment by the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), which shaves a full two years off the consensus forecast for North Korea's ICBM program, was prompted by recent missile tests (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/experts-north-koreas-missile-was-a-real-icbm--and-a-grave-milestone/2017/07/04/554bb81e-60da-11e7-8adc-fea80e32bf47_story.html) showing surprising technical advances by the country's weapons scientists, at a pace beyond what many analysts believed was possible for the isolated communist regime.

The U.S. projection closely mirrors revised predictions by South Korean intelligence officials, who also have watched with growing alarm as North Korea has appeared to master key technologies needed to loft a warhead toward targets thousands of miles away.

The finding further increases the pressure on U.S. and Asian leaders to halt North Korea's progress before Pyongyang can threaten the world with nuclear-tipped missiles. President Trump, during his visit to Poland this month, vowed to confront North Korea “very strongly” to stop its missile advances.

The DIA has concluded that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will be able to produce a “reliable, nuclear-capable ICBM” program sometime in 2018, meaning that by next year the program will have advanced from prototype to assembly line, according to officials familiar with the document. Already, the aggressive testing regime put in place in recent months has allowed North Korea to validate its basic designs, putting it within a few months of starting industrial production, the officials said.

The DIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to address any classified assessments.

But Scott Bray, ODNI's national intelligence manager for East Asia, said in a statement: “North Korea's recent test of an intercontinental range ballistic missile — which was not a surprise to the intelligence community — is one of the milestones that we have expected would help refine our timeline and judgments on the threats that Kim Jong Un poses to the continental United States. This test, and its impact on our assessments, highlight the threat that North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs pose to the United States, to our allies in the region, and to the whole world. The intelligence community is closely monitoring the expanding threat from North Korea.”

One of the few remaining technical hurdles is the challenge of atmospheric “re-entry” — the ability to design a missile that can pass through the upper atmosphere without damage to the warhead. Long regarded as a formidable technological barrier for impoverished North Korea, that milestone could be reached, beginning with new tests expected to take place within days, U.S. analysts said. U.S. officials have detected signs that North Korea is making final preparations for testing a new re-entry vehicle, perhaps as early as Thursday, a North Korean national holiday marking the end of the Korean War.

“They're on track to do that, essentially this week,” said a U.S. official familiar with the intelligence report who, like others, insisted on anonymity to discuss sensitive military assessments.

North Korea has not yet demonstrated an ability to build a miniaturized nuclear warhead that could be carried by one of its missiles. Officials there last year displayed a sphere-shaped device the regime described as a miniaturized warhead, but there has been no public confirmation that this milestone has been achieved. Preparations reportedly have been underway for several months for what would be the country's sixth underground atomic test. The last one, in September, had an estimated yield of 20 to 30 kilotons, more than double the explosive force of any previous test.

North Korea startled the world with its successful July 4th test of a missile capable of striking parts of Alaska — the first such missile with proven intercontinental range. The launch of a two-stage “Hwasong-14” missile was the latest in a series of tests in recent months that have revealed startlingly rapid advances across a number of technical fields, from mastery of solid-fuel technology to the launch of the first submarine-based missile, current and former intelligence officials and weapons experts said.

“There has been alarming progress,” said Joseph DeTrani, the former mission manager for North Korea for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and a former special envoy for negotiations with Pyongyang. “In the last year they have gained capabilities that they didn't have, including ones that we thought they would not have been able to obtain for years.”

The July 4th missile test also caught South Korea's intelligence service off guard, prompting a hasty revision of forecasts, according to South Korean lawmakers who have received closed-door briefings. “The speed of North Korea's ICBM missile development is faster than the South Korean Defense Ministry expected,” said lawmaker Lee Cheol-hee of the left-wing Minjoo party, who attended an intelligence committee briefing after the July 4th test.

The South Korean government, which is actively trying to engage the regime in Pyongyang, has declined to call the most recent test a success. North Korea still has not proved it has mastered some of the steps needed to build a reliable ICBM, most notably the re-entry vehicle, Lee said.

Still, officials across the political spectrum acknowledged that North Korea is rapidly gaining ground. “Now they are approaching the final stage of being a nuclear power and the owner of an ICBM,” said Cha Du-hyeogn, who served as an adviser to conservative former president Lee Myung-bak.

U.S. spy agencies have detected multiple signals that North Korea is preparing to test a re-entry vehicle. Analysts believe that the July 4th test was intended to demonstrate range — the ability of its new two-stage ICBM prototype to reach altitude and distance milestones — while the new launch will seek to validate engineering features designed to protect the warhead as it passes through the upper atmosphere and then is delivered to a distant target.

