North Koreans dance on the streets of Pyongyang on Nov. 30, 2017, in this photo in celebration of their country’s claimed successful test of a new type of an intercontinental ballistic missile. The North’s Korean Central News Agency, which released this photo, said servicepersons and civilians celebrated the test conducted a day earlier, assessed by the outside world as showing advances in the country’s missile technology. (Yonhap)
I agree that a complete naval blockade should be one of the last options tried once all others have been exhausted because it is pretty much an act of war:
South Korea and the United States have not discussed any military options, including a naval blockade, against North Korea, an official from South Korea’s presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said Friday.
The remarks came hours after President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump held their second telephone conversation in just two days to discuss ways to rein in North Korea’s evolving missile technologies.
“The issue of a naval blockade was never mentioned in the phone call with President Trump,” the official told reporters, while speaking on condition of anonymity.
The possibility of a naval blockade surfaced immediately after North Korea launched a believed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in the wee hours of Wednesday, ending its 75-day hiatus in provocations. [Yonhap]
The Stars & Stripes has a good read about the actions the American medical evacuation team took to save the life of the North Korean soldier who defected across the Joint Security Area and was shot five times by his comrades:
From left to right, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Nathan Gumm, pilot; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Eric Tirro, co-pilot; Spc. Carroll Moore, crew chief; Sgt. 1st Class Gopal Singh, flight medic; and Pfc. Karina Lopez, radio operator, pose at Camp Humphreys, South Korea, Thursday, Nov. 30, 2017. MARCUS FICHTL/STARS AND STRIPES
The crew had just returned to Camp Casey, a base near the heavily fortified frontier that divides the peninsula, after a more than three-hour training mission when radio operator Pfc. Karina Lopez told them to stand by for a real mission.
After initial confusion about whether the team was needed, Lopez got the call at 4:04 p.m., about an hour after events had begun to unfold, and the team took off five minutes later.
“That’s when I started … calling the hospital, trying to figure out which hospital they were going to take him to,” said the 20-year-old from Raleigh, N.C.
Singh and his teammates had only basic information that somebody had suffered a gunshot wound to the torso at the Joint Security Area. But that was enough for concern.
“I was in Iraq and Afghanistan … that’s what you expect there,” said Gumm, the 37-year-old pilot. “Here you’d expect a concussion or the other types of missions that we’ve had, not a gunshot wound to the torso. So it was surprising.”
It took about seven minutes to get to Camp Bonifas, the base near the JSA, where more than a dozen people met them carrying the wounded soldier on a stretcher in a chaotic scene.
“We had to kick some people out of the helicopter,” said crew chief Spc. Carroll Moore, 25, of Lenoir, N.C., adding there was only room for two escorts from the security battalion.
Singh, 39, of San Antonio, said he immediately spotted signs that a lung was in danger of collapsing so he did a needle chest decompression, with a 3.5-inch needle. He also worked to stop the blood from hemorrhaging.
The defector, who was in and out of consciousness, asked for water at one point, but Singh said he couldn’t have any because of the nature of his wounds. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read the whole article at the link, but great job by everyone involved to save this defectors life.
Here is an interesting read from the Associated Press about what experts are saying about North Korea’s new ICBM:
This Nov. 29, 2017, image provided by the North Korean government on Thursday, Nov. 30, 2017, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, third from left, and what the North Korean government calls the Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile, in North Korea. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
North Korea released dozens of photos Thursday of the Hwasong-15, a new intercontinental ballistic missile it claims can reach any target in the continental United States. The photo dump, published in the paper and online editions of the ruling party’s official daily, is a goldmine for rocket experts trying to parse reality from bluster.
Their general conclusion is that it’s bigger, more advanced and comes with a domestically made mobile launcher that will make it harder than ever to pre-emptively destroy. But there’s a potentially major catch: it might not have the power to go much farther than the West Coast if it is loaded down with a real nuclear warhead, not a dummy like the one it carried in its test launch on Wednesday. [Associated Press]
You can read more at the link, but experts are skeptical that the North Koreans have miniaturized their nuclear warhead to a low enough weight to where this ICBM can deliver it to the US West Coast.
It looks like all areas of the continental United States are now at risk of being a target of a North Korean ICBM:
North Korea launched an apparent new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) early Wednesday that reached an altitude of about 4,500 kilometers and traveled 960 kilometers before falling into the East Sea inside Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone.
The missile launch, which broke a 75-day lull in the North’s provocations, drew strong condemnation from South Korea as well as the international community. (……)
“The ICBM Hwasong-15 type weaponry system is an intercontinental ballistic rocket tipped with super-large heavy warhead which is capable of striking the entire mainland of the U.S.,” the statement said.
It added the new system has much greater advantages in its tactical and technological characteristics than the Hwasong-14 missile tested in July.
The repressive state launched Hwasong-14s twice, July 4 and 28. The first one flew 933 kilometers in 39 minutes and reached an altitude of 2,802 kilometers, while the second one flew 998 kilometers in 47 minutes after reaching an altitude of 3,724 kilometers. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but experts report this ICBM if fired at a nominal trajectory could range 13,000 kilometers. That would put all areas of the continental United States within range.
Here is how the Blue House responded to the launch:
Soon after the test, President Moon Jae-in presided over a National Security Council meeting at Cheong Wa Dae, during which he strongly denounced the North for its “military brinkmanship.”
“North Korea must stop making reckless choices that will only lead to its isolation and collapse,” Moon said, urging the Kim regime to come to the negotiation table.
“The government will never sit back and watch these provocations,” he said.
The Chinese have issued their usual statement about how concerned they are after the launch:
China voiced its strong objection and concerns over North Korea’s latest missile test Wednesday, joining South Korea, the United States and Japan in denouncing the North’s first weapons test in nearly 11 weeks.
“China expresses its grave concerns about and opposition to North Korea’s missile launch activities,” foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in a press briefing.
Referring to the U.N.’s ban on North Korea’s ballistic missile activity, the spokesman said, “There are clear regulations on North Korean ballistic missile launches in United Nations Security Council resolutions.”
He also said, “China wants North Korea to stop any action that escalates tension on the Korean Peninsula.” He called on “other concerned countries” to act cautiously and maintain peace and security in the regional community. [Yonhap]
At this point I wonder if the ROK and the Chinese just change the date on their press releases after North Korean provocations because the statements are similar after every incident.
I guess we will see if North Korea has one more launch left in them this year:
Japan has detected the radio signals which indicate that North Korea may be preparing for a new missile launch, authorities announced on Tuesday.
The radio signals pointed to the North Korean Army’s possible launch of a ballistic missile “within the next few days”, reports Efe news.
However, the authorities said that at the moment no satellite has detected the deployment of any launching platform; hence these signals could be linked to the winter manoeuvers of the North Korean troops.
Meanwhile, a South Korean government source told Yonhap news agency on Tuesday that all the military intelligence agencies of Seoul, Tokyo and Washington have detected in recent days the radio signals such as those that had been detected before a launch. [Business Standard]
