North Korea Defence Forum
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thesolar65
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Was the fat kid on that Balcony? If yes, then Trump missed a great opportunity!
One big missile or bomb and the entire tension gone!
One big missile or bomb and the entire tension gone!
Fat kid has been mad and no comments about his hair cut.
More pertaining question is - Kim has unveiled very fat and long ICBM no one thought existed before. Will that be good enough for Trump from escalating or he wants to keep his word and take next step. US media and establishment already surprised by new toy Kim put out.
Not to mention, Kim has keen sense of business, he is showing what is available on TOT basis.
More pertaining question is - Kim has unveiled very fat and long ICBM no one thought existed before. Will that be good enough for Trump from escalating or he wants to keep his word and take next step. US media and establishment already surprised by new toy Kim put out.
Not to mention, Kim has keen sense of business, he is showing what is available on TOT basis.
Stuttgart001
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Really?
I just check the news on website and there's nothing new except the parade.
Jlaw
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Beware of new members. Especially ones who don't understand geopolitics at all pretending to be ChineseThe guy thinks China is just gonna watch, let US do all the work. Once Fat Kim is gone, US will let China pick a successor.
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LeGenD
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This Is How America Keeps Watch Over North Korea From The Sky
On April 12, 2017, one of the U.S. Air Force’s WC-135 Constant Phoenix aircraft, which scoops up air to search for tell-tale signs of nuclear activity, landed at Kadena Air Base on the Japanese island of Okinawa. The plane’s arrival wasn’t surprising given widespread concern North Korea was prepping a sixth nuclear test coupled with reports of a potential American military response.
"U.S. intelligence is always on alert for a possible North Korean weapons test," an unnamed individual from the U.S. Intelligence Community told VOA on April 13, 2017. North Korean leader "Kim Jong Un wants his country to be validated as a nuclear power and a test would further that goal." This new nuclear test could coincide with the annual Day of the Sun, a massive, annual national holiday commemorating the birth of the country’s founder and Kim Jong Un’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung. It would be North Korea’s sixth reported detonation of a nuclear weapon.
But the WC-135W Constant Phoenix’s arrival just added one more aircraft to an existing armada of spy planes and drones on and around the Korean Peninsula. Whenever a U.S. official says the American government is closely monitoring the situation in North Korea, aerial snooping is undoubtedly an important source of that information.
The reclusive Communist regime has long been a major point of interest for America’s military. The United States and North Korea technically remain at war, bound only by a long-standing ceasefire agreement. Still, the Pentagon, as well as other U.S. intelligence agencies, has become more and more focused on the country’s activities in recent years.
On Oct. 9, 2006, the isolated dictatorship conducted its first reported nuclear test at the remote Punggye-ri site, which experts believed failed function properly. In the next decade, the country’s government set off four more devices. On top of that, the expanding and improving North Korean missile arsenal, which might be able to carry those devastating weapons, has become increasingly a matter of concern for the United States and its allies.
“Pyongyang’s evolving ballistic missile and nuclear weapons program underscore the growing threat,” Air Force General John Hyten, head of U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) told Senators during a hearing on April 4, 2017. “It continues to defy international norms and resolutions, as demonstrated by a number of provocative actions this past year, including their fourth and fifth nuclear tests.”
Getting imagery and other details about those experiments and associated tests sites would be essential to understanding the true state of North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. America’s array of powerful spy satellites would be one option. Unfortunately, satellites have regular orbits and it generally takes time to adjust them into new positions. This generally makes them best suited for long-term surveillance of static points.
The Pentagon’s Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) employs multiple types of satellites and sensors to address some of these issues and provide greater coverage. According to defense contracter Lockheed Martin, the constellation can watch for the heat signature of enemy missile launches and track them in flight, gather details about those weapons and their capabilities, and simply provide a broad picture of activities down below. The system may even be sensitive enough to track smaller objects like aircraft and artillery rockets and can reportedly watched the shoot down of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2017.
Closer to earth, spy planes and drones are almost constantly zipping around North Korea. The Air Force and the Army have spy planes and unmanned reconnaissance aircraft permanently deployed in the region specifically to keep watch on the country and its bellicose government.
On the Air Force side there is the 5th Reconnaissance Squadron, the 82nd Reconnaissance Squadron, and the Detachment 1, 69th Reconnaissance Group. The 5th’s U-2S Dragon Ladies are situated at Osan Air Base in South Korea, which sits less than 20 miles from the capital Seoul and about 50 miles from the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the country from North Korea. The 69th keeps a small number of RQ-4A Global Hawks at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam and often sends them on temporary duty to bases in Japan.
The U-2s don't fly directly over North Korea, as they would likely be too vulnerable to the country’s air defenses to do so even in a combat situation. However, with its long endurance, the aircraft can still patrol around the edges of international air space for hours on end, and peer deeply into the secluded country.
This would put them more than close enough for various sensors packages to potentially pick up useful intelligence. Though best known historically for its ability to take pictures while directly over a particular place of interest, the Dragon lady can carry the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar System-2 (ASARS-2) and the Senior Glass electronic intelligence suite.
ASARS-2 would allow pilots to fly up and down the Yellow and East Seas, grabbing radar imagery well inland of the North Korean coastline. The exact range of Senior Glass’ components is classified, but it is reasonable to assume it could detect and intercept North Korean radio chatter and other electronic emissions far enough away to keep the Dragon Ladies out of any imminent danger.
Able to fly at high altitudes, the U-2 could conceivably use a slanted flight pattern to point the long-range, hyperspectral cameras in the Senior Year Electro-optical Reconnaissance System 2 (SYERS-2) or even the wide-angle Optical Bar Camera at targets along the border, as well. Customary international law would let the planes fly within 12 miles of the country's coastline.
For some time prior to June 2008, the Air Force nicknamed these so-called “multi-intelligence” U-2 missions focusing on North Korea as Sable Game. Then for unknown reasons, the 9th Reconnaissance Wing, which controls the 5th in Osan, began referring to the flights as Ginger Game sorties. It is possible this name has changed again since then.