The latest designs appear to cobble together older systems — including portions of a missile frame used to launch satellites into orbit — with a more advanced engine that North Korea began testing earlier this year. Much of the technology is based on old Soviet-era designs that have been reworked by what U.S. experts describe as an increasingly capable cadre of homegrown engineers, goaded along by a leadership that has pursued nuclear weapons and delivery systems with single-minded zeal.

Kim vowed in January to successfully test a nuclear-capable ICBM in 2017, achieving a long-sought goal that North Koreans believe will serve as the ultimate deterrent against threats to the communist regime's survival. At the time, the U.S. intelligence community's formal assessment still held that a credible ICBM threat would not emerge until 2020 at the earliest.

“North Korea's timeline moved faster than we expected,” said the U.S. official familiar with the new DIA assessment. “We weren't expecting an ICBM test in July.”

Former U.S. officials and weapons experts said a successful test of a nuclear-capable ICBM would dramatically raise the stakes in the North Korean crisis, putting new pressure on North Korea's neighbors and increasing the risk of miscalculation. “The danger is that decision time and warning is greatly reduced when North Korea has the weapons, and that escalation can happen quickly,” said Jon Wolfsthal, senior director for arms control and non-proliferation with the Obama administration's National Security Council.

The specter of a nuclear-armed, ICBM-capable Kim “takes the risk to a new level but does not change the nature of the threat we have faced for some time,” Wolfsthal said. “We have to deter North Korea from ever using any nuclear weapons and make clear that any move to use these weapons is suicide.”

• Ellen Nakashima is a national security reporter for The Washington Post. She focuses on issues relating to intelligence, technology and civil liberties.

• Anna Fifield is The Washington Post's bureau chief in Tokyo, focusing on Japan and the Koreas. She previously reported for the Financial Times from Washington DC, Seoul, Sydney, London and from across the Middle East.

• Joby Warrick joined The Washington Post's national staff in 1996. He has covered national security, the environment and the Middle East and currently writes about terrorism. He is the author of two books, including 2015's “Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS” (https://www.amazon.com/dp/product/0385538219) which was awarded a 2016 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction.


Related to this topic:

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 • VIDEO: Why does North Korea hate the U.S.? Look to the Korean War. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/c4fe5372-4237-11e7-b29f-f40ffced2ddb_video.html)

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/north-korea-could-cross-icbm-threshold-next-year-us-officials-warn-in-new-assessment/2017/07/25/4107dc4a-70af-11e7-8f39-eeb7d3a2d304_story.html (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/north-korea-could-cross-icbm-threshold-next-year-us-officials-warn-in-new-assessment/2017/07/25/4107dc4a-70af-11e7-8f39-eeb7d3a2d304_story.html)

Ktj..."Excellent news....yet another country will shortly have a nuclear deterrent against American aggression, just like America has a nuclear deterrent against aggression from other countries."

...mmm....maybe...but hard to see America living with that situation..especially if they can reach America.....I think Mr Un may be a bit to unpredictable....certainly would not like to be a resident of Seoul or Tokyo🙄

Other countries have to live with the situation that America has a shitload of nuclear-armed ICBMs capable of reaching their country.

And don't forget that America is the ONLY country in the world which has shown by their past actions that they are prepared to actually USE nuclear weapons to exterminate tens of thousands of human beings in the blink of an eye. No other country in the world which possesses nuclear weapons has ever done that.

So it's good that other countries have the ability to hit back and waste a few million Americans if America ever carries out aggression against them.

Ktj....." America is the ONLY country in the world which has shown by their past actions that they are prepared to actually USE nuclear weapons"

....yeah...thank Christ for that eh....they probably saved a lot of kiwi lives...oh but I forgot you have a cradle to grave position with a public service...so what the fuck would you care...."living life on the edge"....to you is getting out of bed in the morning without pissing the bed😉...yeh

...informative report...China's reason for not wanting change...fear of democracy and freedom for its people😳


President Trump, tell China on Twitter it has 30 days to comply on North Korea sanctions - or else
By Harry J. Kazianis

Published August 07, 2017
FoxNews.com
According to a newly released survey by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, 75 percent of Americans feel North Korea’s nuclear program is a critical threat facing the United States. And unfortunately for the Trump administration, its recent efforts to rein in the so-called “hermit kingdom,” while the boldest of any administration to date, are likely to fall short of stopping Pyongyang from developing an even more powerful nuclear weapon along with ever more advanced missiles to strike the U.S. homeland.

But before we dissect what Team Trump got wrong when it comes to North Korea—and how they can still get it right—we need to give credit where credit is due.

