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Kim Jong-un celebrates American Independence Day in style…

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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« Reply #125 on: August 31, 2017, 09:05:42 pm »


from The Washington Post....

Analysis: Is North Korea winning deterrence war with US?

By ERIC TALMADGE | 9:45PM EDT - Tuesday, August 29, 2017

In this file image made from video of an August 14th, 2017, broadcast in a news bulletin by North Korea's KRT, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un receives a military briefing in Pyongyang. — Picture: KRT/Associated Press.
In this file image made from video of an August 14th, 2017, broadcast in a news bulletin by North Korea's KRT,
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un receives a military briefing in Pyongyang. — Picture: KRT/Associated Press.


TOKYO — Conventional wisdom says if North Korea were ever to use its nuclear weapons, it would be an act of suicide. But brace yourself for what deterrence experts call the “theory of victory”.

To many who have studied how nuclear strategies actually work, it's conceivable North Korea could escalate to a nuclear war and still survive. Tuesday's missile test suggests once again it may be racing to prepare itself to do just that — but only if forced into a corner.

Every missile North Korean leader Kim Jong Un launches comes at a high cost. North Korea doesn't have an unlimited supply, and they aren't easy or cheap to build.

So when Kim orders his strategic forces to launch, it's safe to assume it’s a move calculated to achieve maximum political, technical and training value. Tuesday's launch of a ballistic missile over Japan and into the open Pacific Ocean, once again blowing past warnings from the United States and its allies, is a prime example.

There is a solid strategy hidden in each launch. From Kim's perspective, here's what it looks like.


HOW THE NORTH COULD SURVIVE

North Korea has never suggested it would use its nuclear weapons to attack the United States or its allies completely out of the blue.

But, like Washington, it has stated quite explicitly that if it is either attacked or has reason to believe an attack is imminent, it has the right to launch a retaliatory or even a pre-emptive first strike.

The trigger for North Korea could be unusual troop movements in South Korea, suspicious activity at U.S. bases in Japan or — as the North has recently warned — flights near its airspace by U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers out of their home base on the island of Guam.

If Kim deemed any of those an imminent attack, one North Korean strategy would be to immediately target U.S. bases in Japan. A more violent move would be to attack a Japanese city, such as Tokyo, though that would probably be unnecessary since at this point the objective would be to weaken the U.S. military's command and control. Going nuclear would send the strongest message, but chemical weapons would be an alternative.

North Korea's ability to next hit the U.S. mainland with nuclear-tipped missiles is the key to how it would survive in this scenario. And that's why Kim has been rushing to perfect and show them off to the world.

“The whole reason they developed the ICBM was to deter American nuclear retaliation because if you can hold an American city or cities at risk the American calculation always changes,” said Vipin Narang, an associate professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a nuclear strategy specialist.

“Are we really willing to risk Los Angeles or Chicago in retaliation for an attack on a U.S. military base in the region?” he asks. “Probably not.”

That, right there, is Kim's big wager.

If “no” actually is the answer, then North Korea has a chance — though slim and risky — of staving off a full-scale conventional attack by the United States to survive another day.


USE 'EM OR LOSE 'EM

Kim isn't paranoid. He has good reason to fear an attack by the United States.

It's highly unlikely Washington would unilaterally start a war. But if it did, North Korea would face a far stronger and better equipped enemy able to — literally — bring the fight right to Kim's front door. A successful U.S. first strike could within hours or days take out North Korea's leadership, or at least seriously disrupt its chain of command, and destroy a good portion of the country's fighting power.

So North Korea has a very strong incentive to escalate fast, before all is lost.

Under Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il — Kim's grandfather and father — North Korea relied on conventional artillery just north of the Demilitarized Zone to keep Washington at bay, figuring the U.S. wouldn't make any moves that might risk an attack on South Korea's capital, Seoul, and the tremendous casualties and destruction that would bring.

Kim, fearing “decapitation strikes”, has brought missiles and nukes into the mix for an added layer of protection.

His strategy is to neutralize Washington's military option by holding both Seoul and an American city hostage while building up his own ability to withstand a first strike or a massive wave of retaliation. To do that, North Korea is developing an array of missiles that can be launched by land or from submarines and easily hidden and transported to remote, hard-to-detect sites.

Reasonably enough, countries with big arsenals are generally considered less likely to feel the need to use them or lose them.

North Korea is believed to have an arsenal of perhaps several dozen nuclear weapons, growing by maybe a dozen or so each year. That's a lot, but some analysts believe it may take a few hundred to cure Kim of the itchy trigger finger syndrome.


THE ‘MADMAN STRATEGY’

In deterrence circles, ambiguity is considered a must. But confusion can be deadly.

In any confrontation, it's best that an opponent knows better than to cross the line — but not to know exactly where that line is. That fosters caution. Confusion, on the other hand, creates the incentive to make a move either out of frightened self-defense or confident opportunism.

That's what North Korea appears to be doing now, though it’s not clear whether the motive is fear or arrogance.

Over the past several weeks, President Donald Trump has promised “fire, fury and power” like the world has never seen should North Korea issue even a vocal threat — which it did almost immediately, with no major consequences. Trump's Cabinet members walked that back, but in the process set or seemed to erase red lines of their own.

Some have suggested this is a deliberate “madman strategy”.

