DPRK says to enter "state of war" against South Korea: KCNA

Source  :  Xinhua

PYONGYANG, March 30 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Saturday that it had entered a "state of war" with South Korea, the official KCNA news agency reported.

All matters between the two Koreas will be handled according to wartime condition, the DPRK said in a statement.

The long-standing condition of the Korean peninsula of being neither peace nor war is finally over, said the statement carried by KCNA.

The statement, issued jointly by the DPRK government, party and other organizations, warned that any military provocation near the land or sea border of the two sides would result "in a full-scale conflict and a nuclear war".

Senior NATO Official Will Not Rule Out Conflict with N.Korea

Source  :  RIA Novosti

MOSCOW, March 29 (RIA Novosti) – A senior NATO official said on Friday that military conflict between the United States and North Korea was not inevitable, but that Washington and its allies are capable of deterring that outcome.

NATO deputy chief Alexander Vershbow told Russian radio station Ekho Moskvy in an interview that Kim Jong Un’s relative inexperience as leader of North Korea added an element of unpredictability.

“One can never be certain, particularly when they have a new young untested leader,” Vershbow said.

Tensions between the West and North Korea reached new heights after Pyongyang threatened to unleash military action this week in response to drills by thousands of US and South Korean troops across the border that were intended as a show of force.

The annual large-scale military exercises, codenamed Key Resolve, began on March 11 and involved around 10,000 South Korean and 3,500 US troops.

Officials in Washington said the exercise would demonstrate the readiness of the United States to deter against aggression on the Korean peninsula.

Vershbow said he believed that stance would yield a breakthrough in standoff with Pyongyang.

“The North Koreans have been famous for very extravagant rhetoric and belligerent threats, but at the same time the United States and its allies I think have a strong deterrent capability to prevent any military action,” Vershbow said.

“North Korea has gotten the message very clearly from the United States, from South Korea that any military provocation will be met with a decisive response,” he said.

Prior to the exercises, North Korea had threatened the United States with a preemptive nuclear strike amid warnings that it plans to terminate the Korean War Armistice Agreement. It also warned of retaliatory countermeasures if the United States and South Korea went ahead with the drills.

On Friday, North Korea placed its strategic rocket forces on standby to strike US and South Korean targets.

Vershbow, a former US ambassador to Russia, acknowledged North Korea’s significant military capability and its long-term policy of prioritizing defense over all other issues, but said it still remains unclear what offensive potential the regime possesses.

“They’ve tested long-range missiles, although they’re still very much at the early stage of deploying these missiles,” Vershbow said.

“How much damage they could actually carry out against the territory of the United States is not yet clear, but they certainly can do a lot of damage to South Korea,” he said.

Russia weighed in on the souring climate on Friday by criticizing war games around the Korean peninsula as a destabilizing factor that could lead to conflict.

In a veiled reference to the United States and South Korea, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged all parties involved in the Korean standoff to refrain from muscle-flexing.

"We are alarmed that along with the adequate reaction from the UN Security Council and the collective reaction of the international community, unilateral action is being taken around North Korea that involves increased military activity,” he said.

DPRK's top leader ratifies plan for strategic rocket strike

Source  :  Xinhua

PYONGYANG, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has ratified a strike plan by the Strategic Rocket Force as U.S. B-2 stealth bombers flew over the Korean Peninsula, the KCNA news agency reported Friday.

"The time has come to settle accounts with the U.S. imperialists in view of the prevailing situation" Kim Jong Un was quoted as saying after an urgent meeting with top military officials early Friday.

He ratified a plan of the Strategic Rocket Force for firepower strike on the U.S. mainland, Hawaii and Guam, and South Korea if they "make a reckless provocation," said the KCNA

Kim said the latest U.S. move is "not a simple demonstration of forces" but "an ultimatum that will ignite a nuclear war at any cost on the Korean Peninsula."

Two B-2 Spirit bombers were sent to the Korean Peninsula Thursday for a firing drill but U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel denied that flying the bombers to the peninsula would aggravate the situation in the region.

Tensions have been running high on the Korean Peninsula since the DPRK conducted its third nuclear test on Feb. 12 as a countermeasure against the joint military drills of the United States and South Korea.

The DPRK also threatened to launch a preemptive nuclear strike for self-defense and unilaterally nullified the 1953 armistice that suspended the Korean War.