Satellite data links, known as Senior Span and Senior Spur, mean the spy planes can send back some of this information back to base while still in flight so analyst can begin picking it apart. The Air Force has the 694th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group at Osan in part to help “exploit” this kind of data.
Intended as an unmanned replacement for the U-2, the RQ-4A can carry many of the same sensors and perform many of the same functions. Having to fly from Guam would reduce how much time the Global Hawks could spend near North Korea, but dispatching them from Japan greatly increases their utility over the Peninsula.
Every summer, from May to October, the 69th sends its aircraft to Japan ostensibly to get the drones out of the way of typhoons. This year, no less than five RQ-4s will be sent to Japan. On April 10, 2017, the Global Hawks arrived at Yokota Air Base for their 2017 deployment. In the past, smaller detachments, usually just a pair of the large unmanned aircraft, have gone to Misawa Air Base.
The RC-135V/W Rivet Joints from the 82nd Reconnaissance Squadron focus on listening in on other country’s military units and fly throughout the Pacific from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan. Unlike the U-2s with their single pilot, the Rivet Joints can carry more linguists and analysts on board to begin looking into information immediately. Data links let the crews pass both raw information and any analysis back to base.
Since 2006, Rivet Joint missions have occurred under the nicknames Sable Wind and Ginger Wind. If it’s not already becoming clear, the words “sable” and “ginger” have and may still refer to Air Force spying around North Korea, while the second word indicates the actual aerial intelligence platform.
In addition to these Air Force assets, the Army’s 3rd Military Intelligence Battalion has a whole fleet of smaller, shorter range intelligence gathering aircraft based at Camp Humphreys, less than 100 miles south of Seoul. As of June 2015, this included eight RC-12X Guardrail Common Sensors (GRCS), three EO-5C Airborne Reconnaissance Low-Multisensors (ARL-M), and three so-called “Saturn Arch” aircraft, according a table the service released as part of a contract announcement.
The RC-12X is a militarized twin-engine Beechcraft King Air light utility aircraft with a signals intelligence (SIGINT) setup that can find and listen in on enemy communications. The four-engine EO-5C, which uses the de Havilland Canada DHC-7 airframe, has similar capabilities, along with synthetic aperture radar and powerful day and night-capable video cameras. You can regularly spot the ARL-Ms flying along the DMZ, scanning for any activity on the other side of heavily guarded border.
We don’t know the exact sensor suite in the Saturn Arch aircraft, which the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) first fielded in 2010 to help find improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan. Contractor-operated Bombardier Dash-8 aircraft carried the gear, which likely included some combination hyper-spectral cameras, laser-imaging systems, and airborne ground penetrating radars. These systems would be able to pick out changes in the terrain indicating someone had been digging or even spot suspicious objects buried close to the surface.
In 2013, the Army’s Intelligence and Security Command, which had already assisted NGA with the project in Afghanistan, took over the Saturn Arch program completely. Two years later, three of the four of the aircraft had moved to South Korea. Though there is little concern about IEDs in South Korea, North Korea does have a long history of trying to dig tunnels under the DMZ for secret agents and commando teams. The sensors on the Dash-8s could potentially hept spot this kind of covert activity as well as keep an eye on physical changes across the DMZ.
In March 2017, the Army also announced it was sending a company of MQ-1C Gray Eagle drones to join the 2nd Infantry Division, which has elements throughout South Korea. The pilotless planes can perform attack and reconnaissance duties already, thanks to a electo-optical system that can see during the day and at night. The service plans to eventually buy a detachable SIGINT pod for the Gray Eagle that could expand the aircraft’s intelligence gathering capabilities as necessary.
And then there's the U.S. Navy's Task Force 72, the unit overseeing the U.S. Seventh Fleet's aerial patrol and reconnaissance forces. P-3C Orion and P-8A Poseidon patrol aircraft and EP-3E Aries II spy planes rotate through deployments to the unit's bases at Naval Air Stations Atsugi and Misawa Air Base in Japan. From there, they make routine trips to South Korea proper for training exercises. The EP-3E Aries IIs are dedicated intelligence gathers, but all three types could help monitor North Korean developments.
The P-3s and P-8s are multi-purpose aircraft that can hunt submarines and surface ships. As such, they have full-motion cameras that work during the day or at night, as well as powerful radars. These systems can easily do double duty as surveillance equipment scoping out targets along the coastline. There is also a good possibility the Navy might decide to ultimately replace the EP-3Es with an intelligence-focused variant of the P-8.
The Poseidon already has strong electronic intelligence gathering capabilities and In 2014, the service tested a version of the P-3's shadowy Littoral Surveillance Radar System, dubbed the Advanced Airborne Sensor on the P-8.This cumbersome but incredibly capable system will be coming online in an operational form soon. Also, the P-8 has been tested with what appears to be an elaborate communications pod that could make it a major player in the signals intelligence gathering game, and may allow the 737 derivative to take over some of the EP-3's missions.
The Air Force also routinely rotates other aircraft from its fleet of airliner-sized RC-135s to bases in Japan. From there, they conduct both scheduled patrols and contingency missions in response to potential crises.
The RC-135S Cobra Ball and RC-135U Combat Sent have very different missions. The Air Force’s three Cobra Balls have specialized gear to track ballistic missile launches, which is especially important when it comes to North Korea. The two Combat Sents have equipment to detect and analyze electronic emissions from sites on the ground. Among other things, this means they can find and determine the relative capabilities of radar installations, a key component in figuring out the actual strength of an air defense network. This information could be an important part of planning any strikes against well-protected North Korean targets such as missile test facilities, regime targets or nuclear sites.
The Combat Sents have flown Ginger Sent sorties, suggesting a specific focus on North Korea. The two Cobra Balls operate as part of unified, world-wide STRATCOM-led effort to track long-range missile activity – even in friendly countries like India and Israel – called Olympic Titan. The Air Force’s pair of Constant Phoenixes are similarly part of STRATCOM’s larger nuke monitoring mission, Glass Titan.
