What The Government Cant Do For You: Pentagon

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Sunday, April 7, 2013

North Korea Provocation Continues as Pentagon Suits Up

North Korea continues to push to potentially provoke a war with South Korea and possibly the US.

PAJU, SOUTH KOREA - The sun sets near a barbed-wire checkpoint near the border village of Panmunjom on April 4, 2013 in Paju, South Korea. Still 400 South Korean remain in the joint industrial park fearing they can not get back there once return to South. In recent weeks North Korea have threatened to attack South Korea and U.S. military bases, with South Korean and American intelligence identifying what is believed to be an intermediate-range missile being moved by North Korea to its eastern coast, in preparation for a planned strike. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

PAJU, SOUTH KOREA – (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

by Shepard Ambellas
Intellihub.com
April 7, 2013

SEOUL — The South is now on alert “military readiness posture”, said Kim Jang-soo, South Korea’s Chief of Security. This comes after an assessment made by Jang-soo, concluding that North Korea had told foreign diplomats in Pyongyang to flee the region.

South Korean officials also stated that the North might be planning a test missile launch from the East coast of North Korea as early as Wednesday possibly firing a missile over Japan.

Some say that the young leader Kim Jung-un wants to express his power to avoid yet even more UN security council sanctions.

A recent excerpt from a Gordon Chang report shows how, “North Korea last week moved two missiles, which were subsequently loaded onto mobile launchers, to its east coast. Many expect the missiles, which have been subsequently moved to hidden locations, will be fired in trajectories arcing over Japan.

The Pentagon is not at the moment especially concerned about Pyongyang’s longest-range missile, the Taepodong-2, a variant of the successfully tested Unha-3 rocket. It takes weeks to transport, assemble, fuel, and prepare the Taepodong-2, giving U.S. forces many opportunities to destroy the missile on its large launch pad.

The Pentagon, however, is worried about Pyongyang’s mobile missiles, even though they have shorter ranges. It is telling that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on March 15 cited the North’s newest launcher, the KN-08, as a reason for the administration’s decision to deploy 14 additional interceptor missiles in Alaska.

The KN-08 sits on an eight-axle mobile vehicle—a transporter-erector-launcher in military lingo—that can hide and shoot, so America’s costly missile defense system is considered necessary because of the hard-to-find KN-08s. China transferred to North Korea at least six of those mobile launchers, a clear violation of Security Council sanctions.”

Other signs that tensions are heating up include how a top US commander plans to remain in the region. According to a report by CNN, “Gen. James Thurman, the top U.S. commander in South Korea, is canceling a trip to Washington this week due to the rising tensions.

“Given the current situation, Gen. Thurman will remain in Seoul next week as a prudent measure,” a spokesman said.

Thurman was to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee and the House Armed Services Committee.

Gen. Jung Seung-jo, South Korea’s top military officer, also delayed a trip to Washington, national news agency Yonhap reported.”

The United States has also delayed a ballistic missile test that was set for later this week to focus on the Korean Peninsula issue and show no provocation. NBC reported how the, ”test was “long planned and was never associated with North Korea to begin with,” the official said, but added that “given recent tensions on the Korean Peninsula, it’s prudent and wise to take steps that avoid any misperception or chance of manipulation, so the test has been postponed.”

The test was planned for next week at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It would have tested the Minuteman 3 ICBM missile.”

Some believe that China holds the key in this situation and could put a stop to all of this, telling North Korea to stand down.

North Korea’s leader Kim Jung-un appears to be following in his fathers footsteps as odd maneuvers have been made on a world scale that could provoke or even accidentally trigger a war.

Sources:

^http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/07/world/asia/koreas-tensions/index.html

^http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonchang/2013/04/07/china-helped-north-korea-target-american-cities/

^http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Rocket_Forces_(North_Korea)

^http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/06/17634341-us-delays-missile-test-amid-tensions-with-north-korea?lite

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Thursday, April 4, 2013

North Koreas Maneuvers Missile to East Coast as Pentagon Prepares Defenses

North Korea gains US military attention as assets have now been deployed by the Pentagon to the South Pacific.