Inspired by the writings of Machiavelli, President Richard Nixon gave this ploy a go against Vietnam in the late 1960s. His idea was to make the Vietnamese and their Communist allies think Nixon would do anything, including use his nuclear weapons, to end the war.

But if Trump is doing the same, he isn't doing it very well, Narang said.

While Kim's government speaks with one voice and maintains consistency, which is what gives the madman approach its credibility, it's “really hard for Trump to make these crazy statements and not have them walked back by someone in his administration.”

“At some point,” Narang said, “the blurriness goes away and we just look incoherent.”


Associated Press story.

• Eric Talmadge has been the Associated Press' Pyongyang bureau chief since 2013.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/analysis-is-north-korea-winning-deterrence-war-with-us/2017/08/29/500a6ca6-8d2b-11e7-9c53-6a169beb0953_story.html
« Last Edit: August 31, 2017, 09:11:05 pm by Kiwithrottlejockey » Report Spam   Logged

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« Reply #126 on: August 31, 2017, 09:07:50 pm »


Yep, Trump is a political light-weight with a short attention span (and a deficit of normal intellect), which is why he has been totally outsmarted by Kim Jong-un.

That's what happens when dumb Americans elect a moron to do an adult's job.

Oh well, shit happens, eh?
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« Reply #127 on: August 31, 2017, 09:45:13 pm »

You are getting off in the prospect of Kim il whatever getting nukes? Are you OK?
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« Reply #128 on: August 31, 2017, 10:23:29 pm »


from The Washington Post....

President Trump is making the North Korea crisis worse

The administration has no clear strategy — and an even less clear message.

By LAURA ROSENBERGER | 6:00AM EDT - Wednesday, August 30, 2017


How President Donald J. Trump has been outsmarted and boxed into a corner by both North Korea and Iran (click on the image to read more).

NORTH KOREA's launch of a ballistic missile over Japan on Monday night marked a significant escalation in its recent spate of missile and nuclear tests. Over the last year, Kim Jong Un has conducted a continued march of these tests. Unlike his father and grandfather, who used such tests both to advance the country's program and as provocations aimed at an external audience, Kim has largely eschewed the provocation-cycle pattern and focused instead on an unrelenting march to secure nuclear weapons and the capability to deliver them.

But this launch was different.

Launching a ballistic missile over Japan is a serious provocation, and while the test would have helped North Korea gather important technical data about the missile and its re-entry vehicle, it also was clearly intended to send a signal. Kim's move was aimed at shaking the confidence of our allies. The test comes as the United States and South Korea are in the middle of annual joint exercises, and while the United States and Japan were conducting missile defense drills. Warnings of a potential inbound missile sounded across parts of northern Japan and were replayed by Japanese media across the country. By taking such a provocative step, Kim knew he would rattle nerves in Japan and South Korea, possibly prompting questions about whether the United States would be able to defend its allies should they come under attack.

Kim's move was also intended to send a signal to Washington. It comes after President Trump had proudly crowed that Kim was “starting to respect us” following their hot war of words this month. Kim was surely listening — and he decided to take Trump up on the challenge. Late on Tuesday, North Korean media reported that Kim was at the launch and that it was “a meaningful prelude to containing Guam.”

The situation with North Korea, in other words, got worse just after Trump declared it was getting better. That's not an accident. So far, the Trump administration has been unable to execute a clear strategy for dealing with Kim — which is why the messaging and actions from the White House, State Department and Pentagon have been so uncoordinated and ineffective.

Reassuring our allies of our commitment to their defense and ensuring close co-ordination with them on any response to this most recent missile launch must be the United States' first priority. After Monday's launch, Trump spoke with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke with South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha. A recent “2+2” meeting between U.S. and Japanese defense and foreign ministers also provided an important platform for contingency planning and discussion of crisis co-ordination. But these actions must be sustained — and they were already weakened by Trump's statement after the launch, which neglected to include a reaffirmation of U.S. commitments to defend our allies — language that should be standard for any such event.

The Trump administration has not shown the kind of discipline required to manage this kind of coordination — either internally across the U.S. government or externally with our allies. Alliance co-ordination should always be part of dealing with the challenge from North Korea, and the North's latest action will make such co-ordination both more difficult and more important. The mixed message we've seen from the Trump administration has at times left our allies unclear on U.S. intentions. In one case, Trump said South Korea would have to pay for deployment of the THAAD missile defense system, in contravention of an earlier agreement, setting off an uproar in Seoul and forcing national security adviser H.R. McMaster to clarify that the previous deal still stood. In another instance, Seoul was caught off guard by Trump's tweet that “military solutions locked and loaded,” prompting South Korean President Moon Jae-in to maintain that “no one can make a decision on military action on the Korean Peninsula without our agreement”.

This mixed messaging is a symptom of a lack of co-ordination. But this is not just a communications problem: It is an inability to execute on a strategy to deal with the most serious national security challenge we face.

This administration claims to have a strategy. Even amid early turnover on Trump's national security team — including the departure of the two top security advisers at the National Security Council — the new administration reportedly completed a review of North Korea policy, with Trump approving the outcome. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Tillerson recently laid out this approach in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. That strategy includes a familiar mix of tools to deal with the challenge: a peaceful pressure campaign involving multilateral sanctions via the United Nations and economic pressure from Beijing and Moscow; willingness to negotiate, with clear articulated criteria to judge Pyongyang's seriousness; and military options, including defensive steps and development of plans should they be needed. This is essentially the plan that the Obama administration was pursuing at the end of its term, wrapped in a different tagline.

