North Korea carries out 'biggest ever' nuclear test: Seoul

Isn't it great news?  It won't be long and the Norks and the mullahs in Iran can have a competition to see who can test the most nukes.

The story comes from DAWN.

North Korea carries out 'biggest ever' nuclear test: Seoul


PYONGYANG/SEOUL: North Korea has conducted a “successful” fifth nuclear test, state-run TV said Friday, in an explosion described by the South as Pyongyang's largest-ever such blast.

“Our nuclear scientists staged a nuclear explosion test on a newly developed nuclear warhead at the country's northern nuclear test site,” a TV announcer said.

“Our... party sent a congratulatory message to our nuclear scientists... for conducting the successful nuclear warhead explosion test,” she said.

North Korea said the test had confirmed that it could mount a nuclear warhead on a rocket.

“The nuclear test finally... confirmed the structure and specific features... of a nuclear warhead that has been standardised to be able to be mounted on strategic ballistic rockets,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said.

South Korea's President Park Geun-Hye condemned the test as an act of "self-destruction" that would deepen the North's isolation.

The test will send tensions soaring over the North's nuclear and ballistic missile ambitions, which have already earned international condemnation and United Nations sanctions.

Park spoke out against the "manic recklessness" of the North's young ruler Kim Jong-Un, who has exulted in a series of ballistic missile launches and the last nuclear test in January.

"Kim Jong-Un's regime will only earn more sanctions and isolation... and such provocation will further accelerate its path to self-destruction," she said, warning his obsession with creating a nuclear arsenal posed a grave challenge.

"We will step up pressure on the North by using all possible measures, including more, stronger sanctions on the North with the international community and at the UN Security Council," she said.

Seismic monitors detected a 5.3-magnitude "artificial earthquake" near the North's Punggye-ri nuclear test site, with "almost identical patterns" to previous detonations, according to South Korean experts.

"We believe that it was a nuclear test. We are trying to figure out whether it was successful. The blast measured about 10 kilotons," a defence ministry spokesman in Seoul told reporters.

The North's third nuclear test, staged in February 2013, was previously considered the most powerful to date, with a yield of six to nine kilotons.

"The 10-kiloton blast was nearly twice the fourth nuclear test and slightly less than the Hiroshima bombing, which was measured about 15 kilotons," said Kim Nam-Wook from the South's meteorological agency.

Japan's public broadcaster NHK reported the country's defence ministry was preparing to dispatch aircraft to analyse air samples to see if any radiation could be detected.

"If North Korea conducted a nuclear test, that can never be tolerated. We must lodge a strong protest," said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The US National Security Council said it was aware of seismic activity in the region of the test site and was "monitoring and continuing to assess the situation in close coordination with our regional partners."
'Caught off guard'

North Korea has been hit by five sets of United Nations sanctions since it first tested a nuclear device in 2006. Since the January test concern has also grown over a series of provocative ballistic missile launches.

Pyongyang test-fired three missiles on Monday as world powers gathered for a G20 meeting in China, with Kim Jong-Un hailing the tests as "perfect", and US President Barack Obama warning it would only up the pressure.

North Korea has always insisted it will continue nuclear tests despite global condemnation and toughened sanctions. Experts say they are likely aimed at refining warhead design and reliability as well as increasing yield.

Outside monitors will now attempt to analyse the yield to try to determine what kind of a breakthrough it represents, particularly whether it is a standard atomic bomb or a more powerful hydrogen, or thermonuclear bomb.

North Korean nuclear tests are usually heralded by chatter among analysts about preparations at Punggye-ri but there had been little discussion in recent weeks over any signs.

“The test caught many off guard, although Seoul officials have for months maintained that the North was maintaining a condition in which it was ready to stage a nuclear test any time,” said Kim Jin-Moo, an analyst at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.
China pushed to act

Kim said the recent series of missile tests, including one launched from a submarine that far exceeded the range of previous such exercises, was a precursor to this "show of force" planned for months and timed to coincide with its founding day anniversary.

"Also, the test was staged right after the G20 summit was held in its neighbour China. I think it was also aimed at maximising shock to the international community," he said.

The test is another slap in the face to the North's chief ally China which has been under pressure to rein in its behaviour, and diminishes any chance of a resumption of six-country talks on North Korea's nuclear programme.

"I believe China will be driven into the most difficult position" as the international community expects Beijing to act to ease tensions, said Shunji Hiraiwa, professor at Kwansei Gakuin University and an expert on the Korean peninsula.

North Korea claimed its January test was of a miniaturised hydrogen bomb, which can be far more powerful than other nuclear devices.

But scientists say the estimated yield of around six kilotons was similar to the North's previous nuclear test in 2013, and far too low for a thermonuclear device.

However, at a rare ruling party congress in Pyongyang in May, Kim Jong-Un hailed what he called a “historic” landmark, and insisted it had been a hydrogen blast.

He praised the country's scientists for “creating milestone miracles with the magnificent and exhilarating sound of the first H-bomb of our republic”.

Now It's North Korea's Turn To Tell Obama To Get Screwed

The U.S.A. has become the world's punching bag due to the Clown-in-Chief, Barack "Limp Wrist" Obama.  The latest incident of a two bit world dictator taking Obama to the woodshed involves the misfit leader of North Korea embarrassing the most powerful country in the world with the biggest pansy leading us.

The story comes from Times of India.

North Korea fires projectile into sea: Report

SEOUL: North Korea has fired a suspected ballistic missile into the sea on Friday, a news report said, hours after US President Barack Obama urged closer security ties among its Asian allies and increased cooperation with China to discourage Pyongyang from further advances in nuclear weapons.

A projectile believed to be a ballistic missile flew into waters off the North's east coast, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, citing an unidentified military official. It had no further details.

South Korea's Defense Ministry said it couldn't immediately confirm the Yonhap report.

The launch, if confirmed, is the latest in a series of weapons launches the North has carried out in an apparent response to ongoing military exercises between the United States and South Korea. North Korea views the drills as an invasion rehearsal.

This year's drills, set to run until late April, are the biggest ever, and come after North Korea's nuclear test and long-range rocket test earlier this year.


In Washington, Obama met with the leaders of South Korea, Japan and China in Washington on Thursday ahead of a nuclear security summit and discussed ways to discourage Pyongyang from further pursuing nuclear weapons.

"Of great importance to both of us is North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons, which threatens the security and stability of the region. President Xi and I are both committed to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,'' Obama said at the start of his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who said the country was ready to implement in full the latest economic restrictions imposed by the U.N. Security Council against Pyongyang.


On Tuesday, North Korea fired a short-range projectile that crashed into land in the North's northeast, according to South Korean defense officials. The launch prompted media speculation in South Korea that Pyongyang may have tested a land target to test the accuracy of its weapons because the country has usually launched missile, artillery shells and rockets into the sea in the past.


Earlier this month, North Korea fired its first medium-launch missile into the sea since early 2014.
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Iran Decides To Join North Korea In Ball Batting Weak U.S. President

It must be kind of fun for these peon countries across the world to just make threat after threat about destroying America and killing tens of thousands of Americans knowing we have a limp-wristed pussy boy for a President here.

The Iranians couldn't resist joining the mutant man-boy leader of North Korea in making threats against the U.S. this past week.  Hell, it probably won't be more than a few days and countries like Congo and Lebanon will be warning us of total destruction too.

The story comes from DEBKA.

Iran lines up behind North Korea, warns the US of “great losses”


Tehran’s intercession in the Korean crisis on the side of its ally in Pyongyang was predictable, even though the US preferrs to ignore the close interrelations between the two allies.

