N. Korea Says It Is Ready to 'Blow Up' U.S.

This is so scary - Between these nuts, the terrorists and Iran who could feel safe?

N. Korea Says It Is Ready to 'Blow Up' U.S.

Monday, March 08, 2010


SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea's army said Monday it is ready to "blow up" South Korea and the U.S., hours after the allies kicked off annual military drills that Pyongyang has slammed as a rehearsal for attack.

South Korea and the U.S. — which normally dismiss such threats as rhetoric — began 11 days of drills across South Korea on Monday morning to rehearse how the U.S. would deploy in time of emergency on the Korean peninsula.

The U.S. and South Korea argue the drills — which include live firing by U.S. Marines, aerial attack drills and urban warfare training — are purely defensive. North Korea claims they amount to attack preparations and has demanded they be canceled.

The North's People's Army issued a statement Monday, warning the drills created a tense situation and that its troops are "fully ready" to "blow up" the allies once the order is issued.

The North also put all its soldiers and reservists on high alert to "mercilessly crush the aggressors" should they encroach upon the North's territory even slightly, said the statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

The communist country has issued similar rhetoric in the days leading up the drills. On Sunday, it said it would bolster its nuclear capability and break off dialogue with the U.S. in response to the drills.

South Korea's military has been closely monitoring Pyongyang's maneuvers but hasn't seen any signs of suspicious activities by North Korean troops, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said earlier Monday.

"We see it as (North Korea's) stereotype denouncement," Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae told reporters.

About 20 anti-U.S. activists held a peaceful protest near a joint drill command center south of Seoul on Monday, chanting slogans such as "Stop war rehearsal."

About 18,000 American soldiers and an undisclosed number of South Korean troops are taking part in the drills, dubbed Key Resolve and Foal Eagle, according to U.S. and South Korean militaries.

The training comes as the U.S. and other regional powers are pushing for the North to rejoin international disarmament talks on ending its atomic weapons program in return for aid. The North quit the six-nation weapons talks and conducted its second nuclear test last year, drawing tighter U.N. sanctions.

The North has demanded a lifting of the sanctions and peace talks with the U.S. on formally ending the Korean War before it returns to the negotiations. The U.S. and South Korea have responded that the North must first return to the disarmament talks and make progress on denuclearization.

The U.S. stations about 28,500 troops in South Korea.

Rather than being "scared", I am disgusted with our inability to read the writing on the wall and how we keep letting history repeat itself.

This headline seems to be sensationalism and a bit irresponsible. This response from North Korea is just their usual attempt at showing muscle in response to the U.S. and South Korea’s joint military exercises which are going to begin March 18th. The same kind of military exercises that have gone on in the past. This is the typical response to past U.S. South Korea drills.... the North Koreans view those drills as nuclear war exercises, but that the U.S. and South Korea characterizes them as necessary defense drills. 50 years of chicken and the egg...which came first?

Keep in mind that North and South Korea are actually still technically at war with each other. The conflict in the early 50s ended in a cease fire…a truce…but no treaty has ever been signed. North Korea wants the six nations (China, Japan, Russia and the U.S., along with North and South Korea) that were discussing a treaty to end the Korean War to resume their talks. China has been involved because they don’t want a U.S. military presence so close to their border with Korea. Those talks broke down in 2008 and North Korea says it will not discuss what they characterize as their nuclear defense programs or uranium enrichment facilities until those talks resume. Of course, they can't just say that....they seem to feel they have to bolster it with bravado...and maybe they do....who would listen if they weren't making these kind of threats???

North Korea has suspended their military dialog as long as the drills proceed as scheduled. On the other hand, the U.S. and South Korea say the drills are just routine in nature….North Korea doesn’t believe it….they see it as an offensive build-up for an attack. So whenever the U.S. and South Korea undertake military drills, North Korea responds with this kind of rhetoric. In reality, I would guess that neither side is going to attack the other…judging from past actions, it’s simply rhetoric and politics as usual. There is such an atmosphere of non-trust that exists on BOTH sides. I am sure the source of these headlines knows much more about history and the Korean War than I do, but what I find irresponsible is the customary printing of one side of a matter without giving the other side….and there always are two sides to every story. If it is a scare tactic ...the idle threat I believe it to be, these kind of fear-producing headlines serve absolutely no purpose. Perhaps the purpose is as we have seen in the past.....a pre-emptive strike to gain popular support for a military conflict on a larger scale.

In the meantime, both sides are spending more than they can afford building up their war machines and also, at least from a U.S. standpoint, they seem to not be taking into consideration the expense (both monetary and U.S. soldiers’ lives) that would result in rebuilding North Korea should a military action be the ultimate result of this stallmate in diplomacy between the parties. What I would like to see is the Obama administration work harder in conjunction with Sweden or Switzerland, (the neutral conciliators in the area as part of the Neutral Nations supervisory commission established at the end of the Korean War , and work toward re-opening dialog. For over 50 years, the U.S. has maintained a miliary presence in Korea that has put us in the position where we have to support and protect our troops who are there. Just once, I’d like to see diplomacy used BEFORE military action so that these U.S. forces can come home….without us having to spend money and lives in an all-out military war and the rebuilding of what war destroys. You think we would learn.