'US wants to take S. Korea into new Korean war'

[shuttler]

North Korea warns foreigners to leave South

By Christine Kim and Joyce Lee | Reuters – 1 hr 19 mins ago

link

Reuters/Reuters - North Korean soldiers look to the South as they patrol at the truce village of Panmunjom in the demilitarised zone separating the North from South Korea in Paju, about 55 km (34 miles) north of Seoul March 19, 2013. REUTERS/Lee Jae-Won


SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea intensified threats of an imminent conflict against the United States and the South on Tuesday, warning foreigners to evacuate South Korea to avoid being dragged into a "merciless, sacred, retaliatory war".

The North's latest antagonistic message belied an atmosphere free of anxiety in the South Korean capital, where the city center was bustling with traffic and offices operated normally.

Pyongyang has shown no sign of preparing its 1.2 million-strong army for war, indicating the threat could be partly intended to bolster Kim Jong-un, 30, the third in his family to lead the reclusive country.

None of the embassies in Seoul appeared to have issued any directives to their nationals after the warning and airlines reported no changes in their schedules. Schools catering to foreign pupils worked without interruption.

The warning, read out on North Korea's state television in a bulletin that interrupted normal programming, was the latest threat in weeks of high tension following U.N. sanctions slapped on Pyongyang for its latest nuclear arms test.

It followed the North's suspension of activity at the Kaesong joint industrial park just inside North Korea, all but closing down the last remnant of cooperation between the neighbors. North Korean workers failed to turn up on Tuesday.

North Korea had said South Korea was trying to turn the Kaesong complex into a "hotbed of war".
The warning to foreigners, reported by the KCNA news agency said once war broke out "it will be an all-out war, a merciless, sacred, retaliatory war to be waged by (North Korea).

"It does not want to see foreigners in South Korea fall victim to the war," the agency quoted the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee as saying.

"The committee informs all foreign institutions and enterprises and foreigners, including tourists...that they are requested to take measures for shelter and evacuation in advance for their safety."

Last week, North Korean authorities advised embassies in Pyongyang to consider pulling out in case of war, though none appeared to have taken any such action.

SPECULATION OVER MISSILE LAUNCH, NUCLEAR TEST

Speculation has grown that the North would launch some sort of provocative action this week -- perhaps a missile launch or a fresh nuclear weapons test.

A government source in Seoul said a North Korean medium-range missile, reported to have been shunted to the east coast, had been tracked and was believed to be ready for launch.

"Technically, they can launch it as early as tomorrow," the source said.

But a U.S. embassy official in Seoul said a directive issued last week saying there was no imminent threat to Americans in South Korea remained valid. "Our workers are in all our offices today," he said. "We have not evacuated anyone."

A Philippine foreign ministry spokesman quoted diplomats at its Seoul embassy as saying the situation "remains normal and calm".

Stocks, which had fallen 4 percent over the past four days, edged higher on Tuesday despite the warning to foreigners. The won currency moved little, dipping slightly after the North Korean statement.

Employers at the Kaesong complex faced uncertainty as the 53,000-strong North Korean workforce stayed away. A spokesman for textile company Taekwang Industrial and at least two other firms said production had stopped.

About 475 South Korean workers and factory managers remain in Kaesong, which generates $2 billion in trade for the impoverished North. The Seoul government said 77 would return on Tuesday.
North Korean workers at the park have appeared increasingly agitated in recent days, refusing to talk to their colleagues.

Many Southerners connected with the park bedded down at budget hotels in a nearby South Korean town in the hope that an order would come from the North to re-open.

"I have been feeling anxious now and then. Now it's really preposterous facing this," said Shing Dong-chul, 55, a South Korean worker who transports wire made in Kaesong.

"North Korean workers didn't talk a lot, but they appeared to have complaints about Kaesong being closed. They worried whether they would be working or not."

Addressing a cabinet meeting, South Korean President Park Geun-hye described the suspension of Kaesong as "very disappointing" and said investors would now shun the North.