And so, on Friday, April 5, Deputy Chief of Staff of Iran's Armed Forces Brig. Gen. Masoud Jazayeri stepped forward to point the finger at Washington:
[“The presence of the Americans in [South] Korea has been the root cause of tensions in this sensitive region in the past and present. The US and its allies will suffer great losses if a war breaks out in this region,” he said, adding for good measure: “Independent countries will not submit to the US mischief. The time for Washington’s bullying and extortion is long past.”

debkafile’s Iranian sources: The second part of the statement was a perfect fit for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s flat refusal to accept US demands on Iran’s nuclear program. The Korean crisis gave the Iranians the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.
As Kim Jong-Un moved two intermediate missiles to the east coast of North Korea, Gen. Jazayeri’s rhetoric landed on the latest round of talks the six powers were holding with Iran in Amaty, Kazhakstan for a diplomatic resolution of Iran’s nuclear challenge.

Washington hoped to spread some cheer over a diplomatic process that had long past proven futile by planting advance reports that Khamenei had ordered a slowdown of Iran’s nuclear program up to the June presidential election to avoid crossing a red line that would trigger a military response.
But when the parties came to the table, Iran’s senior negotiator Saeed Jalili refused outright to respond to the proposals put before Tehran in the previous session.
He seemed to have taken his cue from Kim Jong-Un, who too has stuck to his father’s rejectionism in the face of every American proposal for dismantling North Korea’s nuclear program.
debkafile: The inevitable convergence of the Korean and Iranian crises confronts America’s three top officials, President Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, with their most challenging international test.

Kerry would be well advised to take a break from his Sisyphean efforts to crack the latest of umpteen Israel-Palestinian disputes, call off his weekend appointments with Israeli and Palestinians leaders and instead fly to Moscow and Beijing.
There, he could start bargaining with Russian and Chinese rulers for preliminary understandings with Washington on Iran and Syria that would make it worth their while to use their leverage for bringing the out-of-control North Korean firebrand to heel.

So long as the Obama administration sticks to its current separate policies on Syria and Iran, Iran and Korea, Moscow and Beijing won’t lift a finger to apply the brakes to Kim Jong-Un before he drives the world to catastrophe.

A North Korean Nuclear Pearl Harbor?

From Family Security Matters.

A North Korean Nuclear Pearl Harbor?


North Korea is threatening to destroy the United States with a nuclear missile strike. Yet there appears to be a consensus among the Obama administration and Republicans on the congressional intelligence committees that such an attack is beyond the capabilities of North Korea. The American people are being assured by their political leaders every night on every news channel not to worry about the possibility of North Korea making a nuclear attack on the U.S. mainland.

At this dangerous juncture, it may be useful to remember Pearl Harbor and some other lessons from history.

On December 7, 1941, Imperial Japan delivered a devastating attack on the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. Prior to the attack, President Roosevelt's administration imposed economic sanctions on Japan, intended to cripple Japanese aggression against China, and dismissed bellicose protests from Tokyo as empty rhetoric. The U.S. Navy was confident that it could prevail over Japan in any conflict because the U.S. had more battleships. But Japan's innovative use of aircraft carriers, a decisive new military technology underestimated by the U.S. Admiralty, enabled Tokyo to sink U.S. battleships in their crushing attack on Pearl Harbor, achieving strategic and technological surprise.

Congressional hearings on the military and intelligence blunders that led to Pearl Harbor informed the National Security Act of 1947 that established the Central Intelligence Agency. Everyone agreed that the United States could not afford another Pearl Harbor in the nuclear age.

Unfortunately, the U.S. Intelligence Community has a long history of underestimating the nuclear capabilities of potential adversaries, and even of friendly states too. The CIA was taken by surprise by the first Soviet A-bomb test in 1948, by the USSR's H-bomb test in 1953, and by Soviet development of the first intercontinental missile and satellite launch in 1957. Israel and South Africa both developed nuclear arsenals without nuclear testing--in Israel's case a highly sophisticated nuclear arsenal--right under the nose of the U.S. Intelligence Community. Not until the defection of Israeli nuclear weapons expert Mordechai Vanunu did we learn, as reported by the respected Wisconsin Project, that Israel has developed miniaturized nuclear warheads for delivery by missiles and artillery, powerful thermonuclear warheads, and neutron warheads--all without nuclear testing. The U.S. Intelligence Community was surprised by nuclear tests and rapid weaponization by Pakistan and India in 1998. The U.S. Intelligence Community was surprised to discover that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was only six months away from developing an atomic bomb when the U.S. defeated Iraq in the First Persian Gulf War. This intelligence failure may account for U.S. intelligence overestimation of Iraq's nuclear weapons program that contributed to the Second Persian Gulf War in 2003.

Perhaps overestimation of the nuclear threat from Iraq in 2003, that resulted in scathing public criticism of the CIA, has strongly reinforced the more usual historical tendency of the U.S. Intelligence Community to underestimate potential nuclear threats. And so today threats by North Korea to make a nuclear missile strike on the U.S. are dismissed as empty rhetoric.

Perhaps too there has been a return of "Group Think" in the U.S. Intelligence Community, that the 9/11 Commission identified as contributing to the intelligence failure that resulted in the September 11, 2001 holocaust, that killed more Americans than Pearl Harbor. "Group Think" occurs when the Intelligence Community suppresses alternative views and differing interpretations in favor of presenting only a single corporate "consensus view" to policymakers and military leaders.

"Group Think" is how Pearl Harbors are made. The 9/11 Commission recommended, and the Congress enacted, major reforms of the Intelligence Community, including recommendations to introduce "B-Teams" and "Red Teams" to counter the dangerous tendency of the Intelligence Community to lapse into "Group Think."

"Group Think" may be alive and well in the U.S. Intelligence Community--and setting up the American people for a nuclear Pearl Harbor from North Korea.

After all, there is some compelling evidence that North Korea just might be able to deliver on its threat to make a catastrophic nuclear attack on the United States: North Korea has conducted three successful nuclear tests, and has weaponized its nuclear devices into warheads that are deployed on its Nodong medium-range missiles. In December, North Korea successfully orbited a satellite weighing 220 pounds--so they could deliver against the United States, or against any nation on Earth, a small nuclear warhead. A nuclear weapon designed specially to generate a powerful electromagnetic pulse (EMP)--a single such "Super-EMP" warhead would be able to collapse the U.S. electric grid and other critical infrastructures, inflicting catastrophic consequences on the entire nation--would probably be deliverable by North Korea's so-called "Space Launch Vehicle" over the United States. North Korea orbited its satellite on a trajectory and at an altitude ideal for making an EMP attack on the U.S.. The Congressional EMP Commission warned in 2008 that North Korea was developing Super-EMP warheads. South Korean military intelligence has reportedly warned their government repeatedly that North Korea is developing Super-EMP warheads with Russian help. In 2011, a military commentator with the People's Republic of China stated that North Korea has Super-EMP warheads. Data from North Korea's nuclear tests are consistent with a Super-EMP warhead.

Moreover, North Korea claims it can destroy the U.S. with a missile strike. Recent TV footage of North Korea's military headquarters showed a map in the background allegedly depicting their plans for nuclear missile strikes against the United States. South Korean military intelligence reportedly observed that North Korea's so-called Space Launch Vehicle is included among the general mobilization of the North's nuclear missile forces.

Perhaps this is all North Korean disinformation intended to intimidate the United States.

However, given how little we really know about North Korea's nuclear weapons program, given what we do know, and given that the danger of underestimation could risk a nuclear Pearl Harbor, one would think the U.S. Intelligence Community would be less cocksure that North Korea is merely a nuclear "paper tiger." At minimum, the CIA should be cautioning U.S. policymakers by saying something like, "We cannot rule out that North Korea's Space Launch Vehicle could be employed as a long-range missile to deliver a nuclear EMP attack against the United States."

But it is obvious from public commentary by the Obama administration and congressional Republicans that no warning has been given by CIA that North Korea just might be able to deliver a nuclear EMP catastrophe upon the American heartland.

"Group Think" within the U.S. Intelligence Community might not be the only, or even the primary, reason we are witnessing a potentially catastrophic intelligence failure unfolding on the nightly news, during this latest North Korean nuclear crisis. Political pressure, and a bias toward telling the White House what it wants to hear, has caused major intelligence failures before.

