It looks like the Kim regime is setting conditions for their next provocation cycle next month during the US-ROK Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise:
North Korea’s top diplomat for U.S. affairs told The Associated Press on Thursday that Washington “crossed the red line” and effectively declared war by putting leader Kim Jong Un on its list of sanctioned individuals, and said a vicious showdown could erupt if the U.S. and South Korea hold annual war games as planned next month.
Han Song Ryol, director-general of the U.S. affairs department at the North’s Foreign Ministry, said in an interview that recent U.S. actions have put the situation on the Korean Peninsula on a war footing.
The United States and South Korea regularly conduct joint military exercises south of the Demilitarized Zone, and Pyongyang typically responds to them with tough talk and threats of retaliation.
Han said North Korea believes the nature of the maneuvers has become openly aggressive because they reportedly now include training designed to prepare troops for the invasion of the North’s capital and “decapitation strikes” aimed at killing its top leadership.
Han says designating Kim himself for sanctions was the final straw. [Associated Press]
This is the first time I have seen the North Koreans try and spread propaganda messages via a river:
In this photo provided by the South Korean military on July, 27, 2016, vinyl bags carrying North Korean leaflets are displayed on a table. (Yonhap)
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday they found strongly worded North Korean leaflets in the Han River, the first distribution of such propaganda materials via a waterway.
On July 22, the Korean military collected scores of tightly air-filled vinyl bags carrying North Korean leaflets which contained threats of the North’s possible attacks on the South using the intermediate-range Musudan ballistic missile, a spokesman for Seoul’s JCS said in a press briefing.
“North Korea intentionally floated the leaflets toward the mouth of the Han River and were picked up by guard troops near Gimpo,” the spokesman said, citing an analysis by relevant government officials. The river flows through Seoul, South Korea’s capital city, although sources said it is not clear where the leaflets originated from. [Yonhap]
The photo, released on July 25, 2016, by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency, shows one of the stamps that the North’s State Stamp Bureau has issued to feature a congress of the North’s ruling party held May 5-9. (Yonhap)
It is a bit ironic that the technology that the Chinese government worked so hard to steal from the US and other countries is now being stolen from them by the North Koreans:
North Korean authorities are increasingly sending information and communication technology workers abroad to steal advanced technology from China that the isolated country cannot develop on its own, sources inside North Korea said.
“The cutting-edge technology data collected overseas by North Korea’s State Security Department and Military Reconnaissance General Bureau has helped the country to rapidly develop scientific technology,” a source in the capital Pyongyang told RFA’s Korea Service.
“[Leader] Kim Jong Un has emphasized that this is the example that information and communication technology (ICT) workers should follow,” he said.
Kim Jong Un has encouraged ICT workers to steal advanced technology because he believes that North Koreans cannot develop it on its own even in 10 years, the source said.
“He told top executives that this was an expansion of a secret operation to introduce new cutting-edge technologies that were brought in from advanced nations,” he said.
The scheme includes roughly 1,000 North Korean ICT specialists who currently reside in China, he said. Kim Jong Un praises them as “patriots.” [Radio Free Asia]
Just another example of how serious the North Koreans are about fully developing their SLBM technology:
North Korea is in the midst of building a new naval base on the east coast to accommodate submarines capable of firing submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), a British military media agency said Sunday.
According to the report by IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly, North Korea is currently building the new military facility at a location some 2.25 kilometers from Sinpo Shipyard, the homeport of North Korea’s ballistic missile submarine program, in South Hamgyong Province.
The existing shipyard currently houses 2,000-ton Sinpo-class submarines, which have been used by North Korea to test-fire SLBMs.
The purpose of the new naval base is presumed to be housing submarines larger than the Sinpo-class, the report added.
Sources earlier said Pyongyang is known to be developing a 3,000-ton submarine that can carry more than three SLBMs. The existing Sinpo-class submarine can hold only one SLBM at a time. [Yonhap]
As I have said before, North Korea developing SLBMs is a game changer because it complicates missile defenses. Missile defense batteries have to point their radars in the direction of where the threat is coming from. Right now with North Korea it is easy because their missiles are all launched from a northerly direction from South Korea. With SLBMs they could come from any direction if the submarines are not properly tracked.