Few experts had expected Pyongyang to jeopardize Kaesong, which employs more than 50,000 North Koreans making household goods for 123 South Korean firms.
LAST VESTIGE
The zone is practically the last vestige of the "Sunshine Policy" of rapprochement between the two Koreas and a powerful symbol that the divided country could one day reunify.

South Korean companies are estimated to have invested around $500 million in the park since 2004.

World leaders have expressed alarm at the crisis and the prospect of a conflict involving a country claiming to be developing nuclear weapons.

China, the North's sole diplomatic and financial ally, issued a new call for calm and restraint, though Beijing's leaders have shown increasing impatience with Pyongyang.

"We ask all the relevant sides to bear in mind regional peace and stability and earnestly protect the legal rights and safety of citizens," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a briefing.

A Russian foreign ministry spokesman, in a statement on the ministry's website, said Moscow was in solidarity with all G8 industrialized countries "as regards the rejection of Pyongyang's current provocative and bellicose line of conduct".

The North is also angry at weeks of joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises off the coast of the peninsula, with B-2 stealth bombers dispatched from their U.S. bases.

But the United States announced the postponement last weekend of a long-planned missile launch, a move officials said was aimed at easing tensions on the peninsula.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visits Seoul this week and the North holds celebrations, and possibly military demonstrations, next Monday to mark the birth date of its founder, Kim Il-Sung - the current leader's grandfather.

In Washington, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter urged China to use its influence with the North and said Moscow wanted similar action from Beijing.

But Chinese criticism of North Korea is unlikely to mean tough new action against Pyongyang because China would see any collapse of its troublesome neighbor as a disaster.

(Additional reporting by Ju-min Park in PAJU, Jack Kim in Seoul, Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Manuel Mogato in Manila and Steve Gutterman in Moscow; Writing by Ron Popeski; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

wow so much so for the sovereignty of other nation and commitment to bring peace in neighborhood. no matter china is hated by all its neighbors.

We dont live to please anyone! We are not lackeys and we have a lot more friends than you think!

 

[northeast]

I hope China did NOT give any signs to protect North Korea.... I hope CPC is NOT that fools to eat up Nukes for failed states like NK or Pakistan!

I hope number one priority for China is NOT NK... but Economy... They will NOT mess with US with the exports to US is in Trillions of dollars!

Don't be delusional，China has a responsibility to protect NK from any enemy，it's written in the law called 《中朝友好互助同盟条约》.This law is the only thing kept NK safe from possible Uncle Sam invasion for decades.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-North_Korean_Mutual_Aid_and_Cooperation_Friendship_Treaty
The Sino-North Korean Mutual Aid and Cooperation Friendship Treaty was a treaty signed on July 11, 1961 between North Korea and the People's Republic of China.
The treaty was signed in Beijing and came into effect on September 10 of the same year.[1][2] Premier of the People's Republic of China Zhou Enlai and President of North Korea Kim Il-sung signed for their respective countries.[3] The treaty generally promoted peaceful cooperation in the areas of culture, economics, technology and other social benefits between the two nations.[3] Specifically, Article 2 of the treaty declares the two nations guarantee to adopt immediately all necessary measures to oppose any country or coalition of countries that might attack either nation.[4]
The treaty is in effect and automatically renews every 20 years. It has renewed in 1981 and 2001.[3] The most recent renewal will remain in effect until the year 2021.[5]
Kim Il-sung arrived in Beijing in 1961 to sign this treaty just a few days after the signing of the North Korean-Soviet Mutual Aid and Cooperation Friendship Treaty (朝苏友好合作互助条&#32422.[3] The soviet treaty however is no longer in effect since the 1990s, only a revised "consultation" treaty was re-adopted in 1999.[4] The right to cancel can be invoked at specified 5 year intervals, and each party must give advance notice of one year.[4]
[edit]

 

[Audio]

China will not risk a total war.

At best the mobilization at the border is intended charge across the border and establish a buffer zone before S.Korean and US troops reach the Yalu river.

That's not true at all, it is the U.S. and South Korea who are constantly playing war games and threatening North Korea. Watch the video again more carefully.

