North Korea

US Special Ops Commander: We’ve Sent Troops Into North Korea? – US Military Denies Parachuting Into N.Korea

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– US Special Ops commander: We’ve sent troops into North Korea? (StratRisks, May 28, 2012):

Source: Diplomat

U.S. Special Forces have been parachuting into North Korea to spy on Pyongyang’s extensive network of underground military facilities. That surprising disclosure, by a top U.S. commando officer, is a reminder of America’s continuing involvement in the “cold war” on the Korean peninsula – and of North Korea’s extensive preparations for the conflict turning hot.

In the decades since the end of the Korean War, Pyongyang has constructed thousands of tunnels, Army Brig. Gen. Neil Tolley, commander of U.S. Special Operations Forces in South Korea, said at a conference in Florida last week. Tolley said the tunnels include 20 partially subterranean airfields, thousands of underground artillery positions and at least four tunnels underneath the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas. “We don’t know how many we don’t know about,” Tolley said.

“The entire tunnel infrastructure is hidden from our satellites,” Tolley added. “So we send [Republic of Korea] soldiers and U.S. soldiers to the North to do special reconnaissance.” Tolley said the commandos parachute in with minimal supplies in order to watch the tunnels without being detected themselves.

Tolley outlined new equipment he said would boost the spies’ capabilities without giving them away to North Korean troops. For starters, he said his men could use a lightweight sensor able to “characterize what’s in a facility from standoff distance.” In addition, the commandos would benefit from a high frequency radio whose signal can’t be tracked back to its origin. Finally – and most dramatically – Tolley said a wireless power transmission system would allow his troops to jump into North Korea without heavy loads of batteries for their radios and other gear.

– US military denies parachuting into N.Korea (AFP, May 29, 2012):

The US military Tuesday vehemently denied a media report that special forces had been parachuted into North Korea on intelligence-gathering missions, saying a source had been misquoted.

Current affairs magazine The Diplomat quoted Brigadier General Neil Tolley, commander of special forces in South Korea, as saying soldiers from the US and South Korea had been dropped across the border for “special reconnaissance” missions.

But Colonel Jonathan Withington, public affairs officer for US Forces Korea, said some reporting of the conference had taken Tolley “completely out of context”.

“Quotes have been made up and attributed to him,” he said, denying that any US or South Korean forces had parachuted into the North.

Read moreUS Special Ops Commander: We’ve Sent Troops Into North Korea? – US Military Denies Parachuting Into N.Korea

The Hunt For Red Pyongyang: South Korea On Alert For Naval Attack After ‘Losing’ 4 North Korean Subs

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– The Hunt For Red Pyongyang: South Korea On Alert For Naval Attack After “Losing” 4 North Korean Subs (ZeroHedge, April 6, 2012):

Just because the imminent launch of a North Korean rocket along a trajectory which will likely force Japan to strike it down, something which Pyongyang said would be equivalent to an act of war, was not enough, it now appears that South Korea has commenced the hunt for Red Pyongyang or four, as it is now “searching for four North Korean submarines that disappeared after leaving their bases on the tense peninsula.” ABC News reports that “A military source quoted in a South Korean newspaper says up to four North Korean submarines slipped out of port in recent days and have so far avoided detection. The source was also quoted as saying that Pyongyang has stepped up submarine infiltration drills as the weather has warmed.” As a result, “Seoul is now on alert for a possible strike against a South Korean naval ship.” This won’t be the first time a North Korean sub is implicated in potential wrongdoing: “The South accuses the North of using a midget submarine to sink the corvette the Cheonan two years ago, which left 46 South Korean sailors dead.”

Just more posturing, Or will Kim Jong Un force the hand of either Seoul or in a few days, Tokyo? From Al Jazeera:

Japan has completed the deployment of a land-based system of interceptor missiles in preparation for a planned North Korean rocket launch later this month.

The exercise was finalised in Okinawa on Thursday, days after a similar deployment was completed on Monday in Naha, the capital of Okinawa prefecture.

The interceptors would be ready to shoot down any parts of the rocket that veer into Japan’s airspace.

Read moreThe Hunt For Red Pyongyang: South Korea On Alert For Naval Attack After ‘Losing’ 4 North Korean Subs

Uncle Jang Emerges As Real Power In North Korea

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– Uncle Jang emerges as real power in North Korea (Independent, Dec. 22, 2011):

North Korea’s anointed “Great Successor” Kim Jong-un will have to rule from under the thumb of an uncle widely regarded as “the regent” who is both coaching him on how to govern, and telling him what to do.