This is a reasonable strategy, but having a good policy on paper is not enough — implementation and execution is what makes it a strategy. To work, the elements need to be carefully coordinated. That's essential to ensuring that diplomacy is backed by leverage; that deterrence is backed by capability; that intent is clearly and credibly communicated; that there is no daylight with our allies in Seoul and Tokyo; that Beijing and Moscow know what we expect of them, and the consequences for not following through; and that Pyongyang understands clearly the choice it faces.

All of that requires skillful diplomacy, a team in place to coordinate and carry that out, and avoiding harmful rhetoric. It requires arm-twisting to ensure that sanctions are implemented. It requires co-ordination with allies on defense posture, including enhanced missile defense. It requires a shared understanding internally and with our negotiating partners of the package of carrots and sticks that would be part of any negotiation. And it requires any debates remaining inside the walls of government, and not spilling in to the public or interfering in implementation of approved policy.

But the unco-ordinated words and actions from Trump and his administration have undercut any serious effort to address this critical national security challenge. Key positions across the government remain vacant. Trump has not even nominated an assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific; an assistant secretary of defense for Asia; or a U.S. ambassador to South Korea. We still have no undersecretary of state for arms control and nonproliferation, nor key assistant secretaries under that chain. This leaves critical gaps in the team that would coordinate closely with our allies, particularly in a crisis; marshal international efforts to implement and enforce the new U.N. Security Council sanctions; engage in diplomatic co-ordination with partners and allies; and ensure our defense posture is where it needs to be. The administration has also shown signs of politicizing intelligence, causing a credibility gap that will undercut our ability to prompt partners and allies to take action on sanctions violations.

Co-ordination with our allies is also critical to reducing the chance of miscalculation in a crisis. That risk is increased with every contradiction. Our adversaries will seek to take advantage of any divisions, leaving us vulnerable. It’s critical that our allies believe in the credibility of our commitments, and understand how we intend to respond in a range of scenarios. And it’s critical that the United States understand how our allies plan to react in such scenarios, as well.

The United States has established mechanisms with both South Korea and Japan to plan for a range of contingencies, including a counter-provocation plan with Seoul to respond to scenarios like the North's 2010 shelling of a South Korean island. This plan calls for a “South-Korean led, U.S.-supported” response — but this depends on a clear U.S. understanding of the actions South Korea would take in various contingencies, and what the United States would therefore be committed to in response. It's critical that the Trump administration revalidate such understandings so that there are no surprises should the North launch a similar attack, and ensure that key personnel are in place to manage important alliance co-ordination mechanisms, particularly in a crisis.

But even with these plans in place, unco-ordinated messages from Trump administration officials — and especially from the president — would undercut that careful planning and could leave our allies guessing about how the United States would respond. Off-the-cuff statements that are vague on intentions and not co-ordinated with our allies — like Trump's “fire and fury” threat — will ultimately make our allies feels less secure. On Wednesday morning, though, Trump did just that, tweeting that “talking is not the answer.”




Almost immediately, he was contradicted by Mattis, who told reporters that “we're never out of diplomatic solutions.”

Monday night's launch may open the most serious chapter we have seen with North Korea. Our allies are looking to the United States to lead. In the absence of a clear U.S. approach, they may take matters in to their own hands. Dividing the United States from our allies may be part of North Korea’s goal — and an inability to execute on a co-ordinated strategy with our allies would play right in to that.


• Laura Rosenberger is director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy and a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. She was director for China and North Korea at the National Security Council and a member of the “six-party talks” delegation on North Korea's nuclear program.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related to this topic:

 • Will North Korea make missiles over Japan the new normal?

 • VIDEO: New North Korean video threatens Guam, shows Trump in cemetery

 • Presidents have too much power over U.S. nukes. Especially President Trump.

 • How President Trump could tweet his way into nuclear war with North Korea


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/08/30/president-trump-is-making-the-north-korea-crisis-worse
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« Reply #129 on: August 31, 2017, 10:24:46 pm »

Just let the supreme nutjob get nukes hey?
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« Reply #130 on: August 31, 2017, 10:26:22 pm »


Yep....that's what happens when you have a political lightweight and mental-retard like Donald Trump in the White House.

He gets out-smarted even by the leaders of third-rate countries.

Serves the 'merkins right for electing an idiot as their Prez, eh?

The should have had somebody intelligent like Bernie to replace the previous intelligent President Obama.

No doubt this group's two nigger-haters will now froth at the mouth, 'cause they don't like the idea of a darkie getting uppity and being the Prez of the USA.
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« Reply #131 on: August 31, 2017, 11:58:52 pm »

So how did Obama slow down the "supreme leader's" nuke programme.
Oh that's right, he didn't. 😬
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« Reply #132 on: September 01, 2017, 12:51:48 am »


from The Washington Post....

The administration's incoherence on North Korea intensifies

Donald Trump and Jim Mattis contradict each other.