China calls for easing of tensions on Korean peninsula

Source : REUTERS

BEIJING (Reuters) - China called for an easing of tensions on Friday as North Korea put its missile units on standby to attack U.S. military bases in South Korea and the Pacific after the United States flew two nuclear-capable stealth bombers over the Korean peninsula.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei made the comments at a daily news briefing.

(Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee; Writing by Ben Blanchard)

US deploys nuclear-capable B2 stealth bombers over South Korea

Source : Islamic Invitation Turkey

The US military has deployed two nuclear-capable B2 stealth bombers over South Korea to conduct “deterrence” mission amid escalating tension in the Korean peninsula over North Korea’s threats of attacking its neighbor and the US.

The two jets flew out of Whiteman Air Force base in Missouri and dropped dummy ordnance on targets in South Korea on Thursday and completed the 13000-mile round trip in a “single continuous mission,” according to a press release by the US military.

“The B-2 bomber is an important element of America’s enduring and robust extended deterrence capability in the Asia-Pacific region,” the US statement said.

The deployment of the bombers will further inflame tensions in the region especially after infuriated North Korea threatened frequently over the past days to attack the US mainland, Hawaii and Guam as well as US military bases in South Korea and Japan.

According to a Tuesday report by the Korean Central News Agency, Pyongyang has put its military on combat-ready status for possible strikes against the US.

The latest threat came a day after the US and South Korea signed a military pact allowing the allies to respond even to low-level provocations from North Korea.

“This allows both nations to jointly respond to the North’s local provocations, with the South taking the lead and the US in support,” South Korea’s Defense Ministry spokesman, Kim Min-seok, said on Monday.

The annual joint military maneuvers by the US and South Korea, which wrapped up on March 21, added fuel to fire in the region where UN Security Council’s sanctions on the North over its third and latest nuclear test in February had already angered Pyongyang.

Following the sanctions, unanimously approved at the 15-member council, North Korea on March 8 scrapped its decades-old peace treaty with the southern neighbor and hours later threatened to launch a nuclear strike on the US.

DPRK threatens combat posture targeting U.S., South Korea

Source :  Xinhua

DPRK threatens combat posture targeting U.S., South Korea

English.news.cn 2013-03-26 17:24:06

• The DPRK said its rocket and artillery units have entered combat posture targeting U.S. and S. Korea.
• The Korean People's Army said that all the field artillery troops were to be put on the highest alert.
• The U.S. allowed B-52 bombers deployed on Guam to fly into the sky above South Korea.

PYONGYANG, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Tuesday its strategic rocket and long-range artillery units have been ordered to enter combat posture targeting the United States and South Korea.

The Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army said that all the field artillery troops, including strategic rocket units and long-range artillery units, were to be put on the highest alert, the official KCNA news agency reported.

The units are combat ready to strike bases "in the U.S. mainland and on Hawaii and Guam and other operational zones in the Pacific as well as all the enemy targets in South Korea and its vicinity," the supreme command said in a statement.

The United States allowed B-52 bombers deployed in Anderson air force base on Guam to fly into the sky above South Korea on Monday, according to the statement.

America also allowed the conservative media of South Korea to say openly that the operational plan of "South Korea-U.S. combined forces" includes targeting the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK with the use of lethal striking methods, it said.

Such moves clearly prove that hostility against the DPRK has "entered a reckless phase of practical implementation after going beyond the phase of threatening and blackmailing," the statement said.

"We will demonstrate with the practical military action (and) the firm will of the army and people of the DPRK to take counteraction to defend the sovereignty and dignity of the supreme leadership of the country," it said.

U.S. slams North Korea threats, warns ready for any contingency

SOURCE  :  REUTERS

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Tuesday condemned North Korea's threats to target U.S. military bases, saying the United States was ready to respond to "any contingency."

"We're concerned about any threat raised by the North Koreans," Pentagon spokesman George Little told reporters.

"They need to stop threatening peace on the peninsula, that doesn't help anyone ... and we stand ready to respond to any contingency."

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Vicki Allen)

N Korea threatens US bases in Japan, Guam

Source  :  The Express Tribune

SEOUL: The North Korean army on Thursday threatened a possible strike against US military bases in Japan, in response to the use of nuclear-capable US B-52 bombers in joint military drills with South Korea.

