US Missile Defense Deployment to Guam

As long as it doesn't capsize the island, sending missile defenses to Guam over the Nork threat is probably a good idea.

The United States said it would soon send a missile defense system to Guam to defend it from North Korea, as the U.S. military adjusts to what Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called a "real and clear danger" from Pyongyang.
Hours later, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said North Korea had moved what appeared to be a mid-range Musudan missile to its east coast. It was not clear if the North planned to fire the rocket or was just putting it on display as a show of force, one South Korean government source was quoted as saying.

Here's the official DoD statement on the Missile Defense Deployment

Department of Defense Announces Missile Defense Deployment
The Department of Defense will deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System (THAAD) ballistic missile defense system to Guam in the coming weeks as a precautionary move to strengthen our regional defense posture against the North Korean regional ballistic missile threat.
The THAAD system is a land-based missile defense system that includes a truck-mounted launcher, a complement of interceptor missiles, an AN/TPY-2 tracking radar, and an integrated fire control system. This deployment will strengthen defense capabilities for American citizens in the U.S. Territory of Guam and U.S. forces stationed there.
The United States continues to urge the North Korean leadership to cease provocative threats and choose the path of peace by complying with its international obligations. The United States remains vigilant in the face of North Korean provocations and stands ready to defend U.S. territory, our allies, and our national interests.

By: Brant

New Nork Nuke Noodling

The Norks have supposedly set off a new underground nuclear test. CNN reports...

North Korea said Tuesday that it had conducted a new, more powerful underground nuclear test using more sophisticated technology, jolting the already fragile security situation in Northeast Asia and drawing condemnation from around the globe.
It is the first nuclear test carried out under the North's young leader, Kim Jong Un, who appears to be sticking closely to his father's policy of building up the isolated state's military deterrent to keep its foes at bay, shrugging off the resulting international condemnation and sanctions.
Although Pyongyang had announced plans for the test in recent, vitriolic statements, its decision to go ahead with it provided a stark reminder of a seemingly intractable foreign policy challenge for President Barack Obama ahead of his State of the Union address later Tuesday.
The test was designed "to defend the country's security and sovereignty in the face of the ferocious hostile act of the U.S.," the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, referring to new U.S.-led sanctions on Pyongyang in the wake of a recent long-range rocket launch.

Put on your predictor hats - what happens next?



By: Brant

Is China Finally Willing to Wrangle the Norks?

We know the Norks are prepping for another launch. Is China finally willing to get tough on their sidekicks?

North Korea said on Thursday it would carry out further rocket launches and a nuclear test that would target the United States, dramatically stepping up its threats against a country it called its "sworn enemy".
The announcement by the country's top military body came a day after the U.N. Security Council agreed to a U.S.-backed resolution to censure and sanction North Korea for a rocket launch in December that breached U.N. rules.
"We are not disguising the fact that the various satellites and long-range rockets that we will fire and the high-level nuclear test we will carry out are targeted at the United States," North Korea's National Defence Commission said, according to state news agency KCNA.
North Korea is believed by South Korea and other observers to be "technically ready" for a third nuclear test, and the decision to go ahead rests with leader Kim Jong-un who pressed ahead with the December rocket launch in defiance of the U.N. sanctions.
China, the one major diplomatic ally of the isolated and impoverished North, agreed to the U.S.-backed resolution and it also supported resolutions in 2006 and 2009 after Pyongyang's two earlier nuclear tests.
Thursday's statement by North Korea represents a huge challenge to Beijing as it undergoes a leadership transition with Xi Jinping due to take office in March.
China's Foreign Ministry called for calm and restraint and a return to six-party talks, but effectively singled out North Korea, urging the "relevant party" not to take any steps that would raise tensions.

By: Brant

US Loading Up For Pre-Emptive Attack on Norks?

No, it's not The Onion or The Daily Show. This is from KCNA, the official propaganda "news" agency of Naughty North Korea.