Congressional leaders, while listening to intelligence briefings on the current North Korean nuclear threat, should remember the notorious National Intelligence Estimate 95/19. During the Clinton administration, congressional Republicans were arguing for withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, so that the U.S. could build a National Missile Defense to protect itself from rogue states like North Korea. President Clinton's CIA released a declassified version of NIE 95/19 that claimed no long-range missile threat from North Korea would be forthcoming for decades--the implication being that National Missile Defense was unnecessary.

Congress suspected NIE 95/19 "cooked the books" to support President Clinton's preference to keep the ABM Treaty and reject National Missile Defense. Consequently, Congress established the Rumsfeld Commission, a blue ribbon panel of scientific and strategic experts, who warned that NIE 95/19 was deeply flawed, and that rogue states like North Korea could soon threaten the U.S. with missiles. Just weeks after delivery of the Rumsfeld Commission Report in 1998, North Korea conducted its first flight-test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Whose ox gets gored if the CIA tells Congress that North Korea can make a long-range nuclear EMP attack against the United States today? Acknowledging North Korea as a fully fledged nuclear weapons state would discredit the Obama administration's hope that Pyongyang might eventually be persuaded to give up its nuclear weapons by a combination of sanctions and negotiations. Failure of such policies to disarm North Korea would also explode their credibility as a realistic means of denying nuclear weapons to Iran, as promised by the White House. If the Intelligence Community has underestimated the nuclear threat from North Korea, how can we have confidence in their estimate that Iran is a year or more away from crossing the "nuclear redline"? Finally, President Obama's dream of achieving Global Zero, a world without nuclear weapons, already seems dangerously naive, and logically should be replaced with modernizing the U.S. nuclear deterrent to cope with the twin nightmares of a nuclear armed North Korea and Iran.

Congress should, at minimum, launch a new Congressional Commission to make a more realistic assessment of the nuclear threats from North Korea and Iran, before faulty intelligence and wishful thinking misleads America into a nuclear Pearl Harbor.

North Korea Has Us 'Walking On Eggshells'

From Family Security Matters.

North Korea Has Us 'Walking On Eggshells'


"Do you feel manipulated, controlled or lied to? Are you the focus of intense, violent and irrational rages? Do you feel you are 'walking on eggshells' to avoid the next confrontation?"

So begins a marketing campaign for a book entitled "Stop Walking on Eggshells" -- the psychology of dealing with people suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder.

The book's title is an axiom meaning "to take steps gingerly; to be very diplomatic and inoffensive." In the foreign policy arena, if the answer to the question above is "yes," be assured the country with which we are dealing is North Korea.

On April 13, continuing its cycle of unprovoked hostility, interspersed with an occasional feint at cooperation, North Korea conducted a rocket test, in violation of its Feb. 29 promise for a moratorium on missile and nuclear tests, given in exchange for a U.S. commitment for 240,000 tons of food.

Pyongyang disregarded numerous international protests made in advance of the test, electing to demonstrate its missile acumen on the occasion of the country's celebration of the 100th birthday of its founding father Kim Il Sung.

While the North claimed the effort was a satellite launch, it is believed that was simply a cover story for a missile test as the two involve similar technology. Like the North's two previous tests, this one proved to be an embarrassing failure as the missile broke up 90 seconds into flight.

What has also proven to be an embarrassment is the international response to the North's latest provocation.

Already one of the most heavily sanctioned countries by the United Nations, Pyongyang's decision to go forward with the test reflected its total disdain for the international body.

Among the factors it obviously considered in conducting the test was: "What more can the U.N. sanction?" The North appears to have made the right assessment as nothing substantive will be done by the world body.

As if "walking on eggshells," while the United Nations and the United States have condemned the test, they won't dwell on it or seek additional sanctions for fear of provoking further aggression by Pyongyang. Instead, the only punitive action to be taken will be to tighten existing sanctions.

This inaction is directly linked to a huge pile of dirt at a North Korean nuclear test site identified in a South Korean satellite photograph.

The past two missile tests Pyongyang conducted were followed by subsurface nuclear tests. In both, the nuclear device was placed deep within a tunnel, which was back-filled with dirt trucked in earlier. The satellite photograph suggests another nuclear test is to follow the failed April 13 launch based on a new massive pile of dirt being stockpiled.

The international community hopes to dissuade Pyongyang from conducting a nuclear test. Therefore, it doesn't want to antagonize the North by being too critical. After being unsuccessful in dissuading Pyongyang from conducting its missile test and after 64 years of being stung by its very aggressive foreign policy -- one involving repeated acts of unprovoked violence including an invasion, numerous kidnappings, assassinations, infiltrations, attacks on ships and aircraft, etc. -- one would think the international community would have arrived at a proper diagnosis for three generations of the Kim family leadership -- i.e., it suffers from BPD, leaving little hope for changing its foreign policy.

Even the one nation threatened most by Pyongyang's aggression -- South Korea -- has done little to try and curtail it. A decade of foreign policy appeasement (Sunshine Policy) by Seoul toward the North (1998-2008) did little to do so. But even when a new party took power and renounced the Sunshine Policy, it did nothing to "stand tall" against the North when its aggression continued -- always threatening action but then backing down.

Its hands now have been tied by South Korean voters who, in the country's most recent election, made clear they have yet to be pushed to the point of responding in kind to the North's aggression as they desire a diplomatic solution.

The book "Stop Walking on Eggshells" notes the need to make sense out of the chaos created by one suffering from BPD behavior. Other steps include standing up for one's self and, perhaps most importantly, setting boundaries.

This is something yet to be done with Pyongyang as the North has consistently been the one setting higher limits on its aggression. As it does so, it watches us backpedal, drawing a new line in the sand beyond which their aggression won't be tolerated -- only again to see us do so. As such, we all become enablers of the North's disruptive disorder.

When criticized for making the food agreement with Pyongyang, U.S. President Barack Obama said he did so only to see how serious the North was about cooperating. He now has his answer.

And, by Obama rendering a rebuke of the North as if he were "walking on eggshells," Pyongyang now has its answer as to how serious he is about taking action to curtail its aggression. Such a lame rebuke not only encourages Pyongyang to conduct its third nuclear test but encourages Iran to press forward with its own nuclear program as well.

Just Why Haven't the North Korean People Ever Risen Up Against Their Communist Masters?

Kim Jong-Un and North Korean generals, in a photograph from a month before his father’s death.


The epic failure of North Korea is known by most - most of us have seen the photos of the Korean peninsula at night where the south is alit in millions of lights and the north is just this darkened mass....and we've witnessed winter after winter when the North Korean people barely make it through on the food they have. And so, many of us have wondered how these people have refrained from a total uprising and revolution....and many of us simply couldn't fathom the sight of hundreds of North Koreans sobbing at the death of their leader, Kim Jung Il.

Well, this story at Family Security Matters ventures down the dark path of just how this huge population of people simply continue to take the abuse of a totalitarian Communist government. And when you read this story, just consider how dramatic it has been in the past when countries actually have risen up against the same set up - one has to shake his head and marvel how some individuals in Poland and Czechoslavakia and Hungary were able to break free from the iron fist of Communism.

And finally, after reading this...it does make one even more mystified why some in America view this as the path that America should go down.

Why North Koreans Fail to Bite The Hand Not Feeding Them


In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address, querying whether a nation established "four score and seven years" ago and built upon the principles of liberty and equality, then fighting a "great civil war," could "long endure."

The United States did endure and this year celebrates the 236th anniversary of its birth.

In 2012, we see a nation -- North Korea -- established "three score and three years" ago and so committed to the bondage and inequality of its people, we are left to wonder how it can so "long endure."

With the death of Kim Jong Il on Dec. 17 and the accession to the "throne" of a third generation of the Kim dynasty -- the deceased leader's 28-year-old son Kim Jong Un -- the outside world remains baffled how an enslaved people, subjected to 63 years of brutal, autocratic rule, exhibits no signs of rising up against their master.

