North Korea Successfully Tests Another ICBM, Pentagon Says 28JUL17

NOT MY pres drumpf/trump, with the approval of NOT MY vp pence, has said this about the narcisstic (get the connection???) sociopath n korean leader " President Trump when he referred to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a "pretty smart cookie." ", " "If it would be appropriate for me to meet with him, I would absolutely, I would be honored to do it," Trump told Bloomberg News in an interview Monday. " drumpf/trump-pence are so consumed by the soap opera that is the White House and fabricating refugee terrorism fears, working to suppress voting rights,  revoking health care for millions and kissing up to putin that the entire U.S. except Florida is now at risk of nuclear attack by n korea. This from +NPR .....

North Korea Successfully Tests Another ICBM, Pentagon Says

July 28, 201711:48 AM ET

COLIN DWYER

Twitter

A man looks at images depicting missile launches and military exercises, on a display board in Pyongyang, North Korea, earlier this week.

Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images

Updated at 8:25 p.m. ET

North Korea said early Saturday that its intercontinental ballistic missile test on Friday showed its program could hit the United States, according to a statement reported by The Associated Press and Reuters.

The U.S. Department of Defense says the missile, which launched just before midnight local time, traveled roughly 620 miles — from the country's northern province of Jagang to the Sea of Japan, where it finally splashed into the waters off Japan's west coast.

There have been no immediate reports of damage, and Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis says the North American Aerospace Defense Command "determined the missile launch from North Korea did not pose a threat to North America."

In response to the launch, the Pentagon announced that it had conducted a precision missile firing exercise with South Korea.

President Trump released a statement calling the launch "only the latest reckless and dangerous action by the North Korean regime."

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"The United States condemns this test and rejects the regime's claim that these tests—and these weapons—ensure North Korea's security. In reality, they have the opposite effect. By threatening the world, these weapons and tests further isolate North Korea, weaken its economy, and deprive its people. The United States will take all necessary steps to ensure the security of the American homeland and protect our allies in the region."

The launch — which the Pentagon was expecting, according to Davis — comes just weeks after the government in Pyongyang marked a milestone by conducting its first successful ICBM test. The missile launched Friday, however, flew farther than the one the country fired July 4 — and demonstrated greater capabilities.

"It does appear that at a minimum this missile may go up to 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles), but it may go as far as 11,000 kilometers (6,800 miles)," Melissa Hanham, senior research associate with the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute, tells NPR's Robert Siegel.

"And that puts all of the West Coast and the Midwest in range at 10,000 kilometers," Hanham adds, "and at 11,000 kilometers, pretty much every U.S. state but Florida is in range."

To this point, the international community has attempted various approaches to slow the progress of North Korea's weapons program, none of them particularly fruitful.

Less than two weeks ago, for instance, the South Korean government made a rare diplomatic overture to Pyongyang, seeking new military talks with Kim Jong Un's regime. That offer was never accepted.

South Korea and much of the rest of the world have long tried another tack, as well: sanctions for violating international law with its missile tests. But NPR's Elise Hu notes that approach has proven less successful than hoped for:

"Despite 'tough-on-paper' sanctions designed to stop the flow of nuclear weapons material into North Korea as well as to deliver economic punishment on the regime, the latest research shows the numerous countries expected to enforce the sanctions aren't doing so. The reasons the sanctions have fallen short include: The sanctions are too complicated to implement, private businesses independently aid North Korea (knowingly or not), and Pyongyang has grown increasingly deft in evading sanctions as it has become more isolated."

In the meantime, Hanham says the U.S. military has sought to buttress its missile defense, even going so far as to shoot down a mock ICBM in a recent test. But she cautions "those tests aren't very realistic when it comes to a real war scenario."

"The terrible problem with North Korea is that there's really no good options. And that's why we haven't had an enormous amount of success in the past," Hanham says. "You know, there are very few options and all of them are bad."

The long-running animus between North Korea and its neighbors and the U.S. has only escalated in recent weeks, with the rivals trading increasingly barbed words.

North Korea is "the single most dangerous threat facing the international community right now," Gen. Mark Milley, the chief of staff of the U.S. Army, told the National Press Club on Thursday. "It is clear, based on [the ICBM launch] over the July 4 weekend, that North Korea has advanced significantly and quicker than many had expected."

He added that North Korea's military threat is "the one thing I'm worried about."