There is also the strong possibility the Air Force may be flying one of its more shadowy spy planes or drones deep into North Korea. In September 2009, the secretive 30th Reconnaissance Squadron sent stealthy RQ-170 Sentinels to Kunsan Air Base in South Korea. While we don’t know exactly what their missions from Kunsan entailed, the deployment came less than five months after North Korean authorities conducted their second nuclear test at Punggye-ri, which appeared to be successful.
What we do know is that the Sentinels are exactly the kind of asset the Pentagon would use to sneak deep into a denied territory like North Korea to spy on sensitive locations. With the apparent preparation for a sixth nuclear test, the RQ-170 could very well be flying highly classified missions over North Korea, examining its nuclear and rocket facilities and patterns of life around regime targets. The so called RQ-180, supposedly a high-flying penetrating strategic reconnaissance top secret aircraft that is known to exist even by the USAF's own admission, might well be flying new missions over the country as well.
And then there’s a slew of other aircraft that could perform varying levels of surveillance if necessary. Land bases in the region host E-3 and E-8 radar planes, E-8 maritime patrol aircraft, F-16 and F/A-18 fighter jets with advanced radar warning receivers and camera-equipped targeting pods, and advanced F-35 Joint Strike Fighters with their integrated electro-optical sensor and electronic support measures suites.
In January 2017, the U.S. Marine Corps sent an operational contingent of F-35Bs to the Marine base at Iwakuni in Japan for the first time, making them available for various missions in the event of a crisis. They are currently operating in South Korea right now. The Air Force's F-22 Raptor's have also made surprise visits to the Peninsula and surely they put their uncanny ability to sniff-out radar and other electronic emissions to use.
F/A-18s and F-35s could operate from carriers – like the USS Carl Vinson, which started heading for the Korean Peninsula this week – or amphibious ships. A supercarrier's air wing is equipped with a cadre of E-2 Hawkeyes that can monitor aerial movements deep into North Korean airspace. Marine Corps aircraft, including helicopter and fast jets, can strap on highly capable electronic surveillance and jamming pods, like the Intrepid Tiger II, to keep tabs on enemy electronic emissions and communications along the DMZ.
With various radars and other surveillance gear, American cruisers, destroyers, and most importantly submarines all have the ability to snoop around North Korea’s coastlines, too. President Donald Trump specifically mentioned the presence of subs in the area during an interview with Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo on April 12, 2017.
In all, North Korea may be one of the most heavily monitored places on earth. And we have only mentioned America's surveillance assets. South Korea and Japan have their own fleets of spy aircraft with varying capabilities.
Whether Pyongyang decides to set off another nuclear bomb or not, it’s safe to say the Pentagon has the ability to keep a close watch what’s going on inside the reclusive country.
Source: http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...ica-keeps-watch-over-north-korea-from-the-sky
On April 12, 2017, one of the U.S. Air Force’s WC-135 Constant Phoenix aircraft, which scoops up air to search for tell-tale signs of nuclear activity, landed at Kadena Air Base on the Japanese island of Okinawa. The plane’s arrival wasn’t surprising given widespread concern North Korea was prepping a sixth nuclear test coupled with reports of a potential American military response.
"U.S. intelligence is always on alert for a possible North Korean weapons test," an unnamed individual from the U.S. Intelligence Community told VOA on April 13, 2017. North Korean leader "Kim Jong Un wants his country to be validated as a nuclear power and a test would further that goal." This new nuclear test could coincide with the annual Day of the Sun, a massive, annual national holiday commemorating the birth of the country’s founder and Kim Jong Un’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung. It would be North Korea’s sixth reported detonation of a nuclear weapon.
But the WC-135W Constant Phoenix’s arrival just added one more aircraft to an existing armada of spy planes and drones on and around the Korean Peninsula. Whenever a U.S. official says the American government is closely monitoring the situation in North Korea, aerial snooping is undoubtedly an important source of that information.
The reclusive Communist regime has long been a major point of interest for America’s military. The United States and North Korea technically remain at war, bound only by a long-standing ceasefire agreement. Still, the Pentagon, as well as other U.S. intelligence agencies, has become more and more focused on the country’s activities in recent years.
On Oct. 9, 2006, the isolated dictatorship conducted its first reported nuclear test at the remote Punggye-ri site, which experts believed failed function properly. In the next decade, the country’s government set off four more devices. On top of that, the expanding and improving North Korean missile arsenal, which might be able to carry those devastating weapons, has become increasingly a matter of concern for the United States and its allies.
“Pyongyang’s evolving ballistic missile and nuclear weapons program underscore the growing threat,” Air Force General John Hyten, head of U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) told Senators during a hearing on April 4, 2017. “It continues to defy international norms and resolutions, as demonstrated by a number of provocative actions this past year, including their fourth and fifth nuclear tests.”
Getting imagery and other details about those experiments and associated tests sites would be essential to understanding the true state of North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. America’s array of powerful spy satellites would be one option. Unfortunately, satellites have regular orbits and it generally takes time to adjust them into new positions. This generally makes them best suited for long-term surveillance of static points.
The Pentagon’s Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) employs multiple types of satellites and sensors to address some of these issues and provide greater coverage. According to defense contracter Lockheed Martin, the constellation can watch for the heat signature of enemy missile launches and track them in flight, gather details about those weapons and their capabilities, and simply provide a broad picture of activities down below. The system may even be sensitive enough to track smaller objects like aircraft and artillery rockets and can reportedly watched the shoot down of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2017.
Closer to earth, spy planes and drones are almost constantly zipping around North Korea. The Air Force and the Army have spy planes and unmanned reconnaissance aircraft permanently deployed in the region specifically to keep watch on the country and its bellicose government.
On the Air Force side there is the 5th Reconnaissance Squadron, the 82nd Reconnaissance Squadron, and the Detachment 1, 69th Reconnaissance Group. The 5th’s U-2S Dragon Ladies are situated at Osan Air Base in South Korea, which sits less than 20 miles from the capital Seoul and about 50 miles from the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the country from North Korea. The 69th keeps a small number of RQ-4A Global Hawks at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam and often sends them on temporary duty to bases in Japan.
