Posts

Bipartisan Group Introduces Tough North Korea Sanctions Bill, as Reclusive Nation Indicts US Tourist

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APBy Fox News. Republican and Democratic lawmakers in the House are proposing to step up sanctions against North Korea amid growing concern over its nuclear programs as Pyongyang plans to indict an American detained for alleged hostile acts against the country.

The bill, crafted by leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and introduced Friday, would punish companies, banks and governments that do prohibited business with North Korea.

Congressional staffers say it’s intended not only to improve enforcement of existing sanctions, but also to expand them. The bill is modeled on sanctions in force against Iran.

The measure reflects growing concern over North Korea’s nuclear weapon and missile development, and frustration over the failure of U.S. policy to stop it.

The bill was introduced by Reps. Ed Royce, R-Calif., and Eliot Engel, D-N.Y. Its prospects for becoming law are uncertain. Read more from this story HERE.

North Korea to indict American tourist

By Reuters. North Korea said on Saturday a Korean-American tourist, who has been held in prison by the reclusive state since late last year, will face trial for “committing crimes” against the North, a move that could further stoke tensions with the United States.

Kenneth Bae, 44, was in a group of five tourists who visited the northeastern city of Rajin on a five-day trip last November and has been held by police since then.

KCNA, the North’s official news agency, said Bae entered the North on November 3.

“In the process of investigation he admitted that he committed crimes aimed to topple the DPRK with hostility toward it,” the KCNA report said, using the North’s official title of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“His crimes were proved by evidence,” it said, adding he would soon be taken to the Supreme Court “to face judgment”. Read more from this story HERE.

Epic Fail: North Korea Rejects U.S. Offer of Direct Talks, Demands Withdrawal From Region

/1 Comment/in , /by

WASHINGTON – North Korea has upped the ante in response to a U.S. call for direct negotiations to lessen tensions on the Korean Peninsula by demanding that the U.S. first withdraw from that part of the world altogether.

However, the tensions are not likely to recede right away because such a position is judged to be a non-starter in the dispute over Pyongyang’s development of nuclear weapons and missile capabilities.

While U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry recently said that the U.S. is prepared for direct talks with Pyongyang to lessen tensions, a North Korean statement said that the pre-condition that it first dismantle its nuclear weapons program is unacceptable.

“The U.S. should understand that a dialogue will begin only when the DPRK’s demand for the withdrawal of strategic offensive means in the vicinity of the peninsula aimed at realizing the U.S. world domination strategy is met,” the statement said.

This statement follows a North Korean rejection of talks on which WND recently reported.

Read more from this story HERE.

N. Korea Denies Any Tie to Boston Bombing

/0 Comments/in , /by

North Korea has denied a WND report that it had any links to the Boston Marathon bombing which killed three people and wounded some 180 people on April 15, the day of North Korea’s commemoration of the 101st anniversary of the country’s founder, Kim Il Sung.

The North Korean news agency, KCNA, or Korean Central News Agency, dismissed the report, saying it was an attempt by “hostile forces” to damage the country’s reputation and raise “false propaganda which does not deserve even a passing note,” even though KCNA devoted an entire commentary to it.

“We stress again that we have no links to al-Qaida and by signing on to international anti-terrorism agreements, continue to maintain a stance against any form of terrorism,” KCNA said in a commentary.

The KCNA commentary added it will not hide behind terrorism if it ever feels the need to strike the U.S.

“When (North Korea) feels necessary to strike the U.S., it would not resort to such heinous terrorism in hiding,” KCNA said.

Read more from this story HERE.

North Korean CHILDREN Being Trained as Soldiers

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Joseph A Ferris III

North Korea’s newest batch of future soldiers — scrawny 11-year-olds with freshly shaved heads — punch the air as they practice taekwondo on the grounds of the Mangyongdae Revolutionary School. Students and teachers here say they’re studying harder these days to prepare for a fight.

Across the country, banners, slogans and artwork have been redrawn to focus on fighting “the imperialist Americans and their traitorous followers,” a reference to South Korea. Slogans on improving North Korea’s economy had dominated since 2009, but anti-American propaganda has re-emerged over the past year, particularly following U.S.-led censure of North Korea’s decision to launch a long-range rocket and test a nuclear bomb.

