All Things North Korea Thread

[visionary]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/23/world/asia/south-korea-announces-talks-with-north-to-defuse-border-tensions.html?smid=tw-nytimesworld&smtyp=cur&_r=0

South Korea Announces Talks With North to Defuse Border Tensions

 

South and North Korea agreed to hold a high-level meeting on their border Saturday, South Korean officials said, apparently bringing at least a temporary halt to a tense standoff that has prevailed since the countries exchanged artillery fire two days ago.

 

The meeting will take place at the border village of Panmunjom, said Kim Kyou-hyun, a senior aide to President Park Geun-hye of South Korea. Mr. Kim said the meeting would include top policy makers from both sides: Kim Kwan-jin, President Park’s senior national security adviser, and Vice Marshal Hwang Pyong-so, North Korea’s most powerful military officer after Kim Jong-un, the country’s supreme leader, who holds the rank of marshal.

 

North Korea had no immediate reaction to the South’s announcement. It came just hours before a deadline of 5 p.m. that Pyongyang had given South Korea to stop broadcasting propaganda messages from loudspeakers placed along the countries’ heavily militarized border. The North had threatened “strong military action” unless the broadcasts stopped.

 

The meeting at the border will be held at 6 p.m., said Kim Kyou-hyun, the presidential aide. He said that Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo of South Korea and Kim Yang-gon, a senior North Korean Workers’ Party secretary in charge of relations with the South, would also attend the meeting.

 

 

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

Technically they've been at war since the 1950s

I love the term "quasi state of war"

The Korean War doesn't get enough love. The Communists basically conquered the entrie peninsula, we hadn't given a **** about Korea one way or another (I wonder would have happened if the South had just voted Communist) but after China, all of a sudden Korea mattered.

So the Soviet Union was throwing some temper tantrum at the UN and were boycotting some ****. Fine. They weren't there to veto anything so we actually built a UN Army to fight the North.

Script gets flipped, ee finally get our **** together and take over damn near the entire peninsula. Then out of no where China comes in with like 2 billion soldiers and blah blah blah, the war ends right where **** was before it started. Except a **** ton of people died for the 38th Parallel.

[zoony]

The Korean War doesn't get enough love. The Communists basically conquered the entrie peninsula, we hadn't given a **** about Korea one way or another (I wonder would have happened if the South had just voted Communist) but after China, all of a sudden Korea mattered.

So the Soviet Union was throwing some temper tantrum at the UN and were boycotting some ****. Fine. They weren't there to veto anything so we actually built a UN Army to fight the North.

Script gets flipped, ee finally get our **** together and take over damn near the entire peninsula. Then out of no where China comes in with like 2 billion soldiers and blah blah blah, the war ends right where **** was before it started. Except a **** ton of people died for the 38th Parallel.

 

 

more importantly perhaps, I think the veterans of the Korean War have been largely ignored.  That war saw some of the most brutal wartime conditions ever endured by American Forces.

 

I wish I knew more about the war, actually.  Specifically how China was able to push our forces back.  I'm assuming we had air superiority and technical superiority

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

more importantly perhaps, I think the veterans of the Korean War have been largely ignored.  That war saw some of the most brutal wartime conditions ever endured by American Forces.

 

I wish I knew more about the war, actually.  Specifically how China was able to push our forces back.  I'm assuming we had air superiority and technical superiority

 

My understanding of it - and I don't have a ton of understanding - is that we were incredibly ill-supplied and undermanned in Korea. It was an army using whatever WWII leftovers we could bother to ship.

 

I guess that was still reasonably effective until a quarter of a million Chinese soldiers showed up one day.

[GoSkins0721]

more importantly perhaps, I think the veterans of the Korean War have been largely ignored.  That war saw some of the most brutal wartime conditions ever endured by American Forces.

 

I wish I knew more about the war, actually.  Specifically how China was able to push our forces back.  I'm assuming we had air superiority and technical superiority

 

The US & SK were over matched by the advancing NK troops who had taken control of Seoul. First major battle - Osan - NK used Russian equipment (mainly tanks) to win. Basically, the US & SK were out gunned. Then NK pushed the US & SK troops down the peninsula to Pusan where they were able to dig in & hold out until MacArthur landed behind enemy lines at Inchon. US recaptured Seoul. I know the US & SK were able to push north & capture the NK capital of Pyongyang. I think it was shortly after that the Chinese decided to enter the war. After that, there were multiple long, hard battles between both sides, the continual give & take that kept the type of stalemate going that currently exists. And I don't mean to minimize it - there were some gawd-awful battles that were fought. 

 

Like you, I want to learn more about that war. Growing up in the '60s & '70s with the various military comedic TV shows - Hogan's Heroes, MASH, McHale's Navy, etc. - I became more interested in WWII. I guess because of my father (a WWII South Pacific Navy vet), but also because, at the time, MASH was mostly viewed as a show modeled after the Vietnam war (at least to me) while it was really the story of the Korean war.  

 

I've read a lot about WWII & Vietnam. You've just given me inspiration to find out more about the Korean war. Thanks. 

Edited August 24, 2015 by GoSkins0721

[China]

50 N.Korean Submarines Vanish from Radar

 

North Korea seems to be stepping up preparations for a military provocation even as ongoing high-level talks seek to avert the worst.

More than 50 North Korean submarines have apparently been sent out on mystery missions, and artillery strength and warfare-readiness along the frontline have been raised to the max, a military source said Sunday.

That suggests the North has embraced a two-prong strategy tempering its traditional brinkmanship with diplomacy.

"The current sortie rate of North Korean submarines is as high as 10 times the rate in ordinary times," a military official said. "Scores of subs that have left their bases on the eastern and western coasts are off our radar, which is an unprecedentedly serious situation."

 

Click on the link for the full article

[ABQCOWBOY]

50 N.Korean Submarines Vanish from Radar

 

North Korea seems to be stepping up preparations for a military provocation even as ongoing high-level talks seek to avert the worst.

More than 50 North Korean submarines have apparently been sent out on mystery missions, and artillery strength and warfare-readiness along the frontline have been raised to the max, a military source said Sunday.

That suggests the North has embraced a two-prong strategy tempering its traditional brinkmanship with diplomacy.

"The current sortie rate of North Korean submarines is as high as 10 times the rate in ordinary times," a military official said. "Scores of subs that have left their bases on the eastern and western coasts are off our radar, which is an unprecedentedly serious situation."

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

I don't know anything about this publication but I wonder what they mean by this statement?   Off who's radar?  I assume that this reference is to South Korea.   I can state with 100% assurance that the U.S. knows where every one of those subs are.   That is not even a question. 

[Kilmer17]

Im 99 percent sure this is just "time to rattle the sabers and gets some money".  It's been a while.

 

But there is always that 1 percent that thinks this might be the time that the crazy comes out entirely.

[TheGoodBits]

Im 99 percent sure this is just "time to rattle the sabers and gets some money". It's been a while.

But there is always that 1 percent that thinks this might be the time that the crazy comes out entirely.

It will eventually. Junior Kim Jong is bat**** crazy. I really don't see a way that there isn't eventually a war, barring his own people overthrowing him (don't really see that happening). Just a matter of time.

[visionary]

https://twitter.com/YonhapNews

(URGENT) N. Korea says it will lift 'semi-state of war' http://bit.ly/1ERaDaA
1:19 PM

 

https://twitter.com/AFP

BREAKING S. Korea says North voices regret for mine blasts, Seoul to halt propaganda broadcasts
1:22 PM 

Edited August 24, 2015 by visionary

[China]

North Korea's 50 Missing Submarines Have Apparently Reappeared Following Truce

 

But following a truce made between the two Koreas in the early hours of Tuesday morning to end an escalating stand-off, a South Korean defense ministry official was reported as saying the missing submarines had been detected in North Korea's inland sea.

 

"Some 50 submarines that had been away from their bases since August 21 have shown signs of returning back to their bases," said the official, quoted by various South Asian media.

 

Defense analyst Moon Geun-Shik told South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo that it was a deliberate show of strength by North Korea to place pressure on the South during talks between the two sides.

 

Click on the link for the full article

Edited August 26, 2015 by China

[visionary]

https://twitter.com/AP

BREAKING: North Korea says it has revamped and restarted its atomic bomb fuel production plants
2:16 AM

 

https://twitter.com/AFP

BREAKING North Korea confirms restart of reactor producing nuclear bomb material: KCNA
2:24 AM

[China]

Clearly we need to surrender now:

 

[pjfootballer]

^^ At DPRK Acedemy

 

 

Looks like we got some badassess there!!!

[China]

North Korea food production could drop 14%: FAO

 

North Korea's staple food production could plummet by 14 percent this year because of bad weather, sparking fears of exacerbating chronic food shortages in the impoverished nation, according to the UN agricultural agency.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-10-north-korea-food-production-fao.html#jCp

[visionary]

https://twitter.com/zaidbenjamin

SouthKorea FM convenes emergency meeting over N.K. quake - Agency
9:23 PM

 

https://twitter.com/AndrewBeatty

AFP - Chinese officials say North Korea quake a "suspected explosion"
9:28 PM

 

https://twitter.com/AFP

BREAKING: North Korea quake possible 'nuclear test': Japan
9:34 PM

 

https://twitter.com/BNONews

NORTH KOREA SAYS WILL MAKE 'SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT' AT 12:30 P.M.  (11 P.M. ET) http://bit.ly/1PJaLjp
9:34 PM

Edited January 6, 2016 by visionary

[BornaSkinsFan83]

NK clearly feeling ignored in the world these days. Start putting pressure on China to deal with their buddies. We got more important **** to do.