The threat came a day after Pyongyang condemned the B-52 flights as an “unpardonable provocation” and threatened military action if they continue.

The Pentagon confirmed that B-52s, taking off from Andersen Air Force base in Guam, had flown over South Korea as part of annual joint exercises that Pyongyang insist are a rehearsal for invasion.

“We cannot tolerate the US carrying out nuclear strike drills, setting us as targets, and advertising them as strong warning messages,” a spokesman for the North’s supreme army command said.

“The US should not forget that the Andersen base… as well as naval bases at Japan’s main island and Okinawa, are all within the range of our precision target assets,” he said in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency.

Military tensions on the Korean peninsula are at their highest level for years, with North Korea — angered by UN sanctions imposed after its nuclear test last month — threatening a second Korean War backed by nuclear weapons.

B-52s have taken part in South Korea-US joint exercises before, but the Pentagon said it had publicised their use this time to underline US commitment to defending its South Korean ally.

“If the enemy threatens us with nuclear weapons, we will respond with stronger nuclear attacks,” the North’s army spokesman warned.

Accusing Washington of orchestrating the sanctions resolution adopted by the UN Security Council earlier this month, North Korea has already threatened to launch “pre-emptive” nuclear strikes on unspecified US targets.

North Korea has missiles that can strike South Korea and Japan but has yet to demonstrate it has the capability to fire long-range missiles that could reach the United States.

Nevertheless, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced last week that Washington had decided to bolster missile defences along the US west coast so as to “stay ahead of the threat” from the North Korean regime.

In Seoul, analysts largely dismissed the North’s threat to US bases in Japan as the latest in a long-series of bellicose, attention-grabbing statements from Pyongyang.

“This is just more bluster,” said Baek Seung-Joo, who heads the North Korea Research Team at the Korea Institute for Defence Analyses.

“It really seems aimed at shifting responsibility for the current tensions to the US and South Korea conducting their joint military exercises,” Baek said.

The response from Tokyo was measured. A foreign ministry official voiced regret at the North’s “provocative action” but stressed that it would not trigger a strategic rethink.

“We have been doing all we can to prepare for contingencies, cooperating closely with our security ally the United States and with South Korea, regardless of the North’s comment today,” the official said.

In December, North Korea used a long-range rocket to successfully place a satellite in orbit.

Although Pyongyang insisted the launch was a purely scientific mission, most of the international community saw it as a disguised ballistic missile test.

Experts said the December launch marked a step forward for the North’s ambitious missile programme, but stressed it was some way from developing a genuine inter- continental ballistic missile (ICBM) with crucial re-entry capability.

There are also doubts — despite its nuclear test in February — whether the North has mastered the technology to miniaturise a nuclear warhead to fit on a long-range missile.

In a further sign of the current, heightened tensions, North Korea issued a public air raid warning Thursday, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said.

A Defence Ministry spokesman in Seoul said the alert, issued over state radio, appeared to be a drill as part of a series of military exercises the North has been carrying out in recent weeks.

NATO nurturing Syria contingency plan – top US commander

Source : www.thedailysheeple.com/

NATO forces are focusing on a “wide range of operations” in Syria, the US top commander in Europe told the US Senate. If called upon, the international coalition is ready to engage on the same level and in same way as it did in Libya.

Speaking to the Senate’s Armed Services Committee, Commander of the US European Command (USEUCOM) Admiral James Stavridis told lawmakers that NATO’s member governments were currently discussing “a variety of operations.”

He said the alliance has taken the position that it will follow the same sequence used in Libya. “We are prepared, if called upon, to be engaged as we were in Libya,” the 58-year-old admiral assured the country’s political elites.

It means that prior to the NATO involvement there would first be a resolution at the UN Security Council, a regional agreement and consensus among the 28 NATO member states.

Two years of fierce fighting between the Syrian army and the foreign-backed insurgency have been marked by the failure of either side to fully win. The bitter results of Syria’s civil war are well-known in Washington.

“The Syrian situation continues to become worse and worse and worse: 70,000 killed, a million refugees pushed out of the country, probably two and a half million internally displaced. No end in sight to the vicious civil war,” Stavridis told the Senate’s Committee.

In Washington’s eyes, the shortest way to end the bloody is to get rid of the government of President Bashar Assad. Helping to oust Assad could be done simultaneously in severaldirections: by imposing a no-fly zone along the Turkish- Syrian border with the help of NATO’s Patriot PAC-3 air defense complexes recently deployed there and by supplying rebels with arms or by ensuring an arms embargo on Damascus.