US Hit for Attempting Preemptive Attack on DPRK
Pyongyang, August 7 (KCNA) -- Some days ago, the U.S. opened to the public its deployment of Bunker-buster targeting the DPRK and Iran. It let the secretary of the Air Force make a spate of balderdash about the blowing power of the new bomb and the maximum distance which it can penetrate to destroy underground nuclear facilities.
Minju Joson Tuesday says in a bylined commentary in this regard:
This is another grave military provocation against the DPRK and an undisguised declaration of confrontation with it.
The U.S. developed and deployed this bomb with an aim to carry out its scenario for mounting a preemptive attack on the DPRK.
It is seeking to mount a preemptive strike at major military objects of the DPRK which are of strategic significance and thus neutralize the DPRK's military muscle for self-defence and realize its strategy for stifling the DPRK by force of arms. This proves that the strategy for world hegemony by force of arms still remains a major mode of the U.S. for realizing its foreign policy and it is its persistent intention to apply this to the Korean Peninsula.
Now that the dignity and security of the DPRK have been seriously threatened by the U.S. evermore intensified hostile policy toward it, there is no other choice but to bolster up its military muscle for self-defence.
The military and technological advantages are not a monopoly of the U.S. and will not work on the DPRK today.
The further the U.S. steps up pressure on the DPRK by force of arms, the further the DPRK will strengthen countermeasures.
The U.S. should stop at once the anachronistic military rackets, pondering over the consequences to be entailed by its moves for confrontation with the DPRK.

By: Brant

US/SK to Norks: Back off!

How do you piss off the Norks? Plant their flag in the impact area of a live-fire exercise.

A huge North Korean flag disappeared behind a tower of flames and thick black smoke Friday as South Korean fighter jets and U.S. attack helicopters fired rockets in the allies' biggest joint live-fire drills since the Korean War.
The war games south of the heavily armed Korean border come amid rising animosity between the rival Koreas and are meant to mark Monday's 62nd anniversary of the start of the 1950-53 war, which ended in a truce, leaving the Korean Peninsula still technically at war.
Live-fire drills by the allies are fairly routine, but using the North's national flag as part of target practice is unusual -- and will be seen as a provocation by Pyongyang, which has previously threatened war for what it called South Korean insults to the country's national symbols and leadership.

It's not quite the Most Dangerous Range Ever, but that one didn't start a war.

By: Brant

Leave No Man Behind: Korean War Edition

Another Korean War soldier has been identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced today that the remains of a serviceman, missing in action from the Korean War, were identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Army Cpl. Robert I. Wax of Detroit will be buried June 20 at Arlington National Cemetery. In August 1950, Wax and Battery A, 555th Field Artillery Battalion, were fighting against North Korean forces in a battle known as the “Bloody Gulch,” near Pongam-ni, South Korea. After the battle, on Aug. 11, 1950, Wax was listed as missing in action.

In late 1950, U.S. Army Graves Registration Service personnel recovered remains of service members from that battlefield, including nine men who were unidentified. These men were buried at the 25th Infantry Division Cemetery in South Korea. In 1951, the U.S. consolidated cemeteries on the peninsula. The unknown remains were re-interred in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

In 2011, due to advances in identification technology, the remains were exhumed for identification. Based on available evidence such as metal identification tags, military clothing, and wartime records, analysts from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) were able to conclude that the remains were those of a soldier who died at Pongam-ni.

Scientists from JPAC used the circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools including radiograph and dental comparisons in the identification of Wax.

By: Brant

"Clarification" About SOF-Nork Remarks?

BG Tolley has "clarified" his statement about US/ROK SOF north of the border.

On Wednesday, Tolley offered his take.

“After further review of the reporting, I feel I was accurately quoted,” he said. “In my attempt to explain where technology could help us, I spoke in the present tense. I realize I wasn’t clear in how I presented my remarks.”

He insisted, however, that the United States has at no time sent special operations forces into North Korea.

Such cross-border operations into North Korea would be in violation of the 1953 armistice agreement that brought the Korean War to an end.

The existence of such operations would also jeopardize already strained and sensitive relations between Washington and Pyongyang.

By: Brant

US Troops On The Ground in North Korea?

