DPRK Blacks-Out / Evacuates Cities in "Preparation for War" Drills

North Korea Fears US Preemptive Strike

North Korea taking very proactive moves with full scale drills including total black out and mass evacuations. Meanwhile the US sends military planes closer to North Korea's borders making Kim Jung Un a bit nervous.

Russia suffers 130 soldiers killed in action in 2017 alone only confirming Russia's close alliance with President Bashar al-Assad.

North Korea conducting evacuation, blackout drills amid growing tensions with US, report says

Fox News,

29 October 2017

As tensions between the U.S. and North Korea continue to grow, the regime has been conducting safety measures for its people amid threats of nuclear war.

The country has “conducted rare blackout exercises and mass evacuation drills in secondary, tertiary cities and towns last week,” NK News reported Saturday. The drills were not conducted in the nation’s capital of Pyongyang.

Pence issues forceful warning to North Korea

Blackout drills require citizens to minimize lighting to conceal themselves from enemies, particularly enemy aircraft.

MATTIS STRESSES DIPLOMACY IN VISIT TO KOREAN DEMILITARIZED ZONE

Reports of the exercises come as U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis recently stated that threats of a nuclear missile attack by the regime are accelerating.

“North Korea has accelerated the threat that it poses to its neighbors and the world through its illegal and unnecessary missile and nuclear weapons programs,” Mattis said Saturday.

According to NK News, evacuation drills of this nature are “extremely rare,” and often are unheard of in the communist nation that approximately 25 million people call home.

“I have never heard of this type of training exercises before in North Korea, but am not surprised,” a retired South Korean army lieutenant general said. “They must realize how serious the situation is.”

As tensions escalate between the United States and North Korea, here is a look the rising rates of North Korean defectors and why they chose to leave the country.Video

North Korea defectors: What we know

Although, one defector from North Korea, who lived in Pyongyang, told the news outlet he remembers these types of drills taking place “sometimes three times a year … especially at the time of military exercises of [South Korea] and U.S. army.”

According to NK News, “daily air raid drills” were common in 1994 when the North and the U.S. were “on the brink of war.”

Mattis on Saturday accused Kim Jong Un’s regime of illegal and unnecessary missile and nuclear programs, and vowed to defeat an attack by North Korea, which he said engages in “outlaw behavior.”

The defense secretary also said the U.S. will not accept the North as a nuclear power.

The following items are from Hal Turner whose political position on this is reprehensible but is giving details that the lamestream won't. My suggestion is to combine this with what the anti-war movement are saying (as opposed to liberal, lamestream media).

Reading the alleged comments of Mad Dog Mattis below is to wonder (and to do doubt) if any American would be capable of the brave actions of Arkhipov during the Cuban Missile Crisis to avoid nuclear armageddon.

North Korea Blacks-Out / Evacuates Cities in "Preparation for War" Drills

File Photo of North Korea WITHOUT being "Blacked-Out"

http://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/news/world-news/1499-north-korea-blacks-out-evacuates-cities-in-preparation-for-war-drills

North Korea has conducted mass evacuation drills in towns across the country as ‘preparation for war,’ it was reported on Saturday.

Sources in the isolated Communist country reported that the rare drills were being conducted in ‘secondary and tertiary cities and towns’ over the course of the last week.

There were no reported drills in the capital, Pyongyang.

News of the drills, which included so-called ‘blackout’ exercises whereby whole towns would turn out all the lights at night time so as to avoid illuminating enemy targets, was first reported by NK News.

‘I have never heard of this type of training exercises before in North Korea, but am not surprised,’ Chun In-bum, a former South Korean military officer, said.

‘They must realize how serious the situation is.’

NK News quoted an anonymous source as saying that the last time drills which approached this scale were conducted was in 2003, when North Korea carried out air raid exercises.

 ‘I have never heard of evacuation exercises happening before,’ one source told NK News.

News of the reported drills came in light of heightened diplomatic tensions between North Korea and the West.

Earlier on Saturday, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis issued a warning to North Korea that the country is no match for a decades-old American-South Korean alliance.

