I am wondering if these claims and rhetoric from the Kim regime is being used to set conditions for a terrorist attack within South Korea in response to any future measures the US may take against North Korea?:
North Korea threatened Friday to launch an anti-terrorist attack against the intelligence agencies of South Korea and the United States as it accused them of plotting to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
North Korea’s Ministry of State Security claimed that a terrorists’ group supported by the CIA and South Korea’s intelligence agency infiltrated North Korea to stage a terrorist attack against the North Korean leader by using a bio-chemical substance.
“We will ferret out and mercilessly destroy to the last one the terrorists of the U.S. CIA” and South Korea’s National Intelligence Service “targeting the dignity of the DPRK supreme leadership,” North Korea’s Ministry of State Security said in an English-language statement carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. [Yonhap]
We will see how long China keeps the pressure on the Kim regime to abandon their nuclear weapons:
Cracks in the alliance between North Korea and China widened Thursday as Pyongyang labeled its longtime communist ally a traitor, while Beijing expressed skepticism about renewing a 56-year old friendship and mutual assistance treaty.
The North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency issued a commentary on Wednesday that included a rare and blunt attack on China. The commentary said China had violently crossed a “red line” in their relationship. “It is a “disloyal and betraying act,” it said.
The North “will never beg for the maintenance of friendship with China, risking its nuclear program which is as precious as its own life, no matter how valuable the friendship is,” the commentary also said.
In an attempt to avoid a formal diplomatic feud, the North issued the commentary in the name of a private citizen, Kim Chol, rather than having it come from a government official or entity. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
This sounds like more lies from the Kim regime which is probably more directed to their domestic audience because the CIA killing Kim does not solve the nuke problem:
North Korea on Friday accused the CIA of plotting with South Korea to assassinate leader Kim Jong-Un, amid soaring tensions in the flashpoint region.
The CIA and Seoul’s Intelligence Services have “hatched a vicious plot” involving unspecified “biochemical substances” to kill the hermit state’s young leader during public ceremonial events in Pyongyang, the Ministry of State Security said.
For the CIA “assassination by use of biochemical substances including radioactive substance and nano poisonous substance is the best method that does not require access to the target, their lethal results will appear after six or twelve months,” the Ministry said in a statement carried by state media.
The accusation comes as Pyongyang issues increasingly belligerent rhetoric in a tense stand off with the administration of US President Donald Trump over its rogue weapons program. [AFP]
You can read more at the link, but it seems like if anyone wanted to kill Kim Jong-un it would be the Chinese who would likely have the influence to install their own strongman that would cause less international headaches than the current Kim regime.
It appears that along with the submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM) test capability currently developed on North Korea’s east coast, the Kim regime is busy trying to develop this same test capability on its West Coast as well:
Recent satellite images show North Korea may be steadily building up its submarine-launched ballistic missile program.
The commercial satellite imagery published by 38 North, a Johns HopkinsUniversity website dedicated to North Korea issues, show a second test stand barge for Pyongyang’s SLBMs.
The images from April 19 are aerial shots of Nampo Naval Shipyard, on the western coast of North Korea, writes Joseph S. Bermudez Jr.
The barge is “identical” in size and layout to the original barge that was first identified in 2014, according to the analyst.
The first barge was found at Sinpo South Shipyard on the east coast where as many as six SLBM launches took place since 2014. [UPI]
A group of scientists is claiming THAAD cannot effectively defend South Korea from ballistic missile attack:
Another scientist, David Wright, co-director of the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Global Security Program, said that a salvo of North Korean short-range missiles could overwhelm THAAD.
The 10 million people living in Seoul will also not be protected by THAAD, since it is being installed 125 miles south of the city. “It cannot engage missiles fired at Seoul, so it offers no additional protection of the city,” David Wright told the Associated Press.
“We have a layered defense systems, which is shared with the Republic of South Korea and Japan,” Commander Gary Ross, a Pentagon spokesperson, told Business Insider in response to whether or not Seoul was protected. “But we don’t discuss specific weapons systems.”
As it stands, US Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile defenses provide protection for Seoul, though it has similar limitations to THAAD.
One scientist was even more wary of THAAD’s capabilities. Harris’ statement about THAAD is “technically incorrect,”Theodore Postol, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said.”The THAAD interceptor is very easily defeated by either causing a missile to tumble end over end or by intentionally fragmenting a rocket into pieces.”
In the case of a saturation attack, or a large volume of missiles as Postol described, THAAD’s defense capabilities “can be expected to be very low, probably zero or close to that,” Postol said. [Business Insider]
You can read more at the link, but of course if North Korea masses enough ballistic missiles at one location and there is not enough Patriot and THAAD interceptors to shoot them down then ballistic missiles will get through. When it comes to Seoul, North Korea can already destroy Seoul with artillery why waste ballistic missiles by shooting at it?
It seems they would want to use their ballistic missiles to target areas further to the south that their artillery systems cannot reach. Additionally as mentioned in the article THAAD is not the only missile defense system in South Korea with Patriot batteries deployed across the peninsula. THAAD has never been sold as being a magic force field to protect all of South Korea, it is part of a layered missile defense system to protect the country.
It is interesting that this announcement is coming from the North Koreans and not from USFK:
This photo, provided by South Korea’s Air Force on March 22, 2017, shows a joint military drill staged by U.S. B-1B strategic bombers and South Korean KF-16 fighter jets. (Yonhap)
North Korea claimed Tuesday that U.S. B-1B strategic bombers made flights over the Korean Peninsula early this week in an exercise on dropping nuclear bombs, saying that Washington is to blame for rising tensions.
The United States carried out a military provocation Monday by flying B-1B bombers over Korea less than one day after Seoul and Washington wrapped up their joint military drills at the end of last month, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The allies completed their two-month joint exercises on April 30, with U.S. strategic assets taking part in the training, such as the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier, F-35 stealth fighter jets and B-1B bombers.
“The B-1Bs from Guam sneakily flew over sky above the East Sea (on Monday) and joined cooperative operations with strategic striking means, including the aircraft carrier and nuclear-powered submarine,” the KCNA said in an English report.
It is not confirmed whether the North’s claim is true as South Korea and the U.S. have not unveiled relevant information. [Yonhap]
Maybe I should start a new daily posting here on the ROK Drop called “North Korean Threat of the Day”?:
North Korea warned Monday that it will carry out a nuclear test “at any time and at any location” set by its leadership, in the latest rhetoric to fuel jitters in the region.
Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been running high for weeks, with signs that the North might be preparing a long-range missile launch or a sixth nuclear test — and with Washington refusing to rule out a military strike in response.
A spokesman for the North’s foreign ministry said Pyongyang was “fully ready to respond to any option taken by the US”.
The regime will continue bolstering its “preemptive nuclear attack” capabilities unless Washington scrapped its hostile policies, he said in a statement carried by the state-run KCNA news agency.
“The DPRK’s measures for bolstering the nuclear force to the maximum will be taken in a consecutive and successive way at any moment and any place decided by its supreme leadership,” the spokesman added, apparently referring to a sixth nuclear test and using the North’s official name, the Democratic Republic of Korea. [AFP]
