Korean Sota Osa II ?

[John Hilly]

Koodia pukkaa...

 

[ctg]

The CIA director, Mike Pompeo, has said that the Trump administration is intent on preventing North Korea from being able to fire multiple nuclear missiles at the United States, apparently sketching out a new red line for the regime in Pyongyang.

Speaking in Washington, Pompeo explained for the first time what the administration meant when it warns that it would not allow the regime of Kim Jong-un to threaten the US with a nuclear weapon.

Despite personal warnings from Donald Trump on Twitter and in speeches, the US has not been able so far to prevent North Korea from testing a hydrogen bomb and conducting three test launches of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) – including one that appeared capable of reaching New York or Washington.

Linkki

 

[ctg]

hhhmmmm ... uusiutuuko Berliinin muuri tapahtuma tässä?

North Korea has called on "all Koreans at home and abroad" to "promote contact (and) cooperation between North and South Korea".

State media in North Korea also said Pyongyang would "smash" all challenges against reunification of the Korean peninsula.

Koreans are being urged to make a "breakthrough" for unification without other countries' help.

The North's official news agency said military tension on the Korean peninsula was a "fundamental obstacle" to the improvement of inter-Korean relations.

Linkki

Saa nähdä miten pärjäävät jos joutuvat Suomen naisjoukkuetta vastaan pelaamaan. Onko Kimillä oikeasti diplomatia mielessä vaiko pokaalit?

North Korea's women's ice hockey players have arrived in South Korea to form a joint team for the Pyeongchang Olympics.

The 12 players crossed the border with an official delegation and will start training with the team from the South.

In a breakthrough deal, both countries last week agreed to field a joint team to compete under a single flag.

It marks a thaw in relations that began in the new year, when North Korea said it wanted to attend the Games.

The deal had been met with some criticism in the South, as it might mean there will be less time on the ice for the South's players.

On Saturday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) agreed that the 12 players could be added to the South's full team of 23 players.

Linkki

Japanese patrol plane spotted a Dominican Republic tanker apparently transferring fuel to a North Korean vessel in the East China Sea in violation of UN sanctions.

A Maritime Self-Defence Force (MSDF) aircraft took photographs of the encounter, which took place in waters near Shanghai, Japanese government sources told Kyodo News.

The information has since been passed on to the United States’ government, Japan’s key ally in enforcing a growing list of sanctions against North Korea, Kyodo News reported.

The Japanese government has vowed to take tougher measures to prevent North Korea from circumventing international sanctions.

Taro Kono, the foreign minister, told a news conference: “North Korea is becoming more skilled at escaping sanctions. We will take a co-ordinated response to it internationally.”

The Japanese P-3C aircraft was reportedly engaging in patrol activities at the time of the incident, specifically looking out for the illicit transfer of refined oil at sea by North Korea.

Linkki

 

[Osasto 31]

Pessimistinä ajattelin, että tekevät Mustat syyskuut...

 

[ctg]

The US has been quietly amassing firepower in the Pacific during a lull in tensions with North Korea, but recent developments on an under-the-radar nuclear weapon suggest preparation for a potential tactical nuclear strike.

The US recently sent B-2 stealth bombers to Guam, where they joined B-1 and B-52s, the other bombers in the US's fleet.

While the B-2 and B-52 are known as the air leg of the US's nuclear triad, as they carry nuclear-capable air-launched cruise missiles, a smaller nuclear weapon that has undergone some upgrades may lend itself to a strike on North Korea.

Linkki

Henkilökohtaisesti ymmärrän taktisten käytön Parasta Koreata vastaan, mutta kun kerran tuo arkku avataan, niin pystytäänkö se myös sulkemaan kun sitä ei tarvita? tRump saattaa mennä historian kirjoihin toisena pressana Truemanin jälkeen ydinaseiden käyttäjänä.

 

[min3mat]

Linkki

Henkilökohtaisesti ymmärrän taktisten käytön Parasta Koreata vastaan, mutta kun kerran tuo arkku avataan, niin pystytäänkö se myös sulkemaan kun sitä ei tarvita? tRump saattaa mennä historian kirjoihin toisena pressana Truemanin jälkeen ydinaseiden käyttäjänä.

Jos henk koht ymmärrät niiden käytön, niin pitäisi myös ymmärtää vastapuolen massatuhovälineiden aseiden käyttö.