That is the view of South Korean analysts as Kim Jong-il lies in a glass coffin in Pyongyang and weeping mourners file by for a last glimpse of the man who ruled North Korea for 17 years before dying last Saturday.

Behind the scenes of mourning, a backstage plan to ensure a smooth transition of power has thrust Jang Song-thaek into the spotlight. The brother-in-law of the former leader is thought to wield the most power in the new North Korean administration and is joined by his wife Kim Kyong-hui, and the highest ranking military commander, General Ri Young-ho in the country’s most powerful decision-making group.

Ha Tae-keung, director of a small short-wave radio station that broadcasts news into North Korea for two hours a day, believes Jang exercises the most power of all of those now scheming for influence in this time of transition.

“It’s not a junta,” Mr Ha said. “One person has the most power, and that’s Jang.”

Read moreUncle Jang Emerges As Real Power In North Korea

North Korea’s ‘Dear Leader’ Dictator Kim Jong-Il Dead

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– Kim Jong-il death sparks hysterical outpouring of grief in North Korea (Telegraph, Dec. 19, 2011):

Local television footage has shown North Korean officials apparently overcome with grief at the news of their leader Kim Jong-il’s death.

– North Korea’s ‘Dear Leader’ Dictator Kim Jong Il Dies; Son May Take Over (Bloomberg, Dec 19, 2011):

Kim Jong Il, the second-generation North Korean dictator who defied global condemnation to build nuclear weapons while his people starved, has died, state media reported. A government statement called on North Koreans to “loyally follow” his son, Kim Jong Un.

Kim, 70, died on Dec. 17 of a heart attack brought on by mental and physical strain while on a domestic train trip, the official Korean Central News Agency said. Kim probably had a stroke in August 2008 and may have also contracted pancreatic cancer, according to South Korean news reports.

Read moreNorth Korea’s ‘Dear Leader’ Dictator Kim Jong-Il Dead

US Military Drone Forced Down By North Korean Electronic Attack

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– US Military Plane Forced Down By North Korean Electronic Attack (AFP,  Sep. 2011):

SEOUL – A US military reconnaissance plane came under electronic attack from North Korea and had to make an emergency landing during a major military exercise in March, a political aide said Friday.

The aide said the plane suffered disturbance to its GPS system due to jamming signals from the North’s southwestern cities of Haeju and Kaesong as it was taking part in the annual US-South Korea drill, Key Resolve.

The incident was disclosed in a report that Seoul’s defense ministry submitted to Ahn Kyu-baek of parliament’s defense committee, the aide to Ahn said.

Spokesmen for the defense ministry and US Forces Korea declined to comment.

Jamming signals — sent at intervals of five to 10 minutes on the afternoon of March 4 — forced the plane to make an emergency landing 45 minutes after it took off, the aide quoted the report as saying.

The signals also affected South Korean naval patrol boats and speedboats, as well as several civilian flights near Seoul’s Gimpo area, according to the report.

Read moreUS Military Drone Forced Down By North Korean Electronic Attack

North Korea Tests ‘Super-EMP’ Nuke

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– North Korea Tests ‘Super-EMP’ Nuke (NEWSMAX, June 16, 2011):

Gary Samore, a top Obama administration national security official, warned of new sanctions if North Korea conducted a third round of nuclear tests on Monday, as reports surfaced that North Korea has miniaturized its nuclear warheads so they can be delivered by ballistic missile.

North Korea’s last round of tests, conducted in May 2009, appear to have included a “super-EMP” weapon, capable of emitting enough gamma rays to disable the electric power grid across most of the lower 48 states, says Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, a former CIA nuclear weapons analyst and president of EMPact America, a citizens lobbying group.

Read moreNorth Korea Tests ‘Super-EMP’ Nuke

North Korea State TV Reports Seriousness of Radioactive Leaks at Japan Plant – Expert: ‘Even A Month After The Accident, We See No Prospects of Getting Radioactive Leakages Under Control’

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PYONGYANG, April 18, Kyodo — North Korea’s state television has reported the seriousness of continued radioactive leakages at a Japanese nuclear power plant hit by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan.

In a Korean Central Television Station program broadcast Sunday night, experts voiced concern about the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant.

