另外,記者訪問了南韓一位來自the Center for Korean Studies at the Institute of the Far East 的學者 Yevgeny Kim。他似乎不認為美國會對北韓動武,而北韓更是不可能主動發動攻擊。他說,北韓當局一點都不瘋狂,並引用北韓國防部一位官員的談話,表明他們根本不希望發生戰爭。
North Korea: Nuclear war to start on the Day of the Sun
Pravda.Ru
13.04.2017
North Korea may have the ability to launch missiles with warheads filled with nerve gas, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Thursday, April 13. Abe also said that North Korea may soon conduct a sixth nuclear test or launch ballistic missiles again.
"There is a possibility that North Korea is already capable of delivering missiles with sarin in its warheads," the Japanese prime minister said at parliamentary hearings, Reuters reports. Shinzo Abe recalled the infamous sarin attack in the Tokyo subway system from 1995. The attack, conducted by Aum Shinrikyo Japanese sect, killed 12 people.
On April 15, North Korea will celebrate the 105th anniversary since the birth of the founder of the DPRK, Kim Il Sung. This is the largest national holiday in the country, which is called the Day of the Sun. Kim Il Sung is referred to as the "Sun of the Nation" in the DPRK. In the past, North Korean leaders would test weapons on April 15.
Meanwhile, spokespeople for the South Korean Defense Ministry expressed their readiness to show resistance to "provocations of the North," which may follow in connection with the celebration of the Day of the Sun on April 15. In addition, Seoul does not exclude a possibility of either a nuclear or a missile test on the 85th anniversary of the Korean People's Army, which the North celebrates on April 25.
Reportedly, the DPRK is prepared for a new nuclear test. According to 38 North U.S.-Korea Institute, commercial satellite images of the North Korean nuclear test site in Phungeri showed activity at the northern terminal, as well as new activity in the main administrative zone and a certain number of personnel around the command center of the test site. The images were taken on April 12.
Against the backdrop of growing tension on the Korean Peninsula, a question arises about further actions of the allies of the two Koreas. According to Japanese media outlets, the USA supposedly considers only two options for the situation to develop: either China increases pressure on the DPRK, or the United States attacks North Korea, should Beijing continue demonstration inaction.
Noteworthy, the US administration welcomed China's move to abstain fro the voting in favor for the draft resolution of the UN Security Council to investigate the chemical attack in Syria's Idlib. China made the decision following President Xi Jinping's official visit to the United States. The White House called the decision a huge diplomatic victory.
In the meantime, Syrian President Bashar Assad expressed his support for the DPRK by sending a telegram to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un congratulating him on the 105th anniversary of his grandfather's birthday. In the message, Assad calls the DPRK and Syria "friendly countries," that counteract to "insane ambitions of major powers" whose intent is to subjugate other countries through expansionist and predatory policies.
Russia, for its part, is also monitoring the situation on the Korean Peninsula. On April 11, a group of Russian Navy warships arrived at the South Korean port of Pusan. The official goal of the campaign is the demonstration of the St. Andrew's flag in the Asia-Pacific region and the further development of naval cooperation with APR countries.
On April 13, commander of the Pacific Fleet of the Russian Federation, Admiral Sergei Avakyants had a meeting with commander of the South Korean Navy, Vice Admiral Chung Jin Sobu. The meeting took place at the naval base of Pusan. The officials discusses issues of international military cooperation between the fleets of the two countries.
In the meanwhile, US aircraft carrier strike group lead by USS Carl Vinson is heading to the shores of South Korea. The group includes a missile cruiser and two missile destroyers.
DPRK officials, commenting on the dispatch of US ships to the Korean Peninsula, declared their readiness to get involved in a military confrontation with the United States should tensions escalate further. "We will take most severe countermeasures against the provocateurs to defend ourselves with the might of our weapons," spokespeople for the North Korean Foreign Ministry said.
