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All Things North Korea Thread


@DCGoldPants

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2 minutes ago, China said:

North Korea: US will choose what 'Christmas gift' it wants

 

North Korea said on Tuesday that it’s up to the U.S. to choose what “Christmas gift” it wants from Pyongyang as an end-of-year deadline for nuclear talks inches closer.

Ri Thae Song, a North Korean vice foreign minister handling U.S. affairs, emphasized in a statement that the Trump administration is running out of time to salvage the talks and offer a deal that the two can agree on, The Associated Press reports.

 

“The dialogue touted by the U.S. is, in essence, nothing but a foolish trick hatched to keep the DPRK bound to dialogue and use it in favor of the political situation and election in the U.S.,” Ri said in comments reported by state media, using the acronym for North Korea's official name. “What is left to be done now is the U.S. option and it is entirely up to the U.S. what Christmas gift it will select to get.”

 

Ri added that North Korea has no intention of resuming talks unless it gets something significant in return, the AP reports.

 

Click on the link for the full article

I dare him to give us the bad Christmas gift.  If the U.S. wanted to, they could just wipe NK off the map and be done with them.

 

Trump is crazy enough to actually do that, so better watch out Little Rocket Man.

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7 hours ago, China said:

North Korea: US will choose what 'Christmas gift' it wants

 

North Korea said on Tuesday that it’s up to the U.S. to choose what “Christmas gift” it wants from Pyongyang as an end-of-year deadline for nuclear talks inches closer.

Ri Thae Song, a North Korean vice foreign minister handling U.S. affairs, emphasized in a statement that the Trump administration is running out of time to salvage the talks and offer a deal that the two can agree on, The Associated Press reports.

 

“The dialogue touted by the U.S. is, in essence, nothing but a foolish trick hatched to keep the DPRK bound to dialogue and use it in favor of the political situation and election in the U.S.,” Ri said in comments reported by state media, using the acronym for North Korea's official name. “What is left to be done now is the U.S. option and it is entirely up to the U.S. what Christmas gift it will select to get.”

 

Ri added that North Korea has no intention of resuming talks unless it gets something significant in return, the AP reports.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Admiring what's going on, here.  

 

For 50 years, NK has been begging the US to meet with them.  And the US has said "No."  

 

And now, after two years of Donald Trump's legendary negotiation skills, NK is announcing that they won't meet with the US, unless the US gives them things.  (Above and beyond the things they've already gotten, like cancellation of US-SK exercises.)  

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i think this goes better here than the 'trump does s.e. asia" thread but i almost put it in the "something cool" tread because i think it's a cool idea :ols:

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/japanese-island-of-mageshima-could-become-an-unsinkable-us-aircraft-carrier/ar-BBXSEJC?li=BBnb7Kz

 

Quote

 

Three square miles of volcanic rock on the edge of the East China Sea may one day be used as an unsinkable aircraft carrier for the United States Navy in the event of war in Asia.  Japan's government announced this week that it's buying Mageshima Island, an uninhabited outcrop 21 miles (34 kilometers) from the southernmost Japanese main island of Kyushu. The island, most of which is owned by a privately held Tokyo development company, is uninhabited and hosts two intersecting unpaved runways that were abandoned under a previous development project.

 

The Japanese government said the runways will be paved and used for US Navy and Marine Corps planes to simulate aircraft carrier landings, though it did not give a time frame in which that could be accomplished as the deal still needs to be finalized. But once suitable facilities are constructed, the island could also become a permanent base for Japan's Self Defense Forces as Tokyo looks to strengthen its position along the East China Sea, where it faces competing claims from China over the Japanese-administered Senkaku islands, known as the Diaoyu islands in Chinese. 

 

The "purchase of Mageshima Island is extremely important and serves for strengthening deterrence by the Japan-US alliance as well as Japan's defense capability," Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said in announcing the deal. US military officials in Japan said they could not comment on the purchase. Buying Mageshima has been the subject of talks for years. Tasuton Airport, the company that owns most of the island, finally reached agreement with the government in late November. The island was identified as a suitable site for use by the US as a permanent base for field carrier landing practice under a 2011 agreement outlining the realignment of US forces in Japan.

 

Spreading out US forces

 

The $146 million deal also comes as the US military is hearing calls to increase the number of its strategic bases in East Asia in the face of a growing Chinese missile arsenal. The majority of US combat air forces in Japan are concentrated in just six bases. Recent studies, including one from the United States Study Center at the University of Sydney published in August, say with their current resources the US forces would be vulnerable to Chinese missile strikes early in any conflict. One way to mitigate that is to spread US troops and assets out among more bases.

 

"Over time, the diversification of Japanese and American bases (individual or joint) will be a trend," said Corey Wallace, an Asia security analyst at Freie University in Berlin. "The alliance would be more resilient if bases and hardware were more dispersed."