By JENNIFER RUBIN | 2:30PM EDT - Wednesday, August 30, 2017

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gives a New Year’s address for 2016 in Pyongyang. — Photograph: Kyodo/Reuters.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gives a New Year’s address for 2016 in Pyongyang. — Photograph: Kyodo/Reuters.

THE Washington Post reports:

Quote
North Korea's launch of a ballistic missile over Japan was unprecedented, but President Trump's response on Tuesday was not — a renewal of his warning that “all options are on the table.” His tough talk may only serve to remind that the possibility of military action has not yet deterred North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The missile launch seemed designed to wreak just the right amount of havoc: enough for Kim to show that he would not be cowed but not so much as to invite the “fire and fury” that Trump warned could follow continued North Korean threats.

The lack of coherence was not lost on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's ranking member, Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (Democrat-Maryland). “The latest provocation from Kim Jong-un's regime, directly threatening our treaty ally Japan, has further heightened tensions in the region and is a clear indication that the administration's approach is not working,” Cardin said in a written statement released on Tuesday. He continued, “The United States must continue to stand by our allies South Korea and Japan, and lead the international community in a constructive, multi-pronged effort that meshes both additional pressure and diplomacy to get North Korea to freeze its nuclear and missile programs and get back to the negotiating table. As with most of President Trump's foreign policy, there is no coherent North Korea strategy. Just empty statements and wild, counterproductive tweets.”

As if to prove Cardin correct, we witnessed a clear disconnect between the president and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. Trump tweeted, “The U.S. has been talking to North Korea, and paying them extortion money, for 25 years. Talking is not the answer!” A few hours later, news outlets reported:


Quote
US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said on Wednesday that there was still room for diplomacy in dealing with North Korea's provocative ballistic missile launches, after President Donald Trump said negotiations were “not the answer.”

“We're never out of diplomatic solutions,” Mattis said as he went into a meeting with South Korea Defense Minister Song Young-Moo.

“We continue to work together and the minister and I share responsibility to provide for the protection of our nation our populations and our interests, which is what we are here to discuss,” he added.

“We are never complacent.”

The administration will no doubt deny — how dare we! — there is any conflict. You see, what Trump meant is that only talking is unhelpful. Or something. Candidly, outside observers even before today's crossed wires have bemoaned the administration’s lack of discipline, coordination and seriousness.

Laura Rosenberger, director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy and a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United State, argues that Trump is making matters worse: “The situation with North Korea, in other words, got worse just after Trump declared it was getting better. That's not an accident. So far, the Trump administration has been unable to execute a clear strategy for dealing with Kim — which is why the messaging and actions from the White House, State Department and Pentagon have been so unco-ordinated and ineffective.”

Others such as Jonathan Pollack of the Brookings Institution make the case that concrete action has not followed rhetoric. Pollack explains that a reasonable approach “would involve isolating North Korea to an unprecedented degree, drying up its sources of foreign exchange, cutting off its trade, creating divisions within its elites, encouraging defections, applying military pressure, using cyber actions to affect its economy, painting the darkest possible picture of the regime's future for its leadership and the elites, and undermining the regime's confidence in its ability to survive.” Nevertheless, he contends, “The Trump administration's recent rhetoric suggests it aspires to do this. But its approach so far suggests its aspirations greatly exceed its concrete actions.”

Others urge we start taking specific steps to squeeze Pyongyang. CNN reports:


Quote
The real issue is how continued North Korean provocations distract the US from its goal of de-nuclearizing the Korean peninsula, according to Anthony Ruggiero, a former deputy director of the US Treasury Department and an expert on the use of targeted financial measures for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “The US should focus on increasing sanctions and diplomacy with key allies (South Korea and Japan) to counter North Korea’s continued sanctions evasion and nuclear weapons and missile programs,” he said.

Even then, it is far from clear North Korea will give up its nuclear program.

Another approach is to stop talking and start showing muscle. USA Today reports:


Quote
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said a U.S. warship successfully shot down a medium-range ballistic missile in a test off Hawaii on Wednesday, as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to press ahead with more missile tests in the Pacific.

The USS John Paul Jones detected and tracked a missile launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai with its onboard radar, before intercepting it with SM-6 missiles, the MDA said.

Kim likely will be unimpressed. Even skeptics of more assertive action (including ex-negotiator Christopher Hill) have acknowledged that it may be necessary at some point to shoot down a missile test, a risky proposition that if unsuccessful will vastly embolden North Korea.

It has become a cliche to say there are no good solutions to North Korea. That does not mean however there aren't better and worse choices. Escalating rhetoric and impulsive tweets from the president backed up by no visible action surely is the worst of all. Perhaps the administration should start by having a single person — preferably not Trump — speak on the issue.


• Jennifer Rubin writes the Right Turn blog for The Washington Post, offering reported opinion from a conservative perspective.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related to this topic:

 • Americans fly out from North Korea before US travel ban

 • Russia warns US against new sanctions on North Korea

 • Trump sows confusion by rejecting idea of North Korea talks


https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2017/08/30/the-administrations-incoherence-on-north-korea-intensifies
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« Reply #133 on: September 01, 2017, 12:52:57 am »


Yep....The Donald says one thing....then the Defence Secretary says something completely different.

No wonder Kim Jong-un KNOWS Donald Trump is full-of-shit!!

