http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/2013/04/16/0200000000AEN20130416000200315.HTML
(LEAD) In 'ultimatum,' N. Korea vows blitz attack on S. Korea
(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with details; CHANGES headline)
SEOUL, April 16 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's military on Tuesday issued an "ultimatum" saying it would launch retaliation against South Korea without warning if "anti-North Korean" activities continue in the South.
"The supreme command of the Korean People's Army Tuesday issued an ultimatum to the South Korean puppet group," Pyongyang's official news agency, KCNA, said in an English-version article.
SEOUL, April 16 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's military on Tuesday issued an "ultimatum" saying it would launch retaliation against South Korea without warning if "anti-North Korean" activities continue in the South.
"The supreme command of the Korean People's Army Tuesday issued an ultimatum to the South Korean puppet group," Pyongyang's official news agency, KCNA, said in an English-version article.
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/northkorea/2013/04/13/95/0401000000AEN20130413001552320F.HTML
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323741004578418314161291552.html?mod=WSJWorld_RIGHTTopStories
U.S., South Korea Offer North Talks, and a Warning
By JAY SOLOMON
SEOUL—The U.S. and South Korea offered to return to negotiations with North Korea in a bid to reduce tensions that American officials said run the risk of a direct military conflict.
Rolfe Winkler discusses the latests on North Korea with Alistair Gale and Patrick Chovanec, and Tom Gara looks at the battles that Carl Icahn is fighting. Photo: Getty Images.
Senior South Korean officials, who met with Secretary of State John Kerry in Seoul on Friday, said their government also was willing to resume humanitarian assistance to the North following weeks of escalating threats by North Korean leader Kim Jong Eun to attack American and allied targets in North Asia and the Pacific.
South Korean officials said the aid shipments could form a pillar of recently elected President Park Geun-hye's "trust" policy toward Pyongyang. Ms. Park seeks to reverse some of the hard-line tactics pursued by her predecessor, Lee Myung-bak.
However, Mr. Kerry during his visit also delivered a renewed warning, saying North Korea would be making a "huge mistake" by conducting new weapons tests, as it appears prepared to do. "We're going to continue to stand our ground," he told a business group in a speech in Seoul Friday, saying the U.S. doesn't bluff on security matters.
Mr. Kerry, who travels next to China, also said Beijing should "put some teeth" into its policy of a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.
Nonetheless, the aim of Mr. Kerry's trip to South Korea was to reduce tensions, and South Korea indicated it was willing to try. "The window for dialogue is always open," South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said Friday following his meeting with Mr. Kerry. "We are always ready to provide humanitarian aid, in principle."
Mr. Kerry was visiting South Korea as part of a three-nation North Asia tour focused on defusing a standoff with North Korea. Pyongyang didn't respond Friday to the overture for talks.
The recent crisis began with Pyongyang's testing of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles starting late last year. The Obama administration responded by initiating new economic sanctions against North Korea and overseeing stepped-up military exercises with South Korea beginning last month.
U.S. and South Korean officials are concerned Mr. Kim is preparing to launch a midrange Musudan missile while Mr. Kerry is in the region. The top American diplomat visits China on Saturday and Japan on Sunday.
The Obama administration has been divided over the utility of diplomacy with North Korea since taking office in 2009.
Getty Images
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, and South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-Se give a joint press conference on Friday in Seoul.
President Barack Obama has pledged to engage with some of Washington's staunchest enemies, including Iran, in a bid promote stability and contain the spread of nuclear weapons. But the White House believes it has been rebuffed in its earlier diplomatic overtures toward the North.
Just weeks after Mr. Obama took office, North Korea conducted its second nuclear weapons test. Last year, Mr. Kim scrapped an agreement with Washington that allowed for the provision of food assistance by launching a long-range rocket in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Mr. Kerry said in Seoul that the U.S. wouldn't attempt to block any efforts by Ms. Park to resume a dialogue with Mr. Kim. And the U.S. secretary of state said Washington would consider resuming its own diplomatic channel should Pyongyang display a willingness to begin dismantling its nuclear-weapons program.
Mr. Kerry noted that Mr. Obama recently called off some additional U.S.-South Korean military exercises in an effort to lower tensions between Washington and Pyongyang.
"We would never stand in the way…of a sovereign country to decide to talk bilaterally," Mr. Kerry said. "We also said that we'd engage in bilateral talks in the right circumstances."
