North Korea Ends Non-Aggression Pact

[TheGodlessUtopian]

More tension, is there a precedent for this happening, or is this the first time the north has "cut the hotline" with the South?


Pyongyang announced Friday that it is nullifying non-aggression pacts with South Korea and cutting the hotline with its neighbor. It comes after the UN Security Council adopted a resolution expanding sanctions against North Korea.
North Korea "abrogates all agreements on non-aggression reached between the North and the South," the state-run Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a statement.

"It notifies the South side that it will immediately cut off the North-South hotline," said the statement, carried by the official KCNA news agency.

As tensions rise on the peninsula, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited military units responsible for launching the 2010 attack on the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong, calling on troops to be ready for a confrontation with the enemy, Yonhap news agency reported.

In response South Korea said it will hold a meeting of top security officials on Friday to discuss the escalating situation.

Earlier on Thursday a spokesman for North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said his country may deliver a pre-emptive nuclear strike against its enemies (http://rt.com/news/north-korea-nuclear-strike-935/) in case an attack on Pyongyang is launched.

"Since the United States is about to ignite a nuclear war, we will be exercising our right to a preemptive nuclear attack against the headquarters of the aggressor in order to protect our supreme interest," said the statement.

The new UN resolution adopted Thursday (http://rt.com/news/north-korea-un-sanctions-955/) was drafted by the US and China in response to Pyongyang's third nuclear test. It was approved unanimously by the 15-nation council, after three weeks of negotiations between the US and China.

It calls on the implementation of tighter financial restrictions on North Korea, and for a crackdown on its attempts to ship and receive banned cargo in breach of UN sanctions. It also calls on world governments to deny aircraft permission to take off, land or fly over their territory if illicit cargo is suspected to be on board.

The resolution condemns North Korea's latest nuclear test "in the strongest terms" for violating council resolutions, bans further ballistic missile launches, nuclear tests "or any other provocation," and demands that North Korea return to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

It goes on to condemn North Korea's ongoing nuclear activities, including uranium enrichment. It also stresses the UN Security Council’s commitment "to a peaceful, diplomatic and political solution,” and urges that six-party nuclear talks be resumed.

Source: http://rt.com/news/north-korea-cuts-hotline-981/

[Q]

So... North and South are in a direct state of war again?

[LOLseph Stalin]

And technically the war never ended...this could turn ugly.

[bcbm]

this ought to end well

[Hexen]

Well here's China's response to this mess:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21713340


China warns against Korea escalation



North Korean State TV has aired footage of a visit by Kim Jong-un to troops, as the BBC's Lucy Williamson reports

Continue reading the main story (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21713340#story_continues_1) Inside North Korea (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11421928)



China's delicate balancing act (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-21441917)
Time for heftier sticks? (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21436379)
What drives Pyongyang? (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21231204)
Nuclear tests (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17823706)



China has appealed for calm on the Korean peninsula, hours after North Korea said it had scrapped all peace pacts with the South and threatened pre-emptive nuclear strikes.
China, the North's only major ally, said all sides should continue to talk and avoid "further escalation".
Pyongyang has reacted angrily to another round of sanctions imposed by the UN over its recent nuclear test.
The sanctions restrict luxury goods imports and banking activities.
Beijing provides fuel, food and diplomatic cover to Pyongyang.
It has repeatedly voted in favour of UN sanctions imposed over the nuclear programme, but enforcement of the measures in China is patchy.
Hua Chunying of China's foreign ministry told a news conference on Friday: "China and North Korea have normal country relations. At the same time, we also oppose North Korea's conducting of nuclear tests.
Continue reading the main story (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21713340#story_continues_2) Dr John Swenson-Wright Chatham House
The threatened pre-emptive nuclear strike seems more bluff than reality, since the North's leaders know it would be suicidal, and an attack on the US seems impracticable given the still technically rudimentary quality of the North's ballistic missile programme and the unproven state of its nuclear miniaturisation technology needed to place a nuclear warhead atop a missile.
A more troubling possibility is that the North might choose - out of irritation with the UN - to precipitate a border clash with South Korea, either on land or sea, as it did in 2010.