Trump is a stupid simpleton with a simple brain. He doesn't even know any “big” words.

No wonder the USA is the laughing stock of the world since the Orange Goblin became the Prez.
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« Reply #134 on: September 01, 2017, 05:58:51 am »

Trouble is, Trump has made the mainstream trash media lose their minds. They are obsessed with trying to undo him. See that isn't journalism, it's a mental disorder 😁
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« Reply #135 on: September 01, 2017, 01:05:55 pm »


OMG!! I'm starting to wonder if you are as dumb & thick as Reality/Donald!!!

I didn't think anybody could be as intellectually-challenged as that clown, but now I'm begining to re-evaluate my position on that topic.

Mind you, it would be marvellous for Reality/Donald if he turns out to be not alone in the Dunce's corner.
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« Reply #136 on: September 01, 2017, 03:38:11 pm »

A very smart move.....the old "good cop / bad cop " stategy, playing with his mind...

...but there is collateral damage to that approach...the lefty yankee media...and...
....certain kiwirail employees.....
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« Reply #137 on: September 03, 2017, 02:44:46 pm »


from The Washington Post....

North Korean leader inspects new H-bomb

There will be some skepticism from experts about the country's assertion that it mastered the
technology, but the propaganda claim raises the possibility of an imminent nuclear bomb test.


By FOSTER KLUG - Associated Press | 9:06PM EDT - Saturday, September 02, 2017

In this undated image distributed on September 3rd, 2017, by the North Korean government, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at an undisclosed location. — Photograph: Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service/Associated Press.
In this undated image distributed on September 3rd, 2017, by the North Korean government, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at an undisclosed location.
 — Photograph: Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service/Associated Press.


SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected a new, “super explosive” hydrogen bomb meant to be loaded into an intercontinental ballistic missile, Pyongyang's state media said on Sunday, a claim to technological mastery that some outside experts will doubt but that raises the possibility of an imminent nuclear bomb test.

Photos released by North Korea showed Kim talking with his lieutenants as he observed a silver, peanut-shaped device that was apparently the purported thermonuclear weapon destined for an ICBM.

Aside from the factuality of the North's claim, the language in its statement seems a strong signal that Pyongyang will soon conduct another nuclear weapon test, which is crucial if North Korean scientists are to fulfill the national goal of an arsenal of viable nuclear ICBMs that can reach the U.S. mainland. There's speculation that such a test could come on or around the September 9th anniversary of North Korea's national founding, something it did last year.

As part of the North's weapons work, Kim was said by his propaganda mavens to have made a visit to the Nuclear Weapons Institute and inspected a “homemade” H-bomb with “super explosive power” that “is adjustable from tens kiloton to hundreds (of) kiloton,” the state run Korean Central News Agency said.

North Korea in July conducted its first ever ICBM tests, part of a stunning jump in progress for the country's nuclear and missile program since Kim rose to power following his father's death in late 2011. The North followed its two tests of ICBMs, which, when perfected, could target large parts of the United States, by threatening to launch a salvo of its Hwasong-12 intermediate range missiles toward the U.S. Pacific island territory of Guam in August.

It flew a Hwasong-12 over northern Japan last week, the first such overflight by a missile capable of carrying nukes, in a launch Kim described as a “meaningful prelude” to containing Guam, the home of major U.S. military facilities, and more ballistic missile tests targeting the Pacific.

To back up its bombast, North Korea needs to conduct nuclear tests. The first of its two such tests last year involved what it claimed was a hydrogen bomb; the second it said was its most powerful detonation ever. Experts and outside governments are skeptical of the hydrogen claim, but it is almost impossible to independently confirm North Korean statements about its highly secret weapons program.

It is clear, however, that each new missile and nuclear test gives the North invaluable information that allows big jumps in capability. A key question is how far North Korea has gotten in efforts to consistently shrink down nuclear warheads so they can fit on long-range missiles.

“Though we cannot verify the claim, (North Korea) wants us to believe that it can launch a thermonuclear strike now, if it is attacked. Importantly, (North Korea) will also want to test this warhead, probably at a larger yield, to demonstrate this capability,” said Adam Mount, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

North Korea's claim that “this warhead is variable-yield and capable of specialized weapons effects implies a complex nuclear strategy. It shows (North Korea) is not only threatening assured destruction of the U.S. and allied cities in the event it is attacked, but also that (North Korea) is considering limited coercive nuclear strikes, or is seeking credible response options for U.S. ones.”

North Korea is thought to have a growing arsenal of nuclear bombs and has spent decades trying to perfect a multistage, long-range missile to eventually carry smaller versions of those bombs.

South Korea's main spy agency has previously asserted that it does not think Pyongyang currently has the ability to develop miniaturized nuclear weapons that can be mounted on long-range ballistic missiles. Some experts, however, think the North may have mastered this technology.

In Washington, there was no immediate reaction from the White House or the State Department.

The North said in its statement on Sunday that its H-bomb “is a multi-functional thermonuclear nuke with great destructive power which can be detonated even at high altitudes for super-powerful EMP (electromagnetic pulse) attack according to strategic goals.”

Kim, according to the statement, claimed that “all components of the H-bomb were homemade … thus enabling the country to produce powerful nuclear weapons as many as it wants.”