Factor into the equation of life in the North the famines regularly devastating the country, leaving thousands dead. Tragically, these famines could be eradicated by a leadership more concerned about the welfare of its people than its own survivability.

How is it that a starving population, so abused for so long, still refuses to bite the hand that fails to feed it?

Under the Kim dynasty, the country has been turned into a laboratory experiment in mind control. By keeping their people in total isolation from the rest of the world, controlling the flow of information, deifying its leadership and imposing fear where these other factors fail to achieve the desired result, the Kim leadership has been able to maintain control.

What is the main contributing factor to this control? Is it the product of a population's mind so denied information access and otherwise isolated from the world community that people really believe, as they have been programmed to believe, no matter how bad things are in their country, things are far worse outside of it? Is it simply fear? Or is it a combination?

The North Koreans' situation brings to mind an earlier generation's plight in choosing between inaction driven by fear or taking action in spite of it.

It was World War II. Thousands of British Royal Air Force prisoners of war were housed at the Germans' notorious Stalag Luft III camp -- immortalized by the 1963 movie "The Great Escape" -- where escape was deemed impossible. Up to the challenge, prisoners dug a hundred foot escape tunnel. On the evening of March 24, 1944, one of the biggest prisoner escapes of the war was attempted.

For some, freedom was short-lived; for most, fatal. Only three escapees reached safety. Seventy-three others were recaptured -- of which 23 were returned to the camp. The remaining 50 were lined up alongside a road and shot in the back of the head, executed as an example to others. The Germans' message was clear -- escape carried a death sentence.

Fear obviously is an effective weapon in molding group conduct. But for these prisoners, it proved otherwise. Despite the fear of death looming overhead, they began construction on another tunnel -- but for a different purpose. Not an escape tunnel, it sought to take the fight to a brutal enemy by accessing an armory inside the camp to access weapons and fight their way out.

The POWs had weighed their fear of death against their loss of freedom -- with the scales tilting in favor of the latter. Although there was risk in pursuing it, life without freedom was worse than the risk of death fighting for it.

While the Stalag Luft III story is one of courageous men able to overcome their fear of death to fight for their freedom, it involves a critical element missing from the North Korea situation -- one missing precisely because Pyongyang's leadership has effectively denied it to them.

The POWs at Stalag Luft III had a taste of something no North Korean ever has. Born and bred in a free society, the POWs were fully aware of its benefits. They had enjoyed those freedoms to the extent they were willing to fight those withholding them.

The average North Korean has no idea what treasures a free society provides. They are unable to comprehend the joys of freedom of choice to do what one wishes to do, free of governmental interference. Having never experienced freedom, they lack man's natural instinct to lay down their life to fight for it.

An empty stomach can do much to cause one not so inclined to fight for a better life to overcome the fear of death to do so. Whether the North Korean people are capable of reaching that point remains to be seen. But, even so, their leadership denies them the basic tools of communication to the extent necessary to effectively organize anti-government protests. Accordingly, such an effort might well prove fatal before a popular revolution can be mounted.

Unfortunately for the people, the Kim dynasty has fully mastered the principles of the art of slavery. And, accordingly, it is highly doubtful the Arab Spring will ever see daylight in North Korea.

The tunnel by which the British sought to launch an attack against their German guards was never completed as the war ended before work on the tunnel could -- but they never forgot the 50 fellow prisoners who sacrificed their lives.

Freedom will prove a much greater challenge for, and extract a much larger toll from, North Koreans who, sadly, may not even yet know what it is they wish to fight for.

Two of Bush's 'Axis of Evil' Are Working Together To Develop Long Range Nuclear Missiles

Remember when President George W. Bush referenced his "axis of evil" and the Left in America went apeshit about such radical statements? Well, two of those three countries have now been reported and documented as working together on serious upgrades to nuclear weapons that will produce long range nuclear missiles which can reach any point on the globe. And yes, I'm talking about North Korea and Iran.

From the report at The Telegraph:

According to a study by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), North Korea's weapons programmes are now benefiting from technology from Iran.

Pyongyang also possesses technology that would enable Iran's uranium enrichment programme to increase its output. However concrete evidence that North Korea has supplied the Iranians with its superior equipment has not been uncovered by IISS.

The disclosure marks a disturbing escalation in the race for nuclear weapons technology by the two states which are seen to present the biggest threat to global security.

"What previously had been a one way flow of North Korean missile technology to Iran is now going two ways," he said. "North Korea may be self-sufficient in its uranium programme and there are some areas where Iran can't produce equipment that North Korea has the capacity to produce."

"North Korea has been assisting Iran in going forward with its nuclear programme," said Bruce Bennett, the senior defence analyst at the Rand Corporation, a US think tank. "North Korea has been providing help to Iran with missile technology and testing (nuclear) triggering devices while Iran has only more recently done that kind of thing."

But wait, I thought the Iranians have said all along that their nuclear ambitions were only for the development of nuclear energy so their people could enjoy the benefits of a constant supply of electricity? What? The Iranian mullahs might have lied to the world?

Oh, and one other point I'd like to make...while Barack Hussein Obama and the rest of the weak-kneed European heads of state have been trying to battle Iran's nuclear ambitions with "tough sanctions" has any one of these fools tried to sanction the sharing of technology between North Korea and Iran? In other words, there are supposed import sanctions on Iran but their people are free to travel to North Korea and download every possible piece of nuclear weaponry technology that they want.

So let's get to the heart of all of this - when North Korean and Iranian nuclear missiles can be fired and hit San Francisco and Los Angeles and Seattle, what the fuck does our illustrious President suggest are our options at that point?

And one more thing...we have talked many times about Israel being surrounded by enemies capable of attacking them any day...well, folks, with what is progressing, America is soon to find itself in the same situation.

North Korea and Iran increase collaboration on nuclear missile, report claims


According to a study by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), North Korea's weapons programmes are now benefiting from technology from Iran.

Pyongyang also possesses technology that would enable Iran's uranium enrichment programme to increase its output. However concrete evidence that North Korea has supplied the Iranians with its superior equipment has not been uncovered by IISS.

The disclosure marks a disturbing escalation in the race for nuclear weapons technology by the two states which are seen to present the biggest threat to global security.

Mark Fitzpatrick, the IISS expert on weapons proliferation, said North Korea possessed a technological edge over Iran in making nuclear equipment.

It was capable of manufacturing high strength steel that Iran has been unable to manufacture. Iran has instead relied on carbon fibre materials that are less reliable.

"What previously had been a one way flow of North Korean missile technology to Iran is now going two ways," he said. "North Korea may be self-sufficient in its uranium programme and there are some areas where Iran can't produce equipment that North Korea has the capacity to produce."

The emergence of a North Korean "comparative advantage" over Iran in uranium enrichment has caught experts by surprise. Iran has been working for 20 years on manufacturing advanced centrifuges that enrich uranium to weapons grade. However North Korea has make the breakthrough to produce advanced machines where Iran had failed.

The IISS's fears over North Korea's activities are widely shared by defence experts.

"North Korea has been assisting Iran in going forward with its nuclear programme," said Bruce Bennett, the senior defence analyst at the Rand Corporation, a US think tank. "North Korea has been providing help to Iran with missile technology and testing (nuclear) triggering devices while Iran has only more recently done that kind of thing."

North Korea's weapons technology is the regime's main source of foreign earnings and the country has supplied Iran, Syria, Burma and Libya with its latest equipment.

"Not only has it developed nearly the full array of weapons of mass destruction, it has been willing to sell them and its missiles and conventional arms to any would-be buyer," Mr Fitzpatrick said.

The report said it also appeared that Iran has been able to develop more sophisticated versions of North Korea's No-dong long range missiles.

Recent television broadcasts of Pyongyang military parades showed North Korean No-dong 2 missiles with the same "baby-shaped" nose cone that Iran has fitted on its Ghadr-1.

The modified nose on the Ghadr-1 has been at the root of fears that Iran was attempting to develop nuclear capable missiles.