Will sanctions persuade or provoke? (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21704871)


"China calls on the relevant parties to be calm and exercise restraint and avoid taking any further action that would cause any further escalations."
Chinese and US officials drafted the UN resolution passed on Thursday.
It contains similar measures to earlier resolutions, but the US said it had significantly strengthened the enforcement mechanisms.
In response, the North Korean regime published a message on the official KCNA news agency saying it had cancelled all non-aggression pacts with the South.
The two Koreas have signed a range of agreements over the years, including a 1991 pact on resolving disputes and avoiding military clashes.
However, analysts say the deals have had little practical effect.
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/66274000/gif/_66274884_korea_n_s_dmz_464.gif
The KCNA report detailed other measures including:


cutting off the North-South hotline, saying there was "nothing to talk to the puppet group of traitors about"
closing the main Panmunjom border crossing inside the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two countries
pulling out of the armistice that ended the Korean War.

The North also claimed it had a right to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against its enemies.
The threat drew an angry response from the South's defence ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok, who said that the North would become "extinct from the Earth by the will of mankind" if it took such an action.
The US state department said such "extreme rhetoric" was not unusual, but said the US was well protected.
The BBC's Lucy Williamson in Seoul says it appears the North is trying to build a sense of crisis domestically, with a large rally staged in Pyongyang on Friday and reports of camouflage netting on public transport.
North Korea has breached agreements before and withdrawing from them does not necessarily mean war, our correspondent says, but it does signal a more unpredictable and unstable situation.
Shutting down the hotline will leave both more exposed to misunderstandings, she adds.

[l'Enfermé]

Well if Best Korea nukes South Korea, there is still a bright side to the events. We Westerns will finally have a shot in StarCraft tournaments.

[Flying Purple People Eater]

Aren't there not only 2 million active guards on the NK side of the DMZ, but hundreds of suspected underground tunnels into the South?

I wonder what'll happen?

[Mass Grave Aesthetics]

I´m never sure whether these kind of shenanigans are just a public spectacle on behalf of the ruling classes of the two Korean states or if there are some actual intentions behind it.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

I'm sure that ending peace and threatening civilian populations with nuclear wipeout is the exact and declared will of the North Korean people.

Ah, Socialism. Wish we weren't stuck with this monarchy here in the UK.:rolleyes:

[RadioRaheem84]

It just doesn't seem viable for NK to really pull off any of their major threats to SK and the US. It's just posturing to get them to ease the sanctions. I guess they think threatening nuclear war is not going to make them not look mad??? Especially when they know it can seriously end their state as they know it.

I seriously don't think anything major will come about from all this except diplomatic squabbling.

[Mass Grave Aesthetics]

I seriously don't think anything major will come about from all this except diplomatic squabbling.

Perhaps new trade- agreements.;)

[Os Cangaceiros]

Well here's China's response to this mess:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21713340

Sometimes North Korea reminds me of a kid in school who keeps kicking over chairs and yelling in the classroom, and China is North Korea's dad who the school calls and urges to talk with his son about his behavior.

[Paul Pott]

North Korea has demonstrated it will not give in to threats and economic siege, and unlike former victims like Iraq or Libya, attacking North Korea will have consequences.

That's the message from Pyongyang since forever.

[TheRedAnarchist23]

North Korea has demonstrated it will not give in to threats and economic siege, and unlike former victims like Iraq or Libya, attacking North Korea will have consequences.

That's the message from Pyongyang since forever.

North Korea does claim to have missiles capable of attacking the USA. So I beleive they are using the missiles for protection.

[Althusser]

Well if Best Korea nukes South Korea, there is still a bright side to the events. We Westerns will finally have a shot in StarCraft tournaments.

Lol this made my day.

[Per Levy]

quite honestly i dont see this to be such a big deal, the north korean regime does know that it wont survive a war, they are making threats and try to put pressure on the uno/usa/sk. if it will work, who knows, but a war is against the interests of the north korean ruling class.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

While I doubt the North Koreans have anything that could reasonably threaten America without being intercepted, they do have thousands of artillary pieces and short-range missiles aimed at South Korean cities. Let's hope nothing kicks off because it could only end badly for so many working people south of the border.

[RadioRaheem84]

Is the closest we've come to reinstating hostilities between the two camps or has this happened before? If so, I do not think that this will be much more than an excercise in chest beating. NK is getting hurt by the sanctions. The US is to blame for thinking starving their people would somehow force them to bow down and love American democracy or think it's some grand alternative. Of course if you say this to people they'll think you're a whacked out loon because as everyone knows the only to make them love you is tough love, i.e. cutting off their way to feed their people and creating an even more unstable brutal government.

