North Korea is threatening nuclear war again

So, why shouldn't we just wipe out North Korea and be done with it? Anyone? Anyone? Beuller? Beuller? They seem to want it. Who are we to deny them? And then after we've finished with them, we settle the middle east once and for all and then France, just because they're persian sympathizers. And they talk funny. And why hasn't Russia gone down there and curbstomped them already? What's up with that?! Are our red friends turning yella?!

North Korea Threatens 'Nuclear War' Over Troop Exercises

North Korea has threatened to use its "nuclear deterrent" in response to planned military exercises by the U.S. and South Korea this weekend.

The regime promised a "retaliatory sacred war" amid increased tensions on the Korean peninsula over the March sinking of a South Korean navy vessel, which Seoul and Washington blame on Pyongyang.

North Korea's National Defense Commission (NDC), headed by leader Kim Jong-il, issued the threat Saturday for what it called a second "unpardonable" provocation for again being blamed for the incident in which 46 sailors died.

"The army and people of the [North] will legitimately counter with their powerful nuclear deterrence the largest-ever nuclear war exercises," the commission said in a statement run on the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

Pyongyang routinely threatens war when its southern neighbor and the U.S. hold joint military exercises. South Korea's Defense Department said no unusual North Korean military movements were detected.

Operation Invincible Spirit, which begins Sunday, will involve 8,000 U.S. and South Korean troops, 200 aircraft and 20 ships, including the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier the USS George Washington.

"The more desperately the U.S. imperialists brandish their nukes and the more zealously their lackeys follow them, the more rapidly the [North's] nuclear deterrence will be bolstered up along the orbit of self-defense and the more remote the prospect for the de-nuclearization of the Korean peninsula will be become," said the NDC statement.

Friday, a North Korea spokesman, Ri Tong-il, told reporters at the ASEAN regional security forum in Hanoi, Vietnam, there would be a "physical response" to the drills in the Sea of Japan, which he branded another sign of U.S. "hostility".

"It is a threat to the Korean peninsula and the region of Asia as a whole," he said, adding that the exercises harked back to 19th-century gunboat diplomacy and violated North Korea's sovereignty.

The meeting of regional powers in Hanoi has quickly become the stage for a war of words between the North and the U.S., although there has been no direct contact between the countries' delegates.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said "isolated and belligerent" North Korea would have to end its "campaign of provocative, dangerous behavior" if it wanted better relations with the U.S. and the rest of Asia.

North Korea has pulled out of six-party talks on its nuclear program and is blamed for the March sinking of South Korean navy vessel the Cheonan. It denies carrying out the attack.

On Wednesday, Clinton unveiled new sanctions designed to deny luxury goods to the North Korean elite and strangle funding for Pyongyang's nuclear program. The North says it will not return to nuclear talks unless sanctions are lifted.

Friday, Mrs. Clinton urged Asian nations to pressure North Korea into abandoning its nuclear ambitions by enforcing strict U.N. sanctions imposed after the regime's second nuclear test last year.

A South Korean newspaper said the new U.S. sanctions would target 200 North Korean-held foreign bank accounts thought to be connected with illegal activities such as nuclear weapons development, drug trafficking and counterfeiting.

"Even before the Cheonan incident, the U.S. was tracking around 200 North Korean bank accounts in banks in China, Russia and even eastern Europe and Africa that are believed to be involved in the development of weapons of mass destruction and the export of drugs, counterfeit money, fake cigarettes and weapons," the Chosun Ilbo newspaper quoted a diplomatic source as saying.

The paper said Kim Jong-il is believed to hold a US$4 billion slush fund in secret accounts in Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein.

North Korea also rejected Seoul's demand for an apology over the sinking.

 

Wouldn't it be horrible if North Korea has already initiated its nuclear holocaust and nobody noticed? The North Korean people might realize how hideous their lives are compared to their decadent, decaying, gutless capitalist brethren in South Korea.

 

Well, ya. The problem is south korea ain't got the military might of north korea, which I guess isn't really saying much. I don't think they actually want anything to change at all really. They're both still using old guns leftover from vietnam. Hell, maybe leftover from the "korean conflict", lol. I think it's pretty laughable to call north korea the 4th largest military might in the world. BFD. That ain't saying much because if you ain't the US, Russia or China, you're pretty much sucking hind titty, military-wise. The gap is much too monstrously large between the 3 big dogs and everyone else. Hell, I suspect China isn't even up to a proper standard. There's a large gap between China and US/Russia. Or actually, I'm second guessing myself now. Is the 3rd largest military japan? Whatever, either way. Doesn't make that much of a difference.

