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Yonhap via AP
A U.S. nuclear-powered submarine is docked Friday in South Korea ahead of joint exercises that are partly a deterrent to North Korea as it vows to conduct another nuclear test.
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean and U.S. troops began naval drills Monday in a show of force partly directed at North Korea amid signs that Pyongyang will soon carry out a threat to conduct its third atomic test.
The region is also seeing a boost in diplomatic activity focused on North Korea's announcement last month that it will conduct a nuclear test to protest U.N. Security Council sanctions toughened after a December satellite launch that the U.S. and others say was a disguised test of banned missile technology.
Pyongyang's two previous nuclear tests, in 2006 and 2009, both occurred after it was slapped with increased sanctions for similar rocket launches. As it issued its most recent punishment, the Security Council ordered North Korea to refrain from a nuclear test or face "significant action."
David Guttenfelder / AP
In this March 9, 2011 photo, a girl plays the piano inside the Changgwang Elementary School in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
North Korea's state media said Sunday that at a high-level Workers' Party meeting, leader Kim Jong Un issued "important" guidelines meant to bolster the army and protect national sovereignty. North Korea didn't elaborate, but Kim's guidelines likely refer to a nuclear test and suggest that Pyongyang appears to have completed formal procedural steps and is preparing to conduct a nuclear test soon, according to South Korean analyst Hong Hyun-ik.
"We assess that North Korea has almost finished preparations for conducting a nuclear test anytime and all that's left is North Korea making a political decision" to do so, Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told reporters Monday.
The spokesman said he couldn't disclose further details because they would involve confidential intelligence affairs. Recent satellite photos showed North Korea may have been sealing the tunnel into a mountainside where a nuclear device could be exploded.
Live-fire exercises
On Monday, South Korean and U.S. forces kicked off three-day exercises off the Korean Peninsula's east coast that involve live-fire exercises, naval maneuvers and submarine detection drills.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the maneuvers are part of regular joint military training that the allies had scheduled before the latest nuclear tensions began. But the training, which involves a nuclear-powered American submarine, could still send a warning against possible North Korean provocation, a South Korean military official said, requesting anonymity because of department rules.
North Korean state media on Saturday described the drills as a joint exercise for a pre-emptive attack on the country. North Korea has said similar things when South Korea and the U.S. conducted other drills; the allies have repeatedly said they have no intention of attacking the North.
Elizabeth Dalziel / AP
From work to play, see pictures from inside the secretive country.
North Korea says U.S. hostility and the threat of American troops in South Korea are important reasons behind its nuclear drive. The U.S. stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
North Korea also has denounced sanctions over its rocket launches, saying it has the sovereign right to launch rockets to send satellites into orbit under a space development program.
North Korea's two previous nuclear tests are believed to have been explosions of plutonium devices, but experts say the North may use highly enriched uranium for its upcoming test. That is a worry to Washington and others because North Korea has plenty of uranium ore and because uranium enrichment facilities are easier to hide than are plutonium facilities.
Diplomats are meeting to find ways to persuade North Korea to scrap its nuclear test plans. New U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his South Korean counterpart, Kim Sung-hwan, held a telephone conversation Sunday night and agreed to sternly deal with any possible nuclear provocation by North Korea, Seoul's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The chief nuclear envoys of South Korea and China met in Beijing on Monday and agreed that they would closely coordinate on ways to stop North Korea from conducting a nuclear test, according to Seoul's Foreign Ministry. China is North Korea's main ally and aid provider.
Related:
North Korea: Rocket launches, nuclear tests will 'target' US
North Korea: Sanctions by South would be 'declaration of war'
North Korea's propaganda poets stay true to their muse
Leave a Comment:
Op, op op op op, oppan Pyongyang style.
GET RID OF THIS DAMN ADVERTIZING !!!
Like today !