"A war on the Korean Peninsula would be highly deadly. It would be horrific," Milley said. "The United States military, in combination with the South Korean military, would utterly destroy the North Korean military — but that would be done at high cost in terms of human life."

In his statement Friday, Davis reaffirmed U.S. support for its allies in the region.

"Our commitment to the defense of our allies, including the Republic of Korea and Japan, in the face of these threats, remains ironclad," Davis said. "We remain prepared to defend ourselves and our allies from any attack or provocation."

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Trump’s claim that Korea ‘actually used to be a part of China’ 19APR17

ANYBODY who was able to think for themselves during the 2016 presidential campaign knew drumpf's/trump's china bashing was orwellian propaganda. He continued to have his line of clothing made there as does fotze ivanka, and they are still being made there. And how about all that ranting and raving and promising to label the prc a currency manipulator? That is proof that whole clan and all their rich friends and supporters don't give a damn about American workers, all they care about is their profit margins. So it should be no surprise that the history of Korea drumpf/trump knows is what the prc pig xi told him. Just another example of how ignorant drumpf/trump is, and how he is able to be manipulated by foreign leaders to satisfy his greed, to increase his wealth. What we end up with is the drumpf/trump-pence administration colluding politically and economically with putin and xi and their criminal cabals leaving the political system, economic system and national security of America exposed to manipulation and interference by foreign forces hostile to our democracy. If I was a South Korean I would be very concerned about drumpf's/trump's plans for the entire Korean Peninsula and would be wondering if he consider's South Korea expendable. This from the Washington Post.....  

Trump’s claim that Korea ‘actually used to be a part of China’
By Michelle Ye Hee Lee April 19 at 7:04 PM 

“He then went into the history of China and Korea. Not North Korea, Korea. And you know, you’re talking about thousands of years . . . and many wars. And Korea actually used to be a part of China. And after listening for 10 minutes, I realized that it’s not so easy.”
— President Trump, interview with the Wall Street Journal, April 12, 2017

This claim was largely buried in news coverage of Trump’s wide-ranging interview with the Journal, during which he made numerous flip-flops on several policy areas. But it belatedly went viral in South Korea after a Quartz article Tuesday drew attention to it.

Trump’s inartful retelling of Sino-Korean history sparked widespread outrage among Koreans, who are particularly sensitive to the U.S. president’s rhetoric amid heightened tensions between North and South Korea. Leaders across the political spectrum criticized Trump’s characterization, calling it a clear distortion of history and an attempt to undermine Korean sovereignty.

Trump’s phrasing that the Korean Peninsula “actually used to be a part of China” may be his SparkNotes version, not a verbatim account of Xi’s history lesson. (The two spoke through interpreters.) The White House did not respond to our request for clarification.

Here’s a look at what was misleading about Trump’s claim. Perhaps it will help the president avoid future blunders as he wades into Northeast Asian geopolitics. (Full disclosure: This fact-checker was born in Seoul.)

The Facts

Korea has been long intertwined culturally and historically with China but was not under direct and official territorial control by China, despite repeated Chinese invasions.

Xi — and Trump — may have been referring to the tributary system between China and Korea, during which Korea gained protection from China while it was forced to pay “tributes,” or gifts. These gifts “signaled a subordinate but still independent position,” historian Kyung Moon Hwang wrote in the Korea Times.

The birth of the modern Korean Peninsula can be traced to the mid-7th century, after the unification of three kingdoms: Goguryeo, Silla and Baekjae. The name “Korea” is derived from “Goguryeo,” the original kingdom that is believed to have formed as a political entity as early as the 1st century B.C. Goguryeo encompassed what is now Manchuria and the northern part of the Korean Peninsula.

This tributary system began after the three kingdoms united with the help of China, and it lasted, with exception, from roughly the 7th century to the 19th century.

“This worked in preventing the Chinese from taking further military action, but it did not always work in stopping other peoples who wanted to rule China from threatening and invading Korea,” wrote Hwang, author of “A History of Korea.”

There were two points in history when the Korean Peninsula came close to being absorbed into the Chinese civilization, according to Hwang. One was during the Han dynasty, through a system called “commanderies” of northern parts of the Korean Peninsula under Goguryeo. This was more of a colonial system, but Quartz noted that Chinese researchers “have tried to argue that this places Korea within ‘Chinese local history.’ ”

The other time was in the 13th century during the Goryeo era, which succeeded the original three kingdoms, under Mongolian rule of both China and Korea. Hwang wrote: “For nearly a century Mongol-controlled China treated Goryeo somewhat like a colony, directly controlling its northern territories and constantly interfering in Goryeo’s internal affairs; in fact the Mongol emperor in Beijing even determined Goryeo’s monarch, whose ancestry, beginning with his mother, was usually more Mongol than Korean.”