”What is most serious is that even a month after the accident, we see no prospects of getting radioactive leakages under control,” an expert said.

Another expert warned, ”There is a possibility that unexpected radioactive substances may leak (out of the plant).”

Read moreNorth Korea State TV Reports Seriousness of Radioactive Leaks at Japan Plant – Expert: ‘Even A Month After The Accident, We See No Prospects of Getting Radioactive Leakages Under Control’

North Korean Walks Through 4km Wide Minefield And Past North Korean Guards to Defect to South

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South Korean authorities question man who crossed heavily mined border as North celebrates Kim Jong-il’s 69th birthday


Kim Jong-il’s heir apparent, Kim Jong-un (centre), looms over a performance for the Dear Leader’s 69th birthday in Pyongyang. Photograph: Kyodo/Reuters

A North Korean man has walked across the heavily mined border into South Korea, a rare defection as his fellow citizens prepared to put on choreographed celebrations for Kim Jong-il’s birthday.

Military and spy agency officials could not explain how the man managed to walk across the 4km (2.5 mile) wide minefield and past North Korean guards.

He was being interrogated after being picked up by South Korean guards, an official said.

The demilitarised zone border, which has divided the Korean peninsula since the end of the 1950-53 conflict, is rarely crossed, except through two corridors cleared for passage by officials and civilians after relations warmed in 2000.

Read moreNorth Korean Walks Through 4km Wide Minefield And Past North Korean Guards to Defect to South

Censored Ron Paul’s 20/20 ABC News Interview With John Stossel (MUST-SEE!!!)

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The videos are a flashback and a must-see.

More about Ron Paul:

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– Rep. Ron Paul: Next US Crash Will Be Comparable To That Of Soviet Union, QE2 Is A ‘Total Failure’ And The Fed Is A ‘Central Planning Cartel’

– Ron Paul 2012 – Can you Hear us Now?

– Ron Paul: ‘Is the Gold Really There? Who Owns It?’

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South Korea to Hold Firing Drills Despite North Korea (Nuclear War) Threat To Retaliate If Drills Continue

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Related articles:

– North Korea says it will strike South if drill goes ahead (Reuters):

SEOUL/BEIJING (Reuters) – North Korea said on Friday it would strike again at the South if a live-fire drill by Seoul on a disputed island went ahead, with an even stronger response than last month’s shelling that killed four people.

– North Korea threatens South with nuclear war (Independent):

North Korea warned today that US-South Korean co-operation could bring nuclear war to the region.

– Nuclear War Between Koreas: Brought To You By The US Government


South Korean troops geared up today for artillery drills on a border island shelled by North Korea last month despite Pyongyang’s threat to retaliate again, as Russia and China expressed concerns over rising tensions on the divided peninsula.

The North warned yesterday that it would strike even harder than before if the South went ahead with its planned drills. Four people died last month in the North’s attack on Yeonpyeong Island near the tense sea border.

The US supports South Korea, saying the country has a right to conduct such a military exercise. However, Russia’s Foreign Ministry expressed its “extreme concern” yesterday over the drills and urged South Korea to cancel them to prevent a further escalation of tensions.

China, the North’s key ally, also said it is firmly opposed to any acts that could worsen already-high tensions on the Korean peninsula. “In regard to what could lead to worsening the situation or any escalation of acts of sabotage of regional peace and stability, China is firmly and unambiguously opposed,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in a statement today.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said today that marines would go ahead with the drills as scheduled and that the military was ready to respond to any possible provocation.

“We have a right to conduct our own military drills,” a Joint Chiefs of Staff officer said.

Read moreSouth Korea to Hold Firing Drills Despite North Korea (Nuclear War) Threat To Retaliate If Drills Continue

North Korea Places Surface To Surface Missiles On Launch Pads, Threatens ‘Brutal Military Blow On Any Provocation Which Violates Territorial Waters’

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North Korea has placed surface-to-surface missiles on launch pads in the Yellow Sea and the reclusive state had moved surface-to-air missiles near frontline areas.

The reports came as the United States and South Korea began joint military exercises in waters west of the Korean Peninsula in the face of opposition by China and threats of “consequences” from Pyongyang.

South Korea also ordered residents of an island shelled by North Korea last Tuesday to evacuate to shelters, according to witnesses.

“They ordered people here to move to shelters saying there is an emergency situation,” the witness said, adding there were no details available.