The U-2s don't fly directly over North Korea, as they would likely be too vulnerable to the country’s air defenses to do so even in a combat situation. However, with its long endurance, the aircraft can still patrol around the edges of international air space for hours on end, and peer deeply into the secluded country.
This would put them more than close enough for various sensors packages to potentially pick up useful intelligence. Though best known historically for its ability to take pictures while directly over a particular place of interest, the Dragon lady can carry the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar System-2 (ASARS-2) and the Senior Glass electronic intelligence suite.
ASARS-2 would allow pilots to fly up and down the Yellow and East Seas, grabbing radar imagery well inland of the North Korean coastline. The exact range of Senior Glass’ components is classified, but it is reasonable to assume it could detect and intercept North Korean radio chatter and other electronic emissions far enough away to keep the Dragon Ladies out of any imminent danger.
Able to fly at high altitudes, the U-2 could conceivably use a slanted flight pattern to point the long-range, hyperspectral cameras in the Senior Year Electro-optical Reconnaissance System 2 (SYERS-2) or even the wide-angle Optical Bar Camera at targets along the border, as well. Customary international law would let the planes fly within 12 miles of the country's coastline.
For some time prior to June 2008, the Air Force nicknamed these so-called “multi-intelligence” U-2 missions focusing on North Korea as Sable Game. Then for unknown reasons, the 9th Reconnaissance Wing, which controls the 5th in Osan, began referring to the flights as Ginger Game sorties. It is possible this name has changed again since then.
Satellite data links, known as Senior Span and Senior Spur, mean the spy planes can send back some of this information back to base while still in flight so analyst can begin picking it apart. The Air Force has the 694th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group at Osan in part to help “exploit” this kind of data.
Intended as an unmanned replacement for the U-2, the RQ-4A can carry many of the same sensors and perform many of the same functions. Having to fly from Guam would reduce how much time the Global Hawks could spend near North Korea, but dispatching them from Japan greatly increases their utility over the Peninsula.
Every summer, from May to October, the 69th sends its aircraft to Japan ostensibly to get the drones out of the way of typhoons. This year, no less than five RQ-4s will be sent to Japan. On April 10, 2017, the Global Hawks arrived at Yokota Air Base for their 2017 deployment. In the past, smaller detachments, usually just a pair of the large unmanned aircraft, have gone to Misawa Air Base.
The RC-135V/W Rivet Joints from the 82nd Reconnaissance Squadron focus on listening in on other country’s military units and fly throughout the Pacific from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan. Unlike the U-2s with their single pilot, the Rivet Joints can carry more linguists and analysts on board to begin looking into information immediately. Data links let the crews pass both raw information and any analysis back to base.
Since 2006, Rivet Joint missions have occurred under the nicknames Sable Wind and Ginger Wind. If it’s not already becoming clear, the words “sable” and “ginger” have and may still refer to Air Force spying around North Korea, while the second word indicates the actual aerial intelligence platform.
In addition to these Air Force assets, the Army’s 3rd Military Intelligence Battalion has a whole fleet of smaller, shorter range intelligence gathering aircraft based at Camp Humphreys, less than 100 miles south of Seoul. As of June 2015, this included eight RC-12X Guardrail Common Sensors (GRCS), three EO-5C Airborne Reconnaissance Low-Multisensors (ARL-M), and three so-called “Saturn Arch” aircraft, according a table the service released as part of a contract announcement.
The RC-12X is a militarized twin-engine Beechcraft King Air light utility aircraft with a signals intelligence (SIGINT) setup that can find and listen in on enemy communications. The four-engine EO-5C, which uses the de Havilland Canada DHC-7 airframe, has similar capabilities, along with synthetic aperture radar and powerful day and night-capable video cameras. You can regularly spot the ARL-Ms flying along the DMZ, scanning for any activity on the other side of heavily guarded border.
We don’t know the exact sensor suite in the Saturn Arch aircraft, which the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) first fielded in 2010 to help find improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan. Contractor-operated Bombardier Dash-8 aircraft carried the gear, which likely included some combination hyper-spectral cameras, laser-imaging systems, and airborne ground penetrating radars. These systems would be able to pick out changes in the terrain indicating someone had been digging or even spot suspicious objects buried close to the surface.
In 2013, the Army’s Intelligence and Security Command, which had already assisted NGA with the project in Afghanistan, took over the Saturn Arch program completely. Two years later, three of the four of the aircraft had moved to South Korea. Though there is little concern about IEDs in South Korea, North Korea does have a long history of trying to dig tunnels under the DMZ for secret agents and commando teams. The sensors on the Dash-8s could potentially hept spot this kind of covert activity as well as keep an eye on physical changes across the DMZ.
In March 2017, the Army also announced it was sending a company of MQ-1C Gray Eagle drones to join the 2nd Infantry Division, which has elements throughout South Korea. The pilotless planes can perform attack and reconnaissance duties already, thanks to a electo-optical system that can see during the day and at night. The service plans to eventually buy a detachable SIGINT pod for the Gray Eagle that could expand the aircraft’s intelligence gathering capabilities as necessary.
And then there's the U.S. Navy's Task Force 72, the unit overseeing the U.S. Seventh Fleet's aerial patrol and reconnaissance forces. P-3C Orion and P-8A Poseidon patrol aircraft and EP-3E Aries II spy planes rotate through deployments to the unit's bases at Naval Air Stations Atsugi and Misawa Air Base in Japan. From there, they make routine trips to South Korea proper for training exercises. The EP-3E Aries IIs are dedicated intelligence gathers, but all three types could help monitor North Korean developments.
The P-3s and P-8s are multi-purpose aircraft that can hunt submarines and surface ships. As such, they have full-motion cameras that work during the day or at night, as well as powerful radars. These systems can easily do double duty as surveillance equipment scoping out targets along the coastline. There is also a good possibility the Navy might decide to ultimately replace the EP-3Es with an intelligence-focused variant of the P-8.