The commander of SOF-Korea admits that we’ve sent troops into North Korea.

“At no time have SOF [Special Operations] forces been sent to the north to conduct special reconnaissance,” said the United States Forces Korea.

U.S. Army Gen. Neil Tolley, commander of U.S. Special Operations Forces in South Korea, told an audience in Tampa that U.S. and South Korean forces have been sent into North Korea to spy on the communist country’s vast collection of underground tunnels and military installations.

The extraordinary admission, which went unreported by U.S. media, came on May 22 during the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference. Tolley said his command has identified 20 airfields and 180 munitions factories that are partially underground, along with thousands of subterranean artillery positions.

“The entire tunnel infrastructure is hidden from our satellites,” Tolley added, according a report published Monday by The Diplomat, a Japan-based foreign affairs magazine.

“So we send ROK [Republic of Korea] soldiers and U.S. soldiers to the North to do special reconnaissance.”

Wow.

I do like this line from him:

The brigadier general appeared on a panel with his counterparts from the much larger African, European, Pacific and Southern commands. But the comparatively tiny region he oversees, he said, is nothing to sneeze at.

“We have only two countries and one time zone,” he explained, “but what we lack in size we make up for in kilotons of evil.”

So how do you incorporate this sort of recon into a game like Decision's DMZ or GMT's Next War: Korea?

UPDATE
The denials from USFK were swift and unequivocal.

A spokesman for US forces in South Korea subsequently dismissed the media report.
"Some reporting has taken great liberal licence with his comments and taken him completely out of context," Colonel Jonathan Withington, of the public affairs office of US Forces Korea, said in a statement.
"No US or ROK (Republic of Korea) forces have parachuted into North Korea," he said. "Though special reconnaissance is a core special operations force mission, at no time have SOF forces been sent to the north to conduct special reconnaissance.
"The use of tunnels in North Korea is well documented," he added. "Several of the known tunnels along the DMZ are visited by tourists every day."

By: Brant

Nork Missiles Just Fakes?

Apparently suffering from missile envy, the Norks are parading around the military equivalent of stuffing a sock in your spandex.

the weapons displayed April 15 appear to be a mishmash of liquid-fuel and solid-fuel components that could never fly together. Undulating casings on the missiles suggest the metal is too thin to withstand flight. Each missile was slightly different from the others, even though all were supposedly the same make. They don't even fit the launchers they were carried on.
"There is no doubt that these missiles were mock-ups," Markus Schiller and Robert Schmucker, of Germany's Schmucker Technologie, wrote in a paper posted recently on the website Armscontrolwonk.com that listed those discrepancies. "It remains unknown if they were designed this way to confuse foreign analysts, or if the designers simply did some sloppy work."
The missiles, called KN-08s, were loaded onto the largest mobile launch vehicles North Korea has ever unveiled. Pyongyang gave them special prominence by presenting them at the end of the parade, which capped weeks of celebrations marking the 100th anniversary of the country's founding father, Kim Il Sung.

Ah yes, but it's not just the missiles. Check out the trucks...

Much attention, meanwhile, has been given to the 16-wheel mobile launchers that carried the missiles during the parade, which experts believe may have included a chassis built in China. That raises questions of whether China has violated U.N. sanctions against selling missile-related technology to Pyongyang.
Some missile experts say the launchers were designed to carry a larger missile than the 18-meter-long KN-08, and argue that North Korea would not have spent millions of dollars on them unless it has, or intends to have, a big missile to put on them.
But Wright said the launchers, like the missiles they carried, could also have been more for show than anything else.
"Given the international attention it has gotten from parading these missiles you could argue that the cost of buying the large trucks — which add a lot of credibility to the images of the missiles — was money well spent in terms of projecting an image of power," he said.

By: Brant

Norks Claim Capability to Strike US

They can't get a rocket over the beach, but they have 'mobile weapons' capable of striking the US

A senior North Korean army official says his country is armed with "powerful mobile weapons" capable of striking America.
Vice Marshal Ri Yong Ho emphasized the importance of defending the North against the U.S. and South Korea as Pyongyang marked the 80th anniversary of the nation's army Wednesday.
He told officials at the April 25 House of Culture that the weapons could defeat the U.S. "at a single blow."
North Korea made another unusual claim Monday, promising "special actions" that would reduce Seoul's government to ashes.

