Category Archives: Koreas

A Threatening World | FrontPage Magazine

Posted by on June 3, 2013 Comments Off

On the other hand, the despotism of the Assad regime is horrid, monstrous.  There is no good choice here.  There are good Syrians, but they’re nowhere near the corridors of power, and they’re not contenders in the current civil war.  And so there is no good side here.

And therefore, I draw the conclusion that just as we helped Stalin against Hitler, and we helped Saddam Hussein against the Ayatollah Khomeini, we should — as Assad is going down, we should help Assad against the rebels.  I don’t want Assad to prevail, but I also don’t want the Islamist rebels to prevail.  I don’t want the Iranians to benefit from this, I don’t want the Turks to benefit from it.  I would rather see them just go at each other.  I think we should use what influence we have with the supporters of both sides to get the fighting away from the civilians, so that there is not this horrid humanitarian cost.

But from our strategic point of view, it’s clearly in our interest to have Hamas fighting with Hezbollah.  I mean, can you imagine a better scenario than that?

A Threatening World | FrontPage Magazine

A Threatening World from DHFC on Vimeo.

Expert claims North Korea ‘either has or soon will have’ a nuclear ICBM

Posted by on May 28, 2013 Comments Off

North Korea is on the verge of obtaining a ballistic missile made by China that can reach Alaska, a senior nuclear analyst told government and military officials Friday morning during a discussion about China’s nuclear prowess.

“North Korea either has or soon will have a nuclear-armed [intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)] that can reach Anchorage,” said Richard D. Fisher, a senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center (IASC), a national security think tank.

The missiles were “made in China [and] given to North Korea,” Fisher told attendees. “And I’m very, very sad to say our administration has said nothing publicly about this enabling of a direct threat to the U.S.”

Nork Threat Grows | Washington Free Beacon

How North Korea Could Cripple the U.S. | WSJ.Com

Posted by on May 21, 2013 Comments Off

Miniaturizing a warhead to fit on a missile is not an overwhelming technical obstacle. Far greater technological challenges are building and testing nuclear weapons and developing a long-range missile that can send a satellite into orbit. Compared with these feats, warhead miniaturization is easy.

North Korea needs only one ICBM capable of delivering a single nuclear warhead in order to pose an existential threat to the U.S. The Congressional Electromagnetic Pulse Commission, the Congressional Strategic Posture Commission and several other U.S. government studies have established that detonating a nuclear weapon high above any part of the U.S. mainland would generate a catastrophic electromagnetic pulse.

An EMP attack would collapse the electric grid and other infrastructure that depends on it—communications, transportation, banking and finance, food and water—necessary to sustain modern civilization and the lives of 300 million Americans.

James Woolsey and Peter Pry: How North Korea Could Cripple the U.S. – WSJ.com

South Korea and Japan Thinking About Nuclear Weapons

Posted by on May 20, 2013 Comments Off

Growing concern about North Korea’s nuclear program has led many in South Korea to favor the idea of building atomic weapons. Japan too is discussing such a move.

Perhaps it is merely basic human desire to keep up with the neighbors, but an increasing number of South Koreans are saying that they want nuclear weapons too.

Even in Japan, a country still traumatized by the legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there is a debate about the once-taboo topic of nuclear weapons.

The mere fact that the bomb is being discussed as a policy option shows how North Korea’s nuclear program could trigger a new arms race in East Asia, unraveling decades of nonproliferation efforts. The government in Pyongyang conducted its third nuclear test in February and is believed to be preparing a fourth.

More South Koreans support developing nuclear weapons – latimes.com

Japan must develop nuclear weapons, warns Tokyo governor – Asia – World – The Independent

Tokyo’s outspoken Governor says his country, which suffered history’s only nuclear attack, should build nuclear weapons to counter the threat from fast-rising China.

In an interview with The Independent, Shintaro Ishihara said Japan could develop nuclear weapons within a year and send a strong message to the world.

“All our enemies: China, North Korea and Russia – all close neighbours – have nuclear weapons. Is there another country in the world in a similar situation?

Japan must develop nuclear weapons, warns Tokyo governor – Asia – World – The Independent

Why China Lets North Korea Run Wild

Posted by on May 7, 2013 Comments Off

China’s stance has everything to do with its growing ambitions in the Asia-Pacific. As authors Sarah Raine and Christian Le Miere conclude in their new book “Regional Disorder,” China “is almost singlehandedly driving” the growing conflict with Brunei, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia over the energy and mineral resources of this huge area. China now claims all of the islands therein, and 80 percent of the maritime area.

