Heaven Forbid Peace Should Break Out Between The US And North Korea!

Authored by Antonius Aquinas,

As long as the US Empire can be funded and maintained on the backs of its taxpaying public, the chance of de-escalation of tensions not only on the Korean peninsula, but throughout the world are practically nil.  And, as long as the nation’s current interventionist ideology holds sway, it will only be through a financial meltdown that the US’s role as global policeman will come to a much-needed end.

Hamhung, North Korea, June 30, 1950

The most recent example of the world’s biggest bully escalating matters is its on-again, off-again badgering of North Korea.  In contrast to Western/CIA media reports, the November 28 launch of what appears to be an intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-15, was not unprovoked.  Instead, the North Korean test firing was in response to the unexpected announcement of further US/South Korean military drills to take place starting on December 4.  The exercises are, in part, to show off the latest mass murdering “product” of America’s military industrial complex, the USF-22 Raptor stealth fighter jet.

Before the latest launch, the Kim Jong Un regime had not fired a missile for two months and was in discussions with other intermediaries about how tensions could be lessened on the Korean peninsula. For the bellicose US, however, not even an uneasy “truce” can be tolerated.  The next American scheduled drill was not to take place until the spring of 2018, yet, while negotiations were taking place, the US abruptly, and to the outrage of everyone involved, renewed exercises.  Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, explains:

We have been working with Pyongyang.  Then, all of a sudden two weeks after the United States had sent us the signal [about readiness to dialogue], they announced unscheduled drills in December.

 

...there is an impression that they were deliberately provoking [North Korean leader] Kim Jong Un to make him break the pause and gave in to their provocations.

This, of course, is not the first time that the US has acted with duplicity in foreign matters.  Its barbaric dealing with two Middle Eastern strongmen (Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi) are grisly examples of what happens to those who run afoul of the US Empire, especially those who do not possesses a nuclear deterrent.

North Korea, too, has witnessed the wanton destructive capabilities of the American military during the so called “police action” of the early 1950s:

The US Air Force estimated that North Korea’s destruction was proportionally greater than that of Japan’s in the Second World War. . . .  

 

American planes dropped 635,000 tons of bombs on Korea . . . including 32,557 tons of napalm, compared to 503,000 tons of bombs dropped in the entire Pacific theatre of WWII.

The loss of life was, to say the least, catastrophic as 10% of the population, some 3 million people, perished due mostly to American bombing while the destruction of property was equally brutal. 

“By the end of the war,” North Korean sources assert, “only two modern buildings remained standing in Pyongyang.”

Is it any wonder that the North Korean leadership gets a little antsy when the US scramble its jets.  It does not want a repetition of the holocaust inflicted on it by the merciless American Air Force.

Of course, these inconvenient facts are rarely if ever spoken about in the Western media, academia, and certainly not by war-mongering politicos like U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley.  They are simply ignorant of history or pretend not to know.

The US Empire only accepts peace if it favors its interests. 

For the Korean Peninsula that means that Kim Jong Un must disband his nuclear program.  Such a move, however, would mean a premature death to Un and the eventual carpet bombing of his country.  The North Korean strongman will do no such thing.

The Trump Administration may huff and puff all it wants and enact greater sanctions on the North, but unless it wants to risk a nuclear confrontation that may spread into a general world war, it has little options.

Instead of another round of destabilizing military maneuvers, maybe President Trump and his foreign policy team should try to engage in genuine negotiations to bring about an equitable solution to the matter.

Why not “give peace a chance?”

South Korea Unveils Plan To Strike North Korean Missile Launchers

North Korea launched its Hwasong-15 ICBM into the waters west of Japan at 3:17 am local time on Wednesday. Barely six minutes later, South Korean artillery, air force, and Navy sprang into action and began firing missiles into the waters off eastern Korea - yet another military show of force meant to intimidate the North into ceasing its missile strikes.

The retaliatory display was calibrated to target a spot in the waters off the Korean peninsula that was exactly as far away as Pyongsong, a town about 20 miles north of Pyongyang where the Hwasong 15 was reportedly launched. The distance was meant to signify that the South Korean military could destroy the North’s missile launchers if it chose to do so, the Wall Street Journal.

