North Korea US Tension - News & Discussion

[ashok321]

. North Korea now making missile-ready nuclear weapons, U.S. analysts say

 

[The SC]

In response to North Korea's threat that it would "teach Washington a tough lesson" after testing one of its ballistic missiles..

8th August 20: 048

US newspaper: North Korea produced a miniaturized nuclear head (bomb) that can be loaded on a missile.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea has successfully produced a mini-warhead that can be loaded on a missile, meaning it has come a long way and is close to becoming a nuclear power in every sense, the Washington Post reported.

The newspaper quoted US intelligence officials as saying they reached this conclusion at the end of last month.

US intelligence agencies estimate that North Korea's nuclear weapons arsenal now has about 60 nuclear bombs.

The report quoted a report of the so-called "intelligence complex" as saying that Korea has produced a bomb that a ballistic missile can carry and is now speeding up the production of the missile capable of reaching US territory.

http://www.bbc.com/arabic/live/40861715

 

[The SC]

Urgent
North Korea threatens to hit Guam's US military base in the Pacific Ocean near Japan after Trump's remarks

US warning: North Korea can be grounded in 15 minutes

 

[maximuswarrior]

LOL at Trump. His own party members have downplayed Trump's rhetoric. Enough said.

 

[KAL-EL]

Urgent
North Korea threatens to hit Guam's US military base in the Pacific Ocean near Japan after Trump's remarks

US warning: North Korea can be grounded in 15 minutes

I'm not a supporter of President Trumps rhetoric or a fan of his in general.

But launching a first strike against Guam (a u.s. territory with US military personnel) would go over the threshold from the usual belligerent threats and saber-rattling to reality. Thus virtually ensuring the regine's obliteration.

The number one goal of the Kim regime is to stay in power.

 

[Eagle_storm]

sick americans

 

[ashok321]

How serious is North Korea's nuclear threat?

 

[KAL-EL]

How serious is North Korea's nuclear threat?

The number one goal of the Kim regime is to stay in power.

A nuclear first strike against another nuclear power (especially one with a nuclear Triad capable of masive second-strike capability) would virtually ensure the regine's obliteration.

But to answer your question.. It should be taken seriously. At least in my opinion

 

[ashok321]

Trump’s words revive fears about his possession of nuclear codes

Analysis: North Korea just called Trump’s bluff. So what happens now?

It is Trump's personal rant:

Trump’s threats to North Korea were spontaneous and not drafted by advisers, officials say

[QUOTEobsessedrd, post: 9748908, member: 167699"]Why is this in the central and South Asia section?

Neither Guam, nor US , nor North Korea nor china is in South or Central Asia.

Where is Qatar?
Did you raise any objection on the following:

Your hatred is obvious for me.
But do I care?
Hell no.

If China won’t get tough on North Korea, Trump should get tough on China

https://twitter.com/x/status/895417684757626880

http://wapo.st/2tLpxTP

Sanctions don't work

North Korea is the only country that has conducted a nuclear test in the 21st century

 

[The SC]

NK knows how to play these games.. it has a lot of cards to play in that region of the world, while it hasn't much to lose.. It knows that the US won't dare to attack it for two reasons; first is its proximity and borders sharing with China and Russia..any nuclear effects affecting those areas will translate to a direct nuclear conflict with the US, second and not the least, North Korea can wage nuclear war and attack both South Korea, Japan and US bases in the Pacific like Guam.. So in this context of a geostrategy that plays in favor of NK, it feels quite strong to challenge the US might and it is apparently successful in this endeavor..a fact that makes mighty US mad and shows its deep frustration through Trump's unprecedented (in diplomacy) warnings and threats..

 

[KAL-EL]

^^^ North Korea is and has been holding South Korea over the head of the US for decades.

It's South Koreans who would pay a much heavier price in death toll and damage then Americans would. Kim knows this full well which has allowed him and his father to make belligerent threats towards the US, South Korea and Japan for decades now. Knowing full well there would never be a first strike against them.

The calculus however would completely change if Kim launches a first strike against the US mainland or territory with US bases.

Anyone who thinks the US would just "sit back" and do nothing after a first being hit with a first strike attack is living in a video game fantasy land.