At the military school, where students work on desktop computers without Internet access and practice their English with chants such as “The respected Marshal Kim Jong Un is our father,” classwork is infused with conflict.

“Because of the present situation, I am trying to study harder, because I really think that’s how I can get my revenge on the American imperialists: by getting top marks in class,” one student, Jo Chung Hyok, told The Associated Press.

“It’s my revolutionary duty,” Jo said. “I’m working extra hard to get top marks in military subjects like tactics and shooting.”

Read more from this story HERE.

North Korea Says it Won't Warn South Korea Before an Attack

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

By Jethro Mullen. North Korea is raising the temperature on its neighbors, saying in its latest threat that it would not give any advance warning before any attack on South Korea.

“Our retaliatory action will start without any notice from now,” Pyongyang said in a statement published Tuesday by its official news agency, KCNA.

North Korea said it was responding to what it called insults from the “puppet authorities” in the South, claiming that there had been a rally against North Korea in Seoul — a rally it called a “monstrous criminal act.”

The renewed menacing rhetoric came a day after North Koreans celebrated the birthday of their country’s founder, Kim Il Sung, who launched the Korean War.

Kim Min-seok, a spokesman for the South Korean Defense Ministry, said the latest threat from the North was regrettable. Read more from this story HERE.

North Korea, Marking Leader’s Birthday, Shows More Ire

By Eric Talmadge. After a day of festivities to mark the 101st birthday of its first leader, North Korea on Tuesday offered new prickly rhetoric against the United States and South Korea, which are watching closely for signs whether it will conduct a medium-range missile test in defiance of international concerns.

State media said the Supreme Command of the Korean People’s Army issued an ultimatum demanding an apology from South Korea for “hostile acts” and threatening that unspecified retaliatory actions would happen at any time.

The statement, relayed through the KCNA state media agency, came after a day of festivities in North Korea’s capital that featured art performances, public dances and crowds thronging to giant bronze statues to pay homage to the late leader Kim Il Sung,

The renewed rhetoric was sparked by a protest in downtown Seoul, where effigies of Kim Il Sung and his son and successor, late leader Kim Jong Il, were burned. Such protests are not unusual in South Korea and this one likely gave the North a pretext to react negatively to calls for joining in dialogue with its neighbors than an actual cause for retaliation.

The North’s statement said it would refuse any offers of talks with the South until it apologized for the “monstrous criminal act.” North Korea often denounces such protests, but rarely in the name of the Supreme Command, which is headed by Kim Il Sung’s grandson and North Korea’s new leader, Kim Jong Un. Read more from this story HERE.

China points finger at U.S. over Asia-Pacific tensions

By Ben Blanchard. China’s defense ministry made a thinly veiled attack on the United States on Tuesday for increasing tensions in the Asia-Pacific by ramping up its military presence and alliances in the region, days after the top U.S. diplomat visited Beijing.

China is uneasy with what the United States has called the “rebalancing” of forces as Washington winds down the war in Afghanistan and renews its attention further east.

China says the policy has emboldened Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam in longstanding territorial disputes with Beijing.

China faces “multiple and complicated security threats” despite its growing influence, the Ministry of Defense said in its annual white paper, adding that the U.S. strategy meant “profound changes” for Asia.

“There are some countries which are strengthening their Asia Pacific military alliances, expanding their military presence in the region and frequently make the situation there tenser,” the ministry said in the 40-page document, in a clear reference to the United States. Read more from this story HERE.

Iran Warns of World War III

/1 Comment/in , /by

Iran ratcheted up its vitriol against Israel and the United States over the weekend, warning that an attack on the Islamic regime’s nuclear facilities could lead to global war.

The rhetoric eerily matched that currently coming out of North Korea against its perceived enemies.

“Iran will not stand by in the face of such aggression,” Ali Ahani, Iran’s ambassador to France, said Sunday, according to the Islamic regime’s PressTV. “This can entail a chain of violence that may lead to World war III. A potential Israeli attack against Iran with an objective of destroying its scientific and nuclear facilities is sheer madness. Its consequences are disastrous and uncontrollable.”

The deputy chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, Brig. Gen Masoud Jazayeri, warned the United States on Saturday that Iran would continue its nuclear program.