North Korea herditary Communist leadership has growing increasing reliant on its weapons arsenal and nuclear capabilities to secure its future. A regime that has traditionally defied UN sanctions and diplomatic pressure to supply defence equipment to rogue states is now facing an unstable future as its leadership passes to a new generation.

Kim Jong-il, the country's ageing leader has said he would pass power to his son, Kim Jong-un in an open-ended transistion that has increase uncertainty in surrounding countries.

The younger Kim's lack of military experience and the promotion of other senior members of the ruling family, including the Dear Leader's sister, Kim kyong-hui and her husband Jang Song-thaek, has raised the rise of a power struggle breaking out.

"North Korea is a failing state. Its economy is very poor, it is not producing enough to feed its people, a refugee problem of people trying to flee to China - all at the same time as it is trying to turn over to another dynastic succession," Mr Bennett said. "It is a dangerous state and one capable of taking large risks."

The IISS said the danger that the regime could unravel should not be ignored.

The most benign scenario was that China would take the regime on as protectorate and engineer Chinese style economic reforms.

Under that scenario, the best case outcome was that Beijing would engineer an eventual reunification with South Korea.

U.S. Navy Intercepts North Korean Ship Carrying Missile Technology

Guided-missile destroyer USS McCampbell in the western Pacific Ocean Photo: AFP

So, I bet you didn't know that last month, a North Korean ship (which had been flagged by the country of Belize) was intercepted by the USS McCampbell and after four refusals by the North Koreans to allow the U.S. inspection, the ship finally stopped and allowed boarding by the U.S. Navy....did you? And you didn't know that the Navy found missile technology on board - a direct violation of sanctions against the communist country, did you?

Well, the news is now out and apparently, the situation went beyond tense. Here's some of the report from The Telegraph:

The US Navy has intercepted a North Korean ship suspected of carrying missile technology to Burma and after dramatic stand-off forced it to turn back, according to The New York Times.

Pyongyang was forced to recall the ship home after the confrontation last month, which involved several days of diplomatic wrangling.

The US government made no official announcement about the operation, the paper added.

"This case had an interesting wrinkle: the ship was North Korean, but it was flagged in Belize," one US official told the paper.

And the authorities in Belize gave permission to the United States to inspect the ship, according to the report.

Now, in this whole situation we are looking at a double whammy of sanctions...first off, North Korea is saddled with sanctions on it for distributing military technology and munitions and at the same time, Burma is on an embargo by the U.S. as well for the import of weapons. The fact that the North Koreans refused to stop in this situation shows the level of their wanting some sort of confrontation with the U.S.

But my question in all of this is why this is just coming out now? This could have been a charged international situation with the U.S. smack dab in the middle of it and it seems critical to me that the people of this country need to know what the heck is going on in the world, especially when we are in direct confrontation with one of our enemies.

US Navy intercepts North Korean 'missile carrier'


The US Navy has intercepted a North Korean ship suspected of carrying missile technology to Burma and after dramatic stand-off forced it to turn back, according to The New York Time.

Pyongyang was forced to recall the ship home after the confrontation last month, which involved several days of diplomatic wrangling.

The US government made no official announcement about the operation, the paper added.

But it said US officials had described the episode as an example of how they can use a combination of naval power and diplomatic pressure to enforce UN sanctions imposed on North Korea after its 2009 nuclear test.

"This case had an interesting wrinkle: the ship was North Korean, but it was flagged in Belize," one US official told the paper.

And the authorities in Belize gave permission to the United States to inspect the ship, according to the report.

On May 26, somewhere south of Shanghai, the US destroyer McCampbell caught up with the cargo ship M/V Light and hailed it, asking to board the vessel under the authority given by Belize.

Four times, the North Koreans refused. But a few days later, the cargo ship stopped dead in the water and turned back to its home port, tracked by US surveillance planes and satellites, the report said.

Are the North Koreans Going To Test Iran's Nuclear Weapons For Them?

As if the fact that Iran is getting closer and closer to having nuclear weapons, this news now comes out that alludes to the fact that perhaps the North Koreans are going to take care of testing Iran's first nuclear weapon prototypes FOR them. I guess one of the few hopes I had held out was that the Iranians would eventually do their own test and kill half a million of their own people in the process but if the North Koreans are gonna do this, that's not good - it's going to lead to a faster track for the Iranians to carry out their madness.

From the article at DEBKA:

A large group of Iranian nuclear scientists and technicians has been spotted in the last few days at North Korea's nuclear center at Yongbyon, according to debkafile's intelligence sources. American and South Korean watchers assumed at first they were examining the new, extra-fast centrifuges for enriching uranium North Korea had showed off to America visitors in November. But they thought again when a small group broke away from the Iranian delegation for a secret side-trip to visit North Korea's Punggye-ri testing site near the Chinese border and appeared to be receiving detailed briefing on the next nuclear test planned soon by Pyongyang.

US and South Korean intelligence experts now strongly suspect now that they were putting their heads together for making it a joint North Korea-Iranian test.
One South Korean intelligence source reported that the Iranian visitors brought with them a large sum of money, estimated at least at $150 million, in all likelihood to cover Pyongyang's fee for staging a nuclear test on Tehran's behalf. French intelligence subscribes to this assumption in view of the dramatically heightened interchanges between North Korea and Iran in the last two months.

But, I guess we'll just sit tight here and wait for that "open hand extended" policy of Barack Hussein Obama is start yielding its fruit - I'm sure our President expects any day now that the Iranians will make an announcement that they are destroying their nuclear facilities because they can't afford to be not invited to a celebration of Obama's second term in office party.

By the way, does anyone recall the flack that President Bush took for that comment about "the axis of evil" ?

North Korea may be setting up a nuclear test on Iran's behalf


A large group of Iranian nuclear scientists and technicians has been spotted in the last few days at North Korea's nuclear center at Yongbyon, according to debkafile's intelligence sources. American and South Korean watchers assumed at first they were examining the new, extra-fast centrifuges for enriching uranium North Korea had showed off to America visitors in November. But they thought again when a small group broke away from the Iranian delegation for a secret side-trip to visit North Korea's Punggye-ri testing site near the Chinese border and appeared to be receiving detailed briefing on the next nuclear test planned soon by Pyongyang.

US and South Korean intelligence experts now strongly suspect now that they were putting their heads together for making it a joint North Korea-Iranian test.
One South Korean intelligence source reported that the Iranian visitors brought with them a large sum of money, estimated at least at $150 million, in all likelihood to cover Pyongyang's fee for staging a nuclear test on Tehran's behalf. French intelligence subscribes to this assumption in view of the dramatically heightened interchanges between North Korea and Iran in the last two months.
On Dec. 2, debkafile disclosed that French President Nicolas Sarkozy had strongly urged US President Barak Obama to get tough militarily with North Korea – not just over the crisis in the peninsula but for fear Pyongyang would use the sound and fury to distract attention from its transfer to Iran of nuclear technology and advanced centrifuges for offsetting the malfunctions retarding its progress towards a weapon.
Sarkozy argued too that Tehran has decided to engage the world powers in talks on its nuclear program – the second round takes place in Istanbul this month – solely to play for time until North Korea's assistance kicked in.

It is now believed in Paris that Tehran and Pyongyang have brought their plans forward. Instead of going through the process of shipping nuclear items and materials from North Korea to Iran and risking their interception by American forces in keeping with international sanctions, they have decided to go straight for a joint nuclear test to be carried out at the North Korean testing site. This step would defeat the enforcement of international sanctions.

This possibility was suggested in one of the remarks Gen (ret.) Moshe Yaalon, Deputy Prime Minister with portfolio for Strategic affairs, made on the subject on Dec. 29: "Iran does not currently have the ability to make a nuclear bomb on its own," he said. The "technical difficulties" he referred to (without specifying who or what had caused them) had disabled Iran's independent nuclear weapons capability, he said, implying that they did not stand in the way of Tehran's ability to call on outside help for attaining its objective.
debkafile: North Korea is the only outsider with the ability and will to help Iran.

