It
is difficult to imagine a country can wage war on the no.1
super-power when its people are starving
The
Pentagon responded by condemning North Korea, and accusing them of
being a “threat
to peace on the peninsula.”
Of course over the past weeks the Pentagon has
been flying nuclear bombers
over the portion of South Korean airspace near the border, so both
sides seem to be ratcheting up tensions.
North Korea: Military ‘On Alert’ to Attack Hawaii, US Mainland
27
March, 2013
The
latest in a line of tit-for-tat bellicosity across the Korean
Peninsula, the North Korean Army Supreme Command has issued a
statement saying that they are on “highest
alert,”
prepared to hit Hawaii and the US mainland.
The
Pentagon responded by condemning North Korea, and accusing them of
being a “threat
to peace on the peninsula.”
Of course over the past weeks the Pentagon has
been flying nuclear bombers
over the portion of South Korean airspace near the border, so both
sides seem to be ratcheting up tensions.
Threats against Hawaii
and the US West Coast are common for North Korea as well, though
North Korea’s missile systems are mostly designed around attacking
South Korea, and their ability to reliably hit Hawaii, let alone
California, is in serious doubt.
The
ever worsening rhetoric on both sides also has China concerned, and
foreign policy analysts predict that the new Chinese government may
take “concrete steps” to try to calm the situation. They will
struggle to find a balance, however, between being tougher on North
Korea without “exciting them” into a hostile response.
That’s
a tall order. China is North Korea’s only real ally, and as their
business interests grow worldwide, they are getting sick of treating
North Korea with kid gloves as they get into these repeated rows with
the US. At the same time, the whole problem is those rows
destabilizing the region, and “handling” them has always ended up
a de facto Chinese responsibility since they stand to lose the most
from the destabilization on their border.
The
only ones who can come close to North Korea for the bellicosity of
their rhetoric are the US government and Reuters
North
Korea to cut all channels with South as ‘war may break out any
time’
Reclusive
North Korea is to cut the last channel of communications with the
South because war could break out at "any moment," it said
on March 27, days of after warning the United States and South Korea
of nuclear attack.
27
March, 2013
The
move is the latest in a series of bellicose threats from North Korea
in response to new U.N. sanctions imposed after its third nuclear
test in February and to "hostile" military drills under way
joining the United States and South Korea.
The
North has already stopped responding to calls on the hotline to the
U.S. military that supervises the heavily armed Demilitarized Zone
(DMZ) and the Red Cross line that has been used by the governments of
both sides.
"Under
the situation where a war may break out at any moment, there is no
need to keep north-south military communications which were laid
between the militaries of both sides," the North's KCNA news
agency quoted a military spokesman as saying.
"There
do not exist any dialogue channel and communications means between
the DPRK and the U.S. and between the north and the south."
Despite
the shrill rhetoric, few believe North Korea, formally known as the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), will risk starting a
full-out war.
North
and South Korea are still technically at war anyway after their
1950-53 civil conflict ended with an armistice, not a treaty, which
the North says it has since torn to pieces.
The
"dialogue channel" is used on a daily basis to process
South Koreans who work in the Kaesong industrial project where 123
South Korean firms employ more than 50,000 North Koreans to make
household goods.
About
120 South Koreans are stationed at Kaesong at any one time on
average.
It
is the last remaining joint project in operation between the two
Koreas after South Korea cut off most aid and trade in response to
Pyongyang's shooting of a South Korean tourist and the sinking of a
South Korean naval vessel blamed on the North.
Kaesong
is one of North Korea's few hard currency earners, producing $2
billion a year in trade with the South, and Pyongyang is unlikely to
close it except as a last resort.
The
North's military spokesman representing its "supreme command"
did not mention Kaesong, which has suffered temporary shutdowns
before.
The
South Korean government said it would take steps to ensure the safety
of the workers at Kaesong. It did not elaborate.
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