By: Brant

How Do Norks Keep Getting Away With It?

They're almost Phineas-and-Ferb-like in their ability to attack their southern cousins and suffer no repercussions.

Restraint in the face of such provocation is unusual, in particular for the United States, which has not been shy about using military force when it or its allies are attacked. For example, Manuel Noriega’s military forces harassed Americans in Panama and killed a U.S. marine; the United States invaded and deposed Noriega. In 1986, Libya bombed a West Berlin disco frequented by U.S. servicemen; the U.S. military launched air strikes in Libya, killing Muammar al-Qaddafi’s daughter.

North Korea escapes such punishment thanks to a powerful deterrent. The first leg of Pyongyang’s strategic triad is its “madman” image: the idea that the country might react to retaliation by plunging the peninsula into general war. North Korean officials are not irrational, as so often depicted in the media. Rather, they are following in the tradition of U.S. President Richard Nixon, who spoke of feigning irrationality in order to intimidate his adversaries. Through its wild rhetoric and behavior at home and abroad, Pyongyang has told the world that in the international game of chicken, it will not swerve -- that it is so ready to fight that it will starve its people and devote a quarter of its economy to defense, hack up enemy soldiers with an axe, and even try to assassinate presidents. This reputation has helped convince CFC’s leaders that they cannot rely upon the normal rules of deterrence, that with such an opponent, tit-for-tat retaliation is too risky and too likely to lead to all-out war.

Make no mistake: no one thinks that North Korea would actually win that war. The country is dwarfed economically by South Korea, and the military balance long ago shifted against the North. In the late 1990s, military analysts concluded that CFC would prevail should a war ever be fought, and the ensuing two decades of famine and energy shortages have only weakened North Korea’s position. But even though Pyongyang would lose this war, no one wants to fight it, either. North Korea can still inflict terrible pain on South Korea (and possibly, with its ballistic missiles, on nearby Japan). The city of Seoul, home to more than ten million people, lies well within range of North Korean artillery. North Korea’s leaders know that a second Korean war would be an existential war -- that neither the regime nor they themselves would survive a defeat -- and so they would have an incentive to use every weapon in their arsenal, including weapons of mass destruction. Is North Korea so crazy that if CFC carried out an act of limited retaliation, the country would start a war that would end in its own certain destruction? No one wants to find out.

What do you think? Why does the West keep letting the Norks off the hook?

By: Brant

Leave No Man Behind: Korean War Edition

Another soldier is coming home from the Korean War.

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from the Korean War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Army Pfc. Richard E. Clapp, 19, of Seattle, Wash., will be buried April 25, at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C.

On Sept. 2, 1950, Clapp and the C Company, 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment came under fire near Yulchon, South Korea, and Clapp was killed in action. The Army was unable to identify his remains at the time, and the remains were buried as “Unknown” in a military cemetery on the Korean Peninsula.

In 1951, the U.S. consolidated cemeteries on the peninsula. The unknown remains were interred in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

In 2011, due to advances in identification technology, the remains were exhumed for identification. Scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools such as radiograph comparison, and dental records to identify Clapp.

Today, more than 7,900 Americans remain unaccounted-for from the Korean War. Identifications continue to be made from the remains that were returned to the United States, using forensic and DNA technology.

By: Brant

Missile Races Accelerating in Asia

Norks threaten war and South unveils their own cruise missiles.

South Korea announced Thursday it has deployed new cruise missiles capable of destroying targets such as missile and nuclear bases anywhere in the North.
"With such capabilities, our military will sternly and thoroughly punish reckless provocations by North Korea while maintaining our firm readiness," Major General Shin Won-Sik told reporters.

Sure would be nice to see the South shoot back once.

India is countering China's growing missile capability by testing their own nuclear-capable missile... that can range to China.