N. Korea torpedoed an S.Korean destroyer with 46 dead and only the US diplomacy kept the S.Koreans from launching all they got. Similarly, the N. Koreans shelled a S. Korean island leaving 2 dead and many wounded.

Liar.

 

[Wright]

China will transfer nukes to NK like the Soviets did to Cuba. If China does not protect NK, its credibility on the world stage is tarnished.

 

[888jamie888]

we'll protect NK from US empire just like what we've done 60 years ago for sure.

You know you're the bad guys when you back up NK.

 

[northeast]

You know you're the bad guys when you back up NK.

said by a US lapdog.

 

[Wright]

NK is essentially China now. They have very little in common with South Koreans anymore.

It would be better for China to just absorb the headache and let the South Koreans live in peace.

 

[888jamie888]

said by a US lapdog.

Sure I can be a US lapdog if it helps you sleep at night.
At least the Americans aren't completely insane, threaten to nuke other countries, starve and kill their own people etc etc etc.
To defend that is vile.
Pip pip old chap.

 

[Hasbara Buster]

Washington’s “Playbook” on Provoking North Korea

By Stephen Gowans

April 05, 2013 "Information Clearing House" - In an April 3 Wall Street Journal article, “U.S. dials back on Korean show of force,” reporters Adam Entous and Julian E. Barnes revealed that the White House approved a detailed plan, called ‘the playbook,’ to ratchet up tension with North Korea during the Pentagon’s war games with South Korea.

The war games, which are still in progress, and involve the deployment of a considerable amount of sophisticated US military hardware to within striking distance of North Korea, are already a source of considerable tension in Pyongyang, and represent what Korean specialist Tim Beal dubs “sub-critical” warfare.

The two-month-long war games, directed at and carried out in proximity to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, force the North Korean military onto high alert, an exhausting and cripplingly expensive state of affairs for a small country whose economy has already been crippled by wide-ranging sanctions. North Korea estimates that sanctions and US military aggression have taken an incalculable toll on its economy. [1]

The playbook was developed by the Pentagon’s Pacific Command, to augment the war games that began in early March, and was discussed at several high-level White House meetings, according to the Wall Street Journal reporters.

The plan called for low-altitude B-52 bomber flights over the Korean peninsula, which happened on March 8. A few weeks later, two nuclear-capable B-2 bombers dropped dummy payloads on a South Korean missile range. The flights were deliberately carried out in broad daylight at low altitude, according to a U.S. defense official, to produce the intended minatory effect. “We could fly it at night, but the point was for them to see it.” [2]

A few days ago, the Pentagon deployed two advanced F-22 warplanes to South Korea, also part of the ‘play-book’ plan to intimidate Pyongyang.

According to Entous and Barnes, the White House knew that the North Koreans would react by threatening to retaliate against the United States and South Korea.

In a March 29 article, Barnes wrote that “Defense officials acknowledged that North Korean military officers are particularly agitated by bomber flights because of memories of the destruction wrought from the air during the Korean War.” [3] During the war, the United States Air Force demolished every target over one story. It also dropped more napalm than it did later in Vietnam. [4]

The reality, then, is exactly opposite of the narrative formulated in the Western mass media. Washington hasn’t responded to North Korean belligerence and provocations with a show of force. On the contrary, Washington deliberately planned a show of force in order to elicit an angry North Korean reaction, which was then labelled “belligerence” and “provocation.” The provocations, coldly and calculating planned, have come from Washington. North Korea’s reactions have been defensive.

Pressed to explain why North Korea, a military pipsqueak in comparison to the United States, would deliberately provoke a military colossus, Western journalists, citing unnamed analysts, have concocted a risible fiction about Pyongyang using military threats as a bargaining chip to wheedle aid from the West, as a prop to its faltering “mismanaged” economy. The role of sanctions and the unceasing threat of US military intervention are swept aside as explanations for North Korea’s economic travails.

However, Entous’s and Barnes’s revelations now make the story harder to stick. The North Koreans haven’t developed a nuclear program, poured money into their military, and made firm their resolve to meet US and South Korean aggression head-on, in order to inveigle aid from Washington. They’ve done so to defend themselves against coldly calculated provocations.