“We would not trade off our rights,” he said, adding that Iran would stand with North Korea in its faceoff with America.

Read more from this story HERE.

North Korea Produces Video Depicting Nuke Attack on US, While China "Commits" to Help Defuse Situation

/6 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Washington Post

By Elizabeth Weise. A video released by Saturday by North Korea shows nuclear launches against the United States reaching four sites, including Washington, D.C., California, Hawaii and what the announcer describes as Colorado Springs, but which looks like Arkansas. U.S. officials were clear they did not believe the belligerent nation has missiles capable of reaching the United States.

The video was released Saturday on Uriminzokkiri, a North Korean government web site. It has also been posted on YouTube.

In it, each of the U.S. targets explodes into a ball of flames as the missiles strike on the map. The Colorado Springs attack is presumably because the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) is located near there, as well as the U.S. Air Force Academy. However based on the map the North Koreans posted, the attack site is actually in either southern Arkansas or northern Louisiana.

The video, typical of North Korean propaganda, is introduced by a male voiceover while a female news anchor in the traditional Korean hanbok dress reads from news headlines. The images are accompanied by synthesizer music and sounds of thunder. Further in, jarring montages of missile launches and military equipment are accompanied by what sound like 1970s power rock guitar solos. The video had more than 225,000 hits on YouTube by Saturday afternoon. Read more from this story HERE.

Kerry assured: China committed to getting N. Korea to abandon nuclear weapons

By Guy Taylor. After a day of diplomatic talks with Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Saturday, Chinese authorities claimed they are committed to working “peacefully” toward the goal of getting North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons.

“We maintain that the issue should be handled and resolved peacefully through dialogue and consultation,” China’s State Councilor Yang Jiechi said on Saturday evening in Beijing while sitting beside Mr. Kerry at a restaurant in the Chinese Capitol.

“To promptly address the Korean nuclear issue serves the common interests of all parties,” said Mr. Yang. “It is also the shared responsibility of all parties.”

The remarks created the appearance of fresh unity between Beijing and Washington, where the Obama administration hoped that Mr. Kerry would be able to convince Chinese leaders to take a more active role in encouraging North Korea to tone down its recent nuclear threats.

Mr. Yang, however, took care to avoid making any specific commitments with regard to actions China is willing to take to pressure the North Korean military or the nation’s 28-year-old leader Kim Jong-un to give up the nation’s nuclear arsenal and back away from the recent wave of antagonistic posturing. Read more from this story HERE.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offers many faces, many threats

By Ernesto Londoño. When Kim Jong Un first appeared in Pyongyang’s carefully stage-managed public spotlight in the fall of 2010, North Korea watchers began scouring for clues to learn whether the pudgy heir apparent would be a reformist or simply the newest face of a despotic regime.

Nearly 16 months after taking the reins of the hermit state following the death of his stoic father, North Korea’s 30-year-old leader appears to be careening toward the latter — at least on the surface.

Having disavowed his country’s armistice with South Korea and threatened to fire his increasingly capable missiles toward the United States, Kim has put the Korean Peninsula and Washington on a war footing. His behavior follows the playbook of his predecessors, with one notable and potentially dangerous departure that appears to have him backed into a corner.

“His father and his grandfather always figured into their provocation cycle an off-ramp of how to get out of it,” Adm. Samuel Locklear III, the commander of U.S. troops in the Pacific, told Congress this past week. “It’s not clear to me that he has thought through how to get out of it. This is what makes this scenario, I think, particularly challenging.”

Making sense of the Kims has been more of an art than a science. A cadre of North Korea scholars has spent decades piecing together a portrait of the eccentric, secretive family by poring through mounds of propaganda, defector accounts and the limited, sporadic contact the regime has had with the West. While acknowledging that Kim Jong Un remains an enigma, experts in the intricacies of Pyongyang say a careful study suggests his recent bout of bellicose rhetoric probably represents a desperate cry for legitimacy rather than a genuine appetite for combat.Read more from this story HERE.

Pentagon Slip May Cause Israel to Fast-Track Plans to Attack Iran

/3 Comments/in , /by

Analysts fear a dramatic advance in North Korea’s nuclear missile technology, revealed inadvertently during a Congressional hearing Thursday, will quickly find its way to Iran — forcing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fast-track a long-contemplated attack against Tehran’s nuclear-enrichment facilities.