The former U.S. senator, however, expressed skepticism that the North could be trusted in negotiations. He said the U.S. was unlikely to resume its own humanitarian assistance to the North because of Kim Jong Eun's backing out of last year's aid agreement.
"We've been down that path before, and we've disappointed by the breach of those agreements," Mr. Kerry said.
Mr. Kerry and Mr. Yun also discussed the potentially thorny issue of a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement that Washington and Seoul are seeking to conclude before Ms. Park visits the White House last week.
The agreement allows for the U.S. to share American-origin nuclear fuel and technology with South Korea. But Seoul's negotiators are seeking to gain U.S. approval to allow South Korea to begin producing its own nuclear fuel, through both the enrichment of uranium and the reprocessing of spent reactor fuel. U.S. officials are wary of agreeing to such terms, as such technologies could also give Seoul the ability to develop weapons-grade nuclear fuel.
Both diplomats said they were optimistic that a compromise agreement could be reached. But neither official would outline the likely terms for the deal.
Mr. Kerry will travel to Beijing on Saturday. He said he would press Chinese officials to more aggressively seek to stop Kim Jong Eun from threatening the South and advancing North Korea's nuclear program. Beijing is by far North Korea's largest trade partner and its only remaining strategic ally in Asia.
http://deepbluehorizon.blogspot.com/2013/04/pentagon-now-thinks-north-korea-has.html
( Now they tell us...... )
Pentagon now thinks North Korea has nuclear missile capabilities
WASHINGTON — A new assessment of North Korea’s nuclear capability conducted by the Pentagon’s intelligence arm has concluded for the first time, with “moderate confidence,” that the country has learned how to make a nuclear weapon small enough to be delivered by a ballistic missile.
The assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency, which has been distributed to senior administration officials and members of Congress, cautions that the weapon’s “reliability will be low,” apparently a reference to the North’s difficulty in developing accurate missiles or, perhaps, to the huge technical challenges of designing a warhead that can survive the rigors of flight and detonate on a specific target.
It is unclear whether other American intelligence agencies agree with the assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency, which has primary responsibility for monitoring the missile capabilities of adversary nations. In the case of Iraq, a decade ago, the agency was among those that argued most vociferously that Saddam Hussein had nuclear weapons.
Outside experts said that the report’s conclusions helped explain why the administration announced last month that it was bolstering long-range antimissile defenses in Alaska and California, designed to protect the West Coast, and was rushing another antimissile system, originally not intended for deployment until 2015, to Guam.
The existence of the assessment was disclosed Thursday by Representative Doug Lamborn, a Colorado Republican, three hours into a budget hearing of the House Armed Services Committee with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey. General Dempsey declined to comment because of classification issues. The actual wording in the report was obtained by The New York Times.
The congressman’s spokeswoman, Catherine Mortensen, said the material he quoted during the hearing was unclassified. Pentagon officials said later that, while the report remained classified, the one-paragraph finding had been declassified but had not previously been released.
The report issued by the Defense Intelligence Agency last month was titled “Dynamic Threat Assessment 8099: North Korea Nuclear Weapons Program." Its executive summary reads: “D.I.A. assesses with moderate confidence the North currently has nuclear weapons capable of delivery by ballistic missiles; however the reliability will be low.”
http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2013/04/north-korean-ambassador-flees-london-moving-vans-empty-embassy-2618752.html
North Korean Ambassador Flees London: Moving Vans Empty Embassy
Friday, April 12, 2013 13:50
by Monica Davis
While the war of words between North Korea and the West continues, the nation is preparing for war on a variety of fronts. It has told countries who have embassies in the nation to vacate the premises, because it can no longer guarantee their diplomats' safety.It has warned Westerners and tourists in South Korea to leave
The North Korean embassy in London lies silent today after apparently being emptied yesterday.
A removal truck was seen at its suburban Ealing embassy, sparking speculation that the ambassador and other diplomatic staff have fled as the communist nation's leader threatens war with South Korea and the U.S.
An official at the property denied that it was being evacuated at the time, saying that speculation of a withdrawal from Britain was 'ridiculous and not true'.
But the man, who refused to give his name, would not explain why possessions were being removed from the building or say whether ambassador Hyon Hak Bong was relocating.
He said: 'I won't say anything about this. We have said everything we are going to say to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.'