Finally, I like many rational minded adults, hope nothing close to a war ever happens.

 

[Thəorətic Muslim]

While little Kimmy's actions and policies may seem irrational in the end of schemes Kimmy's a rational individual.

He's not going to launch a nuclear strike on the US or it's allies given that he'll be wiped off the face of the earth.

The US isn't going to rock the boat given the high causalities associated with regime change. Barring a "N. Korean Spring", the real world isn't a GI Joe film.

Kimmy will stay, but pressure on his rule will continue to rise from within the country. See as his administration is filled with the old guard, but there will be a Bolton in the sphere.

 

[ashok321]

Can North Korea missiles hit Guam?

McCain warns Trump to watch his words after North Korea ‘fire and fury’

Fact-checking Trump's tweet on the US nuclear arsenal

 

[LeGenD]

NK knows how to play these games.. it has a lot of cards to play in that region of the world, while it hasn't much to lose.. It knows that the US won't dare to attack it for two reasons; first is its proximity and borders sharing with China and Russia..any nuclear effects affecting those areas will translate to a direct nuclear conflict with the US, second and not the least, North Korea can wage nuclear war and attack both South Korea, Japan and US bases in the Pacific like Guam.. So in this context of a geostrategy that plays in favor of NK, it feels quite strong to challenge the US might and it is apparently successful in this endeavor..a fact that makes mighty US mad and shows its deep frustration through Trump's unprecedented (in diplomacy) warnings and threats..

The rules of the game in this region are changing now. Chinese leadership understands that this conflict will be different from 1950s and getting embroiled in a front in a time when tensions with India are high? Not a situation that China wants to find itself in. Even China cannot deter India in Bhutan and US in North Korea simultaneously.

China is pressuring White House to exercise restraint but how long will this status-quo last? China should warn Kim Jong-Un to shut his mouth (and halt all kinds of tests) or be ready to face the music. If North Korean leadership does not pay heed then it will be clear to all that China has lost influence over North Korea.

Contrary to the popular belief, South Korea is not a paper tiger anymore and much better prepared to counter North Korea in a war in current times. I don't think that South Korea will just sit back and let North Korea shell Seoul. Coupled with US, these two are capable of devastating much of North Korea in a short span. Japan is also in the picture.

Russia is almost irrelevant in this region. This isn't Cold War and Russia has its hands full with Syria and Ukraine.

 

[Hindustani78]

In this image obtained from the US Department of Defense, US sailors aboard Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Sterett prepare to moor at Naval Base Guam, | Photo Credit: AFP/US Navy Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Byron C. Linder

http://www.thehindu.com/news/intern...toward-guam/article19462189.ece?homepage=true

North Korea’s reported plan to launch missiles toward Guam is extremely unusual.
North Korea on Thursday announced a detailed plan to launch a volley of ballistic missiles toward the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam, a major military hub and home to U.S. bombers, and dismissed President Donald Trump’s threats of “fire and fury” if it doesn’t back down.

The announcement, made in the name of a general who heads North Korea’s rocket command, warned that Pyongyang is preparing a plan to fire four of its Hwasong-12 missiles over Japan and into the waters around the tiny island, which hosts 7,000 U.S. military personnel on two main bases and has a population of 1,60,000.

It said the plan could be finalised within a week or so and would then go to leader Kim Jong Un for approval. It would be up to Mr. Kim to give the nod to the plan. It said the missiles would hit waters 30 to 40 kilometers (19 to 25 miles) away from the island.

It is unclear whether North Korea would risk firing missiles so close to U.S. territory, which could provoke countermeasures and further escalation.

North Korea frequently uses extremely bellicose rhetoric with warnings of military action to keep its adversaries on their heels. It generally couches its threats with language stating it will not attack the U.S. unless it has been attacked first or has determined an attack is imminent.

But the statement raised worries amid a barrage of threats from both sides.

Following reports that U.S. intelligence suggests North Korea might be able to pair a nuclear warhead with a missile capable of reaching targets on the U.S. mainland, Mr. Trump warned North Korea that “it faces retaliation with fire and fury unlike any the world has seen before.”

