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In the continually escalating conflict between North Korea and the United States a new threat has been issued from Pyongyang. The North Koreans have threatened to attack U.S military bases in Japan and Guam.
North Korea on Thursday threatened to attack American military bases in Japan and on the Pacific island of Guam in retaliation for recent training missions by American B-52 bombers over South Korea…
The threats against American troops on Thursday were the latest in a stream of vitriol from the North in the wake of the United Nations sanctions. Japanese and American Pacific bases are within range of North Korea’s medium-range missiles, according to South Korean officials.
After conducting a third nuclear weapons test the North Koreans threatened to launch a nuclear strike on the United States. While extremely proactive, the consensus within U.S. security circles seems to have been that though North Korea was working on gaining the capacity for such a strike, they were nowhere near having such a capability presently. It was thought to be, essentially, an empty threat.
Striking American military bases in the pacific however is well within North Korea’s capability. The regime has been willing to make symbolic strikes previously such as sinking a South Korean naval ship and shelling a South Korean Island in 2010.
North Korea recently promised to cancel the Korean War Cease Fire if America continued to push for UN sanctions, which it did. The Korean War never technically ended there has just been a cease fire since 1953. Ending the cease fire would in theory give North Korea the legal justification to attack American bases in the Pacific.
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Poor North Korea. Probably wondering what’s a rogue nation have to do to get some damn attention.
Unfortunately, the answer may be to actually have to attack rather than just threaten it.
That’s my worry, Old Fat Guy. They can only threaten and throw tantrums for so long before everyone writes them off as crying wolf.
It seems like they’ve escalated their behavior and rhetoric dramatically in a short period of time. That worries me, too.
This tiny dick little punk doesn’t seem to understand that attacking military bases in the Pacific will result in his being, you know, incinerated. So either he’s crying wolf or he’s on a suicide mission.
China doesn’t like this sort of saber-rattling, either, as instability in North Korea inevitably spills over its borders. China and the US should definitely get on the same page about this little shit. My guess is that such discussions are on-going.
Presumably, Dan, you’re no longer working under the assumption that a threat is enough to justify (legal or otherwise) starting a preemptive war.
At least, that doesn’t appear to be the case here, which is an improvement. Although, I still get the feeling you’re itching for a reason to bomb and/or invade NK.
That would be second time.
DPRK represents an existential threat to the U.S. Get with the plan. /s
Yes, and as we are at war (finally they’ve found a real war) all civil liberties must be suspended, and the US proles must pay some extra taxes.
Escalation. . . in a one-sided war of words, right? Has anything else, er, escalative taken place? In a world where liberals are ho-humming torture and drone-killings, I struggle to get it up for this.
There are two Hollowwood movies prepping & propagandeering U.S. into war against DPRK. CT & I posted links yesterday. I’ll dig them up if you missed them
This is what happens when you send Dennis Rodman to foreign countries. Where else has he traveled to?
I think this falls under the category of throwing a crappy little country against a wall just to show them who’s boss.
U.S. failed with Afghanistan, Iraq, now Syria, so off to DPRK we go.
O shoulda been smart like Reagan & picked on Grenada.
Do you know what this is all about? North Korea desperately wants the U.S. to engage in face to face talks which they believe will lead the North having economic stability and diplomatic relations with the United States. They believe that this will solove all thier problems.
Post war Greneda is a paradise, much like pre war Greneda. /s
Assuming this little pissant is not as stupid as he sometimes appears, your scanario seems very plausible. Surely he was watching and learning from recent developments in Iraq and Libya, not to mention the NFL.
Regardless of what one thinkks of Reagan, militarily, he was a genius.
Really? If they’re as bad as the recent “Red Dawn” then no big.
Have you been listening to Dennis Rodman? My suggestion: stop. Your brain will freeze if you do that too long.
I know!! Can’t really blame N Korea for their threats after Rodman left ! Un was prob all like WTF was THAT??? Quick! Do something to make it stop!!!
Don’t forget capture of Pineapple Face Noriega! Memories….
Red Dawn was one. Red Dawn, oriented toward teen guys, is also a military recruiting tool.
CT had the other; I’ve forgotten what it is.
Agree that it’s a recruiting film aimed at teen males. It flopped cuz it was crap. Guess we’ll see about the other one in time. I think these days the MIC has better success recruiting with violent video games
There is way more to fear at present day from what is (or isn’t) happening at reactor #4 at Fukushima than DPRK.
Found the other one on yesterday’s thread.
These movies can be used in different ways. One is a trial run. If it fails to achieve it’s desired outcome, the plan might be junked.
I don’t know how these decisions are made, just picking up patterns from the outside.
Raising another possibility, that DPRK is a shiny object to draw attention away from Fukushima.
Hmmmmm. Yes there is that.
Hard to say. Sometimes just about making money in Hollywood. But certainly some films used as trial. balloons to get feedback & such.
Duly noted that we’re not told much about Reactor 4. Which is why I also wondered if that’s why the PTB are having Cyprus discussed so much. Cyprus is a 2-fer. Puts fear in the US sheeples + distracts from Fukashima radiation.
Got to assess the movie in the context of whatever else is happening. I have read that any time military hardware is used, DoD provides it and gets censorship in return.
Wiki on Red Dawn is interesting.
So idea to remake 1984 film of same name was made in 2008, sched to be released 2010. Then enemy was changed to DPRK from China to maintain Chinese box office.
Curious.
But think too much time spent on one bad movie.
Cyprus is a 3-fer. Big depositors in Cyrus banks are Russian. Putin is hopping mad.