Shooting down Syrian aircraft in that zone would become a “powerful disincentive” to keep Syrian Air Force pilots out of the area, Stavridis promised Arizona Senator John McCain.

In addition to that, Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin got a positive answer to his question as to whether the US military is considering targeting Syrian air defenses.

Diplomacy with no teeth

While the Kremlin insists on a diplomatic solution to the bloody conflict, the Obama administration does not believe the conflict can be resolved by diplomats.

“It’s hard to imagine a peaceful outcome with Assad in power,” stated Anne Richard, the assistant secretary of state for Population, Refugees, and Migration, speaking at another Capitol Hill hearing on Syria.

Meanwhile, the fact that one million refugees have fled Syria – half of them in the last two months – has significantly affected the country’s neighbors. Up to 10 per cent of the Lebanese population now consist of Syrian refugees. People are also fleeing to refugee camps in Jordan and Turkey.

With no end in sight, the conflict is pushing members of the US Senate to take action – by helping the Syrian insurgency.

Expanding sanctions against the Central Bank of Syria has always been within the powers of the American legislatures. Yet other steps imply direct meddling into Syria’s internal affairs.

Senators Bob Casey and Marco Rubio advocate non-lethal aid to Syrian opposition groups. The move, supported by both Democrats and Republicans, would mean providing the rebels with body armor and communications equipment.

Still, the option of simply arming the rebels is also on the table.

“Down the road we may make another determination,” Casey acknowledged.

On Monday, Congressman Eliot Engel presented legislation enabling the US to train Syrian opposition groups.

Iraqi people would be better off with Saddam

Source : Voice of Russia

The prominent journalist Andrew Gilligan resigned from the BBC after reporting that Britain went into Iraq based on exagerrated claims about Saddam Hussain's Weapons of Mass Destruction. Writing in the Daily Telegraph this week he says that the war in Iraq has been a huge blow to the moral and international standing of the UK.

“I think essentially the problem with the occupation was that it was never properly resourced, it was never done with adequate numbers of troops and that is why the vast majority of people – perhaps 90% of the victims of the war – died. And the failure to do it properly was the direct consequence of the lies and evasions that were justified, in the first place, because people were disgusted at those, and nobody wants to get politically behind the occupation.”

But you've also, in recent columns, described Iraq as a humiliation for the British military.

“Yes, I mean, essentially the British military were defeated in Iraq, they essentially surrendered in Basra, in their part of Southern Iraq, and had to be rescued by the Iraqi and Americans armies. That's not very widely realized, but it is true. Because we were never willing to commit sufficient resources to the occupation, we ended up having to do what was effectively a surrender deal with the Mahdi Army, with the Iranian-backed militia that were present in Baghdad. And essentially we agreed with them that we would no longer enter the city of Basra in return for them stopping attacking us. And that's certainly kept the body countdown, which is obviously the main wish in London. But it also handed Basra to the Mahdi Army.”

You've also made the allegation that, in fact, that less than sterling performance by the British military that you described also damaged Britain's relations with the U.S.

“There's no doubt about that and there's quite substantial evidence for it and classified documents that I was leaked in 2009. They're basically transcripts of interviews which were done by the army itself with its commanders of the operation afterward and those commanders themselves the Americans treated them with contempt really. They didn't even talk to them. They didn't even have a secure U.S. commander, overall Commander General Rick Sanchez didn't even install a secure phone line, so he could talk with his British counterparts, so unimportant were them to him. And the fact is that the British came with it with a kind of smug census superiority. They knew how to do counter insurgency. And they knew how to talk to the native, unlike those brutal and clumsy Americans. The Americans were brutal and clumsy - horribly brutal and clumsy, to begin with, but they did learn and they did change and unlike us they didn't give up and they did surge resources and in the end helped in part, at least by the overreach of their enemies, helped in part by the overreach of al-Qaeda in Iraq which alienated the people it was trying to enlist. The U.S. eventually prevailed, sort of. Obviously Iraq is no picnic.”

There're people like yourself who had been critical of British involvement, and of course legions of people have been critical of Britain's willingness to go into Iraq in the first place and that is a sword still hanging over former Prime Minister Blair indeed. But everyone will then turn around and say, "But we did get rid of Saddam Hussein.” Was that not the objective? And was it not a positive accomplishment?