According to the Wall Street Journal staffers, the White House has dialled back its provocations for now, for fear they could lead to a North Korean “miscalculation.” In street language, Washington challenged the DPRK to a game of chicken, and broke it off, when it became clear the game might not unfold as planned.

Stephen Gowans blogs at "What's left" - what's left

Notes

1. According to the Korean Central News Agency, March 26, 2013, “The amount of human and material damage done to the DPRK till 2005 totaled at least 64,959 854 million U.S. dollars.”

2. Jay Solomon, Julian E. Barnes and Alastair Gale, “North Korea warned”, The Wall Street Journal, March 29, 2013

3. Julian E. Barnes, “U.S. pledges further show of force in Korea”, The Wall Street journal, March 29, 2013

4. Bruce Cumings. The Korean War: A History. Modern Library. 2010.

http://www.informationclearinghouse...rth+Korea&utm_campaign=FIRST&utm_medium=email


US Threatens War With North Korea, Demands China Cut Off Support

By Alex Lantier

April 08, 2013 "Information Clearing House" -"WSWS" - Over the weekend, US officials continued to threaten North Korea with war, demanding that China cut off its support to the regime in Pyongyang.

This comes after weeks of US threats aimed at Pyongyang’s nuclear program, during which Washington flew nuclear-capable bombers to Korea to demonstrate its capacity to wage nuclear war against the North. Last week, US officials revealed that these moves were part of a laid-out “playbook” of US escalations—aimed to terrorize North Korea’s government and population.

General Walter Sharp, the former US military commander in South Korea, told America’s National Public Radio (NPR): “there’s been a lot of effort over the past two and a half years now to build this counter-provocation plan. Because that’s a hard balance of a strong response: don’t escalate, but be prepared to go to war.”

Sharp said that US and South Korean forces would rapidly respond to any firing along the border by the North Korean and prepare for an overwhelming response. He explained, “There are options that people have worked and thought through that could very quickly be brought to President Park [Geun-hye of South Korea] and President Obama.”

NPR commented, “That’s the escalation scenario, and it leads to all-out war.”

Yesterday, amid intelligence reports that North Korea may be preparing a test missile launch for April 10, South Korea dispatched Aegis guided-missile warships to waters on both sides of the Korean peninsula.

Japan indicated that it was also considering deploying its own warships to the area. Japanese government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said Tokyo is preparing for a “worst-case” scenario and demanded that China and Russia play “significant roles” to resolve the stand-off.

There are unconfirmed reports that Washington has begun deploying groups of B-1 heavy bombers from the United States to the Western Pacific.

US officials speaking Sunday demanded that China force the North Korean regime to give in to US demands. Pyongyang relies on China for critical food and fuel supplies.

On CBS, Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona said, “China can cut off their [i.e., North Korea’s] economy if they want to. Chinese behavior has been very disappointing, whether it be on cyber security, whether it be on confrontation in the South China Sea, or whether it be their failure to rein in what could be a catastrophic situation.”

Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York added, “The Chinese hold a lot of cards here. They’re by nature cautious, but they’re carrying it to an extreme. It’s about time they stepped up to the plate and put a little pressure on the North Korean regime.”

The Chinese regime in Beijing, which is in the midst of a leadership transition in both the state and the Chinese Communist Party, is divided on how to respond to the Korean crisis.

At Sunday’s regional business summit in Boao, China, Chinese President Xi Jinping said, “No one should be allowed to throw a region and even the whole world into chaos for selfish gain.” This carefully worded remark voices the alarm in Beijing over the possible outbreak of military conflict, without directly indicting either North Korea or the United States as the party responsible.

On the one hand, Beijing has given several indications of increasing hostility to Pyongyang. It has already voted for UN sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear program earlier this year.

At the Boao summit, Xi also agreed to an extensive series of military exercises and exchanges with Australia’s armed forces. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s government is closely aligned on US imperialist interests in the region, having agreed to install a US base in Australia as part of the Obama administration’s “pivot to Asia” aiming to contain China.