Dennis Rodman diplomacy seems not to be working. Whodathunkit?
And would it be so hard to talk to him? Attempt to make some progress in bringing them out of isolation. So much swaggering contempt for NK from other commenters at this site.
A strong and corrective take–I appreciate this. It’s easily forgotten that there are a lot of very poor people, both sides of the 38th parallel, that tend to be the victims of our geopolitical machinations.
THose were the good ol’ days. One even has to give him credit fofr screwing the Iranians out of a bunch of money to fund the Contras. NO matter whart else you say about him, he KNEW how to BE president and get shit done. Even illegal shit.
I disagree. I don’t think we’ve given Rodman enbough time to work this out with the despipcable little shit. I thknk if we send Rodman and Sir Charles over there, that Un will be eating out of our hands in no time.
I love it when bad things happen to Putin.
BRICS (R stands for Russia) are only entities standing betw you & disaster.
You are misunderstanding some feeble attempts at humor.
Yes I knew re switch bet Chinese bad guys to NK bad guys. Mostly about $$$$$. Just heard review about that other film on Fresh Air. David Adelstein (do?) panned it fwiw. Sounds really bad. Ho hum.
Who are B I & S?
Brazil, China, S. Africa. Their joint economies will be bigger than West by 2030ish, and by something like 2040 they’ll have 80% of world’s consumer spending. Meeting in Durban later this month to forward progress on alternatives to WB, IMF, western think tanks, financial ratings agencies, university ratings agencies, etc.
IOW, anti-imperialist.
BRICS wiki.
Fresh Air like most of NPR, is propaganda.
I=India
Thanks. Very interesting. Maybe a ray of hope.
Yes FA is propaganda but sometimes interviews of interesting people. Grain of salt yadda yadda.
I’m watching this carefully. Russia-China already have high speed rail for shipping goods from China to Europe without going thru String of Pearls ocean shipping squeeze points. Bab-el-Mandeb, at southern end of Red Sea is one, wh is what U.S. terrorism in Somalia & Yemen is about.
Shrillary’s frantic trip to String of Pearls on Pivot to Pacific at end of her SoS tenure was about this.
Think Russia-China, wh also have pipelines across central Asia, has out manoeuvered U.S. on some things already. A lot is still up for grabs, but frantic nature of U.S. in certain telling locations might say a lot about empire being spread too thin.
TBD.
Please proceed President Jong Un. Strike by all means and lets get this nonsense over with. I think it will take about 30 minutes to finish this off as long as China stays out of the way and considering the slant of China these days they may actually be happy to have the North out of the way so they do not have to defend or support them any more. The Koreas could unite and create a vibrant ecconomy that China would be happy to utilise for their benifit in the coming century. So by all means proceed Kim Jong Un you will have the shortest reign of power in North Korean history.
So do we wistfully recall those golden days at the Dawn of Darkness meaning the first term of President G. Dubya Shitforbrains—-when North and South Korea had already begun to re-unite divided families and was making many public gestures and statements to indicate their wish to re-unite their halves of the country. Shitforbrains said no way—no commies near our cheap-labor factories chuggin along without all them reggalations. We donwant none o’them people drug into it. Y’ll gone have ta gitcha some ray-jeem change a-goin, cuz’n it’s good fer me. And it’s been all downhill ever since, like the rest of the planet.
Got it.
Btw check out Tom Englehart post here from yesterday I think. Can’t link. Using phone. Called. Ann Rule: the War on Women. Some insights into why some men rape & or violent. Fwiw. Interesting. Lots of links.
A little blithe, perhaps, when talking about an NK army of about a million men. I mean, I realize that America’s got no problem killing that many people if it doesn’t mess up the weekend (or makes it entertaining), but…
Ah yes. Good point. Dennis Rodman is weird but agree that the PTB want NK to be isolated angry & hungry. When Un rattles sabers it makes USians distracted from how badly we’re being ripped off. Plus also gets citizens to cheerlead for more WARInc. Woot! A 2fer for the 1%.
When you get back to your computer send me the short version. VAW is not one of my issues. I was trying to get you & Dearie to look at it analytically not emotionally.
Lest we forget, Madeleine (was-worth [worth what, but I digress]-killing-half-a million-Iraqi-children) Alldim, visited DPRK.
“. . . The Korean War never technically ended. . .”
——————-
Nor was war ever ever declared, was it? So could we could pretend it never happened, there were no war criminals on either (or both) side, or deaths, and leave it at that? We were simply whoring for the UN in the early ’50s, or was it the other way around?
It seems the DPRK is having a “mother, may I” moment now, starved for attention and can’t stand being ignored. But O is doing the right thing for now. No aid, tardy reactions to rants, studied distraction due to more important issues, etc. How about Cyprus for awhile?
More impt issue about DPRK. Their missiles are in striking distance of Seoul. They can kill tens or hundreds of thousands of Seoulians (heh) bef U.S. can nukeum.
Yes, from what I have read. U.S. cleverly provoked DPRK into war, analogous to SH invading Kuwait.
Linking again to source.
What will U.S. stance accomplish?
“What will U.S. stance accomplish?”
———
Absolutely nothing, which is my sincerest wish, and which would give China fits (probably already is).
Is that a good thing IYO or a bad thing.
Will try to remember. But post worth a quick scan to check out a few links. As for DPKR: not interested in giving China fits, but china will have to deal with blowback should NK decide to do more & bigger stuff. Time will tell.
Perhaps, but I wasn’t referring to your comments and also had in mind comments I read in the last post on this issue.