Trump’s description echoes a Chinese nationalist version and ignores the competing interpretations of the relations among Korea, China and Japan. Tensions between Koreans and Chinese over whether China exerted territorial control over Goguryeo blew over about a decade ago — when a Chinese government-backed group sought to rewrite the history of ancient Chinese influence in Northeast Asia, particularly in Korea. Koreans saw this as an effort to recast them as political subjects of China, and South Korea started its own competing government-backed project to research the history of Goguryeo. In the face of growing controversy, China promised South Korea it would not revise its textbooks, according to the Atlantic.

[Update: On April 20, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang did not clarify what Xi said, but told media: “There is nothing for South Koreans to worry about."]

This is not the first time Trump and his administration have ignored nationalist sensitivities in East Asia, particularly regarding South Korea.

In March, when North Korea fired ballistic missiles into the body of water between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, administration officials used the name preferred by the Japanese government (“Sea of Japan”) with no acknowledgment of the naming dispute for the body of water or alternative names. In response to a display of North Korean missiles this month, Trump claimed the USS Carl Vinson was headed toward North Korea when the vessel was actually traveling in the opposite direction.

The Pinocchio Test

We’re not going to rate Trump’s claim, since it’s unclear whether Trump was actually quoting Xi or instead misunderstood what he was told. But his flippant reference to the Chinese-centric version of Sino-Korean relations was careless, at best.

If Trump was actually referring to the tributary system between Korea and China, then he left out a significant amount of context that distorted the relationship between them. Korea and China have long been intertwined, geopolitically and culturally. But Korea, or even Goguryeo, was not a spinoff of China, as he made it seem.

Korea has its own unique roots and history. It would be worthwhile for the president to get his history lesson from Korean experts, perhaps at the State Department, rather than potentially self-serving accounts from foreign leaders.

North Korea Conducts Fifth Nuclear Test 8SEP16

george w bush is responsible for n korea becoming the nuclear threat it now is. He chose to start an illegal and immoral war in Iraq over saddam hussein's alleged WMDs (weapons of mass destruction), weapons he knew did not exist. It is not that we should have gone to war with n korea over their nuclear weapons program, but there were options available that may have prevented n korea having the capability to wage nuclear war now. We have had an unjustifiable blockade of Cuba for decades keeping the island economically stagnant, why not blockade n korea? Israel destroyed Syria's nuclear reactor keeping assad from the ability to develop a nuclear arsenal. Given the economic ties between the prc and S Korea it is doubtful they would have objected to a military strike against n korea's nuclear facilities. I would even guess if that had been done and n korea took military action against S Korea the prc would have invaded n korea to stop it and establish a puppet communist government. But because of george w bush's decision to ignore the n korean threat and instead invade Iraq ( and so allow the proliferation of radical islamic groups like isis / daesh) we are now faced with a situation with n korea that may in fact result in a nuclear weapon attack on S Korea, Japan or US territory in the Pacific or Alaska. Thanks george. From +NPR .....

North Korea Conducts Fifth Nuclear Test

Japan meteorological agency officer Gen Aoki displays seismic readings apparently due to a nuclear weapons test in North Korea Friday morning. North Korea later confirmed it had conducted its fifth nuclear test.

KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty Images

Updated 7:15 a.m. ET

North Korea confirmed it has conducted its fifth test of a nuclear weapon, the second this year. The test occurred Friday morning local time.

The North's state TV said the test "examined and confirmed" the design of a nuclear warhead intended for placement on a ballistic missile. It said there was no leakage of radioactivity. China's Ministry of Environmental Protection said radiation levels in its border region with North Korea were normal.

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South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff estimates the yield was 10 kilotons, which is almost twice that of the January test and would be the country's largest blast yet. But analyses of yield in North Korea are notoriously difficult, given the country's mountainous terrain. South Korea says further analysis will continue.

This test follows the January detonation of a device the North claimed was a hydrogen bomb, which led to wide condemnation and tougher international sanctions. Pyongyang previously tested at Punggye-ri in 2006, 2009 and 2013.