Sections of the Chinese army and bureaucracy have openly questioned Beijing’s attempts to accommodate US policy, however.

As reported by the Sydney Morning Herald, Colonel Dai Xu of the People’s Liberation Army’s National Defense University protested moves to develop closer ties to Australia: “Australia is one of the links in America’s encirclement of China. The first step of [America’s] strategic eastward move was to send troops to Australia. The Sino-Australian relationship has been good always, very good—[Gillard] can of course say that, but in China we say, ‘Listen to what they say, watch what they do.’ The US is taking Australia as a base, and who is that aimed against?”

The Western press is speculating that Zhou Yongkang, a member of Beijing’s powerful Politburo Standing Committee, is an influential supporter of the North Korean regime. A CCP official who has had responsibility for oil and security policy, he reportedly backed the coming to power of Kim Jong Un in North Korea in 2011.

Washington is placing enormous pressure on Beijing. Sections of the US press and foreign policy establishment are now mooting the possibility that Washington will go to war and kill the North Korean leadership—as it murdered Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and Libyan Colonel Muammar Gaddafi when it took over their countries. This was the theme of a recent Foreign Affairs article by academics Keir Lieber and Daryl Press, titled “The Next Korean War.”

If war started, they write, given Pyongyang’s military weakness, “North Korea’s inner circle would face a grave decision: how to avoid the terrible fates of such defeated leaders as Saddam Hussein and Muammar al-Gaddafi.” Lieber and Press see two possibilities for Pyongyang’s leaders to avoid murder at the hands of US and South Korean forces: a deal for them to flee to Beijing, or an attempt to deter US military action by using North Korea’s nuclear bombs.

On this basis, they argue for a policy of pressuring Beijing to help Washington organize the demise of the Pyongyang regime and the flight of its leaders to China: “American and South Korean leaders should urge China to develop ‘golden parachute’ plans for the North Korean leadership and their families… In the past, China has been understandably reluctant to hold official talks with the United States about facilitating the demise of an ally. But the prospect of nuclear war next door could induce Beijing to take more direct steps.”

These lines bluntly spell out the nuclear blackmail with which Washington is threatening Beijing: China can either face nuclear war, or acquiesce to regime change in Pyongyang and a shift of Chinese foreign policy more favorable to US imperialism. In seeking to intimidate Beijing, US imperialism is playing for the highest stakes—not only geo-strategic dominance in East Asia, but in the Middle East and the entire world economy.

As it moves against Pyongyang, Washington is also threatening Iran with war if it does not abandon its own nuclear program. It aims to prevent Pyongyang from keeping its nuclear weapons and thus serving as a model for Iran’s nuclear program, and from blocking China from protecting Iran against US war threats. This would give Washington greater leverage to continue fighting wars in the Middle East.

Washington is also trying to deter any economic pressure from China. According to US Treasury statistics, China held $1.6 trillion in US public debt in September 2012. Any significant upward spike in interest rates or decision by East Asian countries to stop lending to the US government would have potentially catastrophic economic consequences.

Writing in Foreign Affairs on US trade and budget deficits during Obama’s first term, economist Fred Bergsten noted that “foreign investors might at some point refuse to finance these deficits on terms compatible with US prosperity. Any sudden stop in lending to the United States would drive the dollar down, push inflation and interest rates up, and perhaps bring on a hard landing for the United States—and the world economy at large.”

In response to these Washington is ruthlessly plunging ahead, aiming to push through its policies and avoid economic collapse through war threats and nuclear intimidation.

Copyright © 1998-2013 World Socialist Web Site

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34546.htm

 

[Shardul.....the lion]

Is the war going to start soon?

Japan has activated patriot missiles....

 

[gambit]

North Korea warns foreigners to leave South

By Christine Kim and Joyce Lee | Reuters – 1 hr 19 mins ago

link

Little chubby Kim is done for...

Big Chuck is OTW...

 

[shuttler]

Little chubby Kim is done for...