Pravda.Ru requested an opinion about the current development on the Korean Peninsula from Yevgeny Kim, an expert with the Center for Korean Studies at the Institute of the Far East.
"Do you think that a military conflict between North Korea and the USA is possible indeed?"
"I do not think that the Americans are crazy enough to attack North Korea, given the situation that has developed so far. The Northerners can answer. This is not Syria! They will certainly attack US ships and army bases. They have their own missiles for the purpose."
"What does the South Korean press say at the moment?"
"The South Korean press considers the dialogue between Trump and Xi Jinping most important now. Xi Jinping has just returned from Washington. Yesterday, the Chinese leader had a telephone conversation with Trump. The fact is that Xi Jinping still believes the crisis should be resolved peacefully.
"The Americans may attack first, and then say that it was Pyongyang that attacked them first. They will use it as a reason to strike North Korea. They can do it easily, they have done that before - they started the war in Vietnam that way. They said that the Vietnamese attacked an American destroyer and a cruiser, but in fact it turned out that nothing like that happened, but the USA had already started military actions against Vietnam.
"Let's remember the year 2013, when a decision was made to eliminate chemical weapons in Syria. ISIL terrorists staged a provocation back then too. They blew up ammo near Damascus and accused Assad of that. The Americans interfered, but Russia came to regulate the problem peacefully. Russia said that Damascus was willing to destroy all of its chemical weapons.
"The Americans want China to put more pressure on North Korea - not only politically, but also economically. Strengthening economic sanctions against the DPRK could be an option.
"I would also like to pay attention to the recent statement from a representative of DPRK's Ministry of Defense, who said that the Americans were trying to intimidate Pyongyang with their aircraft carriers, but North Korea would respond to the Americans accordingly. He then added: "We will not move a muscle to the actions of the Americans."
"What does it mean?"
"North Korea is not going to take an initiative to strike the US aircraft carrier. Those people in Pyongyang are not crazy at all, they know perfectly well what an aircraft carrier is and what it can do. I'm sure that we will not see provocations on the part of North Korea: they do not want a military conflict to happen."
"Is there any information about the evacuation of Pyongyang?"
"North Korea has repeatedly said before that the country was prepared for a military attack. They say that they can hide all their people in the mountains. I think that they have announced evacuation to be on the safe side, because the Americans are unpredictable."
"They ordered the evacuation of 25 percent of Pyongyang residents - this is 600,000 people. Is it real?"
"They have mobilization programs in case of war. It can be real."
=========================
North Korea warns of nuclear war
https://goo.gl/rPB8LH
11.01.2017 &;#124; Source: Pravda.Ru
Deputy Permanent Representative of the DPRK to the UN John Kim Ryong stated at the meeting of the UN Security Council that a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula may begin any moment.
According to the official, the situation on the Korean Peninsula remains "extremely tense." John Kim Ryong said that a nuclear conflict could begin because of military maneuvers that the US conducted with its allies "to strangle the DPRK by means of unprecedented political, military, economic isolation and pressure."
The diplomat reminded that the United States deployed the THAAD missile defense system in the region after North Korea conducted a nuclear test. North Korea has repeatedly asked the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting because of the military maneuvers conducted by the USA and South Korea. Yet, the meeting had never taken place, and Pyongyang had to start developing nuclear weapons.
Earlier, South Korea rejected the proposal from the United States and Japan about trilateral joint military exercises against DPRK. Seoul claimed that the time for such exercises has not come.
Yonhap news agency reported that US special forces and armed forces of South Korea were planning to form a special unit to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un should hostilities on the peninsula erupt.
==================
Trump threatens North Korea, issues ultimatum to China
WSWS
By Peter Symonds
12 April 2017
US President Donald Trump made another menacing threat to North Korea yesterday, at the same time issuing a new ultimatum to China to force Pyongyang to submit to Washington’s demands to abandon its nuclear and missile programs. Trump’s tweets compound the danger of war following his order, last weekend, for the aircraft carrier strike group headed by the USS Carl Vinson to return to waters off the Korean Peninsula.