Taken with other remarks, Yaalon's words were interpreted as conveying the following message to Washington: We've dealt with Iran; it's your turn to take care of North Korea and make sure they don't outmaneuver us by using Pyongyang's nuclear facilities to fill in the gaps for Iran.
That would include conducting a nuclear test on Iran's behalf as its subcontractor or surrogate.

New South Korean Defense Nominee Takes the Hard Line, Vows Air Strikes On North Korea Next Time

Feeling the heat, the South Korean President swung from one side to the other when he nominated a new Defense Minister who is now saying that if North Korea attacks the South again, he will call for air strikes in retaliation. This is a sharp contrast to the former South Korean defense minister who went to the Barack Obama school of defense....you cry and then ask your enemy why he doesn't like you.

Here's the details from Breitbart:

President Lee Myung-bak's choice for new defense minister outlined a tough new military policy toward North Korea on Friday, saying South Korean jets will bomb the North if it stages another attack like last week's deadly artillery barrage.
Lee's government is suffering intense criticism that its response to North Korea's Nov. 23 shelling of a South Korean island was weak, and over the stunning revelation that the South's spy chief dismissed information in August indicating the North might attack the front-line island of Yeonpyeong.

Lee's nominee, Kim Kwan-jin, told a parliamentary confirmation hearing that North Korean aggression will result in airstrikes. He said South Korea will use all its combat capabilities to retaliate.

"In case the enemy attacks our territory and people again, we will thoroughly retaliate to ensure that the enemy cannot provoke again," Kim said. The hearing is a formality as South Korea's National Assembly does not have the power to reject Lee's appointment.

South Korea really has been "dove like" for a long time - the North has literally gotten away with murder on those people and the leadership has rarely even strongly condemned the behavior but I guess when the people start to get restless, the President decided to get a hawk in place.

Personally, I see North Korea as a lot like Iran - all bark, no bite. If the South were to retaliate and do it decisively and unmercifully, I think you would see the North back down like a bunch of little wussies. Even though the North Korean military is funded and supplied by China, I am sure that China isn't giving them the good stuff so I think a real battle situation would reveal that the Koreans have a bunch of shit that is outdated and not kept up. The trump card with North Korea has always been the mental status of their leader - if he's as nuts as we suspect then it really wouldn't matter because he has the bodies to throw into the fight - an army as large as any in the world.

SKorea defense nominee vows airstrikes on North


SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - President Lee Myung-bak's choice for new defense minister outlined a tough new military policy toward North Korea on Friday, saying South Korean jets will bomb the North if it stages another attack like last week's deadly artillery barrage.
Lee's government is suffering intense criticism that its response to North Korea's Nov. 23 shelling of a South Korean island was weak, and over the stunning revelation that the South's spy chief dismissed information in August indicating the North might attack the front-line island of Yeonpyeong.

Lee's nominee, Kim Kwan-jin, told a parliamentary confirmation hearing that North Korean aggression will result in airstrikes. He said South Korea will use all its combat capabilities to retaliate.

"In case the enemy attacks our territory and people again, we will thoroughly retaliate to ensure that the enemy cannot provoke again," Kim said. The hearing is a formality as South Korea's National Assembly does not have the power to reject Lee's appointment.

Kim said it will be difficult for North Korea to conduct a full-scale war because of its weak economy and worries over the success of a plan to transfer power from leader Kim Jong Il to his young, untested son, Kim Jong Un.

Despite the bold declarations, questions have been raised about Lee's readiness—and even willingness—to stand up to the North. The president has been criticized for leading a military whose response to the attack was seen as too slow and too weak. The North fired 170 rounds, compared with 80 returned by South Korea.

Satellite photos showed only about 10 South Korean rounds landed near North Korea's army barracks along the west coast, according to the office of lawmaker Kwon Young-se, who said he saw the images provided Thursday by the National Intelligence Service.

Also Friday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that North Korea has boosted the number of multiple-launch rockets capable of hitting Seoul. Yonhap, citing an unidentified South Korean military source, said North Korea's rockets have increased by 100 to about 5,200. The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said it could not confirm the report because it involves military intelligence.

Yonhap also reported the Defense Ministry said planned live-fire drills on Yeonpyeong could occur by the end of this year.

Kim and other senior South Korean officials have warned the North will likely strike again. Kim said Friday that North Korea's leadership and military are South Korea's "main enemy."

China, which is North Korea's only major ally, has pressed for an emergency meeting of the six nations that previously negotiated over the North's nuclear program: the two Koreas, China, Russia, Japan and the United States.

North Korea walked away from the six-party disarmament-for-aid talks in April 2009 but has said it now wants to restart them. Washington, Tokyo and Seoul are wary of talking with the North, and their top diplomats planned to meet in Washington on Monday to plot a strategy on dealing with the country.

Although it won't be part of that meeting, China said Thursday it would keep a "close watch" on the talks and sounded upbeat about what they could achieve.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in a statement that China hoped the meeting would "ease tensions and promote dialogue." She said she also hoped the three countries would consider China's proposal for the emergency six-nation consultations. Earlier Thursday, Jiang said that Russia had expressed interest.

Meanwhile, President Lee said he believes there are signs of change in North Korea, citing the presence of private markets and a growing number of defections to South Korea.

"What should be noted is the change of the North Korean people rather than the change of its leaders," Lee said in comments on the presidential website.

WikiLeaks Proves a Point...America HAS To Make a Stand Against Iran and North Korea

For far too long, America and the West have been simply allowing both the Iranians and the North Koreans not only to get away with bad behavior but looking the other way while they arm themselves with the most powerful weapons known to man. And I don't care who you are, you have to admit that weapons of mass destruction in the hands of the Iranians and the North Koreans is far different than in the hands of countries that have a history of restraint and participation in treaties.


This article at Family Security Matters details just how serious the Iranian and North Korean threats have become and how America simply has no choice than to completely reverse course and make a stand against these enemies of our country. George W. Bush called Iran and North Korea part of the "axis of evil" - and at that time the Left in America went apeshit over the terminology...and now, we see just how correct that President was.

From the FSM article:

But the documents also confirm what many American defense hawks have long suspected. Iran’s missile capabilities are growing rapidly. Tehran bought nineteen North Korean long-range BM-25 rockets, with a range of some 4000 kilometers, based on Russian designs of submarine launched missiles.

Now a month ago David Fulghum of Aviation Week disclosed the new Pyongyang missile. He noted: “Israeli officials in particular have noted the first public emergence in North Korea of the BM-25/Musudan, a weapon that Israeli officials say has already been delivered to Iran. It is the first time the road-mobile, liquid-fueled intermediate range ballistic missile has been shown…”

He further explained the missile is a derivative of the Russian SS-N-6 submarine launched ballistic missile and may have been test-flown in Iran. “The range is estimated between 3,000 km to 4000 km depending on warhead mass.”

The leaked material confirms what Israel missile defense expert retired General Uzi Rubin has been saying for years. The missile cooperation between North Korea and Iran is extensive. Tehran now has the ability to stage its rockets as well as deploy solid-fueled missiles. Rubin has repeatedly warned that Iran now probably exceeds North Korea in its rocket capabilities, and with these new capabilities can now threaten most of Europe.

We also see from the Wikileaks documents that most of the Arab world is shocked at the Iranian moves towards first strike capabilities and wishes for the Iranians to be subdued.

So, that leads me to the obvious question - if 95% of the world is all for taking measures to remove the threat from the Iranians, why isn't it being done? Well, I'll tell you. For upwards of 40 years, the world has shifted its eyes to the United States of America to make the first move in policing the outrageous behavior of rogue regimes and madmen across this world. It's no different today. But what IS different today is the fact that the U.S. is now led by an administration of empty talk and weak-kneed doves.

So, to put it bluntly, we have an American President, Barack Hussein Obama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize one year and stands a good chance of, two years later, being the main reason that the world finds itself involved in World War 3. Weak leaders have always bred attacks. Weak leaders have always spawned wars.