The country's regime has a reputation for extreme secrecy, such as censoring its citizens and allowing only a small number of visitors through its borders, who are closely monitored during their stay. MOREHERE
But the man, who refused to give his name, would not explain why possessions were being removed from the building or say whether ambassador Hyon Hak Bong was relocating.
He said: 'I won't say anything about this. We have said everything we are going to say to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.'
The country's regime has a reputation for extreme secrecy, such as censoring its citizens and allowing only a small number of visitors through its borders, who are closely monitored during their stay. MOREHERE
and....
US, S. Korea on top alert as North missile spotted in launch position
North Korean Musudan missile
The United States and South Korean armed forces went on the highest level of alert - Watchcon 2 - Thursday, April 11, ready for multiple launches after at least one North Korean ballistic Musudan missile was sighted fueled and ready to launch at any moment on the country’s eastern coast. With an estimated range of more 3,400 kilometers, it places US bases in Guam and the Okinawa islands within range as well as South Korea and Japan.
According to a senior US defense official in Washington, the floating SBX X-band radar is in position for tracking missiles fired by Pyongyang. South Korean officials, commenting on the apparent movement of several ballistic missiles on North Korea’s east coast, report that this is an apparent attempt to confuse intelligence monitoring by the US, Japan and South Korea.
The US and Japan, which earlier deployed Patriot interceptors in Tokyo, have said that any missile would be intercepted if it showed signs of heading for the United States or Japan. But neither mentioned a US military target or the possibility of a missile flying over Japan to land in the Pacific Ocean.
The US and Japan, which earlier deployed Patriot interceptors in Tokyo, have said that any missile would be intercepted if it showed signs of heading for the United States or Japan. But neither mentioned a US military target or the possibility of a missile flying over Japan to land in the Pacific Ocean.
Military sources in Washington point to the US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s warning Wednesday that North Korea is “skating very close to a dangerous line” with its bellicose rhetoric on nuclear arms, and his stress on America’s ability to protect itself and its allies, as the most serious statement to come from the Obama administration so far. It was the first warning of a US military response to a North Korean missile launch.
South Koreans are for the first time showing signs of anxiety about a possible outbreak of war. People have started stocking food and parents were telling reporters Thursday that children are being kept home from school in case of a sudden war emergency.
Several Western intelligence sources attribute Pyongyang’s saber-rattling to a power struggle ongoing in the top ranks of the North Korean military command between supporters of the young leader Kim Jong-Un and his opponents, who say he lacks the qualities befitting a commander-in-chief of the North Korean armed forces.
The latter group of generals urges reducing Kim to a titular role and keeping control of the military in their own hands.
In his drive for military credibility, say those sources, the young leader is constantly photographed on visits to army units accompanied by a bevy of generals and soldiers and demonstratively testing their weapons and barking out operational orders.
Several Western intelligence sources attribute Pyongyang’s saber-rattling to a power struggle ongoing in the top ranks of the North Korean military command between supporters of the young leader Kim Jong-Un and his opponents, who say he lacks the qualities befitting a commander-in-chief of the North Korean armed forces.
The latter group of generals urges reducing Kim to a titular role and keeping control of the military in their own hands.
In his drive for military credibility, say those sources, the young leader is constantly photographed on visits to army units accompanied by a bevy of generals and soldiers and demonstratively testing their weapons and barking out operational orders.
In one television segment aired by North Korean state TV Wednesday, hundreds of North Korean soldiers were shown standing in their positions and then, upon catching sight of the president and party, rushing toward him in great excitement, although they didn’t dare get too close.
Such staged scenes, say the sources, point up the North Korean president’s weakness and uncertainty rather than his control and popularity in the army.
Such staged scenes, say the sources, point up the North Korean president’s weakness and uncertainty rather than his control and popularity in the army.
Those sources predict that Kim Jong-Un may feel compelled to assert himself by ordering a missile launch. Backing down at this point, a failed launch or a foreign interception would be a black mark against him and seriously undermine a leadership which is rooted in a ruthless personality cult. It might even lead to his ouster.
The Korean crisis heads the agenda of the G8 foreign ministers meeting in London Thursday.
http://www.infowars.com/chinese-professor-70-80-chance-of-war-with-north-korea/
Chinese Professor: 70-80% Chance of War With North Korea
China abandoning its belligerent ally?
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
April 11, 2013
Infowars.com
April 11, 2013
As the reclusive state prepares another imminent missile launch, a professor with the Chinese Communist Party has warned that there is a 70-80% chance of war with North Korea.