PAJU, SOUTH KOREA – APRIL 04: The sun sets near a barbed-wire checkpoint near the border village of Panmunjom on April 4, 2013 in Paju, South Korea. Still 400 South Korean remain in the joint industrial park fearing they can not get back there once return to South. In recent weeks North Korea have threatened to attack South Korea and U.S. military bases, with South Korean and American intelligence identifying what is believed to be an intermediate-range missile being moved by North Korea to its eastern coast, in preparation for a planned strike. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

by Shepard Ambellas
Intellihub.com
April 4, 2013

PYONGYANG — North Korea has now relocated what has been reported to likely be a “mobile missile known as the Musudan” to its East coast. The Pentagon has taken appropriate action by strengthening defenses in the United States territory of Guam as announced earlier this week.

While missile movements are typical in North Korea, South Korea’s Defense Minister announced Thursday that an “intermediate range” missile has been deployed to North Korea’s East coast causing concern for some.

Residents in South Korea fear that the young North Korean leader is likely to press to far, as anything could happen at this point.

CBC News reports that, “Experts say North Korea has not demonstrated that it has missiles capable of long range or accuracy. Some suspect that long-range missiles unveiled by Pyongyang at a parade last year were actually mockups.

“From what we know of its existing inventory, North Korea has short- and medium-range missiles that could complicate a situation on the Korean Peninsula (and perhaps reach Japan), but we have not seen any evidence that it has long-range missiles that could strike the continental U.S., Guam or Hawaii,” James Hardy, Asia Pacific editor of IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly, wrote in a recent analysis.

Kim Kwan-jin said that if North Korea were preparing for a full-scale conflict, there would be signs including the mobilization of a number of units, including supply and rear troops, but South Korean military officials have found no such preparations.”

North Korean TV continues to air anti-US propaganda as they have now “formerly informed” the White House” of their intentions.

Stealth fighters are being moved into the area, warships are also present. President Obama is reportedly exercising caution with the situation.

In an interview with CNN eairlier this week Pentagon Spokesman George Little stated, ”The North Koreans — even before those exercises started — had undertaken provocative steps, and they’ve conducted underground nuclear tests, they’ve conducted missile tests outside their international obligations. So they have a track record now over the past few months of provocative behavior,”…

“We are in the business of ensuring our South Korean allies that we will help defend them in the face of threats,” Little said in response. “So I don’t think it’s a contradiction. I think that North Koreans have engaged in certain actions and have said things that are provocative. We are looking for the temperature to be taken down on the Korean Peninsula.”

On another front, it has also been reported that hackers have waged war against North Korea. An article excerpt from NationalPost.com reads, “The North’s Uriminzokkiri Twitter and Flickr accounts stopped sending out content typical of that posted by the regime in Pyongyang, such as photos of North’s leader Kim Jong-un meeting with military officials.

Instead, a picture posted Thursday on the North’s Flickr site shows Kim’s face with a pig-like snout and a drawing of Mickey Mouse on his chest. Underneath, the text reads: “Threatening world peace with ICBMs and Nuclear weapons/Wasting money while his people starve to death.”

Another posting says “We are Anonymous” in white letters against a black background. Anonymous the amorphous hacker collective born out of the political wing of the 4chan message board. Anonymous has picked many different political (and less political) causes over the years and often adopts the iconography of the 2005 movie adaptation of V for Vendetta.

A statement purporting to come from the attackers and widely circulated online said that they had compromised 15,000 user records hosted on Uriminzokkiri.com and other websites. The authenticity of the statement couldn’t be confirmed, but the North’s official website did not open Thursday.”

The situation continues to be volatile.

Sources:

^http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/04/04/north-korea-us-threats-missile.html

^http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2013/04/20134415354828652.html

^http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/04/politics/koreas-u-s-/index.html

^http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/04/04/anonymous-declares-war-on-north-korea-as-it-breaks-into-the-regimes-twitter-and-flickr-accounts/

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