In one tweet, the US president declared: “North Korea is looking for trouble. If China decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the problem without them! U.S.A.” In an earlier tweet, Trump indicated that China might gain economic concessions if it bullied North Korea into submission: “I explained to the President of China [Xi Jinping] that a trade deal with the US will be far better if they solve the North Korean problem!”
The only conclusion that can be drawn from such reckless threats is that Trump is prepared to order a military attack on North Korea if China fails to heed his dictates and Pyongyang conducts another nuclear or missile test.
Speculation is rife in the US and international media that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un might order such a test on Saturday to coincide with the birthday of his late grandfather, Kim Il-sung.
Top Trump officials have already ruled out any return to the Obama administration’s policy of “strategic patience” based purely on ratcheting up sanctions on North Korea with the assistance of China. Speaking after Trump’s meetings with Xi last weekend, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also rejected any return to negotiations with Pyongyang unless it bowed to US demands. Tillerson has repeatedly declared that “all options”—that is, including the use of military force—are on the table in dealing with North Korea.
Last Friday, NBC reported on the outcome of a lengthy review by the Trump administration of US strategy toward North Korea. The options under active consideration include: returning US nuclear weapons to South Korea; “decapitation” raids to kill North Korean leaders; and covert sabotage operations inside North Korea by special forces units.
The Australian newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, yesterday reported that the US was “fully prepared” to shoot down a North Korean missile and has placed Australia and its allies on standby. This alert includes the key Pine Gap base in central Australia that provides intelligence and targeting data to US forces across Asia and the Middle East.
Speaking to the Fox Business Network, Trump boasted that the US was sending more than just the Carl Vinson strike group toward the Korean Peninsula. “We are sending an armada,” he said. “Very powerful. We have submarines. Very powerful. Far more powerful than the aircraft carrier. That I can tell you.”
North Korea has responded to US threats with its own bellicose warnings that play directly into the hands of US imperialism. The official Rodong Sinmun newspaper declared: “Our military is keeping an eye on the movement of enemy forces while putting them in our nuclear sights.” A Korean language statement issued by the foreign ministry declared that the country would “not miss a chance to sweep the imperialist group with a nuclear fire of justice.”
Such irresponsible threats to use nuclear weapons do nothing to defend the North Korean people. They only raise the stakes and increase the likelihood of a US attack. Already, US Defence Secretary James Mattis has warned that any attempt by Pyongyang to use nuclear weapons would result in an overwhelming response—in other words, the nuclear annihilation of North Korea.
The Trump administration is well aware that any US strike on North Korea or other military “options” could provoke retaliation and the rapid descent into a war that would drag in other powers, including China. Yet Trump has continued to heighten tensions and create a dangerous tinderbox on the Korean Peninsula in which any incident, whether accidental or deliberate, could set off a conflict.
The entire region is now on tenterhooks, especially China, which faces the prospect of war on its doorstep. Unconfirmed reports continue to emerge that Beijing has sent 150,000 troops to its border with North Korea in case conflict breaks out. The state-owned Global Times contradicted denials by the Chinese foreign ministry, citing South Korean diplomats as saying that military drills were underway in the border area.
A Global Times editorial yesterday urged North Korea not to “misjudge the situation at this crucial moment” and conduct a sixth nuclear test. “If it does so, responses from both Beijing and Washington might be unprecedented, even becoming a ‘turning point’,” it warned.
In another editorial today, the newspaper declared: “The Korean Peninsula has never been so close to a military clash since the North conducted its first nuclear test in 2006.” It suggested that Beijing would be prepared to impose crippling sanctions on Pyongyang. “If the North makes another provocative move this month, Chinese society will be willing to see the UNSC [UN Security Council] adopt severe restrictive measures that have never been seen before, such as restricting oil imports to the North.” North Korea relies completely on China for its oil supplies.
