Category: North Korea

North Korea’s propaganda department needs to come up with a new term to describe the destruction of the United States.  The “Sea of Fire” term has been quite over used by now:

Nuclear action or sanctions taken by Washington against Pyongyang will lead to a “sea of fire” engulfing the U.S. mainland, a North Korean newspaper said in its Sunday edition printed before the United Nations’ adoption of a new sanctions resolution against the reclusive country.

“The day the U.S. dares tease our nation with a nuclear rod and sanctions, the mainland U.S. will be catapulted into an unimaginable sea of fire,” the North’s ruling-party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said in an article.

The article was printed as the U.N. Security Council adopted its Resolution 2371. However, the piece could still portend North Korea’s fierce reaction to come over the international sanctions drafted by the United States.

In the article titled “North Korea should reverse its policy,” the mouthpiece newspaper for the regime said, “Besides completely dumping its frayed hostile policy toward North Korea, the only choice for the U.S is self-destruction.

“The more the Trump gang strives to break out of today’s quagmire, the more our military and people get aroused, giving more reasons for the (North Korean) republic to own nuclear weapons,” the comment also said.

“A strong war deterrence is an essential strategic choice of national defense for our people who went through a horrendous war.”  [Yonhap]

By the way the sanctions ban North Korean exports of coal, iron and iron ore and restrict the overseas sales of lead, seafood and labor.  Just like all the past resolutions these sanctions are only as good as they are enforced and I am very skeptical that China and Russia will strongly enforce them.

The freeze fantasy: Don’t tell us to talk to North Korea if you aren’t listening to North Korea https://t.co/qOo13bcrUi via @@freekorea_us

— NorthKoreaRealTime (@BuckTurgidson79) August 3, 2017

It will be interesting to see if this statement from Lindsey Graham gets China attention or not to reign in North Korea’s nuclear ambitions:

U.S. President Donald Trump has said he will go to war with North Korea if the communist regime continues to threaten the U.S. with its nuclear and missile programs, an influential Republican senator said Tuesday.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) relayed his discussions with the president on NBC’s “Today Show.”

“There will be a war with North Korea over the missile program if they continue to try to hit America with an ICBM,” the senator said. “He’s told me that. I believe him. If I were China, I would believe him, too, and do something about it. You can stop North Korea, militarily or diplomatically.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Analyst: Video footage shows North Korea missile may have failed https://t.co/YTLFgIhOPK

— Elizabeth Shim (@GlobalAsianista) August 1, 2017

Below is an interesting read from a ROK Drop favorite, Professor B.R. Myers who criticizes a fellow professor, John Delury who has long been a go to quote person for the New York Times in regards to North Korea issues:

Let me say straight off that I like Professor John Delury very much on a personal level. I defy anyone to spend time in his company (as I did recently at a conference in Macao) and not like him. But I’m losing patience with this sort of thing:

“The key to understanding Kim Jong-un’s long-term strategy has to do with ‘byungjin,’ ” said John Delury, a professor at Yonsei University in Seoul. Byungjin, or parallel advance, is Mr. Kim’s policy of developing the economy alongside the nuclear program.

“Ideally, from his perspective, he could replicate the Chinese model by normalizing foreign relations, from the U.S. down, on the basis of a nuclear deterrent,” Mr. Delury said. Only then, with its economy, in theory, allowed to catch up to its neighbors’ and its leadership accepted abroad, could North Korea feel secure.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had some interesting things to say about North Korea:

The United States does not seek a regime change in North Korea, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Tuesday, as tensions renewed over the country’s nuclear and missile programs.

North Korea conducted its second test of an intercontinental ballistic missile last week, fueling concerns that the communist nation may be close to delivering a nuclear weapon to the U.S. mainland.

Pyongyang said the test was aimed at giving a “stern” warning to the U.S., which is bent on employing sanctions and pressure on North Korea and justifies the regime’s will to develop nuclear weapons with threats of war.

“We do not seek a regime change. We do not seek the collapse of the regime,” Tillerson said in a surprise appearance at a State Department press briefing. “We do not seek an accelerated reunification of the peninsula. We do not seek an excuse to send our military north of the 38th parallel.”  (…..)

He noted, however, that the U.S. does not blame China for the North Korean nuclear conundrum and Pyongyang “does not define” Washington’s relationship with Beijing.  (….)

“Given the history of enmity and mistrust, this is no doubt a hard message for the North to accept at face value. But I believe it is sincere and worth the North exploring.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

U.S. detects 'highly unusual' North Korean submarine activity, perhaps testing missile "cold launch" system – CNN https://t.co/f6cuREt0Q1

— Anna Fifield (@annafifield) August 1, 2017

This photo, carried by North Korea’s propaganda outlet Uriminjokkiri on July 31, 2017, shows a female band performing in Pyongyang the same day to celebrate its July 28 launch of a second intercontinental ballistic missile. (Yonhap)

A submarine launched ICBM would really be the holy grail of North Korea strategic deterrence strategy if successfully developed:

The United States has detected evidence that North Korea conducted yet another ejection test for a submarine-launched ballistic missile just a couple of days after carrying out its second intercontinental ballistic missile test, CNN reported.

The ejection test, carried out Sunday, is the third this month and fourth this year, CNN reported, citing an unidentified defense official. That shows the communist nation is working hard to make progress in its SLBM development.

An ejection test is designed to see whether a missile can be ejected by high pressure steam out of the launch canister in a submarine and into the air before its engine ignites and takes flight. Sunday’s test took place at the Sinpo shipyard, the North’s main submarine development center, CNN said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

North Korea hacking increasingly focused on making money than espionage: South Korea study https://t.co/t8KFUYuDhT

— NorthKoreaRealTime (@BuckTurgidson79) July 28, 2017