“There's absolutely no doubt that Iraq would be better off, had Saddam Hussein remained in power. 200,000 Iraqis would not be dead. Obviously there was a cost for him remaining in power, continued sanctions did kill quite a lot of Iraqis. But nothing like as many has died in the war.”

Would the Kurds support that view?

“The Kurds have their liberation already. They were free of Saddam and had been from 1991. They had an effectively autonomous state in the North. The fact is that Saddam didn’t threat anyone, except for his own people, and even the threat to his own people had diminished dramatically since the previous Gulf War. And the British government and the American government knew that and that was indeed precisely why they thought precisely that it'd be an easy victory, they didn’t estimate how difficult it would be.”

But given the violent opposition to Britain going into that war from the British public and indeed many sections of the British political establishment and given the damage it did to Tony Blair's reputation, what in the nutshell was the reason we did it?

“Well, I think, Tony Blaire thought it would be like Kosovo, he thought that there would be huge outcry from the British liberal class and there would be predictions of refugee columns and disasters and that kind of thing, but in the end it would go well, that casualties would be light, that the Iraqi regime would crumble without much of a fight and that the occupation forces would be welcomed. And he was wrong about all those things.”

France Provides Terrorists in Syria with Russian Igla Anti-Aircraft Missiles

Source : Fars News Agency

Missiles TEHRAN (FNA)- A Libyan member of the al-Qaeda terrorist group disclosed that France has supplied armed rebel and terrorist groups in Syria with Russian Igla anti-air missiles and even trained them how to use these systems.

"Qaddafi's regime had good relations with the Russians and purchased various weapons from them, including Igla anti-air missiles, which are similar to the US Stinger anti-air shoulder-launched missiles," Othman Trablosi said on Wednesday.

He said that after Qaddafi's regime collapsed and rebels came to conquer its army's weapons and ammo caches, the French army which supported the Libyan rebels with logistical and intelligence backups, collected 232 Igla missiles which were in the hands of the Libyan fighters who were busy with fighting Qaddafi's supporters.

"After that the French found some of the Libyan army officers who had been trained to use Igla missiles and in September 2012 they used these offers for training a number of al-Qaeda terrorists who ran operations in Syria," Trablosi explained.

"Then" he said "the French transited these al-Qaeda members and the Igla anti-air systems from Benghazi to the Southern provinces of Turkey on a Bulgarian cargo plane and then ferried them across the border into Syria."

He underlined that the French army exercises tight control and inspection over each and every step of the program.

France is playing a growing role in Syria unrests these days. Earlier this year, a documentary movie posted on a Lebanese website unveiled details of a plot by the French and Turkish intelligence services to assassinate President Bashar al-Assad and other senior officials of Syria.

A video posted by Lebanese Asianews website, which has been produced by Khedar Awarake, a well- known Syrian media activist, includes part of the confessions made by those involved in France- Turkey joint plot to kill Assad.

The report said that the Syrian security apparatus defused Turkey and France's attempted assassination plot on the lives of Assad and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Mualem.

The report noted that the Turkish and French spy agencies embarked on the establishment of a joint operation room to direct a well-concerted operation to carry out the mission after they failed in their earlier plot to overthrow Assad's government, adding that their mission had overlaps with security services of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the US on many aspects.

The report further unveiled that the new mission to kill Assad started by Turkey and France's joint effort to recruit high-ranking officials in Syrian governmental offices, including the office of Mualem and offices related to the presidential palace in Damascus.

The report also said that Turks wished to bring along French in their operation since Paris has strong relations with Kurdish parties and could help recruit the Kurdish staffs in Assad's offices.

The report at the same time noted that Syrian security services were able to thwart the plot due to their intelligence supremacy and close watch on the plot.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 with organized attacks by well-armed gangs against Syrian police forces and border guards being reported across the country.

Hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed, when some protest rallies turned into armed clashes.

The government blames outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups for the deaths, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad.

In October 2011, calm was eventually restored in the Arab state after President Assad started a reform initiative in the country, but Israel, the US and its Arab allies are seeking hard to bring the country into chaos through any possible means. Tel Aviv, Washington and some Arab capitals have been staging various plots in the hope of increasing unrests in Syria.