Category: North Korea

The Washington Post reports that the Global Times published a warning from China that they would not support a North Korean missile strike on US interests. They also stated that they would intervene if the US tried to change the regime in the hermit kingdom;

In an editorial, The Global Times said China should make it clear to both sides: “when their actions jeopardize China’s interests, China will respond with a firm hand.”

“China should also make clear that if North Korea launches missiles that threaten U.S. soil first and the U.S. retaliates, China will stay neutral,” it added. “If the U.S. and South Korea carry out strikes and try to overthrow the North Korean regime and change the political pattern of the Korean Peninsula, China will prevent them from doing so.”

The Global Times warning comes at the end of a week of threat and counter-threat between Washington and Pyongyang, and as the United States weighs up its options to deal with the threat of North Korea’s nuclear and missile program.

The Global Times said both sides were engaging in a “reckless game” that runs the risk of descending into a real war.

The article claims that the Chinese aren’t all that happy that there are nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula, but that ship has sailed. Too bad they didn’t grow cojones a decade or so ago when they could have intervened and prevented North Korea from developing nuclear weapons. Now they’re just closing the barn door after the horses got out. President Bush tried to get the Chinese to have a regional solution to the nuclear problem, and they kicked the can down the road.

Meanwhile, Congress thinks that this is Constitutional;

Benjamin R. Young, a PhD candidate in Korean history at George Washington University, writes a column in the Washington Post entitled “The Reagan-era invasion that drove North Korea to develop nuclear weapons” in which he blames President Reagan’s invasion of Grenada in 1983 for North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Apparently, the North Koreans had military ties to the distant Caribbean island;

Shortly after establishing diplomatic relations with Grenada in 1979, Kim Il Sung offered large amounts of free technical and agricultural assistance to Bishop’s regime. From sending tractors and cement to helping build the national stadium in the capital city of St. George’s, North Korea spared no expense in assisting its Grenadian allies.

The North Koreans also provided a large cache of weapons to Grenada. According to documents captured by American military forces during the invasion, when Bishop visited North Korea in April 1983, the two countries signed a secret military agreement. North Korea’s “free offer of military assistance” gave the Grenadians 12 million U.S. dollars worth of weapons and ammunition, which included 1,000 automatic rifles, 30 heavy machine guns and 50 rocket-propelled grenade launchers. Richard Jacobs, Grenada’s ambassador to the Soviet Union, remarked at the time of the U.S. invasion, “We have the best Soviet, Czech and North Korean military equipment; we will win the fight, no question about it.”

Mr. Young makes good points, but the hermit kingdom isn’t the poor little political entity threatened by the US hegemonic power he’d like us to believe. The North Koreans have been paranoid forever. Just a few years before the Grenada invasion, Americans had been murdered by North Korean soldiers when the Americans were trimming a poplar tree that blocked their view of the North.

In a 1984 conversation with East German leader Erich Honecker, Kim Il Sung lamented, “Every year the American armies conduct a major military exercise. They conducted these exercises even before the Reagan era, but since Reagan took office this has grown.” Kim Il Sung also fretted to Honecker that Reagan would never withdraw U.S. troops from South Korea and the American military presence would impede his plans for the reunification of the Korean peninsula. Kim Il Sung perceived Reagan’s combination of staunch support for South Korea and militant rhetoric, on top of the invasion of Grenada, as a sign that North Korea might be next.

North Korea also started a nuclear weapons program for Syria that was discontinued by the Israelis in 2007’s Operation Orchard. How was that related to Grenada?

The truth is that President Clinton freed up cash for nuclear research in North Korea when he and Jimmy Carter provided freebies for the North. North Korea wants nuclear weapons, not for defense but because they view themselves as a world power, deserving the respect that they don’t get from the rest of the world.

The North Koreans want nuclear weapons to blackmail the world, just like Iran wants nuclear weapons to rule the Middle East. It’s too easy to blame the US foreign policy, particularly that of Republican Presidents, so that’s why the Left uses it as an excuse.

According to the Washington Post, the Defense Intelligence Agency discovered that North Korea is making warheads for their missile fleet.

The analysis, completed last month by the Defense Intelligence Agency, comes on the heels of another intelligence assessment that sharply raises the official estimate for the total number of bombs in the communist country’s atomic arsenal. The United States calculated last month that up to 60 nuclear weapons are now controlled by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Some independent experts think the number is much smaller.

The findings are likely to deepen concerns about an evolving North Korean military threat that appears to be advancing far more rapidly than many experts had predicted. U.S. officials concluded last month that Pyongyang is also outpacing expectations in its effort to build an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking the American mainland.

According to CNN, President Trump is meeting the threat with his usual bluster;

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen… he has been very threatening beyond a normal state. They will be met with fire, fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before,” he said.

Trump’s harsh words come as US intelligence analysts have assessed that North Korea has produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead, according to multiple sources familiar with the analysis of North Korea’s missile and nuclear program.

Soon after Trump’s comments, North Korea issued a statement saying it was “examining the operational plan” to strike areas around the US territory of Guam in the Pacific, including the Andersen Air Force base.

