North Korea 2017 onwards

[AdamG]

This country is like a real-life Horror movie. I expect to post articles about satellite images of giant glowing NorK turtles next.

You laughed when I first posted that, didn't you Peanut Gallery?

More from the country that takes most of it's operational cues from old John Carpenter movies.

On Monday, a North Korean soldier was shot six times by his former comrades as he attempted to make an escape through the Korean Demilitarized Zone and defect to the South. While recovering from his injuries in a South Korean hospital, doctors discovered his intestines were riddled with large and unusual parasites, providing a rare insight into the nutrition, health, and everyday life of North Koreans.
“In my over 20-year-long career as a surgeon, I have only seen something like this in a textbook,” lead surgeon Lee Cook-jong said in a press briefing on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and...es-in-his-gut/

[davidbfpo]

There is a discussion underway on North Korea following this Journal article:http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art...rean-peninsula

Added for reference.

[AdamG]

Caveat: source is a VOX writer.

But experts say there are also mundane reasons why North Korea isn’t launching right now: the weather in North Korea is hostile during the winter, which makes it harder to test missiles, and North Korean troops are too busy harvesting food to eat.
All of which means North Korea’s decision not to launch any missiles in recent weeks isn’t a sign of a sudden change of heart in Pyongyang. Instead, it could be sign that Kim is prepared to move closer to the brink of all-out confrontation with the US.

https://www.vox.com/world/2017/11/24...mp-kim-missile

[AdamG]

Washington (CNN)North Korea fired a ballistic missile early Wednesday local time, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.
CNN confirmed the launch with the South Korean military leaders who said it was still flying.
"North Korea fired an unidentified ballistic missile early this morning from Pyongsong, South Pyongan, to the east direction. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff is analyzing more details of the missile with the US side," said an official at South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the South Korean military carried out a "precision missile strike drill" just minutes after North Korea's missile launch.

The precision missile strike matched the flight distance of the North Korean missile, and landed in waters off the east coast of South Korea.
The US military has also confirmed that there was a probable missile launch from North Korea.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/28/politi...nch/index.html

[AdamG]

1. Rhetorical: Who gave them the technology for this great leap forward?

Washington (CNN)North Korea claims to have successfully tested a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile, topped with a "super-large heavy warhead," which is capable of striking the US mainland.

The country's state media made the announcement Wednesday, hours after leader Kim Jong Un ordered the 3 a.m. launch of the Hwasong-15 missile, which reached the highest altitude ever recorded by a North Korean missile.
State news agency KCNA called its so-called new missile "the most powerful ICBM" and said it "meets the goal of the completion of the rocket weaponry system development.

After the launch, Kim said North Korea had "finally realized the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force," according to KCNA.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/28/politi...nch/index.html

[Azor]

1. Rhetorical: Who gave them the technology for this great leap forward?



http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/28/politi...nch/index.html

They've had plenty of time to do it themselves, and put all of their resources into it. It is, after all, a more than 50-year old technology...

[slapout9]

Interview of LTG Steven Kwast former Air University Commander. Good faith Warning I met General Kwast while attending a class at Colonel Warden's office with some really smart Air Force guys. Key take away from General Kawst we don't have to whine and complain about the problems facing USA, we have options to win but we must make choices and design a game we can win!


Oh yea those are Army jump school wings on his chest! All the way, Sir!!




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVMA0TzIhB4

[davidbfpo]

A fascinating article from 'The Diplomat' which is sub-titled:

What a public feud between two academics tells us about Beijing’s approach to North Korea.
(Near the end) The dispute between Jia and Zhu is revealing in that it suggests that the once red line of what is acceptable to say or not to say has been steadily redrawn, allowing a broader public debate over China’s North Korean policy.

Link:https://thediplomat.com/2017/11/chin...-the-red-line/

[AdamG]

They've had plenty of time to do it themselves, and put all of their resources into it. It is, after all, a more than 50-year old technology...

They've also had the means, motive and opportunity to acquire it from elsewhere.

If there are complicit parties outside of NK, they need to be hunted down and dealt with appropriately.

[AdamG]

This country is like a real-life Horror movie. I expect to post articles about satellite images of giant glowing NorK turtles next.

Next scene -

SEOUL, South Korea — Defectors who lived near North Korea’s nuclear testing site say they believe they are suffering from exposure to radiation and fear for the health of family members still living there.
Standing about 5 feet tall, Lee Jeong Hwa walks with a slight limp. Middle-aged with an ashen gray complexion and deep-set dark brown eyes, Lee says she's in constant pain.
But back home, things are much worse, she says.
"So many people died we began calling it 'ghost disease,'" she said. "We thought we were dying because we were poor and we ate badly. Now we know it was the radiation."