Pernaruton (eli anthrax, jota PK:lla on lähes satavarmasti) itiöt esimerkiksi elävät vuosikausia, kuolleisuus karjassa on luokkaa 90% ja ihmisissä 20-30%. Keuhkoruton kohdalla (jota edelleen PK:lla on varastossa) puolestaan numerot menevät noin 50% pinnalle ihmisissä ja karjassa. Konservatiivisesti arvioitu kemiallisten aseiden varasto puolestaan taisi olla maailman 3-5 suurimpana vain joitain tuhansia tonneja, sisältäen aineita jotka eivät välitä esim. yleisistä kaasunaamareista. Joka tapauksessa koko maan massatuhovälineet pitäisi saada kerralla tuhottua kostoiskujen estämiseksi, mikä käytännössä tarkoittaisi jenkkien taktisien ydinaseiden massamittaista tyhjennystä koko PK:n alueella.

Siinä saa aikamoinen myyntimies olla kun mennään EK:n ja Japanin presidenteille kertomaan että koreat tullaan yhdistämään em. parin tuhannen laakin käytöllä ettei vastapuoli pääse tekemään samaa ja että parit ydin/rutto/kaasuraketit saattaa lennellä torjunnan läpi Tokioon ja Souliin (ja ehkä muihin suuriin asutuskeskuksiin), muttei mitään sen vakavampaa. Niin, ja ruokatuotanto tulee olemaan todennäköisesti jäässä parisen vuotta, mutta jos sieltä tulee sienipilviä muodostavia kärkiä läpi niin ruokittavien asukkaiden määrä saattaa myös vähentyä lyhyellä aikavälillä oleellisesti. Sen jälkeen sitten lentolippu Pekingiin ja kertomaan sama tarina Jinpingille.

 

[ctg]

Jos henk koht ymmärrät niiden käytön, niin pitäisi myös ymmärtää vastapuolen massatuhovälineiden aseiden käyttö.

Ymmärrän tuonkin puolen ja toivon että jos jatkavat tällä linjalla, niin kehittävän taktiset aseet. Naapurikin näki että kukaan ei tee mitään 50 megatonnin tsar pommeilla, pienempi on parempi jos aiot selvittää asioita. PK ei ole istunut pöytään ja sanonut että homma on taputeltu valmiiksi ja käyttänyt sitten diplomatiaa rauhoittamaan tilannetta samalla kun kehitys jatkuu. Uhoa on kuulunut ja uskon edelleen seuraavan testin possahtamista pääsiäisen tienoilla.

Joka tapauksessa koko maan massatuhovälineet pitäisi saada kerralla tuhottua kostoiskujen estämiseksi, mikä käytännössä tarkoittaisi jenkkien taktisien ydinaseiden massamittaista tyhjennystä koko PK:n alueella.

Tuossa artikkelissa he esittivät viittä kohdetta suorittamaan kimin diktatuurin litistys. Massamittainen käyttö sitten viittaisi siihen että koko pohjola on täynnä aivottomia. Silti jotkut uskovat että rauhanomainen yhdistyminen on myös mahdollista.

 

[min3mat]

Ymmärrän tuonkin puolen ja toivon että jos jatkavat tällä linjalla, niin kehittävän taktiset aseet. Naapurikin näki että kukaan ei tee mitään 50 megatonnin tsar pommeilla, pienempi on parempi jos aiot selvittää asioita. PK ei ole istunut pöytään ja sanonut että homma on taputeltu valmiiksi ja käyttänyt sitten diplomatiaa rauhoittamaan tilannetta samalla kun kehitys jatkuu. Uhoa on kuulunut ja uskon edelleen seuraavan testin possahtamista pääsiäisen tienoilla.

Edelleen uskon PK:n logiikan olevan sitä luokkaa että usa:n hyökkäys on varmaa, ainoa epävarma vain milloin. PK:n tavoitteena on päästä tilanteeseen jossa tuleva hyökkäys voidaan estää hankkimalla tarpeeksi toimiva pelote nimenomaan usaa vastaan. Nykyinen bio/kem -arsenaali riittää kyllä lähimpien naapureiden elämän pilaamiseen pitkäksi aikaa, mutta päätavoite eli vaikutuskyky suuren saatanan maaperällä on vieläkin vähintään epävarma. Tällöin uho ja paukuttelu tulee jatkumaan niin kauan kunnes kapasiteetista ei ole mitään epäselvää.

