A bus with solar panels mounted on its roof is parked in the North Korean city of Nampho, in this still image from a program of the North’s Korean Central TV Station on Nov. 2, 2015. The bus, which is equipped with 32 100-watt solar panels, 50 batteries and a 95-kilogram electric motor, can run at a speed of 40 kmph, the broadcaster said. (Yonhap)
Really nothing new here because reports of North Korea being able to target the US have persisted for years despite the fact they have never test fired one of their KN-08 missiles to prove it:
“North Korea has an extensive ballistic missile force that could strike South Korea, Japan, and US military bases in Asia,” the report states. “Pyongyang has deployed at least 400 Scud short-range tactical ballistic missiles, 300 No-Dong medium-range missiles, and 100 to 200 Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missiles.”
The longest-range missile, the Taepo Dong 2, is still in development. However, if deployed, the missile is believed to be nuclear capable if North Korea ever succeeded in miniaturizing nuclear warheads.
The most serious of North Korea’s missile threats comes from the country’s KN-08 missile. The KN-08 is a road-mobile intercontinental missile, meaning Pyongyang can move the launch system throughout the country. In contrast, other long-range missiles must be fired from stationary launch pads.
“It’s the relocatable target set that really impedes our ability to find, fix, and finish the threat,” Adm. Bill Gortney, the commander of NORAD, told reporters in April 2015. “And as the targets move around and we if don’t have the persistent stare and persistent [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] that we do not have over North Korea at this time, that relocatable nature makes it very difficult for us to counter it.”
Heritage notes that Gortney also said in April 2015 that the KN-08 “is operational today. Our assessment is that they have the ability to put a nuclear weapon on a KN-08 and shoot it at the homeland.” [Business Insider]
You can read more at the link.
A group of North Korean soldiers watches a delegation of South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo and his U.S. counterpart Ashton Carter visit the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom inside the Demilitarized Zone, which separates the two Koreas, on Nov. 1, 2015. Carter arrived in South Korea to hold the Security Consultative Meeting, the highest channel for reviewing and coordinating far-reaching issues between the allies, with South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo the next day. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)
This report makes it sound like the US and the ROK will just wake up one day and decide to launch a preemptive attack against North Korea. The reality is that this “4D” concept would likely happen in response to a North Korean provocation to where there is clear intent to launch missiles against the ROK and the US:
The new operational concept jointly adopted by South Korea and the United States to destroy North Korea’s nuclear and missile facilities is expected to prompt the North to launch fresh provocations, sources said Tuesday.
The allies approved the implementation guidance on the “4D Operational Concept” during the annual Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) held in Seoul, Monday, as a means to carry out preemptive strikes against the North’s missile threats, containing nuclear, chemical and biological warheads.
The guidance, which is designed to detect, disrupt, destroy and defend — the 4 “D’s” — has the major implication that the allies have revived the concept of preemptive strikes against the North’s strategic facilities. A ministry official noted on condition of anonymity that “disrupt and destroy” contains the connotation of preemptive strikes.
In an apparent response to the allies’ endorsement of the new operational concept, the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Tuesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un observed a live-fire exercise for anti-aircraft artillery.
Kim was quoted as saying by the KCNA: “We should actively push for the development of a variety of advanced anti-aircraft guns that meet the requirements of modern warfare.”
Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, told reporters, “The report came right after South Korea and the U.S. approved the 4D Operational Concept. It seems the North had the intention to respond to the allies’ cooperation.”
Officials said Seoul and Washington have prepared the guidance since 2013 while having experienced various provocations from Pyongyang including a third nuclear test in February that year and the test-firing of a submarine-launched ballistic missile in May this year.
The preparation comes at a time when the six-party talks aimed at denuclearizing the North remain stalled since late 2008, due to the insistence by the North that it should join the talks with the status of a nuclear power and without any conditions attached.
The guidance will reportedly be reflected in a new joint wartime operational plan between the allies, dubbed Operation Plan (OPLAN) 5015, focused on preemptive strikes on strategic sites in the North. The allies signed OPLAN 5015 in June to replace the existing OPLAN 5027, which was more about how to defend the South. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link.
