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North Korea Orders Military to Combat Ready; Target U.S.

By Cheryl K. Chumley
March 25, 2013 "Information Clearing House"
-"Washington Times" - North Korea on Tuesday ordered its long-range artillery units to stand at combat ready, prepared to attack sites on mainland America, as well as Hawaii and Guam.

The order comes in response to U.S. bombers flying sorties perceived as threatening to North Korea, Reuters reports.

“From this moment, the Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army will be putting into combat duty posture No. 1 all field artillery units, including long-range artillery units and strategic rocket units, that will target all enemy objects in U.S. invasionary bases on its mainland, Hawaii and Guam,” the North's state-run news agency said, as reported by Reuters.

This is just the latest military threat issued by the North’s “supreme command,” Reuters says. But it’s likely just more talk. South Korea reports no signs of actual military action on the part of the North. The South said it will continue to monitor the situation, Reuters said.


B-52 bombers in Korea show U.S. defense commitment: Pentagon

By Lee Chi-dong

WASHINGTON/SEOUL, March 19 (Yonhap) -- B-52s participating in the ongoing South Korea-U.S. joint military drills are meant to demonstrate a strong alliance capability in the face of North Korean threats, the Pentagon said Monday.

"This mission highlights the extended deterrence and conventional capabilities of the B-52 Stratofortress while participating in exercises such as Foal Eagle," Pentagon spokesman George Little told reporters.

Foal Eagle, an annual joint exercise, began on March 1 for a two-month run. South Korea and the U.S. are staging another joint military drill, Key Resolve.

On his trip to Seoul, Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter stated that strategic bombers are joining the exercise. It is unusual for a senior U.S. official to make public specific equipment taking part in such military training.
Continued

N. Korea could take South in 3 days, latest video claims

 
By Jon Rabiroff and Yoo Kyong Chang
March 25, 2013 "Information Clearing House" -"Stars and Stripes" - SEOUL — In the latest salvo of an intensive propaganda campaign, North Korea claims it could take control of South Korea in three days, releasing a video showing how it would steamroll the U.S. and South Korean militaries and take 150,000 Americans as prisoners.
The video concludes by essentially daring the U.S. and South Korea to elaborate on the various scenarios they are exploring during war games.
“We know why Pentagon authorities have not released any content of their scenarios to the media, and are in fear as well despite their continuous practice through computer simulations of how the U.S.-South Korean combined forces will invade North Korea,” the video says.
North Korea has released a number of videos as part of a propaganda assault that has raged since the United Nations slapped additional sanctions on the rogue nation as punishment for its recent rocket launch and nuclear test.
A frequent target of Pyongyang has been the combined U.S.-South Korea Foal Eagle and Key Resolve military exercises that began this month. Key Resolve finished last Thursday; Foal Eagle continues until April 30. U.S. military officials have insisted the annual exercises are defensive in nature.
The latest video posted by Uriminzokkiri — a North Korea propaganda outlet based in China — features flag-toting soldiers and advancing tanks as all sorts of bombs and missiles rain down on South Korea.
A narrator and written overlay suggest that on the first day of the surprise “pre-emptive” strike, 150,000 Americans living in South Korea would be taken prisoner.
As the U.S. and South Korean militaries are quickly destroyed, the video explains, North Korean soldiers will sweep into all South cities, taking out all infrastructure in the process.
During the third and final day of the “lightning war,” the video suggests, South Koreans will be left in a state of “utter confusion” as the North Korean military conducts mop-up operations.

N. Korea blasts Foal Eagle exercises as flagrant provocation

By Korea Times


March 25, 2013 "
Information Clearing House"
-"Korea Times" - North Korea on Saturday blasted the ongoing joint Foal Eagle military drills as a flagrant provocation and made clear it viewed them as a direct threat to its security.

The Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said the annual South Korea-U.S. field training exercise that kicked off this month and run through the end of April, involve hundreds of thousands of troops and nuclear weapons.

"The U.S. and warmongers (in the South) are engaged in a war drill on our doorstep," the committee stressed. It pointed out that there is no precedence for such a long-drawn maneuver taking place anywhere else in the world in the face of opposition.

The organization, charged with holding dialogue and exchanges between the two countries, said that Pyongyang has already made clear that if a new war breaks out it will respond with its nuclear assets and will not shy away from preemptive strikes.

"It is now past time that we engaged in talk," it argued, saying the North will respond to force with force, and use nuclear weapons if it is attacked by nuclear weapons.

Related to the North's hardline stance, the Minju Josun, the North Korean Cabinet's official newspaper, said relations with Washington have deteriorated to the point that there is no longer any need to hold talks.

"No logical discussion is possible and there is really no need to hold bilateral meetings," the media outlet said. It pointed out that recently many high ranking U.S. officials have said they will never accept a North Korea armed with nuclear weapons and added there will be no compensation if the nuclear standoff is not resolved.

The paper claimed that it was the United States that pushed the North to arm itself with nuclear weapons in the first place, so its arguments are self-contradictory and make no sense. It warned that the will of the people is to end the confrontation with the U.S. once and for all, which has been going on for several decades.

"This is the view and will of the people," it said, making clear that the country is not interested in any form of political bartering and will maintain its nuclear deterrence.

The remarks, meanwhile, come as the communist country has ratcheted up tensions on the Korean Peninsula by detonating its third nuclear device on Feb. 12. It has unilaterally nullified the Armistice Agreement that halted the Korean War (1950-53) and made clear it will no longer respect non-aggression pacts signed in the past between the two Koreas.

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