The Need to Take a Stand Against Iran, North Korea


Leaked documents from America’s leftist enemies generally seek to undercut America’s military power. In some respects the new material dumped across the internet and news outlets of America did that. This sad and treasonous behavior will no doubt make it more difficult for the United States to conduct diplomacy or to seek and get the cooperation of our allies.

But the documents also confirm what many American defense hawks have long suspected. Iran’s missile capabilities are growing rapidly. Tehran bought nineteen North Korean long-range BM-25 rockets, with a range of some 4000 kilometers, based on Russian designs of submarine launched missiles.

Now a month ago David Fulghum of Aviation Week disclosed the new Pyongyang missile. He noted: “Israeli officials in particular have noted the first public emergence in North Korea of the BM-25/Musudan, a weapon that Israeli officials say has already been delivered to Iran. It is the first time the road-mobile, liquid-fueled intermediate range ballistic missile has been shown…”

He further explained the missile is a derivative of the Russian SS-N-6 submarine launched ballistic missile and may have been test-flown in Iran. “The range is estimated between 3,000 km to 4000 km depending on warhead mass.”

The leaked material confirms what Israel missile defense expert retired General Uzi Rubin has been saying for years. The missile cooperation between North Korea and Iran is extensive. Tehran now has the ability to stage its rockets as well as deploy solid-fueled missiles. Rubin has repeatedly warned that Iran now probably exceeds North Korea in its rocket capabilities, and with these new capabilities can now threaten most of Europe.

This is what is very important. For a threat of500 - 3000 kilometers, the Navy deployed Standard Missile (SM) 3 (Block 1B and IIA) and the Israeli Arrow 3 will do. For 3000 – 7000 kilometer missile threats, the new Iran capability, a defense at least as capable as the US built two-stage Ground Based Interceptor is necessary. That was the joint Polish-American system we cancelled.

Since such Iranian missile capability appears to be “here and now”, even the Bush administration’s projected deployment date of 2013-15 for the GBI in Poland would have come shortly after the Iranians purchased the BM-25 North Korean missiles.

An advanced “to be developed” Navy standard missile capable of dealing with Iranian missile threats with ranges greater than 3000 kilometers is the future “name of the game”.

But such a deployment is scheduled only for late in this decade at the earliest.

In short, Houston, we have a problem. And it may be even worse than the leaked cables reveal. The USAF says Iran will have an ICBM capability by 2015 along with an ability to mate such missiles with nuclear weapons.

In short, we are living on borrowed time. Our defense clock is not keeping pace with Iran or North Korea’s threat clock.

What affect will this have? One pundit worries: “[T]he WikiLeaks fiasco crystallizes…a new challenge: Restoring the sense that the United States can effectively project its power.”

He was arguing that the leaked documents revealed an America unable to deliver a deal on Kyoto and global warming. We appeared weak. True.

But the real problem? Iran, North Korea, China and Russia all are working to enhance Tehran’s hegemonic missile capabilities to prevent exactly that—the projection of American power.

This new confirmation of Iran’s growing missile capabilities undermines the narrative on missile defense just recently pushed by the New York Times, for example. The Times says we have made real progress in the recent NATO agreement on missile defenses—which we have. But they say current technology is being used to the maximum extent possible in current planned missile defense deployments—not true.

Unfortunately, we have slowed or delayed or cancelled some of our missile defense technology. On the other hand, Iran’s capability to launch rockets is being enhanced. They are going forward, rapidly.

Many missile defense critics repeatedly claimed Western European areas—including such cities as London, Bonn and Paris-- were safe from Iranian missile threats. That is the reason the planned deployment of GBI’s in Poland was cancelled.

But the leaked documents vividly illustrate that we really do need a European and American defense from long-range Iranian rockets. What we need is a very fast missile interceptor. Our two-stage ground-based interceptor to defend the western European portions of NATO does the job. So would a Navy SM with a speed of 4.5+ kilometers a second. We have tested the former; we are developing the latter. Let’s deploy what we have now.

We know Iran’s terrorism in the Middle East is of the same cloth as the North Korean shelling of the Republic of Korea or its sinking of a South Korean naval vessel. Tehran’s missiles serve the same purpose as Pyongyang’s bombs.

We thus face a choice. The US can seek to curry favor with both tyrants in power in Pyongyang and Tehran and “seek a deal”. We can continue to believe that killing citizens of the ROK is somehow, as former President Carter said, simply a message that North Korea is in pursuit of “respect”, kind of a new 10-step program that involves murder, mayhem and even more murder.

Or we can recognize both Iran and North Korea are in the business of aggression and terror. In one leaked document, the head of Saudi Arabia is quoted as saying America needs to go to Tehran and “cut off the head of the snake”. Good idea. The second stop should be Pyongyang. Faster, please.

North Korea? The U.S. Cannot and Will Not Pull the Trigger

With the recent rogue behavior of North Korea, the world and the American people have turned to Washington D.C. and Barack Hussein Obama to see what the American response will be and basically there has been no response...and there simply won't be one. At this stage right now, the Obama administration is hoping and praying (to whatever god they honor today) that simply the North Koreans leave their actions with just that one attack on that one South Korean island.

The bottom line of all of this is spelled out in this article at Family Security Matters where it is pointed out that North Korea is simply an extension of Red China and since the Chinese have the United States of America by the balls financially, the U.S. is simply a paper tiger in this scenario.

From the article:

China provides life support for North Korea, the supplier of food and energy. In his 2004 book, “Rogue State: How a Nuclear North Korea Threatens America”, William C. Triplett II, noted that “communist China is central to all North Korean issues, from human rights to weapons proliferation.”

Whatever North Korea does is sanctioned by China. This fact has been largely shielded by U.S. policy from the American public. North Korea is known in diplomatic circles as “China’s hidden dagger.” The phrase is taken from an ancient Chinese military text called “36 Srategems.” It means the covert use of another country to annihilate your enemy. North Korea threatens South Korea and Japan, and by extension the U.S. which is committed to come to its defense.

America is in no position to fight another war on the Korean peninsula and is dependent on China (and Japan) to purchase its securities to keep its economy functioning in the wake of the 2008 economic crisis. America’s manufacturing base has largely been undermined by the transfer of many of our industries to China.

Americans have largely forgotten the threat of communism.

The latest North Korean attacks are China’s way of reminding the U.S. of its dilemma and dependence.

Now I ask you, when is the last time you saw our United States of America neutered militarily because we were indebted to an enemy? Right ....never before. And quite frankly, that better frighten the American people more than any Chinese military buildup or any enemy alliance that is formed against us. We have the military and technology to defeat any foe but at this point in time, we have one enemy who simply holds all of the cards.

I guess the upside of all of this for Barack Hussein Obama is that he has gotten what he wanted - he sought the U.S. to join the ranks of France and Britain as once powers who now sit on the sidelines of world events hoping that they won't be marked for aggression. Obama has achieved his goal of dropping the American position in this world to a dependent bystander whose very existence is dependent upon the mercy of its enemy.

North Korea, China's Hidden Dagger


The Korean War ended in a stalemate in 1953. Having begun on June 25, 1950 with the blessings of Joseph Stalin, an armistice agreement on July 27, 1953 left the peninsula divided between the Republic of South Korea and the Peoples Republic of North Korea. How long ago was that? Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected largely on the promise to go there and secure an end to the conflict

By the time it was over the Red Chinese had intervened and American casualties were around 54,000 with 103,000 wounded. The North Koreans and Chinese were estimated to have lost ten times that number. The war was immensely unpopular with an American public that was still recovering from World War Two that had ended in 1945.

To his credit, President Truman did not hesitate to commit troops. Within two days after the invasion, Americans were fighting another war in Asia. The United Nations provided cover and the conflict was officially a UN action.