China appears to be trying to ratchet back the rhetoric and Japan seems to approve of a strong US response, but stock markets in Japan and South Korea tumbled after the rhetorical exchange.

The United Nations Security Council imposed more strict sanctions on North Koea in an attempt to blunt their nuclear weapons program. North Korea responded with an angry letter, blaming the United States for the move, according to the Associated Press;

“It’s a wild idea to think the DPRK will be shaken and change its position due to this kind of new sanctions formulated by hostile forces,” said the statement, carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. DPRK stands for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The North’s statement “rhetorically expresses its anger” against the U.N. sanctions, but the country is not likely to launch a direct provocation against the United States, said Lim Eul Chul, a North Korea expert at South Korea’s Kyungnam University. He said the North could still carry out new missile tests or a sixth atomic bomb test in the coming months under its broader weapons development timetable.

Under the new sanctions, North Korea won’t be able to export coal, iron or lead. It also bans the export of seafood – I guess they’ll have to feed their own people now. Coal is it’s most profitable export, so they’ll have less cash money to buy imports. Well, unless China breaks the export ban like they’ve been doing regularly.

According to the Associated Press, the United Nations’ Security Council imposed sanctions on the Hermit Kingdom banning a billion dollars worth of exports;

The resolution adopted Saturday afternoon would also ban countries from giving any additional permits to North Korean laborers – another source of money for Kim Jong Un’s regime.

The U.S.-drafted measure, negotiated with North Korea’s neighbor and ally China, is aimed at increasing economic pressure on Pyongyang to return to negotiations on its nuclear and missile programs.

[…]

The resolution bans North Korea from exporting coal, iron, lead and seafood products estimated to be worth over $1 billion. This represents one-third of its total exports last year, estimated at $3 billion.

Stars & Stripes reports that 2 B-1B Lancer bombers flew a ten hour mission from Guam to the Korean peninsula in response to test by North Korea of their missile system.

A suspected Hwasong-14 missile — the second ICBM North Korea has tested successfully in July — was fired late Friday from Mupyong-ni in the country’s far northwest and splashed down into the Sea of Japan about 620 miles east of the launch site, the Pentagon said.

The Guam-based B-1B Lancers first flew into Japanese airspace and were joined by two Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-2 fighter jets, the Pacific Air Forces statement said. The bombers then headed to the Korean Peninsula and were met by four South Korean F-15s.

After a low pass over Osan Air Base, the pair returned to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam.

From Associated Press;

“North Korea remains the most urgent threat to regional stability,” said Gen. Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, Pacific Air Forces commander. “Diplomacy remains the lead. However, we have a responsibility to our allies and our nation to showcase our unwavering commitment while planning for the worst-case scenario.”

“If called upon, we are ready to respond with rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force at a time and place of our choosing,” O’Shaughnessy said.

Chip sends us a link to UK’s Metro which reports that North Korea is poised to “preemptively annihilate” any country that has threatened the hermit nation, so because CIA Director Mike Pompeo said last week that Kim must be separated from his nuclear weapons, we’re in the crosshairs;

The Yonhap News Agency in South Korea reported that there was a ‘high possibility’ Kim Jong-un’s nation could launch a strike today, after transporter erector launchers carrying ICBM launch tubes in North Pyongan province have been moved by North Korea.

A US defense official, who wanted to remain anonymous, said either an intermediate-range missile known as a KN-20 or a Hwasong-14, would be ‘probably’ launched today as it is the 64th anniversary of the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement.

A US defense official said: ‘They’re setting up for something.’

Glad I got a hair cut yesterday.

According to Business Insider, China appears to be expecting trouble from their North Korean neighbors;

A report from The Wall Street Journal says that China has established a new border-defense brigade, implemented 24-hour video surveillance of the border, and constructed bunkers to protect from possible nuclear or chemical attacks.

China conducted a live-fire drill in June and July with helicopter gunships and armored infantry units, including a simulated battle with artillery, tanks, and helicopters, according to The Journal. The nature of these military exercises goes beyond securing a border, and they mimic fighting a nuclear-armed adversary.

While China and North Korea exist on paper as allies, Sim Tack, an expert on North Korea at Stratfor, a geopolitical-analysis firm, previously told Business Insider that China would not likely defend Pyongyang from a US-led attack and instead try to prevent or dissuade the US from taking such a step.

Seein’s how the North Koreans have thousands of conventional artillery pieces pointed at Seoul, South Korea, on a hair trigger, an unprovoked US invasion seems unlikely.

From CNN;

The North Korea border region is a highly strategic one for China, and has seen conflict during World War II and the Korean War, but one of Beijing’s chief concerns is not military forces pouring across the border, but refugees.

Yeah, I’d be worried about a couple of million grass-eaters who decide to graze on my land, too.

Earlier this year, the Chinese state-run tabloid Global Times warned “if the North Korean nuclear issue boils over, a war on the peninsula is unavoidable.”

“The war will bring more risks than the tough sanctions on Pyongyang could to China,” the paper said in an editorial.

“If China does not tackle the conundrum now, it will face more difficult choices in the future.”

Thanks to David for the tip.