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Post by DavidH on Mar 14, 2017 13:52:34 GMT
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Post by DavidH on Mar 14, 2017 13:57:08 GMT
North Korea Is Practicing for Nuclear WarNorth Korea is developing an offensive doctrine for the large-scale use of nuclear weapons in the early stages of a conflict. When combined with what we know about U.S. and South Korean war plans, this fact raises troubling questions about whether a crisis on the Korean peninsula might erupt into nuclear war. In recent years North Korea has started launching Scuds and No-dongs from different locations all over the country. These aren’t missile tests, they are military exercises. North Korea knows the missiles work. What the military units are doing now is practicing — practicing for a nuclear war. Last year, North Korea tested a No-dong missile. Afterward, North Korea published a map showing that the missile was fired to a point at sea that was the exact range as South Korea’s port city of Busan, with an arc running from the target into the ocean, down to Busan. This time, North Korea launched four “extended-range” Scud missiles that are capable of flying up to 620 miles. The map showed all four missiles landing on an arc that stretched down to the Marine Corps Air Station near Iwakuni, Japan. The United States and South Korea are conducting their largest annual joint military exercise, known as Foal Eagle. The exercise, which is really a series of exercises, lasts two months and involves tens of thousands of U.S. and South Korean military personnel, as well as an aircraft carrier, bombers, and — guess what? — F-35 aircraft based out of Iwakuni. Foal Eagle is a rehearsal for the U.S.-Republic of Korea war plan, known as OPLAN 5015, which has been described as a pre-emptive strike against North Korea, including its leadership, as a retaliation for some provocation. Whether that’s a fair description or not, the North Koreans certainly think the annual exercise is a dress rehearsal for an invasion. This year’s menu of fun and games reportedly includes a U.S.-ROK special operations unit practicing an airborne assault on North Korea’s nuclear and missile facilities. What North Korea is doing is simply counterprogramming the Foal Eagle with its own exercise. If we are practicing an invasion, they are practicing nuking us to repel that invasion. North Korea’s military exercises leave little doubt that Pyongyang plans to use large numbers of nuclear weapons against U.S. forces throughout Japan and South Korea to blunt an invasion. In fact, the word that official North Korean statements use is “repel.” North Korean defectors have claimed that the country’s leaders hope that by inflicting mass casualties and destruction in the early days of a conflict, they can force the United States and South Korea to recoil from their invasion. foreignpolicy.com/2017/03/09/north-korea-is-practicing-for-nuclear-war/?utm_content=buffercaf30&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=bufferforeignpolicy.com/2017/03/09/north-korea-is-practicing-for-nuclear-war/?utm_content=buffercaf30&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
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Post by DavidH on Mar 14, 2017 13:58:41 GMT
OPLAN 5015: The Secret Plan for Destroying North KoreaExactly what U.S. Operations Plan 5015 (OPLAN 5015) entails is classified. Fragments have been reported in the Japanese and South Korean press. But what details have emerged indicate that in 2015, a new approach was taken toward the old problem of how to fight a bellicose North Korea and its huge arsenal of conventional and unconventional weapons. For years, the expectation had been that a second Korean War would resemble with the first, a big-unit conventional war with U.S. and South Korean forces first stopping the enemy and then counterattacking into North Korea. But OPLAN 5015 reportedly takes a more twenty-first century approach of limited war, special forces and precision weapons. Japan’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported in 2015 that the plan resembled guerrilla warfare, with special forces assassinations and targeted attacks on key facilities. The goal was to consolidate several older war plans, minimize casualties in a war and even prepare for the possibility that the North Korean regime might collapse. Most important, OPLAN 5015 envisaged the possibility of a preemptive strike against North Korea. Echoes of this can be seen in the current U.S.-South Korean exercises, designated Foal Eagle 2017, which will involve more than 300,000 personnel for two months of live and computer-simulated training. Citing Korea’s Yonhap news agency, the Washington Post reported that “the joint forces will also run through their new ‘4D’ operational plan, which details the allies’ preemptive military operations to detect, disrupt, destroy and defend against North Korea’s nuclear and missile arsenal.” liveblogcentral.proboards.com/thread/11/oplan-secret-destroying-north-korea
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Post by DavidH on Mar 14, 2017 14:58:58 GMT
Japan plans to send largest warship to South China SeaJapan plans to dispatch its largest warship on a three-month tour through the South China Sea beginning in May, three sources said, in its biggest show of naval force in the region since World War Two. The Izumo helicopter carrier, commissioned only two years ago, will make stops in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka before joining the Malabar joint naval exercise with Indian and U.S. naval vessels in the Indian Ocean in July. It will return to Japan in August, the sources said. "The aim is to test the capability of the Izumo by sending it out on an extended mission," said one of the sources who have knowledge of the plan. "It will train with the U.S. Navy in the South China Sea," he added, asking not to be identified because he is not authorized to talk to the media. Japan does not have any claim to the waters, but has a separate maritime dispute with China in the East China Sea. www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-navy-southchinasea-exclusive-idUSKBN16K0UP?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_content=58c6b51f04d3014064be5a0b&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
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Post by DavidH on Mar 14, 2017 15:04:01 GMT
China waits to hear why Japanese warship going to South China SeaChina said on Tuesday it was waiting for an official word on why Japan plans to send its largest warship on a three-month tour through the South China Sea, but that it hopes Japan can be responsible. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she did not know if the ship was going to visit countries in Southeast Asia or if there was another aim. Japan had been stirring up trouble on the South China Sea issue of late, and China hoped it can play a constructive role in peace and stability, Hua said. www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-navy-southchinasea-china-idUSKBN16L0UM?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Social
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Post by DavidH on Mar 14, 2017 15:43:05 GMT
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Post by DavidH on Mar 14, 2017 16:53:58 GMT
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Post by DavidH on Mar 14, 2017 17:02:24 GMT
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Post by DavidH on Mar 14, 2017 17:05:32 GMT
North may be developing an anti-ship missileNorth Korea is developing anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBMs) and Iran could have backed up an essential part of the needed technology, multiple sources told the JoongAng Ilbo. An ASBM is a missile system designed to hit targets in the sea, such as warships. Officials from South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense said Sunday the North has mastered target tracking capabilities and tested them last September and February through Scud-ER missiles. Chances are said to be low at this point that the North’s ASBM pose a threat to neighboring countries because the regime doesn’t have a satellite to locate any targets. koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=3030907&cloc=joongangdaily%7Chome%7Cnewslist1
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Post by DavidH on Mar 14, 2017 17:12:36 GMT
Duterte tells navy to build 'structures' east of PhilippinesPhilippine President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the navy to put up "structures" to assert sovereignty over a stretch of water east of the country, where Manila has reported a Chinese survey ship was casing the area last year. The Philippines has lodged a diplomatic protest with Beijing after the vessel was tracked moving back and forth over Benham Rise, a vast area east of the country declared by the United Nations in 2012 as part of the Philippines' continental shelf. Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Duterte's instruction was to increase naval patrols in that area and put up structures "that says this is ours". He did not specify what structures would be erected. www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-china-idUSKBN16K0UF?utm_content=buffer3e841&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
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Post by DavidH on Mar 14, 2017 21:20:29 GMT
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Post by DavidH on Mar 14, 2017 21:46:45 GMT
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Post by DavidH on Mar 15, 2017 14:24:45 GMT
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Post by DavidH on Mar 16, 2017 10:24:28 GMT
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Post by DavidH on Mar 16, 2017 17:57:35 GMT
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