It was a proxy war, part of the long Cold War that had begun at the end of World War Two. The Chinese got involved when Gen. Douglas McArthur’s strategies put U.S. troops close to their border. He wanted to finish off not just the North Koreans, but the fledgling communist Chinese government as well. Truman relieved him of command after he neglected the fact that U.S. armies fight under civilian control in the form of an elected Commander-in-Chief and authorization from Congress.

In time, China for reasons of proximity and other factors became the power that controlled North Korea. Under Kim ill-Sung, known as the “Great Leader”, a Soviet protégée of Stalin’s, and his son Kim Jong-il, the “Dear Leader”, North Korea has evolved into the classic rogue nation. It was named one of George W. Bush’s “axis of evil.”

China provides life support for North Korea, the supplier of food and energy. In his 2004 book, “Rogue State: How a Nuclear North Korea Threatens America”, William C. Triplett II, noted that “communist China is central to all North Korean issues, from human rights to weapons proliferation.”

Whatever North Korea does is sanctioned by China. This fact has been largely shielded by U.S. policy from the American public. North Korea is known in diplomatic circles as “China’s hidden dagger.” The phrase is taken from an ancient Chinese military text called “36 Srategems.” It means the covert use of another country to annihilate your enemy. North Korea threatens South Korea and Japan, and by extension the U.S. which is committed to come to its defense.

American administrations have negotiated with North Korea and each has learned that they will not adhere to any agreement, using negotiations to secure bribes of all kinds, including one in which the U.S. agreed to build two nuclear facilities there! Recent news revealed they have increased their ability to produce nuclear weapons to the utter astonishment of U.S. intelligence agencies.

Its nuclear program was begun by Moscow and Beijing converted it to a weapons program. Triplett said that Beijing uses North Korea as a proxy distributor of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles to terrorist nations that include Iran and Syria. They in turn, provide weapons to their proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas.

Like Iran, no sanctions and no threats of military reprisal have ever had any serious affect on North Korea.

Writing during the George W. Bush administration, Triplett said “There is no endgame strategy. North Korean aggression and provocations still go unpunished.” Together, the North Koreans and China “have successfully bogged any progress in endless diplomatic meetings and conferences while North Korea’s nuclear research marches on.”

America is in no position to fight another war on the Korean peninsula and is dependent on China (and Japan) to purchase its securities to keep its economy functioning in the wake of the 2008 economic crisis. America’s manufacturing base has largely been undermined by the transfer of many of our industries to China.

Americans have largely forgotten the threat of communism.

The latest North Korean attacks are China’s way of reminding the U.S. of its dilemma and dependence.

The failure to secure a victory over North Korea in the 1950s, too much dithering since then, and too much distraction fighting recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have combined to render America a paper tiger who, despite our vast military power, will not or cannot pull the trigger.

Not Terrorism But A "Provocative Action"

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration said Monday that the sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on North Korea was not terrorism, and not enough by itself to put Pyongyang back on a U.S. terror blacklist.

The State Department said the March sinking of the South Korean frigate Cheonan by a reported torpedo from a North Korean submarine was a "provocative action" and a violation of the truce that ended the Korean war.

But it added that the sinking was the act of one state's military against another and not an act of terrorism. Thus, it is not grounds to put North Korea back on the U.S. "state sponsors of terrorism" list as some in South Korea had wanted, spokesman P.J. Crowley said.

The North had been on the terror list but was removed in 2008 amid progress in the now-stalled effort to get it to abandon nuclear weapons.

The sinking "was a provocative action but one taken by the military of a state against the military of another state," Crowley told reporters. "That in our view does not constitute and act of international terrorism." (In the real world this is called an Act Of War)

However, he stressed that the administration was continually reviewing North Korean behavior to determine if other factors would lead to its redesignation as a state sponsor of terrorism. (Um.... what about nuclear proliferation and threats)

"We will not hesitate to take action if we have information that North Korea has repeatedly provided support for acts of terrorism," Crowley said.

An international investigation concluded last month that North Korea torpedoed the vessel near the tense Korean sea border, killing 46 South Korean sailors. North Korea flatly denies the allegation and has warned any punishment would trigger war.

Earlier Monday, North Korea threatened to bolster its nuclear capability in a new — though unspecified — way to cope with what it says is a hostile U.S. policy and military threats amid tensions over the sinking.

In other words they are testing a new delivery system for their nuclear bombs.

Little Dictators Shouldn't Talk So Much.

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

This is very good advice for Kim Jong-il, the current Leader Big Cheese running the country insane asylum known as North Korea.

North Korea's army said Monday it is ready to "blow up" South Korea and the U.S., hours after the allies kicked off annual military drills that Pyongyang has slammed as a rehearsal for attack.

South Korea and the U.S. — which normally dismiss such threats as rhetoric — began 11 days of drills across South Korea on Monday morning to rehearse how the U.S. would deploy in time of emergency on the Korean peninsula.

The U.S. and South Korea argue the drills — which include live firing by U.S. Marines, aerial attack drills and urban warfare training — are purely defensive. North Korea claims they amount to attack preparations and has demanded they be canceled.

The North's People's Army issued a statement Monday, warning the drills created a tense situation and that its troops are "fully ready" to "blow up" the allies once the order is issued.

The North also put all its soldiers and reservists on high alert to "mercilessly crush the aggressors" should they encroach upon the North's territory even slightly, said the statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

The communist country has issued similar rhetoric in the days leading up the drills. On Sunday, it said it would bolster its nuclear capability and break off dialogue with the U.S. in response to the drills.

South Korea's military has been closely monitoring Pyongyang's maneuvers but hasn't seen any signs of suspicious activities by North Korean troops, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said earlier Monday.

"We see it as (North Korea's) stereotype denouncement," Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae told reporters.

Finish reading here.

It is a well known fact that North Korea has only a handful of nuclear weapons.  Intelligence estimates put the figure at 6-8 weapons.  Not a very large arsenal.

Current estimates of the US nuclear arsenal is over 5,000 weapons.  A very great difference.  In layman's terms:  "The United States could wipe out every living thing in North Korea in less than a few hours.  North Korea could wipe out a couple of cities, (if they were very lucky) but that is that."

What has happened is that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (AKA Monkeyman), has been running off his mouth again.  Especially after North Korea helped to build the Iranian new missile launch pad.

Iran's development of a missile launch facility in the northern province of Semnan and its Simorgh missile project both indicate that the militant Shiite theocracy is probably collaborating with North Korea on its missile program. The platforms seen on the Semnan launch pad's new gantry tower – a multi-level tower for servicing missiles before launch – resemble those seen on the gantry tower at North Korea’s new Tongchang launch pad. A drainage pit 170 meters directly in front of the pad also seems like a copy of one at Pyongyang’s new site.

In addition, the first stage of the Simorgh missile strongly resembles the North Korean Unha-2, with four clustered engines and near-identical dimensions.

Photographs and information about the likely collaboration between Iran and North Korea have appeared on security news sites Defense Update and Jane's IHS.

Defense Update also reported that east of the active site, “the Iranians are constructing a new facility that could be supporting the Iranian solid rocket propulsion development, associated with the Sejjil and Ashura missiles or even larger missiles” – and noted that “according to Jane's Intelligence analysts, the site could be associated with the next-generation Simorgh rocket.”

The Simorgh, unveiled in early February, is officially intended to be used as a space-launch vehicle, but it could be converted for launching long-range ballistic missiles for military purposes.

Satellite images indicate that the launch pad has “a fully constructed flame bucket” – the structure that diverts the missile's exhaust gases from the hillside. The launch site is linked through tubing to a nearby, sheltered underground facility. The gantry tower is approximately 18–20 meters tall, and the flame bucket is nearly as high as the tower. Jane's analysts assume the construction appears midway towards completion.

For the record: The images above came from an Israeli spy satellite.

I expect the third ghoulish member of this trio:  Hugo Chavez to rear up his ugly head and start screaming about Israel, the US and wiping every one off the map.

And Barack Obama promised to make things better with these clowns.  Great Change going there Mr. President!