Jae Jin recently reached freedom through our networks. Read his story: https://t.co/HYUsSNGwws pic.twitter.com/UP9umkQkUW
— Liberty in North Korea (@LibertyinNK) October 30, 2015
I am pretty impressed that North Korea’s Pyeongwha Motors is able to have enough demand in North Korea to support 25 different models of cars:
The United States has Ford. Germany has Volkswagen. Japan has Toyota. And North Korea has Pyeonghwa Motors. Run by Kim Jong-un’s regime, the company produces a tiny number of vehicles at its factory in the city of Nampo, a seaport on North Korea’s west coast. At its sole dealership in the capital Pyongyang, visitors can view its lineup up close, take a test drive and even purchase spare parts. Andray Abrahamian, research director at North Korea-focused nonprofit Choson Exchange, visited the showroom last month, and provided Mashable brochures on the current selection of 25 models: [Mashable]
You can read the rest at the link, but Pyeonghwa Motors was actually started by the South Korean Unification Church and ownership given to the Kim regime. Their cars also average about 80 horsepower which is incredibly slow anywhere else, but like many thing good enough for North Korea.
Taken from a program aired on the North’s Korean Central TV Station on Oct. 27, 2015, the photo shows North Korean modern dancers performing during a celebration marking the 70th anniversary of the country’s ruling Workers’ Party. The broadcast carried 220 minutes of the recorded event. (Yonhap)
That is what the below article in the Daily Beast is speculating on. I have said this for a long time that if the Kim regime was to collapse the South Koreans are going to have immediately move to secure North Korea before the Chinese do. It should also be done without US troops. US troops moving north just legitimizes Chinese intervention into North Korea. Once the Chinese are in the ROK government may never get them out:
At the beginning of last week, Seoul launched a new round of China diplomacy to encourage Beijing to play a “constructive role” in denuclearizing North Korea. Optimally this marks a new era of cooperation between Seoul and Beijing, but it could also be part of a process leading to China’s colonization of the North.
The move follows President Park Geun-hye’s controversial trip to the Chinese capital in early September to participate in the military parade marking the 70thanniversary of the end of World War II. Washington, worried that South Korea was making itself a Chinese satellite, had tried to discourage her from attending the event.
Short of extraordinary measures, there is little the U.S. can do about Park’s increasingly visible tilt to China. Her mission is to seek the peaceful reunification of the two Koreas—her so-called Dresden Initiative announced in March of last year—and she has moved to enlist the Chinese by charming them into cooperation, seeking to engage them at every opportunity.
Park’s efforts to woo China look like they are paying off. Seoul, not Pyongyang, is Beijing’s friend these days on the Korean Peninsula. It is telling that Xi Jinping traveled to Seoul in July 2014, the first time a leader of the People’s Republic visited the South before going to the North. And in fact, he has yet to visit Pyongyang, the capital of his country’s only formal military ally, in his position as China’s president.
Despite all the smiles, the fear in Seoul is that China will frustrate Park’s vision of a unified Korean nation by sending its army south and either leaving behind a puppet regime or even colonizing North Korea. [The Daily Beast]
You can read the rest at the link.
Buses carrying South Koreans to reunions with their North Korean relatives travel along the east coast on their way to the North’s Mount Kumgang on Oct. 24, 2015. (Yonhap)
It looks like the normal probing that occurs along the NLL by the North Koreans:
A North Korean patrol ship crossed the maritime border into the South on Saturday during a beefed-up crackdown on Chinese fishing boats operating near the border, the South Korean military said Sunday.
The South Korean Navy ship fired five warning shots with a 40 mm-caliber gun. The ship retreated to the North 18 minutes after the shots were fired. No damage was seen on the ship, Seoul authorities said.
Pyongyang called the South’s use of the gun a “deliberate military provocation,” warning that the inter-Korean relations could return to the point before the two sides struck a comprehensive deal on Aug. 25 to defuse cross-border tensions.
The North’s vessel came some 700 meters into the South Korean waters at around 3:30 p.m., according to Seoul authorities. At the time, the vessel was carrying out a stepped-up clampdown on some 100 Chinese vessels operating near the Northern Limit Line, the de facto sea border.
“In the process of (the North) making its retreat, there was no naval clash or anything,” said a military official on condition of anonymity. “We are keeping closer tabs on the North Korean military’s movements and strengthening our readiness posture.” [Korea Herald]
You can read more at the link.