The Poseidon already has strong electronic intelligence gathering capabilities and In 2014, the service tested a version of the P-3's shadowy Littoral Surveillance Radar System, dubbed the Advanced Airborne Sensor on the P-8.This cumbersome but incredibly capable system will be coming online in an operational form soon. Also, the P-8 has been tested with what appears to be an elaborate communications pod that could make it a major player in the signals intelligence gathering game, and may allow the 737 derivative to take over some of the EP-3's missions.
The Air Force also routinely rotates other aircraft from its fleet of airliner-sized RC-135s to bases in Japan. From there, they conduct both scheduled patrols and contingency missions in response to potential crises.
The RC-135S Cobra Ball and RC-135U Combat Sent have very different missions. The Air Force’s three Cobra Balls have specialized gear to track ballistic missile launches, which is especially important when it comes to North Korea. The two Combat Sents have equipment to detect and analyze electronic emissions from sites on the ground. Among other things, this means they can find and determine the relative capabilities of radar installations, a key component in figuring out the actual strength of an air defense network. This information could be an important part of planning any strikes against well-protected North Korean targets such as missile test facilities, regime targets or nuclear sites.
The Combat Sents have flown Ginger Sent sorties, suggesting a specific focus on North Korea. The two Cobra Balls operate as part of unified, world-wide STRATCOM-led effort to track long-range missile activity – even in friendly countries like India and Israel – called Olympic Titan. The Air Force’s pair of Constant Phoenixes are similarly part of STRATCOM’s larger nuke monitoring mission, Glass Titan.
There is also the strong possibility the Air Force may be flying one of its more shadowy spy planes or drones deep into North Korea. In September 2009, the secretive 30th Reconnaissance Squadron sent stealthy RQ-170 Sentinels to Kunsan Air Base in South Korea. While we don’t know exactly what their missions from Kunsan entailed, the deployment came less than five months after North Korean authorities conducted their second nuclear test at Punggye-ri, which appeared to be successful.
What we do know is that the Sentinels are exactly the kind of asset the Pentagon would use to sneak deep into a denied territory like North Korea to spy on sensitive locations. With the apparent preparation for a sixth nuclear test, the RQ-170 could very well be flying highly classified missions over North Korea, examining its nuclear and rocket facilities and patterns of life around regime targets. The so called RQ-180, supposedly a high-flying penetrating strategic reconnaissance top secret aircraft that is known to exist even by the USAF's own admission, might well be flying new missions over the country as well.
And then there’s a slew of other aircraft that could perform varying levels of surveillance if necessary. Land bases in the region host E-3 and E-8 radar planes, E-8 maritime patrol aircraft, F-16 and F/A-18 fighter jets with advanced radar warning receivers and camera-equipped targeting pods, and advanced F-35 Joint Strike Fighters with their integrated electro-optical sensor and electronic support measures suites.
In January 2017, the U.S. Marine Corps sent an operational contingent of F-35Bs to the Marine base at Iwakuni in Japan for the first time, making them available for various missions in the event of a crisis. They are currently operating in South Korea right now. The Air Force's F-22 Raptor's have also made surprise visits to the Peninsula and surely they put their uncanny ability to sniff-out radar and other electronic emissions to use.
F/A-18s and F-35s could operate from carriers – like the USS Carl Vinson, which started heading for the Korean Peninsula this week – or amphibious ships. A supercarrier's air wing is equipped with a cadre of E-2 Hawkeyes that can monitor aerial movements deep into North Korean airspace. Marine Corps aircraft, including helicopter and fast jets, can strap on highly capable electronic surveillance and jamming pods, like the Intrepid Tiger II, to keep tabs on enemy electronic emissions and communications along the DMZ.
With various radars and other surveillance gear, American cruisers, destroyers, and most importantly submarines all have the ability to snoop around North Korea’s coastlines, too. President Donald Trump specifically mentioned the presence of subs in the area during an interview with Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo on April 12, 2017.
In all, North Korea may be one of the most heavily monitored places on earth. And we have only mentioned America's surveillance assets. South Korea and Japan have their own fleets of spy aircraft with varying capabilities.
Whether Pyongyang decides to set off another nuclear bomb or not, it’s safe to say the Pentagon has the ability to keep a close watch what’s going on inside the reclusive country.
Source: http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...ica-keeps-watch-over-north-korea-from-the-sky
shadows888
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Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/geopolitic...oughts_on_north_koreas_nuclear_ambitions_and/
See his analysis in the link.
See his analysis in the link.
Stuttgart001
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Partially agreed.
What Kim really cares about his family's rule in North Korea not DPRK.
A lot of matter isn't mentioned which is very helpful to analyze Kim' motivation.
During between late 1990s and 2010s, there was a period when SOK and DPRK committed lots of cooperations economically and culturally ,meanwhile China supported DPRK to establish many factories in its special economical zones and DPRK also took some other measures to boost its economy ,all of which were applauded by all its neighbors and US. Due to the good performance, UN and western countries supplied a lot of aid to DPRK at that time.
Then all of a sudden, Kim Jong ll shut down the special economical zones and drove off the merchants and confiscated the property belonging to foreign investors .
Everything went back to the origin, and everyone was angered so that the aid from westerns and SOK decreased largely.
The reason he did that is that it is harmful to the rule of Kim family when North Korean people met foreigners and knew what happen outside. Even Chinese tourists are forbidden to speak with plain north korean and take photos.
So you know how Kim Jong ll made the choice between developing economy and sustaining the rule. But not all the Korean would like to choose that way, include Kim Jong nan, the eldest son of Kim Jong ll and the elder brother of Kim Jong un.
It is a dilemma which leave Kim Jong ll the only way that is to blackmail others by real WMD into giving what he wants which is helpful to sustain the rule.
It is Kim Jong un's turn to get the weapon used to blackmail.
That is why Kim family members so addicted to nukes.