Samalla fake it till you make it -logiikalla veteli aikoinaan neukkulan hrutsev, joka huuteli vielä kehitteillä olevia ydinohjuksia olevan tuhansittain vuosia ennen niiden pääsemistä tuotantovaiheeseen. Silloin tosin NL:llä oli ydinpelotteen lisäksi myös jäätävä sotilaallinen kapasiteetti, mikä PK:lta puolestaan puuttuu ja jota kompensoidaan muilla keinoilla.

Tuossa artikkelissa he esittivät viittä kohdetta suorittamaan kimin diktatuurin litistys. Massamittainen käyttö sitten viittaisi siihen että koko pohjola on täynnä aivottomia. Silti jotkut uskovat että rauhanomainen yhdistyminen on myös mahdollista.

Ehkä sillä voitaisiin saada kimi ja pari läheisintä henkilöä pois pelistä, mutta aika sinisilmäinen täytyy olla jos uskoo että massatuhoaseilla varustettu maa jota kohtaan on juuri isketty ydinaseilla, tuudittautuu ideaan että naapurista ei tule näitä viittä pommia enempää, eikä sen sijaan lähtisi soittamaan tuomionpäivän pasuunoitaan kostoiskuun

 

[ctg]

mutta aika sinisilmäinen täytyy olla jos uskoo että massatuhoaseilla varustettu maa jota kohtaan on juuri isketty ydinaseilla, tuudittautuu ideaan että naapurista ei tule näitä viittä pommia enempää, eikä sen sijaan lähtisi soittamaan tuomionpäivän pasuunoitaan kostoiskuun

Japanilta loppui uho kun toinen pommi lävähti maahan. Jos sulta riistetään johto ja kyky tuottaa lisää tuhoaseita, niin miten kauan tappelet ennenkuin tuho rupeaa tuntumaan loppuliselta? Olen sanonut suomen kohdalla että kostaminen ydinpommilla on oman tuhon varmistamista. Haluaako normi pohjoiskorealainen todellakin kuolla kun ei pysty muuhun?

 

[min3mat]

Japanilta loppui uho kun toinen pommi lävähti maahan. Jos sulta riistetään johto ja kyky tuottaa lisää tuhoaseita, niin miten kauan tappelet ennenkuin tuho rupeaa tuntumaan loppuliselta? Olen sanonut suomen kohdalla että kostaminen ydinpommilla on oman tuhon varmistamista. Haluaako normi pohjoiskorealainen todellakin kuolla kun ei pysty muuhun?

2ms japani-rinnastus ei ole kovin relevantti kun japanilla ei ollut massatuhoaseita tai niiden tuotantoa tai minkäänlaista kapasiteettia kostoiskuihin yhtään minnekkään, minkä lisäksi maan ilma-, maa- ja merivoimat olivat käytännössä tuhottuja siinä vaiheessa kun pommit putosivat. PK puolestaan ei ole sotatilassa kuin teoreettisesti paperilla, minkä lisäksi maalla on edelleen eräs maailman suurimmista massatuhoarsenaaleista ja kymmeniä eri tuotantolaitoksia sekä kohtalainen kostoiskukapasiteetti, jos ei jenkkillään niin ainakin naapureihin.

Lopullisen tuhon esimerkkejäkin maailmalta löytyy jos niitä haluaa lähteä etsimään. P-Vietnam taisteli vaikka maahan kylvettiin myrkkyjä, miinoja, pommeja ja napalmia ennennäkemättömiä määriä ja tappiot olivat samaa luokkaa. Samoin saksa pisti raivopäisesti hanttiin 50+ maata vastaan ja vielä Berliinissä lapset kaduille torjuntavoittoja tekemään vaikka häviö oli ollut puolesta vuodesta vuoteen sataprosenttisen selvä. Vitutuksen voima ja halu pistää hanttiin on loppumaton luonnonvara ahtaalle ajetulla ihmisellä/ihmisjoukolla, ja se ei ehdy kuin kuolemalla tai pitkäjänteisen väsyttämisen tuloksena.