In what could be read as a veiled warning of more nuclear tests, Kim underlined the need for scientists to “dynamically conduct the campaign for successfully concluding the final-stage research and development for perfecting the state nuclear force” and “set forth tasks to be fulfilled in the research into nukes.”


Associated Press writers Youkyung Lee and Kim Tong-hyung contributed to this report.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/nkorea-says-it-has-loaded-h-bomb-onto-icbm/2017/09/02/d75c7290-903b-11e7-9c53-6a169beb0953_story.html
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« Reply #138 on: September 03, 2017, 04:36:08 pm »

Maybe he would like to test it out on a small country a long way from anywhere that nobody cares about😳
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« Reply #139 on: September 03, 2017, 05:10:27 pm »


from The Washington Post....

North Korea apparently conducts another nuclear test, South Korea says

An artificial earthquake was detected Sunday near the Pyongyang regime’s known
nuclear test site, officials said. The North Koreans earlier in the day claimed to have
developed a hydrogen bomb that could be mounted on a long-range ballistic missile.


By ANNA FIFIELD | 12:42AM EDT - Sunday, September 03, 2017

North Korea said that it had developed a more advanced nuclear bomb with “great destructive power,” releasing photos of Kim Jong Un inspecting what his government described as a hydrogen bomb that could be attached to a missile capable of reaching the mainland United States. — Photograph: Korean Central News Agency/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.
North Korea said that it had developed a more advanced nuclear bomb with “great destructive power,” releasing photos of Kim Jong Un inspecting
what his government described as a hydrogen bomb that could be attached to a missile capable of reaching the mainland United States.
 — Photograph: Korean Central News Agency/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.


TOKYO — North Korea appears to have conducted another nuclear test, the South Korean government said on Sunday after seismic authorities detected an artificial earthquake near Pyongyang regime's known nuclear test site.

This would be North Korea's sixth nuclear test, and the first since President Trump was inaugurated. The action probably will increase already high tensions between the Trump administration and Kim Jong Un's regime.

The U.S Geological Survey said it had recorded a 6.3 magnitude earthquake exactly at noon Sunday local time, near North Korea's known nuclear test site in Punggyeri, in the county's northeast region. The quake was felt in northern China, with emergency sirens blaring in Yanji, near the North Korean border, according to local media.

North Korea's recent nuclear tests have also happened exactly on the hour, often on meaningful dates for North Korea or the United States. It is a holiday weekend in the United States, which marks Labor Day on Monday.

A North Korean nuclear test in September of last year registered as a 5.3-magnitude earthquake at 9 a.m. on a national holiday marking the 68th anniversary of the formation of the communist regime by Kim Il Sung, the current leader's grandfather.

South Korean authorities said Sunday's earthquake appeared to be artificial, consistent with a nuclear test.

President Moon Jae-in immediately called an emergency meeting of his national security council, and the chairman of his Joint Chiefs of Staff put the South Korean military on alert.

In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he “would not tolerate” another nuclear test.

Analysts had been expecting another nuclear test after North Korea said earlier on Sunday that it had developed a more advanced nuclear bomb with “great destructive power.” But they weren't expecting it so soon after the announcement.

On Sunday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency released photos of Kim Jong Un inspecting what his government described as a hydrogen bomb that could be attached to a missile capable of reaching the mainland United States.

All the components of the “H-bomb” were “homemade” so North Korea could produce “powerful nuclear weapons as many as it wants,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency quoted Kim as saying.

North Korea's latest claim on a hydrogen bomb could not be verified. Although it claimed that a nuclear test in January last year was of a hydrogen bomb, experts said the seismic waves generated were consistent with an ordinary nuclear device, not a thermonuclear one.

A sixth nuclear test by the North Koreans would be highly inflammatory for the United States and China, as well as North Korea's other neighbors.

China has expressed annoyance at North Korea's frequent ballistic missile launches, but analysts have said China probably would not take serious action — unless there is another nuclear test.

Sunday's events could also change the equation for Washington. Trump has been warning the Kim regime not to test him, warning on Twitter that the American military was “locked and loaded.”


• 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-apparently-conducts-another-nuclear-test-south-korea-says/2017/09/03/7bce3ff6-905b-11e7-8df5-c2e5cf46c1e2_story.html
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« Reply #140 on: September 03, 2017, 05:13:51 pm »

Jeeezzz.....I wish you would keep up....that was hours ago boy...ffs🙄

...what...are you on kiwirail time😳
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« Reply #141 on: September 03, 2017, 05:38:29 pm »


How the Los Angeles Times saw it (note, California is on Pacific Daylight Time compared to Washington D.C., which is on Eastern Daylight Time, although I suspect Reality/Donald is probably too intellectually-challenged to be capable of comprehending stuff such as time-zone differences, 'cause he's basically dumb & stupid)....



from the Los Angeles Times....

North Korea appears to have conducted sixth underground
nuclear test, South Korean military says


Seismic event in North Korea was no earthquake, Seoul says.

By MATT STILES | 10:00PM PDT - Friday, September 02, 2017

Kim Jong Un, center, examines a device at an undisclosed location in an undated photo released by North Korea's official news agency. — Photograph: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.
Kim Jong Un, center, examines a device at an undisclosed location in an undated photo released by North Korea's official news agency.
 — Photograph: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.