This administration dared do what no other has in the past: name Pyongyang its number one foreign policy priority. With no silver bullet at the ready to solve what is clearly the ultimate Pandora’s Box—boobytrapped with what can only be described as a nuclear armed fuse—President Trump delivered on a campaign promise to tackle the biggest threats facing America today. With North Korea now six to eighteen months away from building a hydrogen bomb, challenges like ISIS, Russia, the Syrian Civil War or anything else seem to pale in comparison. Just the amount of analysis and news coverage dedicated to the dastardly deeds of Kim Jong Un alone is a win—shining a much-needed spotlight onto a regime that should have been tossed into the scrap heap of history long-ago.

If history tells us anything, China has never, ever, enforced UN Security Council resolutions when it comes to North Korea.

It seems, at least for the time being, the Trump administration has decided to follow the most obvious path of trying to restrain North Korea, attacking the lifeblood of the Kim regime: its exports to the outside world. Over the weekend, the U.S. led an international coalition passing a tough UN Security Council resolution that one senior White House official described to me as “sanctions on Hulk Hogan-style steroids.”

Yikes.

On the surface, the sanctions do seem quite muscular. The move, supported by China as well as Russia, take away roughly one-third of North Korea’s export revenue, or a billion dollars, from an economy that is roughly worth only fourteen billion. Considering the fact that Pyongyang’s economy is the size of tiny Laos, this has all the appearances of a devastating response to North Korea’s two recent long-range missile tests.

Except it’s not. You see, there is a fatal flaw when it comes to applying sanctions to North Korea: almost all of Pyongyang’s exports go to its Communist brother-in-arms, China. And if history tells us anything, China has never, ever, enforced UN Security Council resolutions when it comes to North Korea. In fact, it seems quite clear this latest sanctions action will be what all the other sanctions resolutions end up being: a scrap of worthless paper.

The simple fact is Beijing is likely more afraid of North Korea than we are. Senior Chinese officials have told me time and time again they fear that if they put too much pressure on the Kim regime it could collapse—and they would own the problems that would create. As one Chinese official told me last week: “The great rule we learned from you [the United States] when it comes to international politics is that if you break it, you own it. We aren’t going to risk collapsing the North Korean regime. We don’t want to deal with that nightmare. We will apply pressure, but you will never be happy with how far we are willing to go.”

From there—at least the way Beijing sees it—it could get even worse. China also fears creating a situation where if North Korea were to collapse there could be a civil war, where rival factions fire atomic or chemical weapons at each other—and millions would likely perish. They also don't want countless scores of refugees to feed or, at some point in the future, a united Korea that is allied with America that would be a powerful counterweight to Beijing.

For China, a divided Korea, even as dangerous as it is, suits their interests in some respects. We aren’t talking much about the South China Sea or Taiwan, for instance, so Beijing does gain an important advantage on other issues if North Korea takes up all the foreign policy bandwidth in Asia.

Despite these challenges, which I would argue are inflated from China’s point of view—Beijing could easily offer alternative options to help the international community push back against a common threat, like getting Kim to the negotiating table—China’s strategy seems quite clear. Beijing wants to ensure the status quo holds for at least the short- to medium-term.

Thankfully there is still time to make some important course corrections to see these sanction actions constrain North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. Pyongyang simply can’t be allowed to continue building more and more advanced nuclear weapons and missiles. Sanctions are the best of the worst options—and they need to be enforced, unless China wants to offer a better idea.

President Trump should use his Twitter feed and tell the world Beijing has 30 days to comply with UN sanctions on North Korea—or else. He should declare: “China, I am watching your actions on North Korea—keep your word on the sanctions. The world is watching.” If Beijing does not, he should name and shame on his Twitter feed any Chinese entity that is helping North Korea evade the sanctions.

Then, he should impose unilateral sanctions on those firms, such as stopping them from using the U.S. financial system or doing any business here in America—possibly sanctioning large Chinese banks or state-owned enterprises. Then, Team Trump needs to press forward on making sure China plays by the rules on trade, pushing back in the South China Sea or over Taiwan, or wherever else Beijing is pressing its luck. That might be just the only way to get China to keep its word.
Fox

Hey Donald, are you a reincarnation of one of the old xnc2 characters?

May I know why your ask?
....are there charges pending😳

Just wondered. I left xnc2 about 10 years ago, so just wondered if you were one of the old characters I discussed things with.

I been frequenting this place for that long.....don't remember locking horns with you though...give it time😉

....but I have been known by ....other names
...used to try and talk sense into loony...to no evail
...now I try to talk sense into the rail worker....as yet to no evail....and if I am honest....I don't like the chances

...I have never left...only ever been exterminated by the nazi dictatorship😏

Loony? You mean the one who was mates with captain pugwash and sadly passed away?