 

[ctg]

As for the third option -- a military solution -- it's been pretty much discarded as a nonstarter. Even if we somehow avoided a nuclear exchange, the damage to Seoul from North Korean artillery be would so vast as to render the idea unthinkable. Or would it?

This week I tracked down somebody who has actually been thinking quite a bit about it: retired Air Force General Merrill "Tony" McPeak. McPeak has the distinction of being the only person to have served as both Air Force chief of staff (from 1990 to 1994, during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield) and also as the service's acting secretary. Prior to that, he was commander of all Pacific air forces, so he knows a thing or two about what a "hard target" North Korea is. With a three-volume memoir of his military career finally completed, McPeak took time to share his contrarian views on how both diplomacy and hard power could finally break the logjam with the Kim Jong-un regime.

Linkki

Tobin Harshaw: Tony, we first met in early 2003 in the run-up to the Iraq invasion, and there was a big debate at the time over whether airpower alone could win a war -- remember Shock and Awe? You said something to the effect that that, yes, airpower could win wars, but the one place where it absolutely couldn't was North Korea. And I think we're learning that lesson again today, right?

Merrill McPeak: Well, I'm not sure I will give you the same answer today -- airpower has changed a good bit in the last 15 or so years. We are much more precision-oriented now as far as munitions go.


The real problem that I had in the early 21st century was the guns that are dug in on the reverse slope of the hills just above the DMZ. There are thousands of them; they're on rails and they've got blast doors. They can run them into a cave, close the doors, load and cock, open the doors, run them out and shoot, run them back in. So they are tough targets to attack. And some subset of the whole actually ranges Seoul, which means millions of people and, what, two-thirds of the net worth of South Korea. So my concern was that Seoul would be very, very badly damaged in the opening minutes of any encounter.

Yet the advantage that those guns have -- being in caves and protected by blast doors -- it also has a big disadvantages. They're not mobile; other than a few feet to get in and out of a cave, they're not going anywhere. And they are at known positions. We know the coordinates of every gun. Nowadays, we can drop GPS-guided ordinance on coordinates with a miss-distance of just 10 meters. A 10-meter miss with a 2,000-pound conventional bomb means that gun is out of action, because the blast doors would cave in. The people inside will likely be out of commission for a while. This is a different kind of a threat to those guys.

I still think that in the opening moments of any aerial campaign against the North there will be some damage in Seoul, probably considerable. But I no longer think that you have to go in and take those guns out with ground forces. I think you could probably silence the guns pretty rapidly from the sky, especially those that range Seoul.

TH: Of course, those guns aren't the whole shooting match.

MM: Yes. In the meantime, you have to go after the nuclear infrastructure as a very high priority. And also you have to go after the command-and-control, including decapitating the major national command authority at Pyongyang. And I'm a little less confident about some of those targets because they are mobile. Kim himself is mobile. And the last rocket shots I saw from their nuclear program were mounted on mobile platforms. So we're going to depend on a lot of intelligence that has to be real-time, whereas the coordinates of these artillery pieces are not going to change.

TH: So what would taking out the nuclear-weapons infrastructure involve?

MM: It involves everything from beginning to end in their nuclear-munitions category and in the transportation category. The rocket-production infrastructure and the bomb-production infrastructure. That is a target set that is end-to-end attackable. Some of it may be deeply buried, which means you probably can't get at it, but you don't need to break every link in the chain, just enough that it stops production. You want to attack launch-pads, you want to attack the warehouses that the rockets are in, you want to attack the factories that are producing rockets, you want to attack them en route to a launch site.

So there's an end-to-end target chain that you can interrupt at any point and disable the whole system, but it depends on real-time intelligence, and to some degree that means intelligence that's not under Air Force control -- a lot is CIA.

TH: Would this require things other than air power like Special Forces on the ground?

MM: No. Special Forces are really good, although a lot of times they get in trouble and then you've got to divert everything else you've got to save them. But I believe we can put together an air campaign that A) brings an end to the artillery threat to Seoul rather rapidly and B) disrupts and disables their nuclear-munitions delivery capability rather rapidly. And that can be done totally by air. I'm not talking about just U.S. Air Force, but Navy air and Marine air -- everybody has got an air force, the CIA has its own air force -- so we are going to have to cooperate here.