But while the precision strike probably impressed any bystanders who were watching, in reality, the South’s technology for detecting and responding to North Korean missile launches is still unreliable.

But detecting missile tests is an imperfect science, involving misses as well as hits. In a conflict situation, North Korea is likely to take more steps to conceal its movements, for instance by deploying decoy launchers, said Yang Uk, senior defense researcher at the Korea Defense and Security Forum, a Seoul think tank.

 

In such a scenario, the likelihood falls that South Korean, U.S. or Japanese forces would pinpoint the exact launch site, Mr. Yang said. Still, he viewed the South’s response to the missile test as a success, especially considering the short time the military needed to return fire.

 

A spokesman for the U.S.-led U.N. Command in Korea said no U.S. or other forces participated in the response.

 

“What we saw Wednesday was an active response to a North Korean missile launch that South Korea calls its ‘kill chain’ system’,” Mr. Yang said. The kill chain is part of a larger defense system designed to pre-emptively strike the North’s missile systems in the case of a nuclear attack.

 

South Korea this year installed a U.S.-operated Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense antimissile battery that can shoot down short- and medium-range missiles, complementing its Patriot PAC-2 antiballistic missile system.

 

The new battery has a longer-range, but it can’t cover the whole country.

A retired senior South Korean military official said that the South lacks a military satellite that can watch the North, although US and Japanese satellites share images with South Korean officials in real time.

Meanwhile, analysts said North Korean officials install devices onto missiles that generate signals and send them to ground-based control towers. The South has a way to tap into these signals and track the missiles, they said.

But in a real missile launch targeting a South Korean, Japanese or U.S. city, the North Koreans may choose not to install them, said Jo Dong-joon, deputy director of the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University. This means that the South might have no way to track a hostile missile, Mr. Jo said.

The retired military official also noted that the South has a network of human intelligence in the North that may have tipped off Seoul officials about this week’s launch. He declined to give further details, citing security concerns.

Details on the South’s spy network in the North remain murky, but local media have reported in recent months that the South has lost most of its human network in North Korea in recent years.
 

Satellite Photos Show North Korea Preparing Another Missile Launch

North Korea carried out its first missile test in more than two months earlier this week, ending the longest stretch of calm since President Trump took office. But according to satellite images exclusively obtained by Fox News, the North Korean military is already constructing another launch pad at the Panghyon Airbase in North Pyongyang - the same site where it carried out its July 4 launch of an ICBM.

This suggests that the North is already preparing for its next missile test.

Analysts at Image Sat International spotted the construction just days after the rogue nation launched an ICBM that North Korea claimed was powerful enough to carry a “super-heavy nuclear warhead” that could strike the “mainland of the U.S."

According to the ImageSat analysts, who are closely following North Korean military activity, this is “the first time that they have decided to rebuild a site that they have used before."

The photos, dated Nov. 23 and 24, appear to show the development of another launch pad just a few yards away from the one used during the July 4 Hwasong-14 ICBM launch, as well as a newly renovated access road.

Constructed in the 1980s, the Panghyon site is North Korea"s primary aircraft production, repair, and research facility.

The satellite images also show the construction of an aircraft hangar, as well as airplanes being moved and stored in hangers on the tarmac.

With the recent launch of another ICBM and the construction of additional launching pads, North Korea continues to defy the US-led world outrage over its nuclear program and is determined to bring it to completion.

The Hwasong-15 rocket tested by the North Tuesday was themost powerful of the three ICBMs tested by the Kim regime so far. Furthermore, the mobile night launch appeared aimed at testing new capabilities and demonstrating that Pyongyang would be able to strike back to any attempt at a preventative strike against the regime. The missile"s peak height and record flight time also helped confirm the Pentagon"s worst fears: The North now possesses the capability to strike nearly any target on the continental US.