...yes...the good old says....takes me back....forgot about pugs🙄

Re the USA using nukes in the past, nobody suggested that it was morally wrong that they carpet bombed Tokyo and other cities to rubble with conventional bombs (which actually caused more destruction). Never trust hippy history revisionists. They lie.

Having said that, the whole idea of nuclear weapons arks race was that nobody would be dumb enough to use them as everyone would be bombed back to the stone age. Hence why you don't want rogue states with them. 

Keep in mind that the Nazis were trying to develop nuclear weapons. That is the context in which the US got into that business. Imagine Hitler with nukes. Nukes are horrible but it's hard to know what to do once the genie is out of the bottle. If you disarm then there is a risk that shitbag nations won't.

...goodbye North Korea...it wasn't nice knowing you🙄


Secretary Mattis warns North Korea not to invite 'destruction of its people'

If Kim Jong Un won’t listen to President Trump, the Mad Dog could make him heel.

Secretary of Defense James “Mad Dog” Mattis echoed his boss’s fiery warning Wednesday to the dictator of North Korea with harsh rhetoric of his own. And this time, the words came from a battle-tested, four-star U.S. Marine Corps general.

“The DPRK should cease any consideration of actions that would lead to the end of its regime and the destruction of its people.”

- Gen. James "Mad Dog Mattis
“The DPRK must choose to stop isolating itself and stand down its pursuit of nuclear weapons,” Mattis said in a statement. “The DPRK should cease any consideration of actions that would lead to the end of its regime and the destruction of its people.”

Mattis provided a powerful follow-up to Trump’s warning that Pyongyang would face “fire and fury” should it continue to test missiles, build nuclear warheads and threaten to attack the United States. Lest anyone think Trump was speaking without the counsel of his top military man, Mattis said Trump is well aware of the depth of the North Korean threat.

“President Trump was informed of the growing threat last December and on taking office his first orders to me emphasized the readiness of our ballistic missile defense and nuclear deterrent forces,” Mattis continued.

“While our State Department is making every effort to resolve this global threat through diplomatic means, it must be noted that the combined allied militaries now possess the most precise, rehearsed and robust defensive and offensive capabilities on Earth.  The DPRK regime's actions will continue to be grossly overmatched by ours and would lose any arms race or conflict it initiates.”



Tuesday's report that Pyongyang has missile-ready nukes, combined with months of missile tests and threats from Kim, has brought the world to the brink. Punishing sanctions passed last week by the U.N. only served to increase Pyongyang's hostility toward the world, and in particular, the U.S.

Kim is believed to control up to 60 nuclear weapons.

The North Korean regime has conducted 12 tests so far this year, with one ICBM test conducted in late July sending a missile 2,300 miles into space and 45 minutes into the air. It was the longest, and farthest ballistic missile test in the history of North Korea, officials told Fox News at the time.

Trump leveled his initial threat on Tuesday, after the report that North Korea is closer than previously believed to making good on its threats.

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States,” Mr. Trump told reporters at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., where he is spending much of the month on a working vacation. “They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

Referring to the volatile Kim, Trump said, “He has been very threatening beyond a normal state, and as I said, they will be met with fire and fury, and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before.”

Trump followed his threat with a tweet Wednesday declaring the U.S. is more than ready for a war.

“My first order as President was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before,” Trump tweeted. “Hopefully we will never have to use this power, but there will never be a time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world!”
Fox

Kim Jong Un needs to decide if he wants to die young.....Good to see Trump being tough...Oh-buma was too weak for 8 years.....just made the situation worse....needs sorting now🙄

Mattis: War with North Korea would be 'catastrophic'
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Thursday that war with North Korea would be “catastrophic,” casting a dire tone after President Trump unleashed a string of warnings to the rogue nation.

"The American effort is diplomatically led, it has diplomatic traction, it is gaining diplomatic results and I want to stay right there right now," Mattis said while speaking with reporters in Mountain View, California.

"The tragedy of war is well-enough known it doesn't need another characterization beyond the fact that it would be catastrophic," Mattis continued.

Secretary Mattis’ remarks followed days of escalating threats between North Korea and the U.S. When asked about the United States’ readiness if North Korea were to take action against the U.S. or another country, KNTV reported that Mattis replied: “I don’t tell the enemy in advance what I’m going to do … We’re ready.”