North Korea is the only nation to conduct any nuclear tests in this century. Friday's test falls on a North Korean holiday: the 68th anniversary of North Korea's founding as a state.

The move comes against numerous calls from North Korea's allies and antagonists to refrain from more "provocative acts" following January's test and a February rocket launch.

In March, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 2270, which the U.S. calls the toughest package of sanctions on the North in two decades. China, a longtime ally of Pyongyang, signed on, signaling it too was weary of the North's threats to the security of the Northeast Asia region. Six months after those sanctions, North Korea is only increasing its missile launches and test frequency.

If the provocation-condemnation cycle seems like a Groundhog Day situation, it is. President Barack Obama acknowledged as much Thursday in a press conference before heading home from a trip to Laos, saying "when it comes to changing Pyongyang's behavior, it's tough."

"We will continue to put some of the toughest pressure North Korea has ever been under as a consequence of this behavior," Obama said. "Can I guarantee that it works? No. But it's the best option that we have available to us right now and we will continue to explore with all parties involved — including China — the means by which we can bring about a change in behavior."

Early Friday, a statement from White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the president had been briefed on the nuclear test, and that Obama "indicated he would continue to consult our allies and partners in the days ahead to ensure provocative actions from North Korea are met with serious consequences."

With the latest test, talk of heightening and expanding the current sanctions surely will begin. But numerous rounds of sanctions so far only have seemed to strengthen Kim Jong Un's resolve to show off his military might. Alongside the nuclear test, the North Korean military has sent a number of projectiles and missiles into the sea since March and kept up its anti-American and anti-South Korean rhetoric.

Some Korean observers say that because Kim Jong Un's regime seeks to derive its legitimacy by being a full-fledged nuclear state, no amount of financial squeeze will stop him.

"It's pretty incredible that we've come this far since the first nuclear crisis back in 1994," says Hahm Chaibong, head of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, a Seoul-based independent think tank. "Things just got worse and much worse, and we don't seem to see a way to reverse that trend."

Beyond crippling North Korea financially, other options include diplomatic ostracism: Katharine Moon, Brookings Institution's SK-Korea Foundation Chair, has floated throwing North Korea out of the United Nations altogether, and written that nations with diplomatic ties with Pyongyang ought to pull their ambassadors. Asan Institute's Hahm says the "politically incorrect" option is all-out regime change, an option few are openly talking about just yet.

Haeryun Kang contributed to this story.

North Korea Fires Projectiles Into The Sea After U.N. Imposes New Sanctions WHAT WOULD "PRES TRUMP DO" & U.N. Toughens Sanctions on North Korea in Response to Its Nuclear Program 3&2MAR16

The six projectiles were reportedly fired from an area near the North Korean port of Wonsan on Thursday morning.

Google Maps

North Korea Fires Projectiles Into The Sea After U.N. Imposes New Sanctions

north korea throws a hissy fit over the new tough sanctions imposed by the UN Security council and launches missiles or something into the Sea of Japan. That isn't the frightening part of this story, the really scary thing is question that must be asked, what would "president trump" do? From +NPR .....

On the heels of new U.N. sanctions that could crimp its economic dealings with China, North Korea has fired six projectiles — possibly rockets or missiles — into the sea on the country's eastern coast, South Korean officials say.

The projectiles that were fired Thursday flew for at least 60 miles before hitting the water, according to media reports in South Korea.

From Seoul, NPR's Elise Hu reports:

"South Korea's defense ministry says it's analyzing what North Korea launched into the Sea of Japan. It's not clear whether they were missiles, rockets or artillery shells.

"The military move happened just hours after the U.N. Security Council adopted a new package of sanctions on North Korea. Under the resolution, all countries will be required to inspect cargo going to and from North Korea.

"Governments will also be required to ban flights of any planes or ships suspected of carrying illicit items to the North. The newly adopted resolution marks the fifth set of sanctions to hit North Korea since 2006."

Regarded as being tougher than other recent sanctions on North Korea, the new measures doled out by the U.N. Security Council ban the country from exporting coal and other mineral resources — an industry that, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency, serves as " a key source of hard currency that accounts for nearly half of the country's total exports."

Just before the projectiles were fired into the sea, China froze money transfers to North Korea in all currencies, reports the Chosun Ilbo newspaper, which adds that China also halted coal imports at its border town of Dandong.

U.N. Toughens Sanctions on North Korea in Response to Its Nuclear Program