NORTH KOREA WILL TEST H-BOMB AGAINST THE UNITED STATES
October 12, 2006
By Lee Jin-woo, Staff Reporter
Korea Times
A Korean-Japanese scholar who is considered North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s unofficial spokesman said yesterday that Pyongyang has a hydrogen bomb it would test as part of a series of actions mentioned in its statement against the United States.
In an interview with MBC radio, Kim Myong-chol, director of the Center for Korean-American Peace, a Japan-based pro-North Korean research agency, said the Stalinist state is ready to test its H-bomb or conduct a nuclear test larger than its proclaimed test on Monday.
The North’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement Wednesday that it would respond with a series of physical measures if Washington steps up pressure on Pyongyang.
Asked to provide evidence that the North has developed its own thermonuclear weapons, Kim replied, ``That’s why we are going to test the bomb. A test will prove that we’ve got everything necessary just as we had with our nuclear weapons.’’
Kim blamed the United States and others who question the authenticity of Monday’s test for suspicions about whether the North actually possesses nuclear weapons. ``The United States, which initiated a war in Iraq on groundless claims of weapons of mass destruction, is raising absurd suspicions over the North’s nuclear tests,’’ he said.
The North will regard the United Nations resolution imposing sanctions, whether financial or military, as a declaration of war, he said.
``If the Bush administration makes more provocations, both New York City and Tokyo will be blazed,’’ Kim said. He added the North is targeting the United States but does not want to wage a war against the South as long as Seoul takes a neutral position.
Kim said he made his last visit to Pyongyang in January and has communicated with high-ranking North Korean officials on a regular basis, claiming that his remarks represent the ideas of Pyongyang.
``The destiny of the Korean Peninsula will be decided within a week, and South Korea should maintain its neutral stance,’’ he said in a KBS radio interview. ``Seoul should request that Washington not mobilize U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) even if a war breaks out.’’
The Ministry of Unification, however, downplayed Kim’s remarks.
``Kim is not trustworthy, and his claims should be ignored,’’ a ranking ministry official told The Korea Times.
MBC also expressed concern before airing the interview, which was recorded a few hours before the radio show, asking its listeners to consider Kim’s remarks as claims by some North Korean hardliners
RUSSIA SUPPORTS NORTH KOREA IN NUCLEAR WAR
CODENAME = VIGILANT SHIELD
October 10, 2006
By William M. Arkin
When nuclear war breaks out in December between the United States, Russia and North Korea, American taxpayers should be furious.
The war is just another U.S. military exercise.
But this one is particularly childish, a massive waste of money and an insult to the country.
With North Korea and Iran teetering on the edge, amidst a war in Iraq that seems to have no end and no solution, with Afghanistan slipping away and with an ongoing global "war" against terrorism, the American military is preparing for its largest combined drill of the year in December and all it can come up with is -- all it can get excited about -- is nuclear war.
It would be bad enough if some U.S. nuclear command were running such an exercise as part of an American threat to Pyongyang at a time when nuclear testing is threatened.
But instead what we have is the routine annual "homeland defense" exercise of U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM), which sponsors "Vigilant Shield 07."
One might think that NORTHCOM would be focused like a laser on preparing for another Sept. 11 or another Katrina, working through the details of just dealing with the obvious. Alas, some bomb going off somewhere, some natural disaster, doesn't justify missile defenses or other big ticket items like submarines, nor satellites and "early warning," nor the new tricks of cyber-warfare.
Want to know why the armed forces are hurting for soldiers and Marines? The few on the front lines defend the freedom of the extravagant in the Pentagon, the consulting world and defense industry to make billions.
Exercise Vigilant Shield 07, currently scheduled to culminate December 4-14, is described in this year's "Exercise Plan" (thanks PR for providing the documents) as an opportunity to "train and exercise" NORTHCOM and U.S.-Canadian NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) components in all aspects of homeland defense.
The exercise run concurrently with "Terminal Fury 07," a Pacific Command (PACOM) exercise focused on North Korea; "Global Lightning 07," a Strategic Command (STRATCOM) exercise focused on command and control of U.S. nuclear and conventional forces, and "Positive Response 07-1," a national-level continuity of operations exercise of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) is also participating in the "maritime defense" portions of the exercise, and other U.S. government agencies such as the Department of Energy are involved in the nuclear weapons aspects.
I wrote last year about Vigilant Shield 06, which involved World War III with "Slomonia," a thinly veiled Russia adopted a more aggressive foreign policy towards the west and eventually attacked the United States.
This year's Vigilant Shield stars Nemazee, a thinly veiled North Korea; Irmingham, which is Iran; Ruebek, which is Russia; and Churya, which is China. According to briefing documents from the Vigilant Shield planning conference:
- "Nemazee continues to develop nuclear and missile capabilities
- • Southwest Asian country of Irmingham intent on uranium enrichment program
- Western countries and United States seeking U.N. assistance to halt Irmingham’s enrichment program
- Eurasian country of Ruebek attempts to mediate Irmingham crisis by offering nuclear oversight while secretly supporting enrichment program
- Asian country of Churya will become concerned at increasing level of Ruebek-U.S. hostility"
But North Korea just isn't a big enough threat to justify the homeland security edifice back home, particularly not missile defense or other technological favorites.
According to the NORTHCOM exercise scenario (published separately), when it is all over, a "limited" nuclear war takes place between the United States and Russia. They fire first, hitting U.S. command centers and forces, we retaliate. As part of the concurrent Positive Response exercise of the JCS, a one kiloton "terrorist" nuclear weapon just happens to detonate at the Pentagon. Cheyenne Mountain and the underground Raven Rock bunker in Maryland are hit with Russian nuclear weapons, but no "cities" are hit and other than the attack on the Pentagon -- which briefing documents say only kills 6,000 -- the country survives.
With the Pentagon gone -- someone at least has a sense of humor -- the military can "practice" its alternate command structures, its truck mounted mobile command centers, and its redundant communications. "Consequence management" organizations can stage to pockets of great destruction, led still by a federal government that miraculously survives nuclear war. Officials who need to be are evacuated nicely, the "stressed" system chugs forward.
The "road to war" as described in exercise briefing documents gives no political context for why Russia would want to go to war with the United States, and then if they did, why they would attack in such limited numbers and not go for victory. I guess the answer is buried somewhere in the minds of exercise scenario writers who needed limited war to make it all fun and workable; or is the product of nuclear warfare theory that posits "limited" attacks away from really valuable things as a way of "controlling" the outcome.
In either case, on the nuclear side the two core assumptions are clear: First, nuclear warfare can break out for no particular reason at any particular time, hence not only the need for U.S. nuclear weapons but ballistic missile defenses. Second, small nuclear weapons, while bad, don't really kill that many people, hence the demand for new "mini-nukes" to attack the bad guys: They are useful.
Adm. Timothy Keating, the commander of U.S. Northern Command, spoke at a Homeland Defense Symposium yesterday in Colorado saying that he doubted scenarios that posit another mega-terrorist in the United States.
"I do not think it’s inevitable," Keating said.
(See Tom Roeder, "NORTHCOM Chief Says Attack Not Inevitable," Colorado Springs Gazette, October 6, 2006)
I'm sure no one in the audience of 1,500 industry types who feed at the trough of homeland security was particularly thrilled with Keating's remark.
Not to worry though the Admiral said that NORTHCOM was still working aggressively on disaster preparedness
"If we do this right," he said, "you’re just going to get aid."
Financial aid that is.