Remove all sanctions from North Korea, Iran and Cuba as well as any other country the we (the U.S.) have sanctions against. Then see if they are willing to soften their stance and actually talk to us to try to resolve issues that we have with each other. Sanctions do not work never have never will. Only a stupid person would believe that they will. Look at North Korea, Iran and Cuba. Cuba has managed to survive our sanctions, and blockade that we had on them for several years. Not just the 1962 missile crisis. Iran remains defiant as well as North Korea. It is time the United States lost this attitude of. "My daddy can beat your daddy or my brother can beat your brother or I have a bigger root than you. That is all sanctions amount to in my opinion. They only create hardships on those who have no control over the reason for the sanctions, including the United States TAX PAYER. Sanctions are not imposed and maintained free, they cost money lots of money to initiate and maintain.
That is a novel idea. I would like to see it tried. The problem is some would think that we backed down and that is not allowed.
I don't think that it would be considered as backing down but as an admission that we took the wrong approach to achieve compliance. In other words we made mistake and are willing to admit our mistake.
I agree but in some circles we can not admit to mistakes.
Only career politicians can't admit they made a mistake, that would be an admission that they were or are on the take from some source.
I myself would like to visit Cuba, pictures make it look quite beautiful let alone the history. Do sanctions work? More than likely they just slow things down while people who take advantage of the situation make lots of money. Never will forget Carter's grain embargo, American farmers were the only one's hurt on that one. Well, thanks for the trip down memory lane.
GM Stonepipe
Based upon I have lived in the Caribbean area for many years after retiring from active duty, Florida for many more and historical references, not to mention Scuba Diving in the pristine waters, visiting Cuba is on my "bucket list" and it may be possible in the near future!
As for North Korea, I "visited" there at Panmunjon in 1984/85 while in the military. We were allowed to "step" on the other side and that is as far as I will ever desire to "visit"!
Totally disagree. US should have sanctions against every country in the world. Maybe then we could return to American made products and quit importing crap.
Warrren,
Getting alittle tired of the world class crap myself. I'm with you except we shouldn't force it in the form of sanctions. We need to change the minds of our citizens...this globalization of economy, industry and government will drive our nation into decline.....it drove every civilization in history into decline.
The parasite eventually requires more nourishment than the host can provide to survive. Eventually the parasite overtakes the host and both the host and parasite die in the end and the process starts over again and again.
@ Troy this is true except when you have government regulating the parasites to keep the Host merely weakened and anemic but still able to support its charge. i.e. Taxes
Than people will start saying that we are "pussies" and that only by bullying do we get "respect" ( ! ). Sick world.
Good evening, Jack. Too many cobwebs tonight, can't think of the island off Mexico's east coast but got to snorkel there. Anyway, I kept gazing east and saying how close to Cuba we were and how cool it would be to go. As usual odd man out nobody would help me overtake the captain and spend the rest of the day sightseeing there. ;) Well I'm glad you got to live your dream, you earned it. If you ever end up in the land of not so sky blue waters and like to scuba in water where the visibility is an incredible 6" come see me! Or a couple hundred miles north would be o.k. too, the visibility is lot's better and no sharks that I know of.
Korea-wow, I am an amateur historian with a major in WWII and minors in Korea and of course watched Nam on T.V. every night, and two of my brothers are combat wounded Nam Vets. Both successful and proud of what America did, but they are two of the hardest headed sobs you ever met. I want them to go back but that would never happen, they would be arrested before they got out of customs! Anyway, most of my uncles and old timers I know have told me about WWII, but I have never gotten a Korean Vet to talk about their war, it must have been awful.
Forgot-take care.
Yet sanctions are the only thing between words and military attacks. If talking to them won't work, as is obvious when dealing the N. Korea and Iran, then you are left with sanctions, or physically kicking their ass. The option to ignore them is not an option at all. Ignore Iran, and they will have nukes. Ignoring N. Korea gets the Head Chihuahua barking louder and louder for attention until he does stupid @!$%# like sink a ship or bomb civilians. So complain about sanctions all you like, but when you do, please also provide alternatives.
