Army chiefs of South Korea, U.S. and Japan meet on the sidelines of the Pacific Armies Chiefs Conference in Seoul on Sept. 19, 2017, in this photo from the South Korean Army. Pictured are Gen. Koji Yamazaki (L), chief of the ground staff of Japan’s Self Defense Force; South Korean Army Chief of Staff Kim Yong-woo (C); and Mark Milley, U.S. Army chief of staff. (Yonhap)
If the US government orders the evacuation of US citizens from South Korea then yes it is probably time to be concerned about an impending strike on North Korea, however people should not read more into this visit which is routine:
Elisabeth Cordray, a U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense, visited South Korea after North Korea’s latest nuclear test to check on preparations for evacuating U.S. citizens in the event of war, it emerged Tuesday.
The visit has sparked speculation of an impending U.S. military attack against North Korea, but the U.S. Forces Korea claimed Cordray’s visit was a “routine inspection.”
Cordray visited the 19th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, the logistic support arm of the Eighth Army, in Daegu on Sep. 13 and met its commander, John Sullivan, according to her Facebook page.
The command said Tuesday that Cordray “familiarized” herself with the process of evacuating U.S. citizens from South Korea in case of an emergency. She also discussed the readiness level of U.S. troops and was briefed on progress in relocating the main USFK military garrison in Yongsan to Pyeongtaek. [Chosun Ilbo via reader tip]
You can read more at the link, but it seems to me that Ms. Cordray would be negligent in her duties if she did not get better familiarized with the evacuation process in South Korea if needed.
I don’t know why any country would want a North Korea ambassador in the first place considering the rampant criminal enterprises conducted out of North Korean embassies:
On Monday, Spain asked the North Korean ambassador in Madrid to leave the country by the end of September, the first European country to expel a North Korean diplomatic envoy.
The move follows similar steps by Mexico, Peru and Kuwait earlier this month. It also comes as the international community steps up its efforts to heighten sanctions against the nuclear-weapons seeking state.
The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2375 last week, which put a cap on the country’s crude oil imports and a ban on its textile exports.
The United States has called on other countries to cut diplomatic and trade ties with the North in a bid to further isolate the Kim Jong-un regime.
“Today, the North Korean ambassador was summoned and was told of the decision to consider him persona non grata, therefore he must stop working and leave the country before Sept. 30,” the Spanish foreign ministry said in a statement, according to Reuters. [Korea Times]
Of course the United States has military options that do not threaten Seoul. In fact one was just executed with the recent B-1 show of force bombing exercise in South Korea. The real question is if there are military options to remove North Korea’s ICBM and nuclear facilities without endangering Seoul:
The United States has military options for North Korea that do not put Seoul at grave risk, Washington’s top defense official said Monday.
The remark by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis marks a departure from the popular argument that there is no viable military option that would not leave thousands of South Koreans and U.S. service members dead.
“Yes, there are,” Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon when asked whether there were military options that would not seriously endanger Seoul. “But I will not go into details.”
Mattis said he discussed with South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo the issue of reintroducing tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea to counter North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile threats. But he declined to say whether the option is under consideration. [Yonhap]
Army chiefs and senior commanders from 29 Pacific countries pose at the opening of the 10th Pacific Armies Chiefs Conference at a Seoul hotel on Sept. 18, 2017. (Yonhap)
The article is bias with some inaccurate information from someone who is anti-missile defense, however it repeats something I have said before that the US and Japan cannot shoot down North Korea’s missiles unless you know where they are going. This is because the Aegis system the US and Japan has do not shoot down missiles on the boost phase which is what a missile traveling over Japan is at. These ships defend the territory of Japan if the missile was to come down on it in the terminal phase of flight. It is the same for the THAAD system, unless the missile is coming down on South Korea or on Guam in its terminal phase the THAAD systems in each of those locations cannot shoot down North Korea’s missiles:
Joe Cirincione
The number one reason we don’t shoot down North Korea’s missiles is that we cannot.
Officials like to reassure their publics about our defense to these missiles. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga toldhis nation after last week’s test, “We didn’t intercept it because no damage to Japanese territory was expected.”
That is half true. The missile did not pose a serious threat. It flewover the Japanese island of Hokkaido, landing 3700 km (2300 miles) from its launch point near North Korea’s capital of Pyongyang.
The key word here is “over.” Like way over. Like 770 kilometers (475 miles) over Japan at the apogee of its flight path. Neither Japan nor the United States could have intercepted the missile. None of the theater ballistic missile defense weapons in existence can reach that high. It is hundreds of kilometers too high for the Aegis interceptors deployed on Navy ships off Japan. Even higher for the THAAD systems in South Korea and Guam. Way too high for the Patriot systems in Japan, which engage largely within the atmosphere.
All of these are basically designed to hit a missile in the post-mid-course or terminal phase, when it is on its way down, coming more or less straight at the defending system. Patriot is meant to protect relatively small areas such as ports or air bases; THAADdefends a larger area; the advanced Aegis system theoretically could defend thousands of square kilometers. [Defense One]
It is going to be interesting to see how the Kim regime responds to President Trump’s UN speech because he has made it pretty clear what is coming Pyongyang’s way if they don’t stop their provocations:
President Trump made his first address to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday morning, telling the gathering of world leaders that if Pyongyang continues its nuclear provocations, the United States “will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.” [Yahoo News]
You can read more at the link as well as watch President Trump’s speech where he also said “Rocket Man was on a suicide mission” in reference to Kim Jong-un.
Maybe Mike Honda can put a Vietnamese comfort women statue next to the Korean one that was put up in San Francisco:
But for a significant number of children fathered as a result of rape by South Korean soldiers, it was the start of a living hell.
Mr Nhat recalled: “Before April 1975, I had been treated well by the South Korean troops who lived on the base near my home in Phu Yen Province, central Vietnam. I was still too young to have any real sense of my identity and hadn’t yet questioned my mother about why I looked different to other Vietnamese children.
“But when the Communists declared victory, everything changed for me. Suddenly, I knew I was dangerously different.”
A period of painful bullying ensued in school. Mr Nhat said: “I was bullied repeatedly. The other children kept asking who my father was and called him a ‘dog’. I just kept suffering in silence.
“I was 18 when my mother finally sat me down and told me she had been raped by Korean soldiers – not once but three times. My two sisters are also mixed blood or Lai Dai Han as we are known in Vietnam.” (…..)
South Korean troops were not alone in their exploitation of civilian women but their country has never acknowledged the allegations or taken steps to investigate. (…..)
Mrs Ngai felt confused in the fog of war but now she is very clear about what she wants now. “I think the South Korean government should apologise for everything they did to women in Vietnam. [The Independent]