Pentagon officials are playing down a U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency assessment that North Korea probably has the ability to miniaturize a nuclear weapon and place it on an ICBM. U.S. officials say that miniaturization capability, if it exists, is untested and unreliable.

In February, North Korea detonated what is described as a “lighter, miniaturized atomic bomb.” At the time, there was speculation this could signal the Hermit Kingdom had developed a nuclear warhead that it could place on its long-range missiles. Pentagon officials, however, continued to insist North Korea was at least a year away from developing that capability.

Jerusalem Post defense analyst Yaakov Katz, author of “Israel vs. Iran: The Shadow War,” tells Newsmax that U.S. and Israeli intelligence officials have generally agreed that it would take Iran six to 12 months to build a nuclear device once it tried to break out and enrich its material from the 20-percent to the 90-percent level required. Beyond that, intelligence experts have projected, it would then take Iran another year or two to produce a miniaturized warhead that could be installed on a missile.

Now, Katz says, the time lag between reaching nuclear capability and Iran’s ability to arm a missile with a nuclear warhead appears to have vanished. That means Thursday’s revelation could reduce Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nonmilitary options against Iran, forcing the Jewish state to step up its timetable for attacking the Persian nation should it acquire enough enriched uranium to be a significant threat.

Read more from this story HERE.

N. Korea May be Able to Deliver Nuke, Pentagon Intel Says

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: CNN

The Pentagon’s intelligence arm has assessed with “moderate confidence” that North Korea has the ability to deliver a nuclear weapon with a ballistic missile, though the reliability is believed to be “low.”

Disclosed first by a congressman at a hearing on Thursday and then confirmed to CNN by the Defense Department, the assessment by the Defense Intelligence Agency is the clearest acknowledgment yet by the United States about potential advances in North Korea’s nuclear program.

The surprise development comes amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea has unleashed a torrent of dramatic threats against the United States and South Korea in recent weeks, including that of a possible nuclear strike.

The Obama administration calculates a test launch of mobile ballistic missiles could come at any time. But a senior administration official said there is no indication that missiles believed being readied for tests have been armed with any nuclear material. Read more from this story HERE.

Lawmaker Catches Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff ‘Off-Guard’, Reveals Probable North Korean Nuclear Capability

By Anna Mulrine. The results of a classified Defense Intelligence Agency report indicate that “North Korea now has nuclear weapons capable of delivery by ballistic missiles.”

That was the bombshell out of a House Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday.

It came when Rep. Doug Lamborn (R) of Colorado began quoting from what he said was an unclassified version of the DIA report, which has not yet been made public.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, the nation’s top military officer, appeared caught off-guard. The Pentagon has in recent days sought to strike a balance between words of warning to the North and attempts to calm the situation. General Dempsey’s reaction suggested that he was not pleased to have the DIA assessment made public, as it could further stoke anxieties over what is already a enormously tense international standoff.

Representative Lamborn read from the report toward the end of a defense budget hearing. Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Screwing Up in North Korea

/10 Comments/in , , , /by

photo credit: petersnoopy

After the Obama Administration publicly blamed the U.S. Military for “amping up” North Korea’s boy-leader last week, it is continuing its deferential posture toward the reclusive country.

Today, the Pentagon announced that it is canceling a previously planned Minuteman III ballistic missile test to avoid upsetting ‘Supreme Leader’ Kim Jong Un.

Despite the arrival of B-2’s and other significant U.S. assets over the last week, sources are continuing to report that North Korea is not only prepping for another missile launch but may also be preparing for another nuclear detonation.

Additionally, the Chinese have now reported live-fire maneuvers near the border.

If Obama wishes to put an end to North Korea’s games, he’s certainly going about it the wrong way. Publicly blaming your own military and interrupting long-planned tests upon which our national security depends plays directly into the little dictator’s hands.

Kim Jong Un now has bragging rights that he forced the world’s superpower to blink, something that has likely earned his hard-line military’s respect. Obama has almost certainly guaranteed that we’ll see the same type of scenario play out, yet again, in the not-so-distant future.