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/north-k...health-n824521

[AdamG]

South Korea is making sure North Korea doesn’t forget about the regime’s soldier who defected to the South in a daring escape earlier this month -- by blasting updates about the defector’s health through its military’s loudspeakers at the Demilitarized Zone, a report said on Sunday.
South Korean troops broadcasted an update on Sunday about the North Korean soldier’s “nutritive conditions,” taking a hit at the Hermit Kingdom’s alleged health issues, Yonhap News Agency reported. The broadcasts are reportedly so loud that people within 12.4 miles from the DMZ are able to hear it.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/11...port-says.html

[AdamG]

North Korea lambasted the U.S. and South Korea on Sunday for bringing the countries to the “brink of a nuclear war” a day before the allies begin a joint military drill in a defiant show of force against Kim Jong Un less than a week after the regime launched an intercontinental ballistic missile.
North Korea’s state-run newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, wrote in a commentary Sunday the upcoming military drill is an “all out provocation against” the rogue nation that “may lead to a nuclear war at any moment.”

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/03/asia/n...ntl/index.html

[AdamG]

North Korea can make a nuclear bomb and has an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. If it launches such a missile, the United States has a $40 billion system designed to destroy the bomb in space.
What’s unknown is whether it will succeed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graph...=.e93b880d4e3e

http://www.ibtimes.com/can-us-stop-n...efense-2623077





Beware the dreaded Juche Bird!

Juche Bird would explode a nuclear bomb over the ocean, with a missile flying further than Kim’s weapons ever have done before.

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/wor...onald-Trump-US

[AdamG]

Doesn't sound 'successful' to me.

Cathay Pacific not changing routes despite crew’s suspected sighting of North Korean missile test

Airline confirms that crew on CX893 reported incident on November 29, though flight operations were unaffected

In a message on a staff online communication platform, the airline’s general manager of operations Mark Hoey, also a former 747 chief pilot, said: “Today [November 29] the crew of CX893 reported, ‘Be advised, we witnessed the DPRK missile blow up and fall apart near our current location. We advised ATC [air traffic control] and ops [operations] normal. Just letting you know’. Looking at the actual plots, CX096 might have been the closest, at a few hundred miles laterally.”

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/e...suspected-crew

[AdamG]

SYDNEY — A Sydney man has been charged with acting as an agent for North Korea in Australia by allegedly attempting to broker sales for Pyongyang including components used in ballistic missiles.
The Australian Federal Police say the 59-year-old naturalized Australian used encrypted communication to broker sales and discuss the supply of weapons of mass destruction.
Police say the man was generating tens of millions of dollars for Pyongyang by arranging the sale of missiles, componentry and expertise from North Korea to other international entities, and was trying to arrange the transfer of coal from the country to Indonesia and Vietnam.
He's the first person charged under Australia's Weapons of Mass Destruction Act and faces a maximum 10-year prison sentence.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/north-k...-sales-n830451

[AdamG]

Washington (CNN)Secretary of Defense James Mattis said Friday he does not believe that North Korea's current intercontinental ballistic missiles are capable of hitting the continental US.
North Korea's November ICBM "has not yet shown to be a capable threat against us right now," Mattis said during an off-camera briefing with reporters at the Pentagon on Friday. He added that the United States is still assessing the situation. "We are still examining the forensics, we're still doing the forensics analysis, it takes a while," he said.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/15/politi...cbm/index.html

[AdamG]

A North Korean official widely deemed as the nation’s second most powerful figure has been missing for some time, raising speculation that he has been executed.
The apparent disappearance of Vice Marshal Hwang Pyong-so was first reported in November, with South Korea’s National Intelligence Service telling lawmakers in Seoul that he’d been “punished” for having an “impure” attitude about North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/mystery-s...035535070.html

[AdamG]

The US is preparing plans to deliver a “bloody nose” attack against North Korea to knock out its nuclear weapons program.
The White House has “dramatically” ramped up its military plans amid fears that diplomacy won’t thwart North Korean despot Kim Jong Un from making good on his threats, sources told the UK’s Telegraph.
One option is destroying a launch site before the rogue regime uses it for a new missile test, while another is targeting weapons stockpiles, according to the news outlet.

https://nypost.com/2017/12/21/us-pre...n-north-korea/

[AdamG]

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) — “Storm clouds are gathering” over the Korean Peninsula, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis declared Friday. And as diplomats try to resolve the nuclear standoff, he told soldiers that the U.S. military must do its part by being ready for war.
Without forecasting a conflict, Mattis emphasized that diplomacy stands the best chance of preventing a war if America’s words are backed up by strong and prepared armed forces.

https://apnews.com/4009aed26e5e47a98...rean-Peninsula

[AdamG]

U.S. reconnaissance satellites have spotted Chinese ships selling oil to North Korean vessels on the West Sea around 30 times since October.
According to South Korean government sources, the satellites have pictured large Chinese and North Korean ships illegally trading in oil in a part of the West Sea closer to China than South Korea.
The satellite pictures even show the names of the ships.

The U.S. Treasury Department placed six North Korean shipping and trading companies and 20 of their ships on sanctions list on Nov. 21, when it published spy satellite images taken on Oct. 19 showing a ship named Ryesonggang 1 connected to a Chinese vessel.

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/...122601156.html

Track that scow from the comfort of your own chair
http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/...YE_SONG_GANG_1