TH: Assuming there is no nuclear exchange, is there any way of estimating how bad the damage to Seoul would probably be?

MM: I think it depends on how skillful we are at handling this problem. And that's a whole other thing, because we're not showing a lot of cleverness these days.

One idea would be to say to Kim, "OK, we are setting a deadline here" -- say it's next January -- "and by the end you will either be dismantling your nuclear capability under international inspection or we will help you dismantle it." If you give that kind of deadline, in the meantime you continue all your diplomatic efforts, all your economic sanctions, the effort to get the Chinese and the Russians to help, and everything else. All the other instruments of national power need to be brought to bear on this problem before we resort to military attack.

If you set a date final by which we have to see a solution or we will intervene, then you've got time to try to minimize the damage to Seoul through defensive measures. Evacuate people, in the worst case. I think there's a real limit to how much you can do there. But you could do something. And then we need to really meticulously plan the attack on these artillery positions to make sure that they're as damaged as possible as quickly as possible. At the end of the day, we will get some damage, but it won't be Stalingrad. We've had fights like this before. We've had the Blitz in London. We've rebuilt Seoul before.

 

[ctg]

North Korea has cancelled one of the key joint cooperation projects with South Korea planned for next month’s Winter Olympics, officials said, further proving the delicate nature of ties between the rivals split for seven decades.

North Korea on Monday night sent a message saying it won’t hold a joint cultural event at the North’s Diamond Mountain on Feb. 4 to mark the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, according to Seoul’s Unification Ministry.

The ministry cited North Korea as saying it has no other option but to cancel the project because of South Korean media reports that it says defamed its “sincere” measures for the Olympics. The North also accused South Korean media of picking a fight over an unspecified domestic festival in North Korea, according to the ministry statement.

 

[Teräsmies]

USA yritti ampua ohjuksen alas: ei onnistunut

Yhdysvaltojen keskiviikkona tekemä ohjuspuolustuskoe epäonnistui, uutistoimisto Reuters paljastaa. USA:n armeija testasi SM-3 Block IIA -ohjusta, joka ammuttiin testikeskuksesta Havaijilta.
Reutersin nimettömän viranomaislähteen mukaan testi epäonnistui. Torjuntaohjus ei osunut lentokoneesta laukaistuun harjoitusmaaliin.
USA:n ohjuspuolustuksesta vastaava Missile Defense Agency (MDA) ei kommentoinut testin lopputulosta, mutta vahvisti sen olemassaolon.

http://www.iltalehti.fi/ulkomaat/201801312200711009_ul.shtml

 

[peelo]

USA yritti ampua ohjuksen alas: ei onnistunut

http://www.iltalehti.fi/ulkomaat/201801312200711009_ul.shtml

No ei varmaan suurta huolta, muuttujia on monia. Onnistuneita kokeita on takana jos ei just Block IIA niin ainakin aikaisemmilla versioilla ja todennäköisesti myös juuri tuollakin versiolla.

 

[ctg]

A North Korean delegation is heading to Moscow for talks on mutual cooperation, the Russian Embassy in North Korea has said.

"The delegation flew to Moscow for consultations in the Russian Foreign Ministry on the vital issues of bilateral cooperation," the embassy wrote on its Facebook page.

The sides plan to discuss joint events to be held dedicated to the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, according to Russian news agency Tass.

The move comes amid rising tensions between Pyongyang and the US over the secretive state's continued development of nuclear weapons.

Despite US-led international sanctions on Kim Jong-un's regime, Russian tankers have reportedly continued to supply fuel to the country.

Linkki

 

[ctg]

Adobe will next week emit patches to squash a security bug in Flash that can be exploited by malicious webpages and documents, when opened, to hijack and spy on vulnerable computers.

The flaw is being abused right now by North Korean hackers to infect victims' PCs. You should update your browser or Flash installation – if you're still using Flash – as soon as the fix lands so other miscreants can't exploit the vulnerability and potentially commandeer your machine.

The programming cockup (CVE-2018-4878) came to light after South Korea's Computer Emergency Response Team found malicious code hiding in Microsoft Office documents, web pages, and spam emails, that exploits the Flash bug to infect Windows PCs with malware.

Linkki

All versions of Flash are vulnerable to the aforementioned issue. The Photoshop maker said that – so far – only Windows machines have been attacked, although Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and Chrome OS systems are potentially vulnerable.

