Tag: Seoul

Kazakh Leaps to Death from New Flyover Park https://t.co/pFBQI7HOBq pic.twitter.com/szMLP3i8pM

— The Chosun Ilbo (@EnglishChosun) May 31, 2017

Forget the nukes, North Korea has thousands of pieces of artillery pointed at Seoul. @ReutersGraphics https://t.co/fDSApeUYTm pic.twitter.com/JuRF2bDaGf

— James Pearson (@pearswick) May 26, 2017

Seoul's New Flyover Park Draws Huge Crowds on Opening Day https://t.co/h9iik30RoL pic.twitter.com/8LI8YQgaSw

— The Chosun Ilbo (@EnglishChosun) May 22, 2017

If you live in Seoul and you are wondering how long it would take for North Korea to nuke you, here you go:

The Associated Press(AP) reports that it takes zero to six minutes for a North Korean missile to hit Seoul, around ten minutes to hit Japan and 30 to 39 minutes to reach the capital of the United States.

The AP revealed the data on Wednesday, citing David Wright, scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, and missile analyst Markus Schiller at ST Analytics, a space technology and rocketry consulting company in Germany.

The two experts said if North Korea launches a strike against South Korea using its conventional artillery north of the Demilitarized Zone, the first wave of shells could land with essentially no warning.  [KBS World Radio]

You can read more at the link.

Rock Climber Kim Ja-in Sets Sights on Scaling Lotte World Tower https://t.co/gKocjnpR91 pic.twitter.com/hnQLGJjuOL

— The Chosun Ilbo (@EnglishChosun) May 16, 2017

Residents from the southeastern town of Seongju and nearby Gimcheon rally in front of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul on May 8, 2017, to urge the U.S. Army to stop introducing equipment for the deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defense system to a former golf course in Seongju. They were blocked from presenting a basket of melons (front) to the embassy, as quality melons are a specialty produced in Seongju. In April, U.S. troops began deploying the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense near the town, about 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul. (Yonhap)

What an idiot:

An Australian, whose identity is unknown, has been arrested for defacing a subway car, according to Suseo Police Station Sunday.

According to police, the man, 22, and his girlfriend arrived on Mar. 27, and stayed at a hotel near Hongik University.

The man broke into Gangnam Subway Depot and drew graffiti on a subway car on Apr. 1, after being told wrongly he could do this.

He left for Japan the next day, but was arrested on Sunday after stopping at Incheon International Airport for a flight back to Australia.  [Korea Times]

I wonder if this guy is friends with the group of Australians that defaced these Seoul subway cars two years ago?

This photo, taken on April 29, 2017, shows South Korea’s capital Seoul obscured by fine dust. (Yonhap)

A marathoner runs in a marathon event scaling the 123-story Lotte World Tower in southeastern Seoul on April 23, 2017. Participants raced up the 500-meter 2,917 stairs from the ground floor to the observatory on the top floor of the country’s tallest building. (Yonhap)

If the US was to do a preemptive strike on North Korea’s nuclear program I seriously doubt the North Koreans would respond by launching an artillery strike that would flatten Seoul:

North Korea has a massive amount of artillery dug into bunkers and pointed toward Seoul, and missiles that can reach Japan and other key U.S. allies in the region.

A pre-emptive U.S. strike might slow North Korea’s advancing nuclear program, but there is no effective way of knocking out its ability to retaliate.

“A military strike might alleviate our concerns” about North Korea developing nuclear missiles capable of reaching U.S. cities, said David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security. “But it would mean Seoul could get flattened.”

U.S. intelligence agencies have only sketchy knowledge of North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, which includes ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads. They are scattered around in hardened bunkers. Specialized bombs capable of penetrating bunkers would be required to destroy them.

Some of the missiles are mounted on trucks and can be hidden. “All they would have to do is successfully hide the no-dong missiles,” Albright said. “They have hundreds of them.” The missiles have a range of about 800 to 900 miles.  [USA Today]

You can read the rest at the link, but if North Korea flattened Seoul this would lead to a regime change invasion of North Korea by the ROK and the US.  Kim Jong-un is not suicidal and I believe would instead respond in a limited way that would not lead to a regime change scenario.  I think the Kim regime would focus on conducting an asymmetrical retaliation focused against the United States that would include cyber attacks and possibly launching a limited number of ballistic missiles at US targets.

Does anyone have any opinions on how they think the Kim regime would respond to a preemptive strike on their nuclear and missile programs?