NORTH KOREA on Sunday conducted what appeared to be its sixth underground nuclear test, South Korean military officials said, in a brash move that surely threatens to heighten already tense relations in the region.

In just over a week, North Korea has test launched at least four ballistic missiles — including one that flew over Japan, causing serious alarm on the island — and boasted about creating a warhead that could, in theory, be used against the United States.

U.S. and South Korean officials say the detonation caused an unnatural tremor detected by sensors, a tell-tale sign of a nuclear test. The blast is believed to have occurred in a village in northeastern North Korea known as Punggyeri — a site closely watched by international nuclear experts. The country's five previous tests, including two last year, occurred there.

The magnitude of the nuclear test, North Korea's first since last September, was estimated at 5.6, according to South Korean officials. The seismic wave occurred about 12:30 p.m. The size, if confirmed, would appear to produce a yield similar to recent tests.

The latest experiment — a clear violation of international resolutions, though not unexpected by United States officials — raises new concerns that North Korea continues to advance as a nuclear state, despite years of effort by the international community to curb its atomic program.

The quake was felt just hours after North Korea boasted that a hydrogen bomb had been mounted on a new intercontinental ballistic missile and that leader Kim Jong Un had inspected the device.

North Korea, one of the world's most isolated and unpredictable states, appears to be violating global norms with increased impunity. President Trump in April said “I don't know” when asked whether a sixth nuclear test would trigger an American response.

Reactions from the international community weren't immediately available, but condemnations from the United States, South Korea and Japan — all bracing in recent days from other provocations — were expected to be swift.

A negative reaction from China, North Korea's most important trading partner and key player in any resolution, would also be likely.

The rogue state is still technically at war with South Korea, a United States ally that has roughly 28,000 American forces stationed on bases, largely within a few hundred miles of the shared Korean border.

Provocations in recent years, under dynastic young ruler Kim, have included numerous ballistic missile tests; the lengthy prison sentence given to an American tourist, who later died after being released; and a land mine incident along the border in 2015 that severely injured two South Korean soldiers.

The test is the latest provocation by the North, which in April paraded a massive battery of military hardware before the world in a recent celebration — including, perhaps, long-range devices capable of striking targets outside Asia.

Last month, the country test launched what the international community now believes were intercontinental ballistic missiles — devices in theory capable of reaching the United States.

North Korea, which security experts say could have more than a dozen nuclear devices, first conducted an underground test in 2006. The tests' power has increased over time, and last year state media reported advances in the miniaturization and manufacturing of nuclear warheads in addition to its strongest experiment to date last September.

“The standardization of the nuclear warhead will enable the DPRK to produce at will and as many as it wants a variety of smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear warheads of higher strike power,” the government said last September, using the initials of North Korea's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Security experts in recent years have begun to shift their focus away from disarming the country to studying methods for deterring the country’s desire to use or share nuclear weapons.

At the same time, the North has made steady progress in its land- and sea-based missile programs, which already have the ability to strike regional American allies in Seoul or Tokyo. In a televised New Year's Day message this year, Kim boasted that the country was also making significant progress in its effort to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking American targets in the Pacific Ocean, or perhaps even the U.S. mainland.

Kim's New Year's address pushed then President-elect Trump to tweet: “North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S. It won't happen!”

Trump's administration is still adapting to its new policy of pressure and engagement on North Korea. Such efforts toward North Korea have baffled the last three American presidents who watched, with few good options for intervention, as the country became a nuclear state.

In a visit to Seoul in March, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called for a “different approach” for dealing with the North's nuclear ambitions, acknowledging that previous administrations’ efforts to apply pressure and use covert actions have failed. It’s unclear what that approach might be, however, though Tillerson did suggest that military intervention was still an option.

A looming concern for American officials is the extent to which China can — or is willing to — apply additional economic pressure to persuade the North to denuclearize, or perhaps to talk about it. Trump has said that the United States would tackle the problem alone, if needed, a posture questioned by experts who note the issue's regional complexity.

Some in South Korea, whose densely populated capital is within striking range of conventional weapons like artillery, see the recent provocations as a test for China. Its leaders, including President Xi Jinping, have urged restraint.


• Matt Stiles is a freelance journalist based in Seoul who writes for the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, the Chicago Tribune, The Sydney Morning Herald and the Houston Chronicle, as well as several other newspapers.

http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-north-korea-hydrogen-bomb-20170902-story.html
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« Reply #142 on: September 03, 2017, 05:47:29 pm »

Ktj...."Some in South Korea, whose densely populated capital is within striking range of conventional weapons like artillery, see the recent provocations as a test for China. Its leaders, including President Xi Jinping, have urged restraint."


...yes...now is the time we really see how much power China has....if they can rein in there "friend"🙄
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« Reply #143 on: September 03, 2017, 06:28:57 pm »


China will do nothing, because China fears millions of North Korean refugees swamping their borders more than they give a stuff about Trump being pissed off.

So when Trump rants and raves at the Chinese president, he will politely smile, but ignore Trump and do nothing.

Trump doesn't scare the Chinese president....he just finds Trump an annoying twat that he only has to listen to, then ignore.