Big Chuck is OTW...

 

[gambit]

Bruce Lee is dead.

 

[kalu_miah]

Don't be delusional，China has a responsibility to protect NK from any enemy，it's written in the law called 《中朝友好互助同盟条约》.This law is the only thing kept NK safe from possible Uncle Sam invasion for decades.
Sino-North Korean Mutual Aid and Cooperation Friendship Treaty - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Sino-North Korean Mutual Aid and Cooperation Friendship Treaty was a treaty signed on July 11, 1961 between North Korea and the People's Republic of China.
The treaty was signed in Beijing and came into effect on September 10 of the same year.[1][2] Premier of the People's Republic of China Zhou Enlai and President of North Korea Kim Il-sung signed for their respective countries.[3] The treaty generally promoted peaceful cooperation in the areas of culture, economics, technology and other social benefits between the two nations.[3] Specifically, Article 2 of the treaty declares the two nations guarantee to adopt immediately all necessary measures to oppose any country or coalition of countries that might attack either nation.[4]
The treaty is in effect and automatically renews every 20 years. It has renewed in 1981 and 2001.[3] The most recent renewal will remain in effect until the year 2021.[5]
Kim Il-sung arrived in Beijing in 1961 to sign this treaty just a few days after the signing of the North Korean-Soviet Mutual Aid and Cooperation Friendship Treaty (朝苏友好合作互助条&#32422.[3] The soviet treaty however is no longer in effect since the 1990s, only a revised "consultation" treaty was re-adopted in 1999.[4] The right to cancel can be invoked at specified 5 year intervals, and each party must give advance notice of one year.[4]
[edit]

This is very good information. But by saying that China will defend North Korea you are essentially helping North Korea's effort at brinkmanship:
Brinkmanship - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Let me guess what is happening behind the scenes. Chinese politburo is advising Kim Jong Un against any adventure and telling him, he is on his own if does so.

The US and South Korea are going through the motions of preparing for contingencies while knowing fully well that all this could be just another brinkmanship like the ones played by Kim's father and grandfather, but not depending on this assumption.

You did not answer my earlier question, how long do you think Korean peninsula will remain divided? Does China have the power to keep them divided if both Korea's population and regimes decide for a unification track?

In 7th century AD, Silla and Tang alliance defeated both Baekje and Goguryeo. Soon after, unified Silla fought against Tang, their former ally, to oust them from the three kingdoms area:

Three Kingdoms of Korea - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

They were able to retain most of the land south of the Yalu river, but lost a significant northern part of Goguryeo, which is today North East part of China.

That was more than 1300 years back, and Korea has been unified land ever since, as unified Silla (Silla+Baekje+Goguryeo southern part), Koryo and then Joseon (Chosun).

Silla

Having been completely ejected from the Korean Peninsula, the next time Chinese forces would again enter Korea in force was during the Ming Dynasty, nearly a thousand years later, to aid the ruling Joseon Dynasty of Korea in resisting the Japanese invasions of Korea from 1592-1598.
After this conflict, subsequent Korean states (including the administration of Unified Silla) would choose a path of cooperation with the much larger and intimidating ruling Chinese dynasties in order to guarantee their independence and avoid invasions of conquest from China. This strategy proved successful in avoiding assimilation by Chinese powers, though it did not take into account invasions attempted by barbarian (e.g. Mongol, Manchurian/Jurchen and Japanese) forces and so the states of the Korean Peninsula were still required to repel invasions from foreign entities over the courses of their histories.

North Korean Kim family's dictatorial regime and its lust for power is the only thing that is keeping the Korean peninsula divided. Its not China, rather the US and pro-US party in South Korea who is more interested in keeping this division to keep the presence of US bases in East Asia. I would love to hear people's opinion on this issue, because this is what I keep hearing from Koreans.

 

[shuttler]

Bruce Lee is dead.

He is behind you!




@ topic:

Russia says G8 nations reject "bellicose" North Korea

Nothing new from these guys

MOSCOW | Tue Apr 9, 2013 11:59am EDT

The G8 includes the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia.