North Korea Warns 'War Imminent'

[FarLeftFist]

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/28/north-korea-were-heading-_n_593550.html

Tensions between North and South Korea continue to escalate: On Friday, North Korea blamed its southern neighbor of staging the sinking of its own warship, which killed 46 soldiers, denying any responsibility for the tragedy. It also warned that any retaliation for the incident would lead to armed conflict, and potentially “all-out war.” North Korea’s denial runs at odds with a recent multinational probe that determined that a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine downed the ship. On Monday, meanwhile, South Korea announced that it would take a series of measures against North Korea, including a drastic reduction in trade.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. The end of the truce WILL suck

especially for our spee... err troops in country. I still hope they are wagging the tail... truly am.

[Lint Head]

2. They are full of it. North Korea is too broken to maintain a war

much less start one. I think Pygmy boy wants attention.

[Better Believe It]

3. That's not what U.S. General Thomas A. Schwartz says.

North Korea's military 'bigger, better, closer, deadlier,' says General Schwartz
April 14, 2001

Pyongyang's military machine is "bigger, better, closer, deadlier," Gen. Thomas A. Schwartz said in testimony last week before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Schwartz heads the United Nations and ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Commands and U.S. Forces Korea.

North Korea so far "has yet to discuss or implement any meaningful military confidence-building measures beyond agreement of the opening of a railroad corridor through the Demilitarized Zone," he said. Schwartz said 70 percent of the North's army — "approximately 700,000 troops, over 8,000 artillery systems and 2,000 tanks" — are based within 90 miles of the DMZ and are being reinforced. Most are positioned in more than 4,000 underground facilities from which they "can attack with minimal preparations or warning," he said.

Without moving any of its more than 12,000 artillery pieces, he said, "Pyongyang could sustain up to 500,000 rounds per hour against Combined Forces Command defenses and Seoul for several hours." Most dangerous, he said, "is the accelerated deployment over the past two years of large numbers of long-range 240mm multiple rocket launchers and 170mm self-propelled guns … along the DMZ."

He said Pyongyang's ability to attack the South "without warning and (with) nonconventional weapons continues to grow bigger and get better." The North has the world's third largest ground force with 1 million active-duty soldiers, an air force of more than 1,700 planes, an 800-ship navy that includes "the largest submarine fleet in the world," and a 6 million man reserve force, he said.

He called the North's special operations forces "the largest in the world" with more than 100,000 men. "During wartime, these forces … would fight on two fronts, simultaneously attacking both our forward and rear bases," he said.

Text source: Jim Osan, Stars & Stripes, March 30, 2001

http://www.checkpoint-online.ch/CheckPoint/J2/J2-0001-NorthKoreaDeadlier.html


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North Korea's war strategy of massive retaliations against US attacks (Part III)
Han Ho Suk, Center for Korean Affairs
5/1/2003

http://www.asianresearch.org/articles/1359.html

[Chulanowa]

17. Pardon me, but I don't tend to trust our military's assessment of other nations' armed forces

Since, after all, the bigger and deadlier and more powerful the armies of all these other nations are, the more justification our military has to suck up 55% of the budget.

[MilesColtrane]

13. DPRK could definitely start a nasty, if short lived war, killing a million or more.

They are counting on China stepping in to intervene and ramp down a war if they won't help sustain one.

[Pakman]

4. Lying in order to start a war is not unlike us

Stay skeptical guys. Remember the Gulf of Tonkin and the WMD. During the first hours subsequent to the JFK assassination, the blame was pinned on Fidel Castro by right-wing elements connected with the CIA.

[Better Believe It]

5. President Obama can hold his right-wing Generals and the South Korean regime back .... I hope.

[Posteritatis]

6. I rather doubt the US would want to kick up a war with North Korea for the hell of it. (nt)

[babylonsister]

9. I remember WMDs very well, and hope to hell we have a

prez with a cooler head who won't act so idiotic. I actually believe we do.

And welcome to DU?

[MilesColtrane]

14. There is absolutely nothing to be gained by provoking North Korea to attack the South.

Quite the opposite.

I believe unspoken U.S. policy is to wait for Kim to check into Club Mud, hope that his successor is more rational, and continue to align China and the United State's economic interests to the point that they'll begin to distance themselves from the DPRK.

[Caliman73]

15. True

I remember the lead up to Desert Storm and how Iraq had the 4th largest military in the world with battle hardened crack forces and more tanks than god.

Granted, North Korea is probably better equipped and more likely to actually put up a fight than 1990's Iraq, I take what the military says with a grain of salt. There job is to procure funding for war and they will over assess the capabilities of the enemy so that the PTB will pull out the checkbook.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

19. I did a lot of research and it turns out the Germans didn't really bomb Pearl Harbor.

They've been lying to use from day one.

[UTUSN]

7. MmmmKAY, China?!1 WhaChoo SAY?!1 n/t

[WeDidIt]

8. You cannot fight a war on an empty stomach

and North Korea is incapable of feeding it's population.

[MrMickeysMom]

10. Here's a guy who wrote the book on North and South Korea who looks at this differently

I just watched his interview with Amy Goodman. I think he rightly points out that years and years of N % S action in the shallow waters have produced typical aggression, which may or may explain what happened. Regardless, I don't think we need Hillary Clinton using the accusatory remarks reminiscent of the old conflict, not until you find out more about what happened.

Historian Bruce Cumings: US Stance on Korea Ignores Tensions Rooted in 65-Year-Old Conflict; North Korea Sinking Could Be Response to November ’09 South Korea Attack-

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/5/27/nk

[lurky]

11. 10,000 artillery guns pointed at Seoul,

a city the size of New York. They could inflict unbelievable carnage in a matter of minutes, regardless of their economic conditions or the state of their army. Of course, they would be wiped off the face of the Earth immediately afterwards, but the current N.K. leadership seems to be on some kind of suicide mission.

[Poll_Blind]

12. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is in South Korea right now. n/t

PB

[defendandprotect]

16. 8 years of agitation and warmongering by Bush and a bit more pushing by Obama. ...

and these last 8 years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq will look peaceful in

comparison!!

[ShortnFiery]

18. With the CIA stirring-up a military confrontation with nuclear Pakistan, we'll have 4 ongoing WARS.

The corporations comprising the MIC are delighted.

Destroy and then have the proles pay for the reconstruction.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4402873

[Prometheus Bound]

20. New war unlikely over sinking of S.Korean warship - Russian experts

17:5727/05/2010

Russian experts do not expect the sinking of a South Korean warship to provoke a new war and say the investigation into the incident has not been provided with enough evidence.


......."North Korea is locked in economic turmoil and is probably not eager for a military conflict. South Korea cannot do this either, but for different reasons," the head of the Russian Far East Institute's Center for Korean Studies, Alexander Zhebin, said at a RIA Novosti press conference on Thursday.

In case a military conflict arose on the Korean Peninsula, the South's troops would automatically come under U.S. command, according to an agreement between the two countries, he added.

"Therefore any serious conflict on the Korean Peninsula could be started only with the approval of the United States or on its own initiative," he said.

Another expert, the director of Moscow State University's International Center for Korean Studies, Pavel Leshakov, agreed with his colleague.

"There won't be a war, but shootouts could occur even though a ceasefire agreement exists ," Leshakov said, adding that the South and North are not on the brink of war as they were in 1994 when U.S. forces had worked out certain pinpoint strikes on North Korea.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100527/159184713.html