Image: Flickr/Daniel Foster
“There is a 70 to 80 per cent chance that a war will happen because North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may want to use this opportunity to force a reunification of the Korean Peninsula,” Zhang Liangui, a professor of international strategic research at the Communist Party’s Central Party School, told the South China Morning Post.
“The longer we delay fixing it, the more difficult the situation will become,” he added. “China needs to seriously consider how to tackle the problem.”
Liangui’s comments arrive in the aftermath of speculation that China is becoming increasingly exacerbated with its belligerent ally and is looking to shift away from the Hermit kingdom. In February, a deputy editor of a newspaper affiliated with the Central Party School was suspended for writing a Financial Times piece in which he urged China to abandon North Korea.
Observers are expecting another North Korean missile launch within days as reports emerge that rockets have been move into the firing position. South Korea has said that its missile defense system will intercept the rockets if they are aimed at South Korean territory.
US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters yesterday that America “is fully prepared to deal with any contingency, any action that North Korea may take or any provocation that they may instigate,” adding that Kim Jong-un was “skating close to a very dangerous line.”
Last month, North Korea threatened to launch “all out nuclear war,” aimed at the United States and South Korea.
While tensions with North Korea continue to build, financial experts are also predicting that a new world war is on the horizon due to a number of economic factors.
“All too often war is the manifestation of simple economic entropy played to its logical conclusion. We believe that war is an inevitable consequence of the current global economic situation,” writes Karl Bass.
Former Goldman Sachs technical analyst Charles Nenner also warned of “a major war starting at the end of 2012 to 2013,” which will crash the stock market.
Billionaire investor Jim Rogers is also predicting that continued bailouts in Europe “could ultimately spark another world war.”
http://rt.com/news/north-korea-rocket-launch-663/
N. Korean missile launchpad moved into firing position - report
Published time: April 11, 2013 01:38
Edited time: April 11, 2013 05:57
Edited time: April 11, 2013 05:57
AFP Photo / Ed Jones
A North Korean missile launcher has moved into the firing position with rockets facing skyward, Kyodo reports, citing a Japan defense official.
The Japanese government is on high alert, citing indications that Pyongyang might soon launch ballistic missiles at its island neighbor.
Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said Thursday morning that so far Tokyo was responding by “gathering a variety of information ... with a sense of tension,” according to Kyodo.
Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said Thursday morning that so far Tokyo was responding by “gathering a variety of information ... with a sense of tension,” according to Kyodo.
The Taiwanese government has become the first to advise its citizens not to go to South Korea, as tensions in the region continue to mount. The country’s foreign ministry advised residents to delay trips for business, holidays and education, citing the “unclear situation” in South Korea.
Several Patriot Advance Capability-3 missile interceptor units have been deployed in Japan over the last few days to defend key military units and the country's capital city, Tokyo. One of the units was set up at the Defense Ministry's headquarters in Ichigaya, in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward.
The Patriots’ deployment followed Japan's deployment of Aegis destroyers equipped with SM-3 interceptor missiles.
Japan authorized its forces to shoot down anything fired at it from North Korea.
A Japan Self-Defence Forces soldier stands near units of Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missiles at the Defence Ministry in Tokyo April 10, 2013. Japan has deployed ground-based PAC-3 interceptors, as well as Aegis radar-equipped destroyers carrying Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) interceptors in response to North Korea's threats and actions, according to its government.(Reuters / Issei Kato)
The indication of the new North Korean readiness follows South Korean and US forces' announcement of an upgrade of their surveillance alert status to the highest possible level before coming into a state of war.
It also comes amid revelations from South Korea's Yonhap news agency, with a government source saying Pyongyang is preparing multiple launches of shorter-range Scud and Rodong missiles. “There are clear signs that the North could simultaneously fire off Musudan, Scud and Nodong missiles,” an anonymous military source was quoted as saying on Wednesday.
The military alert status is now at Watchcon 2, reflecting a perceived “vital threat” from North Korean missiles after the North warned of a ‘thermonuclear’ war and asked foreigners to leave South Korea.
To counter the threat, two Aegis destroyers with SPY-1 radar have been placed on standby by the South along the Korean Peninsula.
The South Korean military is also operating early warning aircraft Peace Eye and ground-based missile defense radar system Green Pine to counter a potential rocket launch from the north.
On Tuesday, the commander of US Pacific Command said that the US is ready capable of countering the missile threat.
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