Bussard Ramjet
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Criticism of Beijing’s North Korea Policy Comes From Unlikely Place: China
By CHRIS BUCKLEYAPRIL 18, 2017
China’s “traditionalist view that views the U.S. as a much greater threat than North Korea is deeply entrenched,” Bonnie S. Glaser, an expert on Chinese foreign policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said in an email. “But the proponents of change are vocal, too. They argue that North Korea is a growing liability.”
For decades, China has tried to preserve ties with North Korea as a partner and strategic shield in northeast Asia, even when the North’s leaders became testy and unpredictable. In recent years, though, China has also tried to soothe the United States, build political and business ties with South Korea and help rein in North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
Photo
President Trump with President Xi Jinping of China at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., this month. The Trump administration has urged Mr. Xi to exert greater pressure on North Korea. CreditDoug Mills/The New York Times
But as North Korea has improved its missiles and nuclear warheads, opening the possibility that it could one day strike the continental United States, China’s go-between approach has become increasingly fraught.
North Korea did not hold a nuclear test over the weekend that some had expected, and its missile test on Sunday fizzled. But more tests and launches appear to be only a matter of time, and the Trump administration has pressed China’s president, Xi Jinping, to use much tougher pressure on its neighbor.
“The era of strategic patience is over,” Vice President Mike Pence said in South Korea on Monday.
“The president and I have a great confidence that China will properly deal with North Korea,” he told reporters, but “if China is unable to deal with North Korea, the United States and our allies will.”
China suspended coal imports from North Korea in February, cutting off a major source of revenue for the North. But China has resisted choking off trade with North Korea, and debate over how to balance Pyongyang, Seoul and Washington has sharpened and become more fractious. Trying to stay friends with all sides is proving perilous.
The Chinese government has fiercely objected to an American antimissile defense system, called the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or Thaad, being installed in South Korea, fearing it could be used to spy on China. But some Chinese experts have criticized the surge of anti-South Korean anger unleashed by Beijing as counterproductive.
Global Times, a state-run newspaper that often defends Chinese government policy, cautioned last week that North Korea would face harsher sanctions if it went ahead with another nuclear test. On Monday, the paper redoubled that warning, calling for China to choke off most oil supplies to North Korea if there was another test.
Mr. Shen has gone much further than other scholars in calling for a reset.
“The fundamental interests of China and North Korea are at odds,” he said in his lecture. “China’s fundamental interest lies in achieving a stability on its borders and developing outward. But since North Korea acquired nuclear weapons, that periphery has never been stable, so inevitably Chinese and North Korean interests are at odds.”
Photo
American soldiers during a drill in South Korea in March. China has balanced its criticisms of North Korea by pushing the United States to agree to negotiations with the North and suspend military exercises with the South. CreditJung Yeon-Je/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
He derided China’s opposition to the Thaad antimissile system as shrill and self-defeating, needlessly alienating South Korean opinion. “What we’ve done is exactly what the Americans and North Koreans would like to see,” he said.
Mr. Shen’s views have incensed Chinese ultranationalists, who have accused him of selling out the country’s ally in Pyongyang. His views and the debate about them have not been reported in Chinese state news media.
But Mr. Shen’s speech remains on the website of the Cold War history research center at East China Normal University in Shanghai, where he works. He has also restated his views at lectures in Shanghai and, last week, in Xi’an in northwest China, he said.
Mr. Shen said the tolerance — so far — for his views suggested that the government might be willing to tolerate greater criticism of North Korea and debate about the relationship.
“Many people have asked me, ‘Teacher Shen, why hasn’t your speech been taken down?’” Mr. Shen said in a telephone interview from Shanghai.
“At least it shows that there can be different views about the North Korea issue. It’s up to the center to set policy, but at least you can air different views in public, whereas before you couldn’t,” he said. The “center” refers to China’s central leadership.
Still, Ms. Glaser said, President Xi appears unlikely to turn entirely on North Korea.
After a meeting with Mr. Xi, President Trump said his Chinese counterpart seemed willing to press Pyongyang. But China has balanced its criticisms of North Korea by pressing the United States to agree to prompt negotiations with the North and suspend major military exercises with the South.
Photo
A North Korean soldier at an outpost near the border with China. Beijing’s bond with Pyongyang dates back to even before the Korean War in the 1950s. CreditJohannes Eisele/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
In South Korea on Monday, Vice President Pence held out the possibility of opening talks with the North Koreans, noting that Washington was seeking security “through peaceable means, through negotiations.”
His office added that any talks would include Japan, South Korea, other allies in the region and China.
Mr. Shen, 66, is well known in China and is often cited for his groundbreaking studies on the outbreak of the Korean War that used archival records to expose the tensions and miscalculations behind Mao’s decision to send troops.
He is the son of Communist Party officials and previously used his earnings from business to pay for dredging archives in Russia, after serving a two-year prison term on a charge of leaking state secrets that he insisted was groundless.
He said he hoped that his research, including a new history of Chinese-North Korean relations that he hopes will appear in English this year, would dismantle deceptive myths that have grown up in China around that past.
“It’s very hard for China to adjust relations,” he said. “If everyone understands the truth and this myth is burst, then there’ll be a basis among the public and officials for adjusting policy.”
But Mr. Shen acknowledged that shifting direction on North Korea would carry risks. If political cooperation between Beijing and Washington fails to constrain North Korea, he said, the two governments should cooperate in a military response.
“If North Korea really does master nuclear weapons and their delivery, then the whole world will have to prostrate itself at the feet of North Korea,” he said in the interview. “The longer this drags out, the better it is for North Korea.”
Choe Sang-Hun contributed reporting from Seoul, South Korea.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/18/world/asia/china-north-korea-war.html?_r=0
By CHRIS BUCKLEYAPRIL 18, 2017
- China’s best-known historian of the Korean War, Shen Zhihua, recently laid out his views on North Korea, astonishment rippled through the audience. China, he said with a bluntness that is rare here, had fundamentally botched its policy on the divided Korean Peninsula.