'Make no mistake - any attack on the United States or our allies will be defeated, and any use of nuclear weapons by the North will be met with a massive military response that is effective and overwhelming,' he said during a news conference in Seoul on Saturday. 

With South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo at his side, Mattis accused the North and Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un of illegal and unnecessary missile and nuclear programs - and said the threat of a nuclear missile attack by North Korea is accelerating. 

Mattis said North Korea engages in 'outlaw' behavior and that the US will never accept a nuclear North.  

'North Korea has accelerated the threat that it poses to its neighbors and the world through its illegal and unnecessary missile and nuclear weapons programs,' he said, adding that US-South Korean military and diplomatic collaboration thus has taken on 'a new urgency'.

'I cannot imagine a condition under which the United States would accept North Korea as a nuclear power,' he said.

As he emphasized throughout his week-long Asia trip, which included stops in Thailand and the Philippines, Mattis said diplomacy remains the preferred way to deal with the North. 

Mattis' comments did not go beyond his recent statements of concern about North Korea, although he appeared to inject a stronger note about the urgency of resolving the crisis.

While he accused the North of 'outlaw' behavior, he did not mention that President Donald Trump has ratcheted up his own rhetoric. 

In August, Trump warned the North not to make any more threats against the US and said that, if it did, it would be met with 'fire and fury like the world has never seen.' 

The North says it needs nuclear weapons to counter what it believes is a US effort to strangle its economy and overthrow the Kim government. 

South Korea's conservative politicians have also called for the US to bring back tactical nuclear weapons that were withdrawn from the Korean Peninsula in the 1990s, which they say would make clearer the US intent to use nukes in a crisis. 

But Mattis and Song were strongly dismissive of the idea.

'When considering national interest, it's much better not to deploy them,' said Song, adding that the allies would have 'sufficient means' to respond to a North Korean nuclear attack even without placing tactical nukes in the South.  

Trump entered office declaring his commitment to solving the North Korea problem, asserting that he would succeed where his predecessors had failed.

His administration has sought to increase pressure on Pyongyang through UN Security Council sanctions and other diplomatic efforts, but the North hasn't budged from its goal of building a full-fledged nuclear arsenal, including missiles capable of striking the US mainland. 

VP Pence makes History: First Sitting VP to Personally Visit MINOT NUCLEAR MISSILE BASE . . .Reportedly Tells Crews "If the Order Comes, LAUNCH"

http://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/news/u-s-national-news/1505-vp-pence-makes-history-first-sitting-vp-to-personally-visit-minot-nuclear-missile-base-reportedly-tells-crews-if-the-order-comes-launch

Vice President Michael Pence visited Minot Air Force Base (AFB) in North Dakota Friday, and in doing so, became the first sitting Vice President to ever visit America's nuclear missile arsenal.  His visit comes after President Trump's Visit on September 6, and Secretary of Defense Mattis' visit on September 13.

Each of those officials made "public" remarks which were reported by media, and made "private" remarks - far more important - which have not been reported.  Those alleged private remarks: 

"We are entering a very dangerous time, and I have come here personally to tell you that you may receive a Launch Order in the near future.  I want you to know that we have planned for all contingencies, but it is POSSIBLE that things may escalate beyond what we believe will take place.  If you receive a properly formatted launch order, you launch.  Don't waste time trying to confirm the order, because it is not standard operating procedure for you to delay like that.  If you get a launch order, carry it out."

Pence vowed that the U.S. will keep up economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The visit marked the Third by a top Trump administration official in the past six weeks. The base is home to both B-52 bombers and intercontinental nuclear missiles.

With a huge B-52 in the background, Pence thanked the roughly 250 assembled airmen for their service. He told them President Donald Trump is committed to maintaining America’s nuclear powers as a force for peace.

Pence’s visit to the Minot base coincided with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’ visit to the Demilitarized Zone that separates North Korea from South Korea. Mattis accused North Korea of threatening global order and said the Trump administration remains committed to compelling the North to accept complete nuclear disarmament.

Defense Secretary James Mattis toured the base in September, in a visit widely seen as a reminder to North Korea of U.S. nuclear capabilities.