In South Korea, Defence Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-kyun sought to prevent a growing sense of public panic at the prospect of a new Korean war, in which Seoul could be one of North Korea’s first targets. He called for caution “so as not to get blinded by exaggerated assessments about the security situation on the Korean Peninsula.”
South Korea’s foreign ministry also tried to calm fears by declaring that the US “will not take a new policy or measures without consultations with us.” In fact, as the US wars in the Middle East underscore, Washington is quite capable of launching a war on the Korean Peninsula with complete disregard for the lives of people in South Korea or anywhere else in the region.
In Australia, an editorial in the Australian, while denouncing North Korea, urged the Trump administration to act cautiously. “Cool heads are imperative in responding to the rogue nation’s provocations. A return to a shooting war on the Korean Peninsula would serve nobody’s interests.”
Far from “cool heads” prevailing in Washington, the Trump administration—dominated by generals, billionaires and fascists—has already launched strikes on the Syrian government, threatening a war with Russia, and could also attack North Korea, provoking a confrontation with China.
Millions of people died in the 1950–53 Korean War, which devastated the peninsular and sowed the seeds for the present dangerous confrontation. A new conflict that drew in nuclear-armed powers would be even more catastrophic.
他說:“你們知道,我真的喜歡上並且尊重習主席。他很棒。我們在佛羅裏達一道度過了很長時間。他是一位非常與衆不同的人。所以我們看看如何發展吧。我認爲他會很努力地去試。”
(I have really gotten to like and respect, as you know, President Xi. He's a terrific person. We spent a lot of time together in Florida. And he's a very special man, so we'll see how it goes. I think he's going to try very hard.)
作者提到歐巴馬時代的國防部長Ashton Carter,此人向來主張對北韓動武;他說,他對於戰爭的結果毫無懸念,北韓必然會被打敗,但他說,他同時也得提醒各位,這場戰爭將會是韓戰以來最為慘烈的一場戰爭,特別是對於南韓的傷害,將是毀滅性的。Ashton Carter 在柯林頓時代擔任國防部副長時 (1994年),曾經深深參與了對北韓作戰計畫的擬定,該計畫後來暫時作罷,因為評估光是美軍及韓國人就會有30萬至50萬人死亡,更不用說被摧毀的北韓將有更多人命的傷亡。
Ahead of his meeting this week with Chinese President Xi Jinping, President Trump issued a blunt, menacing warning to Beijing to force North Korea to abandon its nuclear and missile programs … or else. Speaking to the Financial Times, he declared: “If China is not going to solve North Korea, we will. That is all that I am telling you.”
Trump outlined the ultimatum that he intends to deliver to Xi: “China has great influence over North Korea. And China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won’t. And if they do that will be very good for China, and if they don’t it won’t be good for anyone.”
Trump’s threats have only one meaning: if the Chinese government is not prepared to economically cripple or oust the Pyongyang regime, the US is prepared to use every means at its disposal, including its massive military might, against North Korea. As US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson emphasised during his trip to Asia last month, all options, including war with North Korea, are on the table.
Whatever measures the US might initially take, Trump made absolutely clear that he was prepared to attack North Korea and could do so with no notice. “I am not the United States of the past where we tell you where we are going to hit in the Middle East,” he told the newspaper. “Where they say … ‘We will be attacking Mosul in four months.’ … Why are they talking? There is no reason to talk.”
Behind closed doors, the Trump administration has been preparing for a war with North Korea that will not only be catastrophic for the Korean people on the divided peninsula but could drag in other major powers, including China, Russia and Japan.
The White House has just completed a review of US policy towards North Korea ahead of Xi’s meeting with Trump. While the options reportedly include heavy sanctions not only against North Korea but also Chinese firms doing business with Pyongyang, the Trump administration would not stop there.