After all, the Chinese president KNOWS he is the head of the emerging superpower, whereas Trump is the head of the waning superpower.
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« Reply #144 on: September 03, 2017, 06:30:48 pm »

...and tell me...how are the rose tinted glasses working out🙄
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« Reply #145 on: September 03, 2017, 08:50:27 pm »


UPDATED STORY....



from The Washington Post....

North Korea says it successfully tested hydrogen bomb for long-range missile

North Korea has conducted a nuclear test, officials from Japan and South Korea said on Sunday
after an artificial earthquake was detected near the Pyongyang regime's known nuclear test site.


By ANNA FIFIELD | 3:03AM EDT - Sunday, September 03, 2017

North Korea said that it had developed a more advanced nuclear bomb with “great destructive power,” releasing photos of Kim Jong Un inspecting what his government described as a hydrogen bomb that could be attached to a missile capable of reaching the mainland United States. — Photograph: Korean Central News Agency/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.
North Korea said that it had developed a more advanced nuclear bomb with “great destructive power,” releasing photos of Kim Jong Un inspecting
what his government described as a hydrogen bomb that could be attached to a missile capable of reaching the mainland United States.
 — Photograph: Korean Central News Agency/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images.


TOKYO — North Korea claimed on Sunday to have detonated a hydrogen bomb that can be mounted on a missile capable of reaching the mainland United States — a claim that, although unverified — will sharply increase tensions between the Pyongyang regime and the rest of the world.

Kim Jong Un personally signed off on the nuclear test, Ri Chun Hee, North Korea's most famous news anchor, said in a special broadcast on Sunday afternoon.

The bomb was a two-stage weapon with a yield that analysts said could make it a “city buster.”

The U.S Geological Survey on Sunday said it had recorded a 6.3 magnitude earthquake exactly at noon Sunday local time, near North Korea's nuclear test site in Punggye-ri, in the county's northeast region. The quake was felt in northern China, with emergency sirens blaring in Yanji, near the North Korean border, according to local media.

South Korean authorities said Sunday's earthquake appeared to be artificial, consistent with a nuclear test. Japan's Foreign Ministry said it has concluded that North Korea did conduct a nuclear test.

It's North Korea's sixth nuclear test, and the first since President Trump was inaugurated.

North Korea's recent nuclear tests have happened exactly on the hour, often on meaningful dates for North Korea or the United States. It is a holiday weekend in the United States, which marks Labor Day on Monday.

A North Korean nuclear test in September of last year registered as a 5.3-magnitude earthquake at 9 a.m. on a national holiday marking the 68th anniversary of the formation of the communist regime by Kim Il Sung, the current leader’s grandfather.

After the test was detected, South Korean President Moon Jae-in called an emergency meeting of his national security council, and the chairman of his Joint Chiefs of Staff put the South Korean military on alert.

In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he “would not tolerate” another nuclear test.

Analysts had been expecting another nuclear test after North Korea said earlier on Sunday that it had developed a more advanced nuclear bomb with “great destructive power.” But they weren't expecting it so soon after the announcement.

Earlier on Sunday before the test, the state-run Korean Central News Agency released photos of Kim Jong Un inspecting what his government described as a hydrogen bomb that could be attached to a missile capable of reaching the mainland United States.

All the components of the “H-bomb” were “homemade” so North Korea could produce “powerful nuclear weapons as many as it wants,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency quoted Kim as saying.

North Korea's latest claim of a hydrogen bomb could not be verified. Although it said that a nuclear test in January last year was of a hydrogen bomb, experts said the seismic waves generated were consistent with an ordinary nuclear device, not a thermonuclear one.

A sixth nuclear test by the North Koreans would be highly inflammatory for the United States and China, as well as North Korea's other neighbors.

China has expressed annoyance at North Korea's frequent ballistic missile launches, but analysts have said China probably would not take serious action — unless there is another nuclear test.

Sunday's events could also change the equation for Washington. Trump has been warning the Kim regime not to test him, warning on Twitter that the American military was “locked and loaded.”

In April, the U.S. Air Force deployed to Japan a WC-135C Constant Phoenix, a four-engine jet designed to detect nuclear tests by collecting air samples. The plane, based on the Japanese island of Okinawa, probably will be used to determine what the North Koreans tested underground.

The aircraft carries about 30 personnel and is one of the arms of the U.S. Atomic Energy Detection System. The jet was used in 2011 to track radioactive activity around the Fukushima nuclear power plant after an earthquake and tsunami hit Japan that year.


Thomas Gibbons-Neff in Washington 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.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related to this topic:

 • GRAPHIC: Eight countries have performed nuclear tests. Most stopped decades ago.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/north-korea-apparently-conducts-another-nuclear-test-south-korea-says/2017/09/03/7bce3ff6-905b-11e7-8df5-c2e5cf46c1e2_story.html
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« Reply #146 on: September 03, 2017, 08:51:41 pm »


This now means that North Korea only has to carry out another 1,026 nuclear tests to catch up to the USA's total.
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« Reply #147 on: September 03, 2017, 09:54:20 pm »

...yeah....nah...and about another million will have to starve to death🙄
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« Reply #148 on: September 03, 2017, 10:24:36 pm »


The next time North Korea test denotates a nuke, they will only have 1,025 tests to go before catching up with the USA's total.
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« Reply #149 on: September 03, 2017, 10:27:45 pm »

...yes...I agree...they are a long way behing😉
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