U.S. Rep. Kevin Cramer says the nuclear assets in North Dakota have never been more relevant.

Minot has one of the nation’s two B-52 bomber bases. The base also oversees 150 of the Air Force’s 450 Minuteman III nuclear missiles.

Sen. John Hoeven says the administration is putting much-needed funding into the base to maintain a “modern nuclear force.”

The fact that the three top officials in the United States have now ALL personally visited America's Nuclear Arsenal does not bode well for North Korea.

 The fact that ALL THREE have carried a similar message directly to the nuclear missile crews, is extremely noteworthy.  ALL THREE MEN - The President, The Secretary of Defense and, now, the Vice-President -- have ALL told the crews that we have analysed and researched every aspect of what we're intending to do.  Despite our best analysis, the "unknown" in this affair is whether the enemy "responds" or "reacts."  

If they "respond" then the situation remains rational.  If, however, they "react" then things could escalate VERY fast.

Secretary of Defense Mattis, during his previous visit, reportedly remarked

"This is the first time in world history that one nuclear-armed nation intends to take down another nuclear-armed nation. There is no precedent for this.  We hope things will go well, but if they go bad, it could be the worst kind of bad."

"This Is A Big Problem" - North Korea Nuclear Test Site Headed For A Devastating Collapse

ZeroHedge,

29 October, 2017

A group of Chinese scientists have joined their North American peers in warning that North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear site could be on the verge of a dangerous collapse that could send a dangerous bloom of radiation floating over the border into Northern China.

As we’ve previously reported, China has stepped up its radiation monitoring on the border after detecting unsettling seismic activity surrounding the test site. Two weeks ago, a team of American scientists warned that the mountain above Pyungge-ri appeared to be suffering from “tired mountain syndrome” - a phenomenon commonly observed around Soviet Nuclear test sites.

And now in an effort to dissuade the North from carrying out another potentially destabilizing test, the South China Morning Post is reporting that a team of Chinese geologists warned their North Korean counterparts of a potentially catastrophic collapse of an underground nuclear test site on China’s doorstep during a briefing in Beijing last month.

A day after North Korea said it detonated a hydrogen bomb at the Punggye-ri facility on Sept. 3, a senior Chinese nuclear scientist warned North Korea that future tests could blow the top off the mountain, causing a massive collapse with radiation bleeding from cracks or holes in the mountainside.

Meanwhile, a researcher studying the radioactive risk from the North Korean nuclear programme at Peking University said China could no longer tolerate another land-based explosion.

“China cannot sit and wait until the site implodes. Our instruments can detect nuclear fallout when it arrives, but it will be too late by then. There will be public panic and anger at the government for not taking action,” the researcher said.

“Maybe the North Koreans themselves have realised that the site cannot take another blow. If they still want to do it, they have to do it somewhere else.”

This could be one reason why the North hasn’t moved forward with another test, like it has repeatedly threatened to do, since then, even as North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho announced at the United Nations that Pyongyang might consider detonating a “most powerful” hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean.

The Sept. 20 briefing covered a range of issues but North Korea’s nuclear tests topped the concerns for the Chinese government, according to Zhai Mingguo, a senior Chinese geologist who helped organise the meeting.

“This is a big, sophisticated problem requiring multiple, systematic approaches. Our [meeting] is only a part of [the efforts],” he said.

The North Korea delegation was headed by Lee Doh-sik, director of the Geological Research Institute at the State Academy of Sciences.

“He is a top government geologist in North Korea, but he is not involved in the nuclear weapons programme,” said Professor Peng Peng, one of the Chinese geologists who met the delegation.

The atmosphere was reserved but friendly, according to several scientists who attended the meeting.

North Korea has conducted five of the six nuclear tests it has carried out since 2006 at Punggye-ri. The most recent blast set off low level tremors and dangerous landslides that alarmed scientists observing the site.

Should the mountain collapse, the radiation released could threaten the entire hemisphere. It could even become a global threat.

“The fallout can spread to an entire hemisphere,” said Lan Xiaoqing, an associate researcher at the Centre for Monsoon System Research at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Beijing.