The North’s official KCNA news agency warned of retaliatory action if its territory is violated.

“We will deliver a brutal military blow on any provocation which violates our territorial waters,” KCNA said.

Read moreNorth Korea Places Surface To Surface Missiles On Launch Pads, Threatens ‘Brutal Military Blow On Any Provocation Which Violates Territorial Waters’

North and South Korea Exchange Artillery Fire

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N. Korean artillery attack leaves island ablaze

Pyongyang says South fired first during military drills


YTN television said up to 70 houses were on fire on Yeonpyeong, about 75 miles west of the capital Seoul.

SEOUL — Fires were burning out of control Tuesday after a South Korean island was hit by dozens of artillery shells fired by North Korea.

YTN said at least 200 North Korean shells hit Yeonpyeong island. Most of the shells landed on a South Korean military base there.

South Korea returned fire and scrambled F-16 fighter jets, military officials said. At least one South Korean marine was killed and 13 wounded, the military said.

However, North Korea’s state-run KCNA news service said that South Korea fired first, Reuters reported.

The clash came amid South Korean military drills in the area. North Korea’s military had sent a message to South Korea’s armed forces early Tuesday to demand that the drills stop, but the South continued them, according to an official at South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

During the drills, South Korean marines on the island shot artillery toward southern waters, away from North Korea, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of military rules.

The skirmish also follows high tension over North Korea’s claim that it has a new uranium enrichment facility and just over a month after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il unveiled his youngest son Kim Jong Un as his heir apparent.

Read moreNorth and South Korea Exchange Artillery Fire

North Korea Threatens ‘Nuclear War’ Over US-South Korean Wargames

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Pyongyang ramps up the tension over this weekend’s joint US-South Korean wargames in the Sea of Japan

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South Koreans take a look at the US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington at Busan. the ship is about to take part in large-scale military exercises in the Sea of Japan (AP)

North Korea has threatened to use its “nuclear deterrent” in response to planned military exercises by the US and South Korea this weekend.

The regime promised a “retaliatory sacred war” amid increased tensions on the Korean peninsula over the March sinking of a South Korean navy vessel, which Seoul and Washington blame on Pyongyang.

North Korea’s National Defence Commission (NDC), headed by leader Kim Jong-il, issued the threat today for what it called a second “unpardonable” provocation for again being blamed for the incident in which 46 sailors died.

“The army and people of the [North] will legitimately counter with their powerful nuclear deterrence the largest-ever nuclear war exercises,” the commission said in a statement run on the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

Pyongyang routinely threatens war when its southern neighbour and the US hold joint military exercises. South Korea’s defence ministry said no unusual North Korean military movements were detected.

Operation Invincible Spirit, which begins tomorrow, will involve 8,000 US and South Korean troops, 200 aircraft and 20 ships, including the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier the USS George Washington.

“The more desperately the US imperialists brandish their nukes and the more zealously their lackeys follow them, the more rapidly the [North’s] nuclear deterrence will be bolstered up along the orbit of self-defence and the more remote the prospect for the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula will be become,” the NDC statement said.

Read moreNorth Korea Threatens ‘Nuclear War’ Over US-South Korean Wargames

Amnesty International Report: North Korea Facing Health And Food Crisis

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Human rights group calls on international community to help end regime’s ‘systematic neglect’ and prevent humanitarian disaster

amnesty-international-report_north-korea-facing-health-and-food-crisis
Many children in North Korea are at risk of serious malnourishment. (AP)

A desperate picture of the health of North Korea’s population is painted by a report describing a country of stunted children, where the hungry eat poisonous plants and pigfeed, amputations are conducted without anaesthetic and doctors are paid in cigarettes.

Almost two decades after it was hit by a famine that killed an estimated 2 million people, North Korea again faces widespread food shortages and is unable to provide even basic healthcare for its people, according to the report, published today by Amnesty International.

The human rights organisation accuses the North Korean regime of systematic neglect and calls on the international community to intervene to prevent a humanitarian disaster.

Based on interviews with aid workers and North Korean defectors, the report says hospitals lack essential equipment and drugs, which forces the sick to treat themselves with medicines bought from markets. Major operations are routinely conducted without anaesthetic, while malnutrition has paved the way for a tuberculosis epidemic.