India announced the successful test launch Thursday of a new nuclear-capable missile that would give it the ability to strike the major Chinese cities of Beijing and Shanghai for the first time, a significant step forward in its aspirations to become a regional and world power.
The Agni-V missile, with a range of 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles), still requires a battery of tests and must clear other bureaucratic hurdles before it can be inducted into India's arsenal in a few years. But officials hailed the launch as proof the country has taken its place among the world's most powerful and scientifically advanced nations.
"The nation stands tall today," Defense Minister A.K. Antony said, according to the Press Trust of India.
The test came just days after North Korea's failed rocket launch, but sparked none of the same global condemnation aimed at Pyongyang, an internationally isolated regime that has been banned by the U.N. from testing missile technology.
China is far ahead of India in the missile race, with intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching anywhere in India. Currently, the longest-range Indian missile, the Agni-III, has a range of 3,500 kilometers (2,100 miles) and falls short of many major Chinese cities.

By: Brant

Norks Rickety Rocket Ralphs; Nork Nuke Noogie Next?

So the rocket launch wasn't.

North Korea's satellite launch, planned as a celebration of the centenary of the birth of its founding President, Kim Il Sung, failed sometime shortly after 7:40 a.m. Friday when the first stage of the Unha-3 rocket dropped to the Yellow Sea about 165 km west of Seoul. After weeks of antagonism between North Korea and the U.S., South Korea and Japan, who said the launch was the equivalent of a ballistic missile test, the failure offered a moment of respite. "At no time were the missile or the resultant debris a threat," noted a statement from the North American Aerospace Defense Command. In a rare admission, North Korea's state-run news service acknowledged the satellite "failed to enter its preset orbit." It said technicians were investigating the cause.

But they may yet pop off a nuke, to try and show off.

The isolated North, using the launch to celebrate the 100th birthday of the dead founding president Kim Il-sung and to mark the rise to power of his grandson Kim Jong-un, is now widely expected to press ahead with its third nuclear test to show its military strength.
"The possibility of an additional long-range rocket launch or a nuclear test, as well as a military provocation to strengthen internal solidarity is very high," a senior South Korean defense ministry official told a parliamentary hearing.

By: Brant

Leave No Man Behind: Korean War Edition

Another soldier is coming home from the Korean War.

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced today that the remains of a serviceman, missing in action from the Korean War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Army Cpl. Patrick R. Glennon of Rochester, N.Y., will be buried April 11, at Arlington National Cemetery. On Nov. 1, 1950, Glennon, and the G Company, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, were holding a defensive position along the Nammyon River near Unsan, North Korea, when they were attacked by Chinese forces. Glennon was listed as missing in action following the heavy fighting.

In April 2007, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) handed over six boxes of remains of American service members to New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and former U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony Principi, who were visiting North Korea. The remains had been recovered from areas near Unsan, where Glennon had been lost.

Metal identification tags bearing Glennon’s name, and other material evidence were included with the remains. To identify the remains, scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used circumstantial evidence and forensic identification tools such as dental records and mitochondrial DNA -- which matched Glennon’s cousins.

Today, more than 7,900 Americans remain unaccounted-for from the Korean War. Identifications continue to be made from the remains that were returned to the United States, using forensic and DNA technology.

By: Brant

Norks Already Defying Deal with US?

Looks like the Norks are already breaking the deal they made a few weeks ago.

North Korea announced plans Friday to blast a satellite into space on the back of a long-range rocket, a provocative move that could jeopardize a weeks-old agreement with the U.S. exchanging food aid for nuclear concessions.
The North agreed to a moratorium on long-range launches as part of the deal with Washington, but it argues that its satellite launches are part of a peaceful space program that is exempt from any international disarmament agreements. The U.S., South Korea and other critics say the rocket technology overlaps with belligerent uses and condemn the satellite program as a disguised way of testing military missiles in defiance of a U.N. ban.

By: Brant

NEWS: Breakthrough With Norks?

Wow - have the Norks come to their senses? Or is this just another false "breakthrough" that will end badly?

The United States announced a major diplomatic breakthrough with North Korea Wednesday.