North Korea Seen Moving Missiles As US Admits For First Time It Is In "Direct Contact" With Pyongyang

North Korea has again been observed moving several missiles from a rocket facility in the capital Pyongyang, according to a report late on Friday by South Korea’s Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) rising speculation that the North is preparing to take more provocative actions. The last time a similar report emerged was at the start of September, which was followed just days later by a ballistic missile launch which flew over Japan.

Officials did not say where the missiles were being moved, nor the make: according to Reuters, the missiles could be either intermediate range Hwasong-12 or intercontinental ballistic Hwasong-14 missiles, according to the report, though the missile facility at Sanum-dong has been dedicated to the production of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

As previously reported, South Korean official have speculated that the North could launch another nuclear or missile test to coincide with the anniversary of the founding of its communist party on Oct. 10, or possibly when China holds its Communist Party Congress on Oct. 18. Meanwhile, US Pacific Command revealed on Friday that the US and South Korea had recently completed their first joint short range air defense training exercise in South Korea, though it did not say when or exactly where the exercises had taken place.

Separately, on Saturday Secretary of State Rex Tillerson acknowledged for the first time that the US is in direct communication with the government of North Korea over its missile and nuclear tests – a stunning revelation considering that administration officials have until this point insisted that there has been only limited, indirect contact between the White House and the Kim regime. According to the New York Times, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson revealed as much during a speech at the residence of the US ambassador to Beijing after a meeting with Chinese leaders. Tillerson is in China on Saturday for what the NYT described as a “brief visit.”

“We are probing, so stay tuned,” Tillerson said when pressed about how he might begin a conversation with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, that could avert what many government officials fear is a significant chance of open conflict between the two countries.

Tillerson wouldn’t say if the North Koreans had responded to the US’s overtures.

After noting that this was the first time a US official had confirmed that the US was directly communicating with the North, the NYT compared the secret backchanneling to a strategy used by the Obama administration to help forge what became the Iran deal – a comparison that Tillerson swiftly pushed back against. “We are not going to put a deal together with North Korea that’s as flimsy as the one in Iran,” he said. He added that the situation is different and that the North already has nuclear weapons, while Iran was still years away from obtaining them.  

“We ask, ‘Would you like to talk?’ We have lines of communication to Pyongyang – we’re not in a dark situation, a blackout. We have a couple, three channels open to Pyongyang,” he added, speaking at the residence of the US ambassador to Beijing after a meeting with China’s top leadership. He would not say if the North Koreans had responded, beyond a heated exchange of threats in recent weeks. Trump has repeatedly threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea, while the North has threatened to conduct a nuclear test over the Pacific Ocean, and to shoot down US aircraft flying in international waters if they come uncomfortably close to North Korean territory.  

"We can talk to them," Tillerson said "We do talk to them."

When asked whether those channels ran through Chia, he shook his head. “Directly,” he said. “We have our own channels.”

Tillerson added that the most important thing was to lower the tensions between the two countries.

"I think everyone would like for it to calm down."

Reactions to the admission of bilateral contacts were mixed: that the United States would be in contact with North Korea is not surprising, said Narushige Michishita, director of the Security and International Studies Program at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo, “But it sounds a little too early.”

“The timing is unexpected,” he said. “It was perfectly clear that both North Korea and the United States, and others, are in the prenegotiation bargaining process.”

Meanwhile, in Japan, where Prime Minister Shinzo Abe recently dissolved the lower house of parliament and called a snap election, the news that the United States is already in direct contact with North Korea could give ammunition to Mr. Abe’s opponents. The Japanese leader has steadfastly maintained that it is not the time for dialogue, arguing in a recent Op-Ed article in The New York Times that “emphasizing the importance of dialogue will not work with North Korea.” “Now,” Mr. Michishita added, “the opposition party members can say ‘Look, you have been talking about pressure, but the U.S. is just leaving you behind.’ ”

North Korea Fires Ballistic Missile Over Japan; US Demands China, Russia "Take Direct Actions"

Update 5: US Secretary of State Tillerson has issued a rather aggressive (towards China and Russia) statement:

North Korea"s Missile Launch

North Korea"s provocative missile launch represents the second time the people of Japan, a treaty ally of the United States, have been directly threatened in recent weeks.