Now's a good time to ensure Flash is set to only play when specifically told to – so-called "click to run" – so that malicious Flash files invisibly embedded in documents and webpages can't silently kick off without you knowing. There are other mitigations listed here.

The other alternative is just to delete Flash from your system. Web browsers are shunning this internet dumpster fire. Even Adobe's had enough of the wretched thing, vowing to kill it by 2020.

 

[ido59]

En muista onko tämä ollut jo, osui surffatessa kohdalle. thediplomat.com viime lokakuulta muistuttaa Clausewitz'in argumenteista - taistelumoraalin merkityksestä - sekä DPRK:n pitkään hiotusta strategiasta.

Linkki:
Military Stalemate: How North Korea Could Win a War With the US -- It’s time to reexamine the assertion that North Korea’s defeat is preordained.

Ote:
As Carl von Clausewitz notes in On War, morale forces are “are amongst the most important subjects in war.” They “are the spirits which permeate the whole element of war.” However, “unfortunately they seek to escape from all book-knowledge, for they will neither be brought into numbers nor into classes, and want only to be seen and felt,” as the Prussian philosopher of war laments. In the case of warfare on the Korean peninsula, by leaving out morale forces and other non-quantifiable factors, we have come to an explicit systematic and mathematical understanding of how such a war might play out akin to the pseudo-scientific pre-1914 ideas of the Prussian-German General Staff about a general war in Europe. ...

How the North Could Win: Asymmetric Capabilities
For the DPRK to “win” a war against ROK and the U.S. it would need to achieve a military stalemate of some sort. North Korea’s military strategy is centered on guerilla warfare, hybrid warfare, and Blitzkrieg-like conventional warfare. Ever since Kim Jong-un assumed leadership, the military has increasingly focused on waging total war partially based on developing asymmetrical capabilities including WMDs. ...

“I think that North Korea would use chemical, biological, and perhaps even nuclear weapons to create a needed stalemate.” Bennett adds: “North Korea recognized the U.S. military technological superiority was significantly overcoming their military advances by the late 1970s. Starting in the early 1980s, if not sooner, North Korea began adjusting their military portfolio to include all forms of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), plus the artillery, ballistic missiles, and special forces needed to deliver those weapons.

How the North Could Win: Morale Forces
Besides, in the event of a U.S.-ROK invasion of the DPRK, it would be even easier to motivate Northern soldiers to fight than vice versa given the powerful motivation to defend one’s home. This simple truth of military conflict is perhaps best illustrated by the exchange between a poor Southerner who had taken up arms against Northern troops in the U.S. Civil War. “Why are you fighting anyhow?” the invaders purportedly asked him back in 1862, to which he replied, “I am fighting because you are down here!” ...

Conclusion
The old military maxim that morale matters in war continues to hold even in the Second Nuclear Age. ...

 

[ctg]

Tuon

Pohjois-Korea lähettää "seremoniamestarinsa" eli nimellisen valtionpäämiehensä Kim Yong-namin Etelä-Koreaan olympialaisten yhteydessä. Asiasta kertoi Etelä-Korean yhdistymisministeriö sunnuntaina.

Kim Yong-nam johtaa 22 hengen valtuuskuntaa, joka saapuu Etelä-Koreaan perjantaina. Hän on korkea-arvoisin pohjoiskorealainen virkamies, joka vierailee etelänaapurissa vuoden 2014 jälkeen. Vierailu kestää kolme päivää.

Kim Yong-nam johtaa Pohjois-Korean parlamenttia pääkaupunki Pjongjangissa. Asemaa pidetään lähinnä seremoniallisena. Tosiasiallista valtaa maassa käyttää maan johtaja Kim Jong-un.

Kim Yong-nam osallistuu Pyeongchangin olympialaisten avajaisiin perjantaina.

https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-10058514

Despite the painstaking efforts of Moon Jae-in, South Korea’s president, to use this week’s opening of the Winter Olympics to build bridges with North Korea, Donald Trump remains locked on a dangerous collision course with what he calls Kim Jong-un’s “depraved regime”.