Under an agreement reached in direct talks in Beijing last week, North Korea has agreed to allow the return of International Atomic Energy Agency nuclear inspectors, as well as to implement a moratorium on long-range missile tests, nuclear tests, and nuclear activities at Yongbyon, including uranium enrichment activities, the State Department said. In return, the United States will provide North Korea with a major food aid package.

"To improve the atmosphere for dialogue and demonstrate its commitment to denuclearization, the DPRK has agreed to implement a moratorium on long-range missile launches, nuclear tests and nuclear activities at Yongbyon, including uranium enrichment activities," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a press statement Wednesday. "The DPRK has also agreed to the return of IAEA inspectors to verify and monitor the moratorium on uranium enrichment activities at Yongbyon and confirm the disablement of the 5-MW reactor and associated facilities."

Despite the stunning breakthrough, "the United States still has profound concerns regarding North Korean behavior across a wide range of areas," Nuland's statement cautioned, but added that "today's announcement reflects important, if limited, progress in addressing some of these."

In return, the United States will "move forward with our proposed package of 240,000 metric tons of nutritional assistance along with the intensive monitoring required for the delivery of such assistance," she said.

Other headlines:
CNN: North Korea agrees to halt nuclear activities for food

MSNBC: US says North Korea agrees to nuclear moratorium

Fox News: North Korea Suspends Nuclear Activities, Takes Food Aid

Guardian (UK): North Korea agrees to suspend nuclear activities, US says


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Norks Leaving Now Doubt About Twitishness

They're going to shell the South just because they're holding a drill?

North Korea warned South Korea on Sunday that it would shell islands close to their disputed sea border if the South violates its territorial waters during a military drill reported to begin in the Yellow Sea this week.
The official KCNA news agency also quoted the North's military as urging civilians living on five islands near the disputed area to evacuate before the start of the military exercises on Monday.
The North has repeatedly threatened armed retaliation against the South's military exercises but it is rare for Pyongyang to mention in advance about evacuation of civilians over such drills.
The North's military said that if the South "starts a reckless military provocation in those waters, trespassing on the DPRK's inviolable marine demarcation line,.... the KPA will promptly make merciless retaliatory strikes."

By: Brant

Kim Jong Un Collecting More Titles

I mean really, what 28-year-old baby-faced brat doesn't want another title in running the country his father left him.

North Korea said Saturday that Kim Jong Un has been officially named supreme commander of the military, further strengthening his authority after the death of his father.
Officials and state media have bestowed on Kim Jong Un, who is in his late 20s, a string of titles as North Korea's elite rally around him after Kim Jong Il's death in mid-December after 17 years in power.
But the title Supreme Commander — and its formal proclamation by the powerful Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party — is a clear sign that Kim Jong Un is fast consolidating power over North Korea. It's also the latest step in a burgeoning personality cult around him.

Now, this bit from the article is funny...

"This is a historic event reflecting the unanimous will of the service persons and the people to defend the dignity of the country," the official Korean Central News Agency said.

Defend the dignity of the country?! Really? Dignity? Hell, I could defend the "dignity" of North Korea with a Nerf gun and flak jacket made of spaghetti.

By: Brant

The Norks Are Ever Defiant

The change in power equals no change in policies.

North Korea sounded a bellicose note in its first communication with the outside world since the death of leader Kim Jong-il, saying its confrontational stance against South Korea would not change and labeling its opponents "foolish."
Since Kim Jong-il died on December 17, the outside world has been watching to see whether his son Kim Jong-un, aged in his 20s, would stick to its hardline "military first" policies that have seen the isolated nation move closer to nuclear weapons capacity.
"On this occasion, we solemnly declare with confidence that foolish politicians around the world, including the puppet forces in South Korea, should not expect any changes from us," a broadcaster on state television said on Friday.
She was reading a statement from the National Defense Commission, the top body in the militarized and impoverished state under Kim Jong-il.
In a break from the black mourning clothing worn since Kim Jong-il's death, the broadcaster wore dark red clothes and almost shouted her defiant message.

By: Brant