North Korea News

[de officiis]

China has told the Trump administration it warned North Korea it would impose unilateral sanctions should Pyongyang carry out another nuclear test, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday, in possibly China's toughest threat yet against its defiant neighbor.Tillerson, speaking on Fox News, said China has asked North Korea not to conduct any more nuclear tests. He noted that major commemorations in North had passed in recent days without a feared nuclear test or test of any intercontinental ballistic missile.

"And in fact we were told by the Chinese that they informed the regime that if they did conduct further nuclear tests, China would be taking sanctions actions on their own," Tillerson said, without specifying what sanctions he was referring to.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-north ... SKBN17T0AW

[Okeefenokee]

hmmmmmmm.

Too many years of this shit to take it too seriously.

We'll see if this turns out as another nothing-burger.

[adwinistrator]

I wonder how China can use sanctions against North Korea without shooting themselves in the foot. NK is already so isolated and impoverished that the vast majority of it's citizens are suffering to the limit. International sanctions have cut NK off from any legitimate access to luxury goods, military supplies, money transfers, etc.

If NK falls further into economic despair, it will fall on the citizens, who will have to attempt to escape NK, to SK or China, causing a massive immigration crisis. Neither SK or China want this to happen.

So how far can they push sanctions until it's only hurting the citizens, which in turn is only causing problems for China and SK?


Details on sanctions enacted over the last few years:

UN Sanctions:

• Resolution 2270, passed in March 2016 after the fourth nuclear test, further strengthened sanctions. It banned the export of gold, vanadium, titanium, and rare earth metals. The export of coal and iron were also banned, with an exemption for transactions that were purely for "livelihood purposes".
• Resolution 2321, passed in November 2016, capped North Korea's coal exports and banned exports of copper, nickel, zinc, and silver. In February 2017, a UN panel said that 116 of 193 member states had yet not submitted a report on their implementation of these sanctions, though China had. Also in February 2017, China announced it would ban all imports of coal for the rest of the year.

US Sanctions:
President Obama enacted the North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act of 2016, which passed the House of Representatives and the Senate with nearly unanimous support.

• requires the President to sanction entities found to have contributed to North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction program, arms trade, human rights abuses or other illegal activities.
• imposes mandatory sanctions for entities involved in North Korea's mineral or metal trades, which comprise a large part of North Korea's foreign exports.
• requires the US Treasury Department to determine whether North Korea should be listed as a "primary money laundering concern," which would trigger tough new financial restrictions.
• imposes new sanctions authorities related to North Korean human rights abuses and violations of cybersecurity.

Japanese Sactions
In 2016, Japan's sanctions against North Korea included:

• banning remittances, except those made for humanitarian purposes and less than 100,000 yen in value.
• freezing assets of suspect individuals and organisations in Japan.
• prohibiting North Korean citizens from entering Japan.
• renewing the ban on North Korean ships entering Japanese ports and extending it to include other ships that have visited North Korea.
• banning nuclear and missile technicians who have been to North Korea from entering Japan.

[ssu]

Don't think the sanctions will be successfull.

Besides, in truth the North Korean regime has simply turned a blind eye to street vendors and small time capitalism, which basically keeps the country standing somehow.

(Wonder if they know it's capitalism)



I think if there would be any escalation of the crisis (which isn't likely, but possible), likely the tit-for-tat way would happen. All out war would happen only when either side would try to gain strategic surprise and launch an pre-emptive strike... which isn't at all reasonable.

Here's some hypotheticals as how this tit-for-tat would go:

And do notice that this is from 2013. So these things go on and on...

[Ph64]

Lil' Kim knows that if he actually blows someone up outside his own country he's pretty much going to be in charge of a glass ashtray of a capitol. Although more realistically with our satellite/surveillance capabilities we know where he is most of the time... maybe just a MOAB on his fat ass.

What stops the US is China, not NK...he'd be well off not to piss off China.

[Speaker to Animals]

God I really despise CNN with their bullshit audio visual garbage. I hope North Korea hits CNN with an EMP and shuts them down.

[SilverEagle]

God I really despise CNN with their bullshit audio visual garbage. I hope North Korea hits CNN with an EMP and shuts them down.

And make them a martyr? Are you fucking nuts?!

[Speaker to Animals]

God I really despise CNN with their bullshit audio visual garbage. I hope North Korea hits CNN with an EMP and shuts them down.

And make them a martyr? Are you fucking nuts?!

But there will be no more Wolf Blitzer.

[SilverEagle]

God I really despise CNN with their bullshit audio visual garbage. I hope North Korea hits CNN with an EMP and shuts them down.

And make them a martyr? Are you fucking nuts?!

