Category: North Korea

North Korea’s Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile Video Doctored

| January 12, 2016

The North Korean’s are believed to have doctored a video of their SLBM test to make people think they have greater capability than they really have.  Watch the video below and judge for yourself.  The reason the North Koreans really want people to believe they are developing an SLBM capability is because it then complicates missile defenses.  It is hard to preposition radars and launchers to protect assets when the missile can come from any direction from the sea instead of prepositioned locations within North Korea:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPzTP3wiIyM

South Korea’s military said Saturday the latest video of a new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) test released by the North earlier this week may have been manipulated.

“It is believed that North Korea’s SLBM ejection test video has been edited with images from a Scud missile ejection film made in the past,” a military official said, adding that the intention was to make the test seem successful.

“In May last year, the North’s SLBM video showed a launch angle of 74 degrees. As the latest video showed an angle of 90 degrees, it is possible that North Korea’s technology has improved to some extent,” the official added. North Korea also claimed then it had successfully carried out an underwater SLBM test.

A new documentary aired by the state-run (North) Korean Central Broadcasting Station on Friday featured leader Kim Jong-un giving field guidance during an SLBM ejection test the country is reported to have conducted on Dec. 21 in the East Sea.

In the video, a missile shoots off from a submarine at almost a completely vertical angle and ignites with a boom some 40 meters above the surface of the water before disappearing into the clouds.  [Yonhap]

You can read the rest at the link.

North Korea Shows On CNN That They Are Holding Yet Another US Citizen

| January 12, 2016

Once again if you are an American and willingly go into North Korea I believe the US government does not have an obligation to come and rescue you.  I says this every time another American gets detained by the regime, do not go to North Korea.  This guy, Kim Dong-chul claims to be a spy for South Korea, but who knows if anything he says is true considering the treatment he has likely received while detained in North Korea:

Is North Korea holding an American prisoner? That’s what a man CNN spoke to in Pyongyang claims. As tensions on the Korean peninsula continued to rise and Seoul and Washington officials discussed the potential deployment of more troops to South Korea, officials in Pyongyang gave CNN exclusive access to a man North Korea claims is a U.S. citizen arrested on espionage charges. Speaking to CNN’s Will Ripley, the man identified himself as Kim Dong Chul, a naturalized American, who said he used to live in Fairfax, Virginia. “I’m asking the U.S. or South Korean government to rescue me,” Kim said during an interview at a hotel in the North Korean capital.  [CNN]

You can read more at the link.

Tweet of the Day: The Weapons Kim Jong-un Fears the Most

| January 9, 2016

Can the Iran Negotiating Model Work with North Korea?

| January 8, 2016

It appears that David Sanger at the New York Times understands what I have been saying for years, no matter how much anyone want to talk to them, the Kim regime has no intention of giving up its nuclear weapons:

north korea nuke

From Pyongyang’s viewpoint, there is little incentive to give up the nuclear arsenal. The world is not exactly banging on North Korea’s door to do business the way it is with Iran: The North has no oil, no striving middle class and little strategic value in the modern world. Its greatest power is the threat it poses to one of the most prosperous corners of the globe.

But many also consider it too dangerous to allow North Korea to fail. The Chinese know that if it ceases to exist, the South Koreans, and their American allies, will be on the Chinese border. The South Koreans know that if a conflict breaks out, the North will lose — but only after Seoul, just 35 miles or so from the North Korean border, is a smoking ruin.

So the North Korean strategy is to up the ante and hope the world will acknowledge it as a nuclear weapons power that has to be dealt with. H-Bomb or no H-bomb, nuclear weapons are the country’s insurance policy, and the test was a sign that it has no intention of cashing it in.  [New York Times]

You can read the rest at the link.

Tweet of the Day: Food or Weapons?

| January 8, 2016

Tweet of the Day: The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man?

| January 7, 2016

Why North Korea’s Alleged Hydrogen Bomb Test Is Important

| January 7, 2016

The Korea Herald explains why a hydrogen bomb is such an important advancement by North Korea if they did in fact test one.  It all comes down to the explosive power of an H-bomb compared to a nuclear fission bomb.  Could you imagine what one of these things would do if used against Seoul or Beijing?:

Nuclear weapons are classified into atomic, neutron and hydrogen bombs. Among them, hydrogen bombs, also known as thermonuclear bombs, are known to be the most powerful due to their unique structure that expresses explosive power.

Unlike atomic bombs that derive their energy from nuclear fission — the splitting of atoms — hydrogen bombs obtain their explosive power from both nuclear fission and fusion, the process of forming a heavier nucleus from two lighter ones, such as the nuclei of the hydrogen isotopes tritium or deuterium.

While fission bombs can have as small as 1 kiloton of explosive power — North Korea’s 2013 nuclear test was known to have 6 to 7 kilotons — hydrogen bombs’ explosive power ranges into the hundreds of kilotons.  [The Korea Herald]

You can read the rest at the link.

Is Latest North Korean Nuclear Test Directed More Towards the United States or China?

| January 6, 2016

It will be interesting to see if this was in fact a hydrogen bomb or just more bluster from North Korea.  North Korea claims the nuclear test is directed towards being a deterrent towards the United States, but I think  it is becoming more of a deterrent against the Chinese government which the Kim regime has an increasingly rocky relationship with:

North Korea has carried out its fourth nuclear test, claiming that it succeeded in developing a hydrogen bomb.

Hours after a massive tremor was detected from the northeastern part of North Korea where its nuclear facility is located, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Wednesday officially announced the test.

The state-run media carried the North Korean government’s statement, which said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered a hydrogen bomb test.

While calling the test “completely successful,” the KCNA claimed that its weapons program is a nuclear deterrent against the threats from the United States.  [KBS World Radio]

You can read more at the link.

Tweet of the Day: Kim Jong-un’s 2016 Focus

| January 6, 2016

Picture of the Day: North Korean Artillery Contest

| January 6, 2016

N.K. leader views artillery contest

North Korea’s top leader Kim Jong-un (in black) watches a firing contest by the military’s artillery units in this photo released by the North’s newspaper Rodong Sinmun on Jan. 5, 2016. As is customary, the reports did not specify when Kim viewed the contest, but it is presumed to be his first military-related field guidance of the new year. (Yonhap)