JAPAN READY TO PROTECT GUAM, DEFENSE MINISTER SAYS

Mattis pointed out the United Nations Security Council’s unanimous vote last week to characterize North Korea’s statements as a “threat to the world’s community.”

“How often to do you see France, China, Russia, the U.S. voting unanimously on any issue?” Mattis asked.
Fox

Earlier Thursday, President Trump turned up the heat on North Korea by threatening stronger consequences if the regime were to attack Guam.

“Let’s see what he does with Guam,” Trump said of North Korea leader Kim Jong Un’s threats to hit the U.S. pacific territory. “He does something in Guam, it will be an event the likes of which nobody has seen before – what will happen in North Korea.”

It appears the "supreme leader" has pulled his head in somewhat.

..oops...back to the drawing board😉

North Korea short-range missiles failed after launch, US military says
North Korea fired three short-range missiles, but two of them "failed in flight" while the third blew up shortly after launching, the U.S. military said Friday.

Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said that the projectiles fired from the North's eastern coast flew about 155 miles, though it did not mention any failures. It said South Korea and U.S. militaries were analyzing the launch and didn't immediately provide more details.
Cmdr. David Benham, a spokesman for U.S. Pacific Command, said the missiles were launched over a 30-minute period. He said the first and third missiles "failed in flight," but did not provide further details. The second missile "appears to have blown up almost immediately," he added.

Benham said the missiles did not pose a threat to North America or U.S. military facilities on the island of Guam. Earlier this month, North Korea created a tense standoff with the United States by threatening to lob some of its missiles toward Guam.

In this image made from video of a news bulletin aired by North Korea's KRT on Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2017, leader Kim Jong Un visits the Chemical Material Institute of Academy of Defense Science at an undisclosed location in North Korea. North Korea's state media released photos that appear to show concept diagrams of the missiles hanging on a wall behind leader Kim Jong Un, one showing a diagram for a missile called "Pukguksong-3." Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this photo. (KRT via AP Video)Expand / Collapse
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un visits the Chemical Material Institute of Academy of Defense Science at an undisclosed location.  (KRT via AP Video)

South Korea's presidential office held a National Security Council meeting to discuss the missiles, which are the first known launches since July, when the North successfully flight tested a pair of intercontinental ballistic missiles that analysts say could reach deep into the U.S. mainland when perfected.
The White House said that President Donald Trump -- who has warned that he would unleash "fire and fury" if the North continued its threats -- was briefed on the latest North Korean activity and "we are monitoring the situation."
The launch came five days after U.S. and South Korean forces began annual military exercises that the North claims are a rehearsal for war. Tensions on the peninsula generally ratchet up during the maneuvers and a series of larger exercises held each spring.

Before the latest missile launches were confirmed, North Korean state media said that dictator Kim Jong Un inspected a special operation forces training of the country's army that simulated attacks on South Korean islands along the countries' western sea border in what appeared to be in response to the ongoing U.S.-South Korea war games.
Kim reportedly told his troops that they "should think of mercilessly wiping out the enemy with arms only and occupying Seoul at one go and the southern half of Korea."
The Korean Central News Agency said that the "target striking contest" involved war planes, multiple-rocket launchers and self-propelled guns that attacked targets meant to represent South Korea's Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong islands before special operation combatants "landed by surprise" on rubber boats.
The border islands have occasionally seen military skirmishes between the rivals, including a North Korean artillery barrage on Yeonpyeong in 2010 that left two South Korean marines and two civilians dead.
North Korea had not launched any missiles since the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution imposing new sanctions against the rogue nation on Aug. 5. Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson trumpeted the lack of "missile launches or provocative acts" by the North since the resolution was passed.

"I am pleased to see that the regime in Pyongyang has certainly demonstrated some level of restraint that we’ve not seen in the past," Tillerson said at the time.

At a campaign-style rally that night in Phoenix, President Trump told the crowd that "I respect the fact that I believe [Kim Jong Un] is starting to respect us. I respect that fact very much."

On Wednesday, North Korean state media released photos appearing to show the designs of one or possibly two new missiles hanging on a wall behind Kim Jong Un while he visited a plant that makes solid-fuel engines for the country's ballistic-missile program.

In response to North Korea's expanding nuclear weapons program, South Korea has been moving to strengthen its own capabilities, planning talks with the United States on raising the warhead limits on its missiles and taking steps to place additional launchers to a U.S. anti-missile defense system in the country's southeast.
South Korea has also been testing new missiles of its own, including the 497 mile-range Hyunmoo-2. Although the missile has not been operationally deployed yet, it is considered a key component to the so-called "kill chain" pre-emptive strike capability the South is pursuing to cope with the North's growing nuclear and missile threat.
Fox