“North Korea has failed to provide for the most basic health and survival needs of its people,” said Catherine Baber, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Asia-Pacific region. “This is especially true of those who are too poor to pay for medical care.”

According to the latest World Health Organisation (WHO) figures, North Korea spent just ¢50 (32p) per person a year on healthcare – a tenth as much as Burma.

Read moreAmnesty International Report: North Korea Facing Health And Food Crisis

South Korea Deploys Killer Robots Along Border With North Korea

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South Korea has deployed sentry robots capable of detecting and killing intruders along the heavily-fortified border with North Korea, officials said on Tuesday.

north-korean-soldiers
North Korean soldiers look across the Demilitarized Zone towards South Korea Photo: EPA

Two robots with surveillance, tracking, firing and voice recognition systems were integrated into a single unit, a defence ministry spokesman said.

The 400 million won (£220,000) unit was installed last month at a guard post in the central section of the Demilitarised Zone which bisects the peninsula, Yonhap news agency said.

It quoted an unidentified military official as saying the ministry would deploy sentry robots along the world’s last Cold War frontier if the test was successful.

The robot uses heat and motion detectors to sense possible threats, and alerts command centres, Yonhap said.

If the command centre operator cannot identify possible intruders through the robot’s audio or video communications system, the operator can order it to fire its gun or 40mm automatic grenade launcher.

Read moreSouth Korea Deploys Killer Robots Along Border With North Korea

North Korea lifts restrictions on private markets as last resort in food crisis

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north-korea-lifts-restrictions-on-private-markets-as-last-resort-in-food-crisis
North Koreans work on a farm near the Yalu River. A dire food shortage has led the government to lift all restrictions on private markets. (Reuters)

SEOUL — Bowing to reality, the North Korean government has lifted all restrictions on private markets — a last-resort option for a leadership desperate to prevent its people from starving.

In recent weeks, according to North Korea observers and defector groups with sources in the country, Kim Jong Il’s government admitted its inability to solve the current food shortage and encouraged its people to rely on private markets for the purchase of goods. Though the policy reversal will not alter daily patterns — North Koreans have depended on such markets for more than 15 years — the latest order from Pyongyang abandons a key pillar of a central, planned economy.

With November’s currency revaluation, Kim wiped out his citizens’ personal savings and struck a blow against the private food distribution system sustaining his country. The latest policy switch, though, stands as an acknowledgment that the currency move was a failure and that only capitalist-style trading can prevent widespread famine.

Read moreNorth Korea lifts restrictions on private markets as last resort in food crisis

Leaked UN report: North Korea ‘is exporting nuclear technology’

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And here are the criminals that gave the nuclear technology to North Korea:

– Nuclear War Between Koreas: Brought To You By The US Government

Leaked UN report says Pyongyang is using front companies to export nuclear and missile technology to Iran, Syria and Burma

South Korean president Lee and Wen Jiabao
South Korean president Lee Myung-bak (left) and Chinese premier Wen Jiabao. The revelations came just hours before Wen arrived in South Korea for a three-day visit. (Reuters)

International efforts to avert a full-blown crisis on the Korean peninsula were given greater urgency today after a leaked UN report claimed that North Korea is defying UN sanctions and using front companies to export nuclear and missile technology to Iran, Syria and Burma.

The report, by a panel that monitors sanctions imposed after Pyongyang conducted nuclear weapons tests in 2006 and 2009, said the regime was using shell companies and overseas criminal networks to export the technology.

The revelations came just hours before the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, arrived in South Korea for a three-day visit certain to be dominated by mounting tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang.

At a meeting today, Wen told the South Korean president Lee Myung-bak that China would not “harbour” anyone over the sinking of a South Korean warship in March, in which 46 soldiers died.

See also: Beijing suspects false flag attack on South Korean corvette

But he added that China has not yet concluded that North Korea was responsible. Pyongyang has denied involvement.

Read moreLeaked UN report: North Korea ‘is exporting nuclear technology’

North Korea says it will meet war with ‘all-out war’

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Recommended reading:

– Nuclear War Between Koreas: Brought To You By The US Government

south-korean-patrol-vessels-stage-an-anti-submarine-exercise
South Korean patrol vessels stage an anti-submarine exercise Thursday off the western coastal town of Taean.

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) — North Korea reacted to a South Korean anti-submarine exercise early Thursday by saying it would meet “confrontation with confrontation” and war with “all-out war,” according to North Korean state-run media.