China’s bond with North Korea’s Communist leaders formed even before Mao Zedong’s decision in 1950 to send People’s Liberation Army soldiers to fight alongside them in the Korean War. Mao famously said the two sides were “as close as lips and teeth.”
But China should abandon the stale myths of fraternity that have propped up its support for North Korea and turn to South Korea, Mr. Shen said at a university lecture last month in Dalian, a northeastern Chinese port city.
“Judging by the current situation, North Korea is China’s latent enemy and South Korea could be China’s friend,” Mr. Shen said, according to a transcript he published online. “We must see clearly that China and North Korea are no longer brothers in arms, and in the short term there’s no possibility of an improvement in Chinese-North Korean relations.”
China’s “traditionalist view that views the U.S. as a much greater threat than North Korea is deeply entrenched,” Bonnie S. Glaser, an expert on Chinese foreign policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said in an email. “But the proponents of change are vocal, too. They argue that North Korea is a growing liability.”
For decades, China has tried to preserve ties with North Korea as a partner and strategic shield in northeast Asia, even when the North’s leaders became testy and unpredictable. In recent years, though, China has also tried to soothe the United States, build political and business ties with South Korea and help rein in North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
Photo
President Trump with President Xi Jinping of China at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., this month. The Trump administration has urged Mr. Xi to exert greater pressure on North Korea. CreditDoug Mills/The New York Times
But as North Korea has improved its missiles and nuclear warheads, opening the possibility that it could one day strike the continental United States, China’s go-between approach has become increasingly fraught.
North Korea did not hold a nuclear test over the weekend that some had expected, and its missile test on Sunday fizzled. But more tests and launches appear to be only a matter of time, and the Trump administration has pressed China’s president, Xi Jinping, to use much tougher pressure on its neighbor.
“The era of strategic patience is over,” Vice President Mike Pence said in South Korea on Monday.
“The president and I have a great confidence that China will properly deal with North Korea,” he told reporters, but “if China is unable to deal with North Korea, the United States and our allies will.”
China suspended coal imports from North Korea in February, cutting off a major source of revenue for the North. But China has resisted choking off trade with North Korea, and debate over how to balance Pyongyang, Seoul and Washington has sharpened and become more fractious. Trying to stay friends with all sides is proving perilous.
The Chinese government has fiercely objected to an American antimissile defense system, called the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or Thaad, being installed in South Korea, fearing it could be used to spy on China. But some Chinese experts have criticized the surge of anti-South Korean anger unleashed by Beijing as counterproductive.
Global Times, a state-run newspaper that often defends Chinese government policy, cautioned last week that North Korea would face harsher sanctions if it went ahead with another nuclear test. On Monday, the paper redoubled that warning, calling for China to choke off most oil supplies to North Korea if there was another test.
Mr. Shen has gone much further than other scholars in calling for a reset.
“The fundamental interests of China and North Korea are at odds,” he said in his lecture. “China’s fundamental interest lies in achieving a stability on its borders and developing outward. But since North Korea acquired nuclear weapons, that periphery has never been stable, so inevitably Chinese and North Korean interests are at odds.”
Photo
American soldiers during a drill in South Korea in March. China has balanced its criticisms of North Korea by pushing the United States to agree to negotiations with the North and suspend military exercises with the South. CreditJung Yeon-Je/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
He derided China’s opposition to the Thaad antimissile system as shrill and self-defeating, needlessly alienating South Korean opinion. “What we’ve done is exactly what the Americans and North Koreans would like to see,” he said.
Mr. Shen’s views have incensed Chinese ultranationalists, who have accused him of selling out the country’s ally in Pyongyang. His views and the debate about them have not been reported in Chinese state news media.
But Mr. Shen’s speech remains on the website of the Cold War history research center at East China Normal University in Shanghai, where he works. He has also restated his views at lectures in Shanghai and, last week, in Xi’an in northwest China, he said.
Mr. Shen said the tolerance — so far — for his views suggested that the government might be willing to tolerate greater criticism of North Korea and debate about the relationship.
“Many people have asked me, ‘Teacher Shen, why hasn’t your speech been taken down?’” Mr. Shen said in a telephone interview from Shanghai.
“At least it shows that there can be different views about the North Korea issue. It’s up to the center to set policy, but at least you can air different views in public, whereas before you couldn’t,” he said. The “center” refers to China’s central leadership.
Still, Ms. Glaser said, President Xi appears unlikely to turn entirely on North Korea.
After a meeting with Mr. Xi, President Trump said his Chinese counterpart seemed willing to press Pyongyang. But China has balanced its criticisms of North Korea by pressing the United States to agree to prompt negotiations with the North and suspend major military exercises with the South.
Photo
A North Korean soldier at an outpost near the border with China. Beijing’s bond with Pyongyang dates back to even before the Korean War in the 1950s. CreditJohannes Eisele/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
In South Korea on Monday, Vice President Pence held out the possibility of opening talks with the North Koreans, noting that Washington was seeking security “through peaceable means, through negotiations.”
His office added that any talks would include Japan, South Korea, other allies in the region and China.
Mr. Shen, 66, is well known in China and is often cited for his groundbreaking studies on the outbreak of the Korean War that used archival records to expose the tensions and miscalculations behind Mao’s decision to send troops.
He is the son of Communist Party officials and previously used his earnings from business to pay for dredging archives in Russia, after serving a two-year prison term on a charge of leaking state secrets that he insisted was groundless.
He said he hoped that his research, including a new history of Chinese-North Korean relations that he hopes will appear in English this year, would dismantle deceptive myths that have grown up in China around that past.
“It’s very hard for China to adjust relations,” he said. “If everyone understands the truth and this myth is burst, then there’ll be a basis among the public and officials for adjusting policy.”
But Mr. Shen acknowledged that shifting direction on North Korea would carry risks. If political cooperation between Beijing and Washington fails to constrain North Korea, he said, the two governments should cooperate in a military response.
“If North Korea really does master nuclear weapons and their delivery, then the whole world will have to prostrate itself at the feet of North Korea,” he said in the interview. “The longer this drags out, the better it is for North Korea.”
Choe Sang-Hun contributed reporting from Seoul, South Korea.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/18/world/asia/china-north-korea-war.html?_r=0
Bussard Ramjet
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Excerpts From a Chinese Historian’s Speech on North Korea
By CHRIS BUCKLEYAPRIL 18, 2017
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I think the professor is totally correct.
China, by its high pitched THAAD retaliation has done EXACTLY what US wants it to do. That is split South Korea and China.
Do you remember how South Korea was the only country that visited Chinese military parade to mark the end of World War 2?
By CHRIS BUCKLEYAPRIL 18, 2017
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- North Korea. Mr. Shen made his case in a speech last month that has ignited widespread discussion in China, reflecting growing debate about how tough the government should be on North Korea. Here are some excerpts:
“Chairman Mao said long ago that who is our friend and who is our enemy is the question of first importance in a revolution. Getting to grips with that is also of the first importance in the foreign policy situation of northeast Asia. Just who is our friend, and who is our enemy? If you can’t distinguish between friend and foe, how can you fight and whom do you fight? Of course, friends can also have conflicts, and sometimes there’s also compromise and cooperation with enemies.
“If we look at North Korea and South Korea, who is a friend of China and who is an enemy? Outwardly, China and North Korea are allies, while the United States and Japan support South Korea against North Korea. That’s a legacy of the Cold War. But I believe that after decades of contention and shifts in the international landscape, there’s long been a fundamental transformation. My basic conclusion is judging by the current situation, North Korea is China’s latent enemy and South Korea could be China’s friend.
“To call North Korea a latent enemy of China means that, for now, this still hasn’t come to the fore. Diplomatically, when leaders of the two countries talk to each other, they don’t use particularly hostile rhetoric. But that doesn’t count. Don’t look at the rhetoric. Look at fundamental interests! Look at whether the fundamental interests of China and North Korea are aligned and consistent. Speaking in light of my own research into the history of the Chinese-North Korean relationship, China and North Korea really were friends and allies in the past. That was when the relationship was a special friendship created by Mao Zedong, Kim Il-sung and other senior Chinese and North Korean leaders.
“When China and South Korea established diplomatic relations in 1992, that totally destroyed the political basis of the Chinese-North Korean relationship. ... By 1992, at the end of the Cold War, the Chinese-North Korean relationship and alliance created by the previous generation no longer existed. Practically speaking, everything had changed in the relationship. In foreign policy, economics, politics, everything, the interests of China and North Korea had diverged, and the basis for an alliance had disintegrated. The treaty of alliance between China and North Korea became a piece of scrap paper. At that time the Chinese-North Korean relationship became an ordinary, normal relationship between states. But this normal relationship quickly and quietly turned toward hostility, and that was because North Korea launched its nuclear strategy.
“The root cause of the ever-worsening crisis on the Korean Peninsula is that North Korea has gone nuclear and is constantly holding nuclear tests, and that’s also the fundamental cause of instability on China’s periphery. But North Korea has been doing this for the sake of its fundamental interests. So, putting it objectively, the fundamental interests of China and North Korea are at odds. China’s fundamental interest lies in achieving stability on its borders and developing outward. But since North Korea acquired nuclear weapons, that periphery has never been stable, so inevitably Chinese and North Korean interests are at odds. The spokespeople for our Foreign Ministry claim that the North Korean nuclear crisis was triggered by antagonism between the United States and North Korea, and that’s entirely understandable as diplomatic language. But, as scholars, we must see clearly that North Korea’s shift to a policy of holding nuclear weapons was triggered by the shifts in its relationship with China.
“We must see clearly that China and North Korea are no longer brothers in arms, and in the short term there’s no possibility of an improvement in Chinese-North Korean relations. The situation now is that each time North Korea stages a nuclear test, the United States increases its military forces in northeast Asia, sending in drones or an aircraft carrier or holding military exercises. And then the military pressure from the U.S. leads North Korea to stage another nuclear test. You stage a test, he adds troops and it keeps escalating. The outcome? The real pressure is felt by China and South Korea, and the ones who ultimately bear the brunt are China and South Korea. ... So the upshot of North Korea stirring up trouble is more pressure and threats on China. Stepping back, if a Korean nuclear bomb explodes, who’ll be the victim of the nuclear leakage and fallout? That would be China and South Korea. Japan is separated by a sea, and the United States is separated by the Pacific Ocean.
“You shouldn’t do what your enemies want you to do, so I’ve been really disgusted by how China has handled Thaad [the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense antiballistic missile system being deployed in South Korea]. I have no idea whose idea that was, but what you’ve done is stir up such a ruckus that South Korean shops have had to close, and you’ve smashed up here, smashed up there. ... Putting it one way, you’ve got no foreign policy smarts. You’ve done exactly what your enemies would like you to do, and you’ve pushed South Korea into an iron triangle with the United States and Japan. Putting it another way, are you a civilized great power or not? Aren’t you a civilized ancient country, so why stoop to this? How do you want neighboring countries to view China? You just know how to pick on a company to blow off steam. You’re not using your brain. Isn’t there a mite of intelligence? By doing this we’ve alienated public opinion in South Korea, and in dealing with a democracy, the most important thing is to win over public sentiment and opinion. ... What we’ve been doing is just what the Americans and North Koreans want most of all. The North Koreans are also overjoyed, because the result of all this uproar over Thaad is that Chinese-South Korean relations have ruptured.”
I think the professor is totally correct.
China, by its high pitched THAAD retaliation has done EXACTLY what US wants it to do. That is split South Korea and China.
Do you remember how South Korea was the only country that visited Chinese military parade to mark the end of World War 2?
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I agree mostly .
South Korea is not that innocent. THAAD is not used for China, and South Korea knew it.
Do some research before you made a statement.
Bussard Ramjet
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Stuttgart001
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The leaders of Czech and Polish also anticipated the parade, let along the delegates of US and its other allies.
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