I almost believe that north korea wants us to finish them, much like the persian countries, so they can play the martyr and try to bolster support from the rest of world against us. They got too many looney tunes whack jobs over there. I think this Kim Jong-il wants to be the korean version of Pol-Pot. He's got the little man's syndrome, acting all tough in the face of getting wiped out by superior firepower. I mean, WTF?! If we wanted north korea dead, they would be dead, end of story. I think that's what really bothers this douche, is that he is pretty hard to take seriously and has nothing to back up his vitriol. Ego. That's all it is. Pretty sad and pathetic and a lot of other not nice words.

We can't fool with south korea because that's China's little mascot, even though they were horrible to the US troops during vietnam when we were just trying to help the ugly little gremlins.

I just cannot understand these much smaller countries wanting to start serious shit with us. One would think that they would profit greatly by peaceful negotiations. Just let us come in, change their government into a "democracy" and build a few Macdonalds so they can eat something besides rice and eels.

 

Do you seriously believe ROK is still using old guns leftover from Vietnam?

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forum...vies-play...&p=5059468&viewfull=1#post5059468

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forum...-SAM-Network&p=5067612&viewfull=1#post5067612

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forum...s-and-videos&p=4848590&viewfull=1#post4848590

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forum...s-and-videos&p=4909707&viewfull=1#post4909707

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forum...s-and-videos&p=4920995&viewfull=1#post4920995

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forum...s-and-videos&p=5033581&viewfull=1#post5033581

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forum...s-and-videos&p=5091919&viewfull=1#post5091919

The ROK military gains respect from many military members around world - even those from the big 3 countries you mentioned - for its extremely well fortified order of battle and effective combination of its military assets' level of training, numbers, and high technological integration. The armed forces of ROK packs a disproportionate amount of firepower in comparison to the country's small size.

 

While both counties still have stocks of obscelescent equipment, both also have large amounts of fairly modern equipment, also. Though, of course, South Korea's is more modern than North Korea's.

I believe the ROK has a 120mm gun tank (Type 88?) in its inventories that is similar to our M1. And the NKPA has at least T72's in some of its units.

From what I've heard, the South Korean troops that served in Viet Nam were capable and competently lead, though I've also heard they could be quite unfriendly, too.

I doubt North Korea's political climate would allow a self-motivated junior officers' corps to development, so they would likely do poorly in a mobile war against their brothers to the south. Any conventional attack by them would probably be primarily enormous artillery barrages on Seoul with mobile forces and anti-aircraft networks used to protect the artillery.

Of course, I am NOT an expert and I'm assuming the North Koreans know their limitations.

The present provocations and belligerant talk are probably to keep the NK civilians focused on foreign 'threats' and to increase North Korea's standing with the world's other loser nations and terrorist groups. This has been the pattern for decades.

 

DPRK military does not have 'large' number of modern equipment. It has a 'small' number of modern equipment. ROK military on the other hand has slowly transformed itself to the vice versa condition, wherein its obsolete equipment are still in commission for legacy's sake, but where in a real war it will be the modern units who'll defend the South Korean frontline.

DPRK military's order of battle:

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forum...40-Bluffer-s-Guide-North-Korea-strikes!-(2009)

The ROK military's order of battle is proving to be more enigmatic and harder to analyze so far. Nonetheless, the combined arms of the ROK military can claim to be a firepower and precision equal of the armed forces of big NATO countries such as France, UK, and Germany, and you will not find many military members of those countries who'll attempt to refute such proclamation.

However, the ROK military's greatest woe is that its only foe will not be DPRK. DPRK still has a large, powerful ally across its northern border, who participated on the Communist's side in the Korean War. There is a large likelihood that this communist power would rather help the DPRK win a war than the ROK.

 

Let's not forget that North Korea's usual course of "negotiations" is first to make an unreasonable threat, followed eventually by an act of "glorious understanding" (poor translation from Korean).

Every time we have dealt with them it seems to work the same way.

From what I've seen in the past, (many years ago actually) when standing on the South side of the "no mans zone" between North and South Korea, the tension is always there and feels almost like a show put on to make a point.

In short, in my slightly experienced opinion, I think this last move is just another of their bluffs. What we need to figure out is what their true goal is.

Although I'm really not that concerned. I'm sure we still have a large contingent of troops that do what my unit did 20 years ago, except now they do it with much cooler toys.