China’s play is more than merely economic, however. In addition to securing oil and gas resources for its energy-starved economy, it also would control the South China Sea, and the strategic waterway known as the Malacca Strait, through which flows 70 percent of the crude oil used by the economies of Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. But for China to acquire this coveted hegemony, U.S. military capabilities in the region will need to be severely cut.

China’s Oil Ambitions Mean No Reining In North Korea – World Report (usnews.com)

North Korea missile can hit US with nuclear warhead, Pentagon report says

Posted by on May 3, 2013 Comments Off

North Korea’s 950,000-troop military remains dangerous as Pyongyang’s long-range Taepodong-2 missile can reach parts of the United States with a nuclear warhead, according to a Pentagon report made public on Thursday.

The report said North Korea’s Taepodong-2, last used as a satellite launcher, is continuing to be developed as a long-range missile. The missile “could reach parts of the United States if configured as an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of carrying a nuclear payload,” the 26-page report says.

In Range | Washington Free Beacon

Top US general foresees ‘prolonged provocation’ by North Korea – CSMonitor.com

Posted by on April 24, 2013 Comments Off

“I think we’re in a period of prolonged provocation” with North Korea, a condition that began when Kim Jong-un took over as leader of the military dictatorship from his father in late 2011.

“What that means is, I think, that the risk of miscalculation is higher, and I think the risk of escalation is higher,” Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a visit to Beijing this week, where Pentagon officials have sought China’s help in convincing Mr. Kim to ratchet down his confrontational rhetoric.

Top US general foresees ‘prolonged provocation’ by North Korea – CSMonitor.com

What North Korea Teaches Us About China | The Weekly Standard

Posted by on April 24, 2013 Comments Off

The Kims’ treatment of their own people has been just as monstrous—condemning millions to privation and death while diverting the nation’s wealth to build the world’s fourth-largest army and spending billions on nuclear and missile programs in violation of multiple Security Council resolutions.  With the entire country effectively a prison, the government operates scores of special gulags where hundreds of thousands routinely face forced labor, torture, rape, forced abortion, starvation, and death without charge or trial.

Throughout the six decades of this grotesquely despotic rule, the People’s Republic of China has stood steadfastly behind the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, proudly proclaiming their “lips and teeth” relationship and protecting it from meaningful international sanctions.  It was one thing for Mao Zedong’s revolutionary China to join Pyongyang in its invasion of South Korea.  But how can modern China, an aspiring superpower that demands the world’s respect, associate itself so intimately with a universally despised thugocracy?

The answer is that China’s Communist leaders are not easily shocked by North Korean behavior that mirrors their own governance not so long ago.  Even today, despite decades of Western engagement, Beijing’s authoritarian rule and external aggressiveness reflect a value system and worldview that is in many ways closer to Pyongyang’s than to the West’s. 

What North Korea Teaches Us About China | The Weekly Standard

What North Korea teaches us about China is that China is run by monsters too. The US has no business trading with such a regime. The only thing the US should be doing is building more nuclear tipped missiles and pointing them at China.

Chinese troops continue mobilization along N. Korean border | Washington Free Beacon

Posted by on April 24, 2013 Comments Off

Reports indicate the People’s Liberation Army is on a very heightened alert status, amid mounting tensions between North Korea and the United States and South Korea.

Several reports were derived from Chinese microblogging sites that in the past have provided reliable information on Chinese military activities.

One April 17 photo showed scores of soldiers marching on a street in the city of Shenyang on the way to Dandong, a major border city on the Yalu River dividing the two countries.

Another posting stated military vehicles carrying tanks were spotted heading to Liaoyang, in Liaoning province, also near the border. The movements were reported by a user who said he was in a logistic unit of a PLA unit in Siping, Jilin province, and added that the troops would be deployed to the border “soon.”

Chinese troops continue mobilization along N. Korean border | Washington Free Beacon

China Says New North Korea Nuclear Test Possible – ABC News

Posted by on April 22, 2013 Comments Off

China’s top general said Monday that a fourth North Korean nuclear weapons test is a possibility that underscores the need for fresh talks between Pyongyang and other regional parties.

Chief of the General Staff Gen. Fang Fenghui said Beijing firmly opposes the North’s nuclear weapons program and wants to work with others on negotiations to end it. He said Beijing’s preference is for a return to long-stalled disarmament talks involving the two Koreas, China, Russia, Japan and the U.S.

China Says New North Korea Nuclear Test Possible – ABC News