Pyongyang, meanwhile, has been louder in its complaints against a new and tough round of sanctions imposed on it by the United Nations, with strong U.S. backing, and Washington’s use of Guam as a staging ground for its stealth bombers, which could be used to attack North Korea and are a particularly sore point with the rulers in Pyongyang.

Even so, its reported plan to launch missiles toward Guam is extremely unusual.

The report said the Hwasong-12 rockets would fly over Shimane, Hiroshima and Koichi prefectures in Japan and travel “1,065 seconds before hitting the waters 30 to 40 kilometers away from Guam.”

It said the Korean People’s Army Strategic Force will finalize the plan by mid-August, present it to Kim Jong Un and “wait for his order.”

“We keep closely watching the speech and behavior of the U.S.,” it said.

Such a move would not merely be a test launch, but a demonstration of military capabilities in a manner than could easily lead to severe consequences.

If North Korea were to actually carry out such a launch even if it is aimed at hitting the waters off the island and not the island itself that would clearly pose a potential threat to U.S. territory and put the U.S. in a much more complicated situation than it has been during previous missile launches.

Guam lies about 3,400 kilometers from the Korean Peninsula, and it’s extremely unlikely Kim’s government would risk annihilation with a pre-emptive attack on U.S. citizens. It’s also unclear how reliable North Korea’s missiles would be against such a distant target, but no one was writing off the danger completely.

Washington has been testing its missile defenses in response to the North’s stepped-up development and the current escalation of tensions could lead to pressure for the U.S. military to try to shoot down the North’s missiles in midflight if they are heading toward Guam.

That would likely open up a set of very major problems, including the possibility of both a very high-profile failure or a miscalculation of Washington’s intentions and a more deadly pre-emptive strike by the North, which has missiles able to hit Tokyo and conventional weapons that could devastate South Korea’s capital Seoul.

The Hweasong-12, which was revealed for the first time at a military parade in April, is an intermediate-range ballistic missile that is believed to have a range of more than 3,700 km. It can be fired from mobile launchers, making it hard to detect and destroy on the ground.

By launching a volley of four, the North would be attempting to make it harder for the U.S. to intercept all of the incoming missiles.

Washington, meanwhile, has been giving out mixed signals of what its intensions might be.

While Mr. Trump was threatening annihilation and boasting from the New Jersey golf resort where he’s vacationing that he has made the U.S. nuclear arsenal “far stronger and more powerful than ever before,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sought to calm the sense of crisis.

Speaking earlier Wednesday on his way home from Asia, he insisted the U.S. isn’t signaling a move toward military action.

“Americans should sleep well at night,” Mr. Tillerson told reporters. “Nothing that I have seen and nothing that I know of would indicate that the situation has dramatically changed in the last 24 hours.”

But then Defense Secretary Jim Mattis ratcheted the rhetoric back up, calling on Pyongyang to “cease any consideration of actions that would lead to the end of its regime and the destruction of its people.” As seldom as it is for a president to speak of using nuclear missiles, the reference to the “destruction” of a foreign people is equally rare.

North Korea immediately called Mr. Trump’s rhetoric a “load of nonsense” that was aggravating a grave situation.

***********

Hwasong-12

Alternative name(s): KN-17
Class: Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM)
Basing: Transportable, platform launched
Launch Weight: Unknown
Payload: Single warhead
Warhead: HE or nuclear
Propulsion: Single-stage, liquid propellant
Range: 4,500 km

According to U.S. Pacific Command, the missile flew a distance of 60 km and reached a height of 189 km before starting to “pinwheel,” landing into the Sea of Japan after 9 minutes of flight time.


The missile is presumed to have launched from Pukchang airfield and flew approximated 35 km before crashing.

On its 30-minute flight, the Hwasong-12 flew 787 kilometers, lofted to an apogee of just over 2,111 kilometers. This trajectory indicates that the missile could have flown around 4,500 km if fired on a range-maximizing ballistic trajectory.

According to one technical analysis of the launch, the full range of the Hwasong 12 could be closer to 3,700 km with a 650 kg payload. This estimate assumes that the Hwasong-12 launched on May 14 only carried a empty payload weighing only 150 kg.

This new engine design appears to be distinct from the KN-08 and KN-14, which are believed to use 4D10 engines reverse-engineered from imported Russian SS-N-6 submarine-launch ballistic missiles.