Kim’s last-minute acceptance of Moon’s invitation to send a North Korean delegation to the Games, which get under way in Pyeongchang on Friday, raised hopes that tensions with the US and its allies over the North’s nuclear weapons build-up and missile tests may be defused, at least in part. North Korea agreed to send nearly two dozen athletes, cheerleaders and an orchestra in a delegation numbering more than 200 people.

The two Koreas will also field a joint women’s ice hockey team in the Games and march under a “unification” flag in the opening parade. Moon, a left-leaning liberal, was elected last year with a pledge to pursue engagement with the North, but has faced opposition from Trump. The US president has characterised conciliation efforts as appeasement, demanded South Korea pay more for its defence and threatened unlimited military action “to totally destroy” North Korea. Moon’s exercise in sporting diplomacy – he terms it a “stepping stone” to peace – also has critics among his rightwing opponents at home.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ic-threatens-peace-making-in-korean-peninsula

 

[ctg]

WASHINGTON — Eighteen Senate Democrats are warning U.S. President Donald Trump that he lacks the legal authority to preemptively strike North Korea.

“Like many, we are deeply concerned about the potential consequences of a preemptive military strike on North Korea and the risks of miscalculation and retaliation,” the senators said in a letter to Trump on Monday.

Weighing in on reports the Trump administration is considering limited, preemptive “bloody nose” attacks to rid Pyongyang of its nuclear program, the lawmakers said such a strike would be “an enormous gamble” that North Korea would not escalate.

“[W]ithout congressional authorization a preventative or preemptive U.S. military strike would lack either a Constitutional basis or legal authority,” reads the letter, led by New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Trump reportedly dropped his pick for ambassador to South Korea, Victor Cha, over Cha’s objections to such an attack — a move the lawmakers called “disturbing.” Seoul had been notified of the administration’s intent to pick, who had reportedly undergone thorough vetting for months.

https://www.defensenews.com/congres...or-north-korea-preemptive-bloody-nose-strike/

 

[ctg]

China released a further list of goods banned for export to North Korea on Monday, saying the items could be used to build weapons of mass destruction, amid a standoff between North Korea and the United States over its weapons programmes.

China has released several such lists in recent years as North Korea steps up it nuclear and missile tests. China says it is doing its duty to help enforce the increasingly tough U.N. sanctions.

The latest, extremely technical, list of dual-use goods, or products that have both civilian and military use, comes after a confidential report by independent U.N. monitors that said North Korea violated U.N. sanctions to earn nearly $200 million in 2017 from banned commodity exports.

China’s Commerce Ministry said in a statement on its website that the list was meant to comply with the requirements of new U.N. sanctions imposed last year.

The new list names dozens of banned items including air scrubbers for underwater use, equipment to simulate flying conditions for non-civilian aircraft and gas masks not for use by firefighters.

The list was jointly released with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence, the China Atomic Energy Authority and the Customs Bureau.

It is effective immediately, the Commerce Ministry added.

China remains North Korea’s largest trading partner and sole major ally, though overall trade has fallen as the sanctions take effect.

Chinese analysts have regularly expressed concern that North Korea could collapse in chaos if Beijing’s policies become too harsh.

At the same time as saying it is fully committed to enforcing the sanctions, despite lingering doubts in Washington at China’s commitment, Beijing has also repeatedly called for a return to dialogue.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-n...e-dual-use-goods-to-north-korea-idUKKBN1FP1O1

North Korea is developing bases for its fleet of assault hovercraft that will be able to deploy elite special forces troops on South Korean soil in half an hour.

The rogue state is building two new bases and upgrading two existing facilities for the vehicles on its west coast, increasing the threat to South Korean-held islands in the West Sea.

The additional bases are expected to be completed next year, with analysts pointing out that the new site at Yonbong-ni will house the furthest forward-deployed assault hovercraft in the North Korean fleet.

While many navies around the world have units of the amphibious craft in their armouries, they are primarily used on a smaller scale and for specialist missions. North Korea, however, began introducing hovercraft into its strike forces in the 1980s, replacing conventional landing craft that were seen as too slow and unable to carry sufficiently large loads to carry out a successful invasion.

Satellite images taken in December show work under way at the Yonbong-ni base, which covers nearly 170 acres, including the construction of hardened shelters for 54 hovercraft, according to a study printed in Beyond Parallel, produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...veal-new-north-korean-bases-forfleet-assault/