These continued provocations only deepen North Korea"s diplomatic and economic isolation.

United Nations Security Council resolutions, including the most recent unanimous sanctions resolution, represent the floor, not the ceiling, of the actions we should take.

We call on all nations to take new measures against the Kim regime.

China supplies North Korea with most of its oil. Russia is the largest employer of North Korean forced labor.

China and Russia must indicate their intolerance for these reckless missile launches by taking direct actions of their own.

*  *  *

Update 4: The UN Security Council is set to meet at 4am Saturday Seoul time (3pm ET on Friday)

*  *  *

Update 3: US Pacific Command has confirmed that its commitment to the defense of Japan and South Korea (via NBC News)

U.S. Pacific Command detected and tracked what we assess was a single North Korean ballistic missile launch at 11:57 a.m. (Hawaii lime) Sept. 14. Initial assessment indicates the launch of an intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM). The launch occurred in the vicinity of Sunan, North Korea and flew east.

The ballistic missile overflew the territory of northern Japan before landing in the Pacific Ocean east of Japan. We are working with our interagency partners on a more detailed assessment and we will provide a public update if warranted.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) determined this ballistic missile did not pose a threat to North America, U.S. Pacific Command determined this ballistic missile did not pose a threat to Guam. We continue to monitor North Korea"s actions closely.

Our commitment to the defense of our allies, including the Republic of Korea and Japan, in the face of these threats, remains ironclad. We remain prepared to defend ourselves and our allies from any attack or provocation.

*  *  *

Update 2: Japanese and South Korean officials have started to respond:

Japanese officials are very unappy (and are seeing much support from their ally in Washington)

• *JAPAN PM ABE HAS RETURNED TO JAPAN FROM INDIA: KYODO (that was quick)


• *ABE: N.KOREA ACT ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE


• *ABE: N.KOREA THREATENING WORLD PEACE THROUGH PROVOCATION


• *ABE: INTL COMMUNITY MUST SEND CLEAR MESSAGE TO N.KOREA (because "firs & fury" was not clear enough)


• *ABE: IF N.KOREA CONTINUES ON THIS PATH IT HAS NO BRIGHT FUTURE


• *ABE: JAPAN WAS COMPLETELY AWARE OF MISSILE MOVEMENT

• *SUGA: N. KOREA LAUNCH WAS ONE-WAY ACT OF ESCALATION


• *SUGA: MISSILE FLEW 3,700 KM, ALTITUDE ABOUT 800KM


• *SUGA: BELIEVE MISSILE WASN"T LAUNCHED VIA LOFTED TRAJECTORY


• *SUGA: STILL EVALUATING WHAT TYPE OF MISSILE N.KOREA LAUNCHED

Then it seems the South Koreans are gravely coincerned about their stock market more than any existential threat to their citizens...

• *S. KOREA TO STRENGTHEN MONITORING OVER MARKETS ON N. KOREA RISK


• *S. KOREA SAYS N. KOREA PROVOCATION CAN DESTABILIZE MARKETS


• *S. KOREA GOVT TO TAKE FIRM AND SWIFT STEPS ON MARKETS IF NEEDED

And just as we saw yesterday - after US officials noted that North Korea appeared to be preparing for a launch, we suspect we will see Korea"s PPT in action soon...

*  *  *

Update 1:  According to Fox News, the U.S. has now confirmed the latest North Korean missile launch.

• U.S. OFFICIAL CONFIRMS #NORTHKOREA FIRED BALLISTIC MISSILE: FOX NEWS


• WHITE HOUSE SAYS TRUMP BRIEFED ON N.KOREA MISSILE: YONHAP NEWS

Gold and Yen are bid for now (after 3 NK headlines during the day)...

* * *

All the diplomatic posturing, the jawboning, the UN sanctions, and threats over the past three weeks has achieved absolutely nothing because as Yonhap and NHK report, North Korea has just launched an "unidentified" missile eastward from the capital Pyongyang.