But there will be no more Wolf Blitzer.

Something Far worse will rise up Libertopia and replace Wolf Blitzer. Like a zombie child of Hillary and Mao.

[ssu]

Lil' Kim knows that if he actually blows someone up outside his own country he's pretty much going to be in charge of a glass ashtray of a capitol. Although more realistically with our satellite/surveillance capabilities we know where he is most of the time... maybe just a MOAB on his fat ass.

What stops the US is China, not NK...he'd be well off not to piss off China.

Yet in reality is hasn't gone that way. And that won't be the reality today either. The US will go to great lengths to respond, but not to escalate.

He (and his father) have attacked South Korea, South Korean armed forces and even US personnel. Bombed a South Korean town, sunk a South Korean warship. There's a long list of border incidents. Even if you loathe CNN, the truth is that it is a tit-for-tat game. To talk about all-out war in the event of a minor incident is ignorant stupidity.

Take for instance an incident in 1976 where two US officers were killed on the DMZ.

US personnel were in a group that was trimming trees on the DMZ and North Korean soldiers attacked them and used the axe on scene.

(The US army officers killed by North Korean troops going home from Korea in 1976:)


Did a war start in 1976 because of this incident? No, but the US & South Korean response, Operation Paul Bunyan, is a good example of how the US and Korea respond to provocation with extreme caution not to escalate the situation.

Operation Paul Bunyan was carried out on August 21 at 07:00, three days after the killings. A convoy of 23 American and South Korean vehicles ("Task Force Vierra", named after Lieutenant Colonel Victor S. Vierra, commander of the United States Army Support Group) drove into the JSA without warning to the North Koreans, who had one observation post manned at that hour. In the vehicles were two eight-man teams of military engineers (from the 2nd Engineer Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division) equipped with chain-saws to cut down the tree.

These teams were accompanied by two 30-man security platoons from the Joint Security Force, who were armed with pistols and axe handles. The 2nd Platoon secured the northern entrance to the JSA via the Bridge of No Return, while the 3rd Platoon secured the southern edge of the area.

Concurrently, a team from B Company, commanded by Captain Walter Seifried, had activated the detonation systems for the charges on Freedom Bridge and had the 165mm main gun of the M728 combat engineer vehicle aimed mid-span to ensure that the bridge would fall should the order be given for its destruction. Also B Company, supporting E Company (bridge), were building M4T6 rafts on the Imjin River should the situation require emergency evacuation by that route.

In addition, a 64-man South Korean Special Forces company accompanied them, armed with clubs and trained in Tae Kwon Do, supposedly without firearms. However, once they parked their trucks near the Bridge of No Return, they started throwing out the sandbags that lined the truck bottoms, and handing out M16 rifles and M79 grenade launchers that had been concealed below.[2] Several of the special forces men also had M18 Claymore mines strapped to their chests with the firing mechanism in their hands, and were shouting at the North Koreans to cross the bridge.[14][15]

A U.S. Infantry company in 20 utility helicopters and seven Cobra attack helicopters circled behind them. Behind these helicopters, B-52 Stratofortresses, which came from Guam escorted by U.S. F-4 Phantom IIs from Kunsan Air Base. South Korean F-5 and F-86 fighters were visible flying across the sky at high altitude. At Taegu Air Base, F-111 bombers of the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing out of Mountain Home Air Force Base, were stationed, and F-4 Phantoms C and D from the 18th TFW Kadena Air Base and Clark Air Base were also deployed. The aircraft carrier USS Midway task force had also been moved to a station just offshore.

Near the edges of the DMZ, many more heavily armed U.S. and South Korean infantry, artillery including the Second Battalion, 71st Air Defense Regiment armed with Improved Hawk missiles, and armor were waiting to back up the special operations team. Bases near the DMZ were prepared for demolition in the case of a military response. The defense condition (DEFCON) was elevated on order of General Stilwell, as recounted in Colonel De LaTeur's research paper later. In addition, 12,000 additional troops were ordered to Korea, including 1,800 Marines from Okinawa. During the operation, nuclear-capable strategic bombers circled over the JSA. According to an intelligence analyst monitoring the North Korea tactical radio net, the accumulation of force "blew their... minds".

Altogether, Task Force Vierra consisted of 813 men: almost all of the men of the United States Army Support Group, of which the Joint Security Force was a part; a South Korean reconnaissance company; a South Korean Special Forces company which had infiltrated the river area by the bridge the night before; and members of a reinforced composite rifle company from the 9th Infantry Regiment. In addition to this force, every UNC force in the rest of South Korea was on battle alert.

So, basically for an operation that was about cutting trees, you had B-52s in assistance... if things would get out of hand in the tree cutting operation.