“Now that the puppet group challenged the DPRK [North Korea] formally and blatantly, the DPRK will react to confrontation with confrontation, and to a war with an all-out war,” according the KCNA news agency.

The news agency referred to South Korean leaders as a “group of traitors” and said they would experience “unheard of disastrous consequences” if they misunderstand North Korea’s will.

Read moreNorth Korea says it will meet war with ‘all-out war’

Nuclear War Between Koreas: Brought To You By The US Government

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nuclear-war-between-koreas_brought-to-you-by-the-us-government

Kim Jong-Il has put North Korean troops on combat alert and threatened military action if the South trespasses in its waters as global stock markets freak out at the prospect of a war which, if it occurs, can be blamed on the U.S. government’s history of arming the Stalinist dictator with nuclear weapons.

Korean markets plunged 3.3 per cent overnight as investors were spooked at escalating tensions between the two countries following South Korea’s allegation that the North was responsible for the March 26 torpedoing of one of its warships

Kim Jong-il responded to the charge by putting his military on combat alert, telling them to “prepare for war,” and threatening action if South Korea trespasses in its waters off the peninsula’s west coast.

On Monday, President Obama also told the U.S. military to prepare for conflict as it plans to carry out anti-submarine and other naval exercises with South Korea.

As we have documented, North Korea’s nuclear belligerency was almost exclusively a creation of the U.S. government in that they armed the Stalinist state both directly and indirectly through global arms dealers under their control, namely Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan. While labeling North Korea as part of the “axis of evil,” the U.S. government was enthusiastically funding its nuclear weapons program at every stage.

Both the Clinton and Bush administrations played a key role in helping Kim Jong-Il develop North Korea’s nuclear prowess from the mid 1990’s onwards.

Just as with Saddam Hussein’s chemical and biological weapons program, it was Donald Rumsfeld who played a key role in arming Kim-Jong-Il.

Rumsfeld was man who presided over a $200 million dollar contract to deliver equipment and services to build two light water reactor stations in North Korea in January 2000 when he was an executive director of ABB (Asea Brown Boveri). Wolfram Eberhardt, a spokesman for ABB confirmed that Rumsfeld was at nearly all the board meetings during his involvement with the company.

Read moreNuclear War Between Koreas: Brought To You By The US Government

North Korea Threatens ‘All-Out War’ Over Warship Sinking Report

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North Korea defied condemnation from the rest of the world over the unprovoked sinking of a South Korean warship, and pledged “all-out war” if any retaliation was taken.

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The salvaged South Korean 1,200-tonne corvette Cheonan (REUTERS)

In the most serious attack for over 20 years, a North Korean torpedo was found to be responsible for the sinking of the Cheonan, a 300-ft South Korean warship, which sank on March 26 with the loss of 46 lives.

An official report, carried out by South Korean investigators together with teams from the United States, Britain, Australia and Sweden, said the evidence pointed “overwhelmingly to the conclusion that the torpedo was fired by a North Korean submarine.” It added: “There is no other plausible explanation.”

South Korea vowed “resolute countermeasures” against the North and is likely to appeal to the United Nations for further sanctions on the rogue state.

Read moreNorth Korea Threatens ‘All-Out War’ Over Warship Sinking Report

North Korea masses 50,000 troops along the border with South Korea

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North Korea has completed deployment of about 50,000 special forces along the border with South Korea, amid high tensions over the sinking of a Seoul warship.

The deployment began two or three years ago and seven 7,000-strong divisions are now in place, an unidentified senior government official told Yonhap news agency.

“The threat that North Korea may infiltrate special forces for limited warfare has become real,” the agency quoted a separate senior defence ministry official as saying.

The defence ministry refused to confirm the Yonhap report, but President Lee Myung-Bak discussed the North’s special warfare capabilities at an unprecedented meeting Tuesday with 150 top officers from all armed services.

At the meeting, Mr Lee hinted strongly that the North was involved in the sinking of a South Korean warship with the loss of 46 lives near the disputed sea border on March 26.

Read moreNorth Korea masses 50,000 troops along the border with South Korea

North Korea Threatens America With ‘Unprecedented Nuclear Strikes’

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From the official Korean Central News Agency:

– US-S. Korean Moves to Bring down System in DPRK Warned (KCNA):

“The U.S. imperialists and the south Korean puppet warmongers should bear in mind that they will not be able to find a shelter to survive the unpredictable strikes of the KPA, should they persistently work to bring down the system in the DPRK.”