During his recent trip, Tillerson declared that the Obama administration’s policy of incrementally increased sanctions—dubbed “strategic patience”—had failed. He also ruled out any immediate negotiations with Pyongyang. All of the remaining options—cyber warfare, provocations and covert operations to destabilise the North Korean regime and military action of various forms—threaten to rapidly plunge the region into war.
The Financial Times asked Trump: “Do you think you can solve it [North Korea] without China’s help?” His utter recklessness is summed up in his one word reply: “Totally.” Asked the same question again, he responded: “I don’t have to say any more. Totally.”
The incalculable consequences of war on the Korean Peninsula were summed up by Obama’s defence secretary, Ashton Carter, who has long been a supporter of military strikes on North Korea. Speaking to ABC News on Sunday, Carter declared that he was not optimistic about pressuring China to take action against North Korea.
Carter insisted that the military option had to remain on the table then, with callous indifference to the human suffering involved, sketched what would happen in the wake of a US pre-emptive strike on North Korea. “It is quite possible that they [Pyongyang] would … launch an attempted invasion of South Korea. As I said, I’m confident of the outcome of that war, which would be the defeat of North Korea.
“But I need to caution you. This is a war that would have an intensity of violence associated with it that we haven’t seen since the last Korean War. Seoul is right there on the borders of the DMZ [border with North Korea], so even though the outcome is certain, it is a very destructive war,” Carter declared.
Carter knows of what he speaks. As assistant defence secretary in the Clinton administration, he was deeply involved in planning for the war with North Korea in 1994 that was called off at the last minute when the Pentagon conservatively estimated the likely outcome—300,000 to 500,000 South Korean and American military casualties, not counting the death toll in North Korea and civilian dead and injured.
The death toll in the Korean War between 1950 and 1953 ran into the millions. Casualties in a war today in which North Korea as well as the US have nuclear weapons and could use nuclear weapons would be far higher. US Defence Secretary James “Mad Dog” Mattis has already warned that any attempt by Pyongyang to use its nuclear weapons would be met with an “effective and overwhelming response”—that is, nuclear annihilation.
The Korean War was the only time that China and the United States directly fought a war. The strategic position of the Korean Peninsula in North East Asia has made it a focus for invasions and wars for more than a century—involving not only the United States and China, but also Japan and Russia. The danger is that a new war would rapidly drag in other military powers, including those armed with nuclear weapons.
The danger of world war arises not simply as a result of the erratic and reckless behaviour of Trump. Rather, his irrationality is a product of the profound crisis of American and global capitalism and the determination of the US ruling class for whom he speaks to exploit its current military dominance to arrest its historic decline—whatever the outcome. A quarter century of military provocations and invasions in the Middle East and Central Asia are now coalescing into a confrontation with major US rivals—above all, China and Russia.
The reaction of the North Korean regime to the growing threat of war is utterly reactionary. Its missile and nuclear tests play directly into Washington’s hands by providing a pretext for war. Moreover, Pyongyang’s nationalist bombast and bloodcurdling threats against the US, Japan and South Korea only heighten the danger of war and sow divisions in the international working class.
Unlike the criminal US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 or the more recent wars in the Middle East, the countdown to war against North Korea is not being made public. Nevertheless it is proceeding with a relentless logic. Workers around the globe cannot afford to wake up one morning to find that the US has bombed North Korea and the world stands on the brink of a nuclear war.
The only means for halting the drive to war is to put an end to its source—the bankrupt profit system and its division of the world into rival nation states—through the building of a unified anti-war movement of the working class based on socialist internationalism.
China 'deploys 150,000 troops to deal with possible North Korean refugees over fears Trump may strike Kim Jong-un following missile attack on Syria'
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Japan urges cooperation with Russia and China over North Korea's nuclear problem
April 11 2017
TASS
According to Yoshihide Suga, Japan’s fundamental position consists of combining dialogue and pressure
Japanese government hopes for continued cooperation with China and Russia on the problem of North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs, as the North Korean authorities continue nuclear testing, the Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga told a news conference on Tuesday.