love sonnet - That's a freaking pu$$y approach that has gotten nowhere, period! The only way to deal with a made dog is to exterminate it from the planet. Do you really think they respect weakness? Oh please Mr. Psycho don't kill us, we'll be your good little bitch; here, have some free trade, money, lots of food and what? You are still going to threaten us again and again and again, an freaking forever! Who f#$ked this up? It was that pu$$y Truman! We had the bomb, we had the power to deal with both North Korea and China. But nooooo, we had to be the appeasing neighborhood bitch! And where did all that get us, two powerful communist enemies that could have been dealt with early on by dropping a nuke on China to get them to stay out of the war. MacArthur had it right! But Mr. Country Boy thought he had a better idea, let's broker a seize fire till hell freezes over. Meantime, the enemy improved their military's fighting capabilities and technology to threaten the whole freaking world. Mao was a frighten little bitch during the war. He gambled big, hoping the Soviets would back him with Air Defense support. Stalin had no choice but to fulfill his promise to Mao if they would intervene to support North Korea, who by the way was nearly wiped out. The UN forces had surrounded the last remnants of the North Korea Army. And they would have finished them off had it not been for 260,000 Chinese troops crossing into North Korea on that cold November night and overrunning our positions. Now fast forward to today and we are dealing with another blackmailing psychopath who is trying to perfect a nuke that can hit the West Coast of the U.S. This is what appeasement gets you, killed! F*%k sanctions, bring in the big guns and use them this time. South Korea was supposed to move their capitol and failed to do so. I say it's time to move this sh!t now to prepare for the commencement of hostilities. This time, tell the Chinese to stay the hell out of it or else like North Korea, they will be part of the problem. China will really have to take a deep breath to see if the gamble this time is worth the economic risk and destruction of their cities. Remember, China has nowhere near the nuke capabilities that we do.
Imagine a bully threatening to kick your ass weekly if you don't cough up money that he demands. Now imagine this bully doing it for over 60 years with family members taking his place once he dies. Do you got the idea now love Sonnet?
"Remove all sanctions from North Korea, Iran and Cuba as well as any other country the we (the U.S.) have sanctions against...."
Then along the same line of thought, lets release all the criminals from prison, and see if they all become model citizens.... after all, being bad isn't really their fault.... just ask them.
North Korea is a joke. It won't take much to take them out of the equation if you go in to win. Had we done that during the original Korean Conflict we wouldn't be facing this situation today.
Again.....screw North Korea!
Carpet bomb the whole dump, burn its ag fields, kill the live stock and hole them up. Lay siege to the whole place. Then send in the South Koreans to take it over. The nation can be then "whole" again, minus the "Unicorn God" and his goons.
We have enough friends in the region that would help burn that dump right to the ground and build over the ashes.
My, aren't we bloodthirsty this morning?
Why not just decap every Communist Party member above provincial rank, and send the rest of the membership to 'Democracy U' someplace like, oh, the Czech Republic?
Oh, and we'll have a new market for all that Government cheese and failed brands of breakfast cereal.
"We"? You seem pretty level so I'd say it was just me...lol. Monday's suck!
I just think you can only let a mosquito fly around your head and annoy you for so long before you just need to squash it and move on.
BTW, you can't fix the problem by just getting rid of the leadership. The whole nation has been comprimised by brainwashing. It would take a hundred years of freedom to purge that nonsense out of the population. Taking commy heads off would be a good start though. You have good points imbedded in your sarcasm. New markets for US products would be opened up.
Switching NK brainwashing for our love of sadism, greed, vanity, gluttony and selfishness.
There are legions of armchair generals / sadists that treat situations like this one like they are action movies or violent computer games. It is all big fun so long as the situation is not turned around, than it isn't fun-it ain't fair! Human beings have a proven capacity to blur reality and fantasy; it is this fact that keeps advertizing companies busy. Think before you post. Honestly, can you even FIND the Korean penninsula on a MAP ?!?
Quarant: Not only can I find the Korean Peninsula on a map, I can find countries that no longer exist! Trust me on this one, pal- geographical trivia is not a game you want to play with me.
Your post @6.3 was a damned good point; but seriously, dude, lighten up a bit. Part of the reason Troy and I are taking the piss about war with the NK is that it's really not that likely. If there was a storm brewin' we wouldn't be laughing about it. (Quite as much.)
Don't assume that you're the only grown-up in the room, and don't assume that the rest of us are in need of enlightenment.