“Those who seek to bring down the system in the DPRK, whether they play a main role or a passive role, will fall victim to the unprecedented nuclear strikes of the invincible army and the just war to be waged by all the infuriated service personnel and people.”

America’s Impending Master Class Dictatorship!

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This article is a MUST-READ!

This is not a conspiracy. This is politics and economics.

Wake up America! You will lose everything, if you do not act NOW.

Prepare yourself for a complete controlled meltdown. The greatest financial collapse in world history.

A hyperinflationary depression. THE Greatest Depression.

The Fed and the US government are destroying America!

(More information at the end of the following article.)

“The people no longer have elected representatives; they have elected traitors.”

stewart-dougherty

By Stewart Dougherty

Stewart Dougherty is a specialist in inferential analysis, the practice of identifying historic and contemporary patterns and then extrapolating their likely effects upon the future. Dougherty was educated at Tufts University (B.A., magna cum laude), and Harvard Business School (M.B.A. and an academic Fellow).

FOREWORD: At certain times, focusing on the big picture is important not just for investment success, but for personal welfare, and even survival. We believe such times are here. It is estimated that 98% of Americans have never held a gold coin in their hands. Yet 100% of Americans regularly handle Federal Reserve Notes. From a contrarian standpoint, the financial message from those two statistics is clear. Even so, gold is much more than money or an investment medium; it stands for liberty and throughout history has facilitated escape and ensured freedom. Never having touched a gold coin is the monetary equivalent to never having breathed fresh air, felt the warmth of sunshine, looked up at the stars or risen from the gutter. Fiat Federal Reserve Notes are becoming nothing more than sewage decomposing in the vast, toxic septic tank of predatory Washington politics, epic Federal Reserve arrogance and error, blatant Wall Street fraud and outright Master Class plunder. Below, we outline America’s troubling and compounding predicament, and urge you to think about how to protect yourself from its consequences, both financially and personally.

Thanks to the endless barrage of feel-good propaganda that daily assaults the American mind, best epitomized a few months ago by the “green shoots,” everything’s-coming-up-roses propaganda touted by Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke, the citizens have no idea how disastrous the country’s fiscal, monetary and economic problems truly are. Nor do they perceive the rapidly increasing risk of a totalitarian nightmare descending upon the American Republic.

One stark and sobering way to frame the crisis is this: if the United States government were to nationalize (in other words, steal) every penny of private wealth accumulated by America’s citizens since the nation’s founding 235 years ago, the government would remain totally bankrupt.

According to the Federal Reserve’s most recent report on wealth, America’s private net worth was $53.4 trillion as of September, 2009. But at the same time, America’s debt and unfunded liabilities totaled at least $120,000,000,000,000.00 ($120 trillion), or 225% of the citizens’ net worth. Even if the government expropriated every dollar of private wealth in the nation, it would still have a deficit of $66,600,000,000,000.00 ($66.6 trillion), equal to $214,286.00 for every man, woman and child in America and roughly 500% of GDP. If the government does not directly seize the nation’s private wealth, then it will require $389,610 from each and every citizen to balance the country’s books. State, county and municipal debts and deficits are additional, already elephantine in many states (e.g., California, Illinois, New Jersey and New York) and growing at an alarming rate nationwide. In addition to the federal government, dozens of states are already bankrupt and sinking deeper into the morass every day.

The government continues to dig a deeper and deeper fiscal grave in which to bury its citizens. This year, the federal deficit will total at least $1,600,000,000,000.00 ($1.6 trillion), which represents overspending of $4,383,561,600.00 ($4.38 billion) per day. (The deficit during October and November, 2009, the first two months of Fiscal Year 2010, totaled $296,700,000,000.00 ($297 billion), or $4,863,934,000.00 ($4.9 billion) per day, a record.) Using the GAAP accounting method (which is what corporations are required to use because it presents a far more accurate and honest picture of a company’s finances than the cash accounting method primarily and misleadingly used by the U.S. government), the nation’s fiscal year 2009 deficit was roughly $9,000,000,000,000.00 ($9 trillion), or $24,700,000,000.00 ($24.7 billion) per day, as calculated by brilliant and well-respected economist John Williams. (www.shadowstats.com) Fiscal Year 2010’s cash- and GAAP-accounting deficits will likely be worse than 2009’s, given government bailout and new program spending that is on steroids and psychotic.