 

It looks like what I said is in line with the website. So I feel a little more sure about my evaluation of North Korea's capabilities.

I agree that we need to worry about North Korea's big brother. But I feel that Chinese support will be contingent on solely Chinese interests. Unfortunately, cynical, half-hearted support by the Chinese will still have an enormous impact on any situation they intervene in.

 

I think it's strictly China's problem to deal with just because of this...


"North Korea also rejected Seoul's demand for an apology over the sinking."

Let them take care of their own knitting. If we have to deal with them, anything that happens afterwards will be China's fault.

 

Hi
Based on what I have heard over the past several years, China won't do anything about North Korea until it literally has no choice but to do something. According to what I have heard (on NPR if you are interested), China is concerned that if the North Korean regime falls apart (which you must admit is very likely, especially if they get into, and lose a shooting war with the ROK), millions of North Korean refugees will cross into China causing unrest in southern China.
The Royal Canadian

 

Today there are 28,500 US troops, one USAF wing of Vipers, one USA squadron of Warthog, one USA squadron of Apache, and one USA regiment of Bradleys, Abrams, Paladins, and their auxiliary support assets deployed in the Korean peninsula.

How large was your contingent during your time?

 

Your evaluation of NK's asymmetric capability and conventional capability should be handled separately. You will find many repetitions of the same revelations by many experts on the field that the conventional capability of NK remains all but a fraction of its ROK counterpart if you took a moment to look for the specific informations (take for example either force's night-fighting capability, electronic warfare and countermeasures, C4I network, etc). The asymmetric capability however is worrisome for its potential for a lot of collateral damage.

As many would say, the modernity and conventional strength of ROK's military force surpasses those of the military forces of most countries who are below superpower status (while NK's will find its league among the armed forces of medium-sized third world countries). the North Korean threat is exaggerated only because ROK does not wish to establish its own asymmetric capability in countenance and deterrence to the development of NK's own in similar stride. ROK made an almost eternally bounding agreement to itself to never use biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons on the people of NK, even if NK will surely use them on the people of ROK in times of war.

Key point is that, when you talk about NK's stock of only 100 T-72M tanks and ROK's stock of more than 1500 K1/K1A1/K2, or 30 North Korean Mig-29UB versus 400 F-15K/KF-16 block 52+/FA-50 of ROKAF, you are referring to purely conventional capabilities which comprise only a nebulous fraction of a country's true ability at wreaking destruction. It is not the conventional capability that you should put in consideration to predict how much damage NK will inflict on ROK civilian population before biting the dust. It is the asymmetric capability of North Korea that you should familiarize yourself with.

 

In the 70's, the primary US ground contingent was the Second Infantry Division, which then was a mostly 'leg' infantry unit. In the event of war, it probably would been joined by the rest of I Corps, depending on what else was going on in the world.

I have to agree that if North Korea wanted to damage South Korea, they would have to resort to assymetric attacks. Even though a massive artillery barrage would cause a lot of damage in Seoul, it would be relatively short-lived and would trigger a massive retaliation that would be devastating to the NK economy and armed forces.

Sustained guerilla warfare would be impractical, as there is no sizeable population in South Korea that would long support an insurgent group. So there maybe could be one-way commando-style attacks on important targets, which would also trigger retaliation.

I'm surprised there are no similar assets in South Korea, as their Special operations assets were quite extensive in the '60's and '70's.

 

There always were many special operations elements within all branches of the ROK military. None of them were decommissioned. They as a group are regarded as superior in both numbers and quality of equipment, and either equal or superior in level of training than their North Korean counterpart. But again, you have to specifically search for the information.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5964mi3YsYc

 

I just read on MSNBC that the US is now stopping their drills and backing down from north korea, yet they bluster and puff out their chest threatening sanctions. BFD. I'm tired of all of the US's big yellow talk. It's time for us to grow a pair and put them down forever and quickly or else it's just going to keep happening. We have enough firepower to destroy the world at least 400 times over. Does the military just build weapons of war so they can !@#$%^& admire them sitting on a shelf?! We need to punch a hole through the continental shelf where north korea used to be and wipe out their whole legacy as if it never existed. The world is overpopulated anyways. We could use the space if we got rid of all the little whack job countries that want to walk in the grass with the big dogs. Goddammit!

I wonder how easy it would be to go live in the Australian outback and become an aborigine and live offa grubs and koala kabobs. Australia never talks shit and doesn't get involved with stuff that is bad for the country, except for Justin Bieber. Same with Canada. And they have better beer.