Peace!
FoxTrotsky,
Quarant is like my teenage son....an expert at pointing out the obvious and most terrible at reading between the lines....not a chess player I'm betting, but hey, wtf do I know. World history and current events have only been a hobby of mine for 20 years.
Quarant,
"Switching NK brainwashing for our love of sadism, greed, vanity, gluttony and selfishness."
The difference is that here you have a choice and the free will to be what you will. Agreed that those attributes are terrible but again, like I tell my teenage son, you will always find what you are looking for in this world. There are plenty more good people out there than bad....if you are a bit more objective and less focused on fingering out the bad peeps then you will see that.
Moving on..
freedoms are being slowly taken away & you have choices , but only from column a or b , they limit the options
Yeah and so dose north...like Iran Iraq China ...can you say WW3, Moron this is not call of duty its real world millions would die all over the world not just far away but right here in the USA .what ya going to do when the drop one of there Nukes on you?? DIE
If there's an attack from the North, I hope Psy will be in the country to help out.
Ha!
Sanctions, sanctions, and more sanctions. They never work and only put hardship and the risk of starvation on the civilian populace of the sanctioned country. Just try kicking a sandwich out of a hungry homeless persons hand and see if that will make him your friend and willing to listen to you. Idiots.
Show of force is more like a show of stupidity. Macho posturing solves nothing. The best way to defeat the Norks is through free trade and putting ourselves in their place; respect and empathy for their culture and situation go along way in starting true peace - exept peace isn't what the US / NWO wants - it wants to utterly crush ANY nation state that dares to defy them and their ADMITTED goal of a New World Order.
Boy are you lost..
Many people do not know that the US field tested Biological Warfare weapon types during the Korean war.
The North Koreans might consider upgrading their water filtration system because the old one is not working. Whatever is in the water is causing some serious and widespread brain damage
The problem is that people like you willfully get such a steady diet of pro-NWO propaganda that you do not even look at both sides of the story. When it comes to NK all people like you see are soldiers marching and rockets launching. I doubt that you could find Korea, North OR South on a freakin' MAP !
40.2012° N, 127.2565° E. Lol
Oh brother. I am not going to college, spending all my money just so I could get drafted into an unnecessary war and maybe get killed doing absolutely nothing I ever wanted to do with my life.
T_T
Well if they do ever use a nuclear bomb on either USA, South Korea or any of their allies (lets hope that never happens). It will be the end of NK as we know it. I don't think Russia and China would care either you can't really defend an act like that.
all they have to say is it was an escalation of conflict over disputed ownership of small islands
Peace will prevail once NK acquires full nuclear capability.
Nuclear weapon is a deterrent which provides self-preservation to a nation that has such.
NK is not going to lob nuclear missile to another country for fear of consequential total retaliation. This thumb of rule generally applies to any nuclear-armed nations except US that had dropped nuclear bombs on another nation.
Likewise Iran's possession of nuclear weapon is also an impetus to peace in the middle east. israel would then not be able to be belligerent to others with impunity.
Henrich von Dorf - What freaking glue or exhaust pipes have you been inhaling? Are you serious, give the two nations that are run by paranoid psychos with delusions of grandeur nukes? I mean, hey, it's not like one believes a dead Seventh Century Imam guy is going to crawl out of a well to lead Armageddon, or perhaps the other guy wants to be the Emperor of the World, right? What could possibly go wrong with them having nukes.
I ask one favor of you, please don't run for any political office. We have enough idiots there now to f$#k it up!
You are obviously either overdosed or brainwashed by the propaganda that are fed to you by your government media.
Wipe the foam off your mouth, take a deep breath and go for a hike to calm yourself down.
HENRICH .........figures that would come from a german & before you respond , my mothers maiden name was frisinger , so im not racist , your just ignorant as to the potential actions of a lunatic despot
So your mother is of German stock. Praise to Germans .
Time to practice some drone strikes at strategic locations in NK.
The fat dink's father promised Jimmy Carter that they would not build nuclear weapons..How many of you remember this?Carter got off the plane looking like rat faced Nevil Chamberlin!!