A live feed from NHK in English is available after clicking on the image below:

According to Yonhap, "North Korea fired an unidentified missile eastward from the vicinity of Pyongyang this morning," the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. It added that South Korea and the United States are analyzing additional information. On August 29, the North lobbed a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile over the island nation in a similar provocation .

Following the launch Japan has issued a missile alert to mobile phones and on national television, with the government advising people outside to take shelter immediately. 

Worse, it appears that the missile has once again flown over Japan:

• NORTH KOREA MISSILE PASSES OVER JAPAN, GOVT SAYS


• N.KOREA MISSILE PASSES OVER JAPAN"S HOKKAIDO, GOVT SAYS

As NHK further adds, the missile which was launched at 6:57am local time, passed over Hokkaido at 7:06am local time, and came down in the Pacific Ocean, some 2,000 KM east of Japan"s Erimo Misaki.

The launch marks the North"s first provocation following the UNSC sanctions for which the communist country has warned of retaliation.

The missile flew a total of 3,700 kilometers and reached an altitude of 770km, according to Yonhap, before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.

• NKOREA MISSILE MAY BE HWASONG 12, JP DEF OFFICIAL SAYS:TV ASAHI

Japan"s cabinet minister Suga said that the missile situation is similar to that on August 29, NHK adds, and that Japan will take appropriate response in contact with the US and South Korea. NHK adds that Japan did not attempt to shoot down the missile though the South Korean military has confirmed it fired a test missile into the sea as part of training drill.

The South"s presidential office Cheong Wa Dae immediately convened a National Security Council meeting, as the country"s troops conducted a ballistic missile training in the East Sea in response to the North"s latest provocation.

And now we await whether the US will finally escalate militarily, as Trump has threatened on countless occasions, or once again use even harsher, and more powerless, language hoping for a different outcome.

North Korea Launches Another Ballistic Missile

It"s becoming a weekend tradition.

Almost exactly one week after the latest ballistic missile test launch by Pyongyang last Sunday, and two weeks after a similar launch the weekend prior, North Korea has fired its latest unidentified ballistic missile early on Monday, South Korea"s military said according to Yonhap News. According to NBC, the North Korean missile flew for 6 miles after launch and landed in the Sea of Japan.

The launch will be the 12th missile Pyongyang has fired this year (according to the WSJ, and 9th according to Bloomberg, which count launch "errors" differently).

North Korea test-fired a new mid-to-long-range rocket, which it calls the
Hwasong-12, on May 14, 2017

The unidentified missile was fired from near the North Korean coastal city of Wonsan, Seoul"s Joint Chief of Staff (JCS) said. The missile flew in a easterly direction, sources said.

The launch was immediately reported to President Moon Jae-in, who called a meeting of the National Security Council at 7:30 a.m. (2230 GMT Sunday), the South Korean office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, according to Reuters.

While there was little initial information, the North Korean projectile may fall into waters of Japan’s exclusive economic zone, or EEZ, according to Japan"s public broadcaster NHK which cited the Japanese government.

NHK also adds that the Defense Ministry is analyzing details such as projectile path, and added that the foreign ministry will - again - protest to North Korea using diplomatic channels.  Prime Minister’s office collecting information in task office from related agencies and heighten alert.

There has been no official response from the White House yet, altough we expect the token "the White House is aware of the launch" will be fortcoming momentarily.

Trump, who has said all options are on the table to deal with Kim’s regime, has repeatedly sought more help from China to rein in its neighbor and ally. Acting Assistant Secretary of State Susan Thornton on Friday acknowledged China’s efforts such as banning North Korean coal imports and tightening border controls, while adding that “they clearly have to do more.” Clearly, because on Friday Yonhap reported that North Korea"s grain imports from China showed a more than fivefold surge last month from a year ago.

At least North Korea has so far this year refrained from conducting a nuclear test, something which even Beijing has said would be a "red line."

Meanwhile, as reported yesterday, a third US aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz is now making its way to the Korean Peninsula where it will join the Carl Vinson and Ronald Reagan, ahead of what many anticipate could be a "decapitation" attack on the North Korean regime.