Posted on 11/26/2010 1:34:41 AM PST by Reaganite Republican
Shrill DPRK propaganda threatens "shower of fire"
The ever-belligerent Norks fired more large guns today in the vicinity of the South Korean island shelled on Tuesday. To most observers it appears that a fading Kim Jong Il is happy to blow up a few Southern fisherman to impress the military with his choice of under-achieving 27-year-old son Kim Jong Un -reportedly not the sharpest knife in the drawer- as his designated successor in the world's only hereditary communist dictatorship.
He's already made the kid a four-star general, and after visiting the artillery site on Monday the younger Kim is rumored to have ordered the attack himself... AP- Fresh artillery shots were heard Friday on the tense South Korean island of Yeonpyeong, three days after it was devastated by a North Korean attack and hours after Pyongyang warned that the peninsula was on the brink of war.
The blasts happened just after the top U.S. commander in South Korea, Gen. Walter Sharp, toured Yeonpyeong Island in a show of solidarity with Seoul and to survey damage from Tuesday's hail of North Korean artillery fire that killed four people.
An official at the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said several new rounds of artillery fire were heard Friday on Yeonpyeong, which is just 7 miles (11 kilometers) south of the North Korean mainland. The military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said several distant explosive sounds came from the direction of North Korea. There were no immediate reports of damage.
Seems the Kims are doing their best to frighten their enemies much as a rattlesnake would... and with a comparable moral code- (Yonhap News Service:) Threatening "a shower of dreadful fire," North Korea said Friday it will wipe out its enemies if its sovereignty is violated, warning that the Korean Peninsula is inching to the "brink of war." The warnings by the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea and the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) are the latest threats Pyongyang has issued since South Korea and the U.S. agreed to hold joint drills near the communist country in a show of force.
The rhetoric raises already high tension after the communist country exchanged deadly artillery barrages with South Korea on Tuesday, killing two marines and two civilians here in one of the most violent clashes on the peninsula since the 1950-53 Korean War. North Korea, officially called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), denies initiating the clash, warning it will mount additional attacks if its territorial waters are violated.
"The army and people of the DPRK are now greatly enraged at the provocation of the puppet group while getting fully ready to give a shower of dreadful fire and blow up the bulwark of the enemies" if they violate the North's sovereignty, the committee said.
In the Korean version of the statement released through the KCNA, the North said it is "ready to annihilate enemies' stronghold," a possible reference to major military bases and civilian facilities in the South.
It also said its forces "precisely targeted and struck" South Korean artillery units on Tuesday in what can seen as an admission of a deliberate attack on the South.
"Gone are the days when verbal warnings are served only," the committee said in the English statement. "The group should not run amuck, clearly understanding the will and mettle of the highly alerted army and people of the DPRK to wipe out the enemies."
If the Chinese are serious about being a world leader, now might be a appropriate time to act like it and control their brats before somebody loses an eye... or worse.
More at Reaganite Republican
This about extortion, plain and simple. Every few years the North throws a tantrums until someone gives them a great big pile of cash.
When the aid runs out, the fits slowly start up again.
I for one say we make sure they don’t get squat this time around!
Need coffee......
War will be stumbled into if it happens....pray no one makes a mis-calulation...
Unless China intervenes, there very well may be a short, violent, world-changing conflict, and with our current "leader" we will be weakened even more on the world stage.
“with his choice of under-achieving 27-year-old son Kim Jong Un”?
From what I’ve read there are two other boys in the Kim family.
One is not interested in politics and the other is a flaming fag.
So the boobie prize goes to Jong Un.
Could be “wag the dog”. Our dear leaders have used that a few times in the past. It might take a little heat away from Zero the Great.
Tell her the war is here.
here’s a little music to crap by http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtjvVgNMPtI
hope it works if not i’ll post the old socialist standbys; accordion players :D
“The threat of internal revolt must be getting really bad in North Korea, now they’ve got to create external threats to refocus the people.”
Sounds like us too. Hmmm.
After it was over, the kids were signed as back up players for the Dixie Chicks.
Too many people in this that I don’t trust.
I don’t trust Kim nor his son.
I don’t trust China.
I don’t trust Obama.
Things are getting out of hand to the point that control could be lost.
The consequences of a Korean War today are economically scarey. Now that the Democrats have forced outsourcing of almost everything, just think of the items made ONLY in South Korea. The first that comes to mind is computer monitors and flat screen TVs. And don’t say, “Oh, mine is from Japan” or “Mine is from Taiwan”. That is where the parts came together. The only place the actual TFT active elements on the LCD glass are made is in Seoul. Could we make them here? Yes, but not for several years and lots of seed money. Can you imagine no monitors or laptops for 4 or 5 years?
With obama... we are on the brink of surrender.
LLS
Yep, it works almost every time.
LLS
For at least four families, worse has left the station.
"Gee, we're being hit with artillery every other day now. It's almost like we're getting close to the brink of being practically at war."
Feebs.
South Korea spends as much as we do on its military. Since it doesn’t have the kind of global commitments we do, the budget is focused on conventional forces, especially ground forces.
South Korea’s army is larger than our army, whether comparing active to active or active + reserve to active + reserve. The South Korean army is about 60 percent of the size of the North Korean army, but it is well-trained, and equipped with contemporary weapon systems. For example, their main battle tank is a slightly down-sized version of our main battle tank, while the North Koreans use cold war era T-62s and T-54s.
With regard to air forces, South Korea’s is vastly superior to North Korea. The South Korean air force has more F-15s and F-16s than the North has M-21s, and M-21s are no match for contemporary war planes. The main way the U.S. would support South Korea would be with intelligence, strategic and naval assets.
Japan and China might both be helpful. While Japan spends a lower percent of GDP on its military, it has a very high GDP. It, like South Korea, focuses its military budget on conventional forces. As a result, it also has a very modern army and air force. It also has a not insignificant navy.
With regard to China, it is something of a wild card. The North cannot count on its support. This doesn’t mean we can. China is in transition from an isolated, communist state to something we cannot be sure what. Hopefully, a fully functioning democracy. But, thus far, an authoritarian state.
We have always held to a “One China” policy, meaning the eventual peaceful reunification of Taiwan and the Mainland. Until the Mainland resolves its transition in favor of democracy, reunification will be resisted even with assurances of continued democracy in Taiwan (what is sometimes called “One China, Three Systems,” meaning different systems for Hong Kong and for Taiwan).
Politics in Taiwan revolves around the issue of reunification. The Nationalist Party favor reunification and is in contact with the People’s Party of China (what a strange development!). The Democratic Party is in favor of independence. What is unrealistic about independence is that Taiwan continued independence depends on support by the U.S. We have been happy to support functional independence for Taiwan as long as the Mainland was communist. But, we have never supported full independence. So, the Democratic Party of Taiwan is just being silly.
BTo get back to the Korea peninsula, our support of eventual reunification of Taiwan and the Mainland would be put into jeopardy were China to intervene during a war on behalf of North Korea. I am supposing something could be worked out to keep China neutral or even to involve it in securing the North Korea-China border area.
Bearing all these things in mind, war would be the end of the North Korean regime. And, artillery and rocket attacks on civilians would make everyone involved into a war criminal in a war they would be bound to lose. If we could assume that the people in charge were rational, we would dismiss this whole thing as saber rattling. But, we cannot make that assumption. Nor can we dismiss the ability of government to order people into even untenable war through the use of indoctrination from birth and terror.
There are times when you have to be strong in the face of evil. This is the 3 AM phone call that Hillary told us would happen during the Democratic primaries of 2008. It is time to man up.
It won't happen with the current administration, but it seems to me that we have the Chinese by the short hairs at the moment. The one thing that China is desperately afraid of is having a million North Korean refugees fleeing into China. It seems to me that we could force China's hand by a strong show of military force in the region. The Chinese don't want a war in their backyard. They will step up to the plate when it becomes their only option to avoid a war.
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