[visionary]

https://twitter.com/AFP

BREAKING: North Korea says conducted 'successful' hydrogen bomb test
10:32 PM

[SkinInsite]

[visionary]

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/767643948dc54b0ea9b0708653f67a55/china-firmly-opposes-north-koreas-claimed-bomb-test

China 'firmly opposes' North Korea's claimed bomb test

 

North Korea's main ally China said it "firmly opposes" Pyongyang's purported hydrogen bomb test and is monitoring the environment along its border with the North near the test site.

 

China plans to summon North Korea's ambassador in Beijing to the Foreign Ministry to lodge a strong protest, spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters at a daily briefing Wednesday. China made a similar protest after the North's last nuclear test in 2013.

 

Wednesday's reported test was performed in defiance of the international community and in contravention of its earlier denuclearization promises, Hua said.

"North Korea should stop taking any actions which would worsen the situation on the Korean peninsula," Hua said.

 

Environment bureau technicians were monitoring conditions near the border but air quality near the bomb site was within the normal range, Hua said.

 

In the longer term, North Korea should return to long-stalled six-nation denuclearization talks hosted by China, Hua said. North Korea abandoned that process in 2009, saying it would continue its nuclear program to produce a deterrent against alleged threats from the U.S. and other enemies.

 

While she made no mention of measures to respond to a test, analysts say Pyongyang's proceeding against Beijing's objections would seriously harm a relationship already under considerable strain.

 

That will likely include agreeing to tougher U.N. sanctions against Kim Jong Un's hard-line communist regime and possibly unilateral trade restrictions that could hurt the North's moribund economy.

[@DCGoldPants]

Let China get in their faces.

Edited January 6, 2016 by @SkinsGoldPants

[Bang]

Can't we tell if they did it using seismology?

 

~Bang

[BornaSkinsFan83]

Can't we tell if they did it using seismology?

~Bang

Yes. They can collect air particles and test as well.

This (hydrogen fusion bomb) is a whole different animal compared to the atomic bomb (fission) that they've tested in the past. I'm actually reading a book on the Cold War nukes arms race right now (complete coincidence

I'm not a NK agent). Scientists in both countries, who had worked on atomic bomb development, wanted nothing to do with it. Oppenheimer (basically the scientific manager at Los Alamos) and many others told Teller and Strauss (biggest pushers of a hydrogen bomb) to **** off and got crucified for it. It was a no go until the Soviets exploded their first atomic bomb in 1949. That's when Truman decided that it was inevitable that the USSR would develop the hydrogen bomb (it was) and we just couldn't let them get a leg up on us. And thus, It was born.

The little blips bottom left are the bombs dropped on Japan. That's what the North Koreans have done up until now. The bombs directly to the right, Mike (11/52) and Bravo (03/54), are our first two successful hydrogen bombs. If North Korea really did detonate a legitimate hydrogen bomb, that's what we're talking about now. And of course the far right is the impractical and unnecessary, infamous "Tsar Bomb" (biggest man made explosion in history. No chance NK approached anything like that.)

I'm curios about the fallout. Our hydrogen bomb tests made a **** ton of people radiation sick. North Korea isn't a big country. Also another reason for China to be PISSED.

Honestly it's about time for China to legitimately do something in North Korea if they want to have any type of recognition militarily. If this is true, this is completely unacceptable on any level. The Cold War has been over going on 25 years now, they (China) are the biggest world power not named the United States and quite frankly, where they're at today as a country, a rogue North Korea is a much bigger issue than a unified Korea.

Hell they don't even need to unify Korea. This a slap in the face to them. They need to PUNCH back. Stop simply saying "We REALLY don't like this" and nothing more. Stop being a ****, step up, get in there and clean house. Set up a rational regime. Open the borders. Etc. I can't imagine anyone giving a **** if they did that. They need to do it if they want to be respected.

[GoSkins0721]

^^One of the things a talking-head said this morning is they think this explosion was 11 kilometers underground. Because of that, catching a sniff of the air to determine the type of explosion is highly unlikely. 

 

Again, not my opinion just some "expert" early this morning on CNN. 

[Event_Horizon]

Borna,

 

You are on the right track, but there are some things the intel community would disagree with.  China is not the second most powerful country in the world.  Far from it... their Hyperglide Delivery Vehicle has not passed one test.

 

I cannot say more as it is still classified, but China poses ZERO threat to the US except through economic and cyber warfare.  NK they could handle.  China is a ****hole of a country whose normal citizen makes about $3 dollars a day.