North Korea puts rockets on standby for US strike

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un ordered preparations Friday for strategic rocket strikes on the US mainland and military bases after US stealth bombers flew training runs over South Korea.

The order came as US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, with tensions soaring on the Korean peninsula, said Washington would not be cowed by Pyongyang's bellicose threats and stood ready to respond to "any eventuality".

Kim directed his rocket units on standby at an overnight emergency meeting with top army commanders, hours after nuclear-capable US B-2 stealth bombers were deployed in ongoing US joint military drills with South Korea.

In the event of any "reckless" US provocation, North Korean forces should "mercilessly strike the US mainland... military bases in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam, and those in South Korea", he was quoted as saying by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

While North Korea has no proven ability to conduct such strikes, Kim argued that the stealth bomber flights went beyond a simple demonstration of force and amounted to a US "ultimatum that they will ignite a nuclear war at any cost".

The United States rarely acknowledges B-2 flights to the Korean peninsula, which remains technically at war. The aircraft, which dodge anti-aircraft defences, bombed targets in conflicts in Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.

Japan Eyes Cruise Missiles to Attack N.Korea

Democracies having a hard time keeping up with rogue tyrannical authoritarian regimes like North Korea, Pakistan, Syria, Iran and their supporter China.

North Korea and Pakistan are nothing but proxies used by China to scare neighbors and keep them busy wondering through Sun Tzu tactics. The real goal is global domination of Chinese communist Party

Tokyo is eyeing the development of cruise missiles to launch pre-emptive strikes on North Korean missile bases, the Sankei Shimbun reported Wednesday.

The daily said the Japanese government is likely to put a clause paving the way for such missiles into a revised 10-year defense plan at the end of this year.

Takeshi Iwaya, a lawmaker who heads a security committee in the ruling Democratic Liberal Party, told party members Tuesday, "Japan relies on the U.S. for the capability to hit enemy bases. Whether Japan can acquire part of that capability will be a major point in the defense plan."

Earlier, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the Diet that Japan needs to "consider acquiring the means to hit enemy bases in accordance with the changing international political situation."

At present, Japan's pacifist postwar Constitution prohibits it from acquiring pre-emptive attack weapons. In 2004, Tokyo considered developing a cruise missile with a range of 300 km but scrapped the plan due to mounting public concern that they would violate the non-aggression principles.

In 2009, the DLP looked at buying cruise missiles but the plan was shelved when it lost the general election.

But amid a general lurch to the right, Abe recently said striking North Korean missile bases could be considered "self defense" if there are no other ways to deal with such threats.

North Korea is estimated to have 150 to 200 Rodong missiles with a range of 1,300 km. A DLP official told the Sankei Shimbun, "There are concerns that it is not easy to deliver preemptive strikes on specific targets, since North Korea has mobile missiles, but cruise missiles could be used to attack key facilities of the regime."

Experts say Japan is capable of building a long-range missile any time it wants since it already has a rocket that can put a satellite into orbit.

North Korea conducts nuclear test

Yesterday we had accurately reported about probability of North Korean nuclear test

Revealed: North Korea's upgraded nuke test site

Encouraged by China, North Korea vows to conduct nuclear test aimed at the U.S.

All the countries allying with China are becoming failed or failing state while only China prospers at their cost.

Chinese made missiles being paraded in Pyongyang

Read my earlier post

asian-defence-news.blogspot.com/2012/04/chinese-firm-hubei-sanjiang-accused-of.html

North Korea’s top governing body warned Thursday that the regime will conduct its third nuclear test in defiance of UN punishment, and made clear that its long-range rockets are designed to carry not only satellites but also warheads aimed at striking the United States.

The National Defence Commission, headed by the country’s young leader, Kim Jong-un, denounced Tuesday’s UN Security Council resolution condemning North Korea’s long-range rocket launch in December as a banned missile activity and expanding sanctions against the regime. The commission reaffirmed in its declaration that the launch was a peaceful bid to send a satellite into space, but also clearly indicated the country’s rocket launches have a military purpose: to strike and attack the United States.
While experts say North Korea doesn’t have the capability to hit the U.S. with its missiles, recent tests and rhetoric indicate the country is feverishly working toward that goal.

he commission pledged to keep launching satellites and rockets and to conduct a nuclear test as part of a “new phase” of combat with the United States, which it blames for leading the UN bid to punish Pyongyang. It said a nuclear test was part of “upcoming” action but did not say exactly when or where it would take place.

“We do not hide that a variety of satellites and long-range rockets which will be launched by the DPRK one after another and a nuclear test of higher level which will be carried out by it in the upcoming all-out action, a new phase of the anti-U.S. struggle that has lasted century after century, will target against the U.S., the sworn enemy of the Korean people,” the commission said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“Settling accounts with the U.S. needs to be done with force, not with words, as it regards jungle law as the rule of its survival,” the commission said.

It was a rare declaration by the powerful commission once led by late leader Kim Jong-il and now commanded by his son. The statement made clear Kim Jong-un’s commitment to continue developing the country’s nuclear and missile programs in defiance of the Security Council, even at risk of further international isolation.

 On another note...

The seemingly pregnant belly sported by the wife of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in mid-December appeared to be gone by New Year’s Day

That’s sent South Korean media into a frenzy of speculation that there’s a new baby in the ruling Kim dynasty. Video broadcast Dec. 17 showed Ri Sol Ju wearing a billowing black dress that covered what appeared to be a swollen belly.

Rumours swept Seoul and Pyongyang that she was pregnant, although it was difficult to tell for sure from the images. There has been no official word from Pyongyang.

But Ri was shown by state TV at a New Year’s concert wearing a tighter dress and looking noticeably slimmer. That’s causing more speculation in Seoul that she may have given birth.

North Korea Rocket Launch: Long-Range Missile Fired

SEOUL/TOKYO, Dec 1 - Isolated and impoverished North Korea launched its second long- range rocket of 2012 on Wednesday and may have finally succeeded in putting a satellite into space, the stated aim of what critics say is a disguised ballistic missile test.
The rocket was launched just before 10 a.m. Korean time (0100 GMT) and overflew the Japanese island of Okinawa.
A rocket launch by North Korea in April was aborted after less than two minutes flight. Wednesday's launch came after the North carried out repairs on the rocket, which South Korean officials said had been removed from its gantry on Monday.


Both South Korea and Japan called meetings of their top security councils after the launch and Japan said it could not tolerate the action. Japanese television station NHK said the second stage of the rocket had crashed into seas off the Philippines as planned.
It was not immediately clear if the third stage carrying the satellite had made it into space.
"Whether the satellite launch (orbit) itself succeeds or not, it is a success for North Korea anyway," said Kim Young-soo, a North Korea expert at Sogang University in South Korea.

There was no immediate annoucement from North Korea on the launch. It made a formal announcement when the April launch had failed, but has previously claimed that it put a satellite into space in 2009, something no one has been able to verify.
"We will convene an emergency security meeting at 10:30. The launch was made around 9.50 a.m.," an official at South Korea's presidential office in Seoul said.
The North launched the rocket close to the Dec. 17 anniversary of the death of former leader Kim Jong-il last year and as elections loom in South Korea and Japan.
Pyongyang says it is entitled to launch a satellite into space but critics say the rocket development is aimed at nurturing the kind of technology needed to mount a nuclear warhead on a long-range missile.
North Korea is banned from conducting missile and nuclear-related tests under U.N. sanctions imposed after its 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests.