Posted on 08/05/2007 9:18:08 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Kim's army visits prompt speculation Sat Aug 4, 10:39 PM ET
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has visited military bases for four straight days, an unusual frequency that has prompted speculation he may be about to make a decision regarding the country's disputed nuclear program.
The visits come ahead of a joint U.S.-South Korean military exercise. On Friday, North Korea denounced the upcoming Aug. 20-21 drill as an "unacceptable provocation."
The North's official Korean Central News Agency reported Saturday that Kim inspected an army unit and expressed satisfaction with its combat readiness. It was the fourth straight day that KCNA reported Kim visiting an army base.
Chosun Ilbo, South Korea's largest newspaper, said the visits may indicate Kim was about to make an important decision, possibly regarding his country's nuclear programs.
North Korea shut down its sole functioning nuclear reactor last month in exchange for energy aid under a deal with the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.
Kim periodically visits military bases to ensure the loyalty of his troops, the backbone of his iron-fisted rule. But it is unusual for him to make so many visits in such a short time.
"I think the main purpose is to boost the morale of soldiers during vacation season and ahead of" the joint military exercise, said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea expert at Seoul's Dongguk University.
North Korea has condemned the annual drill in South Korea as a rehearsal for a northward invasion. The U.S. and South Korea say the exercise, staged since 1975, is defensive.
About 28,000 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War which ended in a cease-fire, leaving the two Koreas still technically at war.
Norm you are right that recent photo of Chia Pet NB I think that question for Tiger he could tell you
Geez, I feel sorry for the aide who dragged KJL out of bed and couldn’t get him to change out of his ‘jammies for the sacred dropping of the vote.
If North Korea were to launch a mechanized thrust through the DMZ, tactical nukes would fall on their armored formations.
It’d be better to defend Taiwan and let South Korea rot.
As it stands now, the South Korean youth has been so brainwashed by their education system that they think that North Korea is ‘protecting’ the South against rampant American debauchery and aggression.
Once the generation that remembers the Korean War dies off...
HA!!!!
The way those KPA goons are all stacked up like that, one row upon another, about 100 fullly-weighted human beings almost directly over Kim Jong il, how many times have you had the thought of how nice it would be to give that crowd one big SHOVE forward, from behind those bleachers? ;-)
One is tempted, VERY tempted I might add, to mass produce and to balloon-leaflet along along the Yalu River on a nice, southwardly windy day! ;-) LOL
Ah, makes you wonder: which photo is the doctored one, mkjessup’s or the NKs?
Yeah and he ain't sharin'!
It is a ronery job working in a photomat in Pyongyang, but somebody has to do it.
Yeah can you imagine having that gig HELLO
Ping.
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