Putting Fiscal Year 2009’s $9,000,000,000,000.00 ($9 trillion) deficit another way, 17% of America’s private wealth, accumulated over a period of 235 years, was wiped out by just one year’s worth of government deficit spending insanity.

Given this, is it any surprise that Treasury Secretary Geithner has announced that the release of the nation’s FY 2009 supplemental GAAP financial statements has been delayed? Remember, this is the same Secretary Geithner who bullied people to cover up the sordid details of the AIG, or more accurately, the taxpayer-funded, multi-billion dollar, Santa Claus bailout and bonus bonanza for Goldman Sachs. Do you really think this government, characterized as it is by fiscal and monetary secrecy, lies, chicanery, cronyism and stonewalling, wants the people to know what is actually happening? Obviously, it does not, so it hides from the public the inexcusable facts.

Read moreAmerica’s Impending Master Class Dictatorship!

North Korea: Won Plunges 96 Percent Against The Dollar After Government Revaluation

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– UN agency sees severe food shortage in North Korea (Washington Post)

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North Korean won plunges 96 percent against the US dollar

Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) — The North Korean won has plummeted 96 percent against the dollar after the government revalued the currency last week, according to reports by Yonhap News Agency and a South Korean aid group.

A North Korean bank in Sinuiju, near the border with China, offered to buy dollars for 35 won on Dec. 7, Good Friends, a Seoul-based rights group, said today on its Web site. Before the currency revaluation, the official rate was about 140 won, and as much as 3,500 won in the black market, Yonhap said.

North Korea’s regime ordered citizens to exchange 1,000-won notes for a new 10-won bill, the country’s first currency reform in 17 years, Yonhap reported on Dec. 1. The move has raised speculation that the government’s grip on power has been loosened by allowing limited free-market activities, such as trading food and goods.

“Once North Koreans realized that they could progress in society by their own economic effort, this created an alternative to advancing only politically through the ranks of state organizations,” Rudiger Frank, professor of East Asian economy and society at the University of Vienna, wrote on the Web site of the Nautilus Institute this month.

The government placed a cap on the amount of money people could exchange for the new notes, effectively wiping out savings.

Following the revaluation, rice prices have more than doubled, Good Friends said. One kilogram (2.2 pounds) of rice cost 50 won as of Dec. 5, compared with 16 won to 17 won on Dec. 2, the group, which obtains information through contacts within North Korea, said in its newsletter yesterday.

One in four school children were absent due to hunger on Dec. 3, indicating how widespread the struggle to find food had become, the group said, without saying how it derived the number.

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North Korea: All shops and markets closed, all cash transactions frozen after devaluation announcement

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North Koreans in misery as cash is culled

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Street stalls usually offer one of the few glimpses of fiscal activity in Pyongyang ? but even they were closed for business by yesterday’s currency revaluation (Paul Rogers/The Times)

Shops and markets in North Korea have been closed and all cash transactions frozen after the Government’s shock announcement of a devaluation of its currency in an effort to crack down on the country’s burgeoning free-market economy.

In the capital, Pyongyang, yesterday only the few shops and restaurants permitted to trade in foreign currencies – patronised by the privileged elite and the city’s small foreign population – were open for business. All other enterprises and services based on cash, including markets, long-distance bus services, barbers’ shops, saunas and bath houses, were suspended until the revaluation of the won is completed next week.

There were reports of public outrage and confusion after the announcement of the measure, which requires North Koreans to swap existing won notes for new ones at an exchange rate of one to 100 – effectively knocking two zeroes off their value. Because of a cap of 100,000 won per family (£475 at the official exchange rate), anyone with significant holdings of cash will have their savings wiped out.

“Loud sounds of weeping in every house have not ceased since the news was released,” a South Korean website quoted an inhabitant of Sinuiju, a city on the border with China, as saying. “Weeping and fighting between couples has not stopped anywhere. The atmosphere of the city is terrible now.”

The website, dailynk.com, said that one elderly couple had killed themselves in North Hamgyong, a province adjacent to the Chinese border across which much illegal trading is carried out. It also reported anxiety among local officials that the currency revaluation would provoke civil unrest.

Read moreNorth Korea: All shops and markets closed, all cash transactions frozen after devaluation announcement