 

The theory goes, the more bases you have, the more missiles an adversary would need to fire to overwhelm its target and gain an advantage in a combat scenario. Permanent land bases are considered more valuable than aircraft carriers, because they can withstand a great number of munitions. In theory, a carrier can be taken out with a single missile or torpedo. Battle damage to land bases can also be repaired much more quickly than a complex war machine like an aircraft carrier.

 

"When you target and sink an aircraft carrier it is irreversible," said Collin Koh, research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. As for an island? "At the very least it doesn't sink.... You can take the time and effort to bring it back to operation again," Koh said.

 

 

 

(much more text and pics at link)

island b.jpg

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N. Korea conducts 'important test' at once-dismantled site

 

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Sunday that it carried out a “very important test” at its long-range rocket launch site that it reportedly rebuilt after having partially dismantled it at the start of denuclearization talks with the United States last year.

 

The announcement comes amid dimming prospects for a resumption of negotiations, with the North threatening to seek “a new way” if it fails to get major U.S. concessions by year’s end. North Korea has said its resumption of nuclear and long-range missile tests depends on the United States.

 

Saturday’s test at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground will have “an important effect on changing the strategic position of (North Korea) once again in the near future,” an unidentified spokesman from the North’s Academy of National Defense Science said in a statement, carried by the country’s official Korean Central News Agency.

 

North Korea didn’t say what the test included. Kim Dong-yub, an analyst at Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies, said that North Korea likely tested for the first time a solid-fuel engine for an intercontinental ballistic missile.

 

The use of solid fuel increases a weapon’s mobility and reduces the amount of launch preparation time. The long-range rockets that North Korea used in either ICBM launches or satellite liftoffs in recent years all used liquid propellants.

 

CNN reported Friday that a new satellite image indicated North Korea may be preparing to resume testing engines used to power satellite launchers and intercontinental ballistic missiles at the site.

 

Click on the link for the full article

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North Korea test fires missiles amid worries about outbreak

 

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Sunday fired two suspected ballistic missiles into the sea, South Korea and Japan said, continuing a streak of weapons launches that suggests leader Kim Jong Un is trying to strengthen domestic support amid worries about a possible coronavirus outbreak in the country.

 

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected the projectiles flying from the North Korean eastern coastal city of Wonsan into the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan on Sunday morning. The projectiles flew about 230 kilometers (143 miles) at a maximum altitude of 30 kilometers (19 miles), the statement said.

 

The military described the launches as “very inappropriate” at a time when the world is battling the coronavirus outbreak. It urged North Korea to stop such military action.

 

Some experts say the latest North Korean launches were likely designed to shore up unity and show that leader Kim Jong Un is in control in the face of U.S.-led sanctions and the global pandemic.

 

Kim “wants to show he rules in a normal way amid the coronavirus (pandemic) and his latest weapons tests were aimed at rallying unity internally, not launching a threat externally,” said Kim Dong-yub, an analyst at Seoul’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies. “North Korea doesn’t have time now to spare for staging (external threats).”

 

North Korea has been engaged in an intense campaign to prevent the spread of the virus that has infected more than 660,000 worldwide.

 

It has called its campaign a matter of “national existence” but has steadfastly denied there has been a single virus outbreak on its soil. Many foreign experts question that claim, warning an epidemic in North Korea could be dire because of its chronic lack of medical supplies and poor health care infrastructure.

 

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Kim Jong Un’s absence from North Korean celebration sparks health speculation

 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was absent during a celebration marking the anniversary of the birthday of his grandfather, the nation’s founder, Kim Il Sung — sparking questions about the despot’s health, according to reports.

 

During the national holiday known as the Day of the Sun on Wednesday, senior officials paid tribute to the former leader’s embalmed body in the Kumsusan Palace of Sun, according to state media KCNA.

 

But uncharacteristically, they did not mention Kim Jong Un as part of the delegation — and he also was absent from photos released by party newspaper Rodong Sinmun, Reuters reported.

 

His apparent no-show triggered speculation among experts that the diminutive Kim, who is 36 and overweight, might be having health problems.

 

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Apparently he had some cardiovascular surgery:

 

North Korea's Kim getting treatment after cardiovascular procedure: report

 

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is receiving treatment after undergoing a cardiovascular procedure early this month, a South Korean media report said, amid speculation over Kim’s health following his absence from a key anniversary event.

 

North Korea marked the anniversary of the birthday of its founding father and Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung, as a national holiday on April 15, but Kim was not seen in attendance.

 

Daily NK, a speciality website run mostly by North Korean defectors, cited unidentified sources inside the isolated state saying Kim is recovering at a villa in the Mount Kumgang resort county of Hyangsan on the east coast after getting the procedure on April 12 at a hospital there.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

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