That's like a bully with an inferiority complex twisting a kids arm trying to get him to say "uncle", but the kid punches him in the nuts, the bully's friends and everyone else looking thinks the kid was way out of line with that Johnny Cage-like move.....and then they all proceed to kick the kids ass.

[RedHal]

Sometimes North Korea reminds me of a kid in school who keeps kicking over chairs and yelling in the classroom, and China is North Korea's dad who the school calls and urges to talk with his son about his behavior.

u forget the huge school bully and his lacky, who keeps making threats to the loner kid that kicks over chairs. What is that kid supposed to do? Sit quietly or just bend over backwards?

[Sasha]

u forget the huge school bully and his lacky, who keeps making threats to the loner kid that kicks over chairs. What is that kid supposed to do? Sit quietly or just bend over backwards?

But maybe standing up firmly to the bully but without sounding like you might go off any second on a shooting spree in the school will get you allies instead of mental-hospitalised....

Aren't analogies fun?

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

u forget the huge school bully and his lacky, who keeps making threats to the loner kid that kicks over chairs. What is that kid supposed to do? Sit quietly or just bend over backwards?

If the loner kid threatens to do something that would kill the school bully's lacky and a load of innocent friends of the high school bully, then that loner would probably get sectioned.

Psycho's right, analogising is fun!

[LeonJWilliams]

This move could legitimise a US 'pre-emptive' strike on Pyongyang

[Sasha]

This move could legitimise a US 'pre-emptive' strike on Pyongyang

Nah, no chance, the US got better shit going in the region to dick measure over with China (taiwan for starters). When the North-Koreans themselves finally rise up against the regime because they have enough the US might give some tactical support here and there but even without taking the nuclear side into account, any full on war would disrupt or even destroy the south-Korean economy and with it international trade for years. There is more to gain with keeping north-Korea isolated and ignored than with any serious attempt at confrontation. To close to China, not enough resources, plus it keeps south-korea 100% loyal.

[Os Cangaceiros]

This move could legitimise a US 'pre-emptive' strike on Pyongyang

There's no political will for that to happen.

[ckaihatsu]

Join the Campaign to Stop U.S. Aggression on the Korean Peninsula


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Join the Campaign to Stop U.S. Aggression on the Korean Peninsula

The International Action Center is supporting this campaign called by the Korea Alliance of Progressive Movements! We urge you all to do the same!

Stand for Peace on the Korean Peninsula!

Join Our Photo Campaign to End the Korean War

On the sixtieth anniversary of the signing of the 1953 Armistice Agreement that temporarily halted but did not end the Korean War, the Korea Alliance of Progressive Movements calls upon allies around the world to stand for peace on the peninsula!

Sanctions against North Korea and annual U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises are clear signs that the Korean War—a war that left over four million dead and one in three Korean families divided—is not over. We ask you to take five minutes and join us in solidarity not only against the U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises and against North Korea sanctions, which only harm the North Korean people, but also for peace talks. Our goal for our “I Stand for Peace” photo campaign is to get at least 200 supporters in the United States (and 1000 in Korea) to commit to the following:

1. Take a photograph in either a public space or a place in your daily life holding a sign with the following demands written on it:

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c. End the Korean War! (and/or) Peace on the Korean Peninsula Now!

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3. Also, send your photo in jpeg format to [email protected] so that we can compile it into a mosaic to be used at press events (attached is a sample mosaic) in South Korea.

Our goal is not just to create a powerful symbol of solidarity to use in our press events but also to awaken people to the ongoing 60-plus year fight for peace and reunification. We have had six decades of a precarious stability marked by military conflicts. Now is the time for peace!

Through this campaign, we aim to counter the false belief that the peoples of the United States and South Korea support joint military exercises and a punitive sanctions regime that harms the North Korean people. Together, we stand to say, “I Stand for Peace on the Korean Peninsula!”

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[TheGodlessUtopian]

SEOUL – North Korea has tested short-range missiles in the Sea of Japan (known as the East Sea in Korea), in an apparent attempt to counter-act joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.
“North Korea test-launched a short-range missile in the East Sea [Sea of Japan] this afternoon, amid the ongoing security crisis on the Korean peninsula following Pyongyang’s third nuclear test last month,” Yonhap news said (http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/politics/2013/03/15/0505000000AKR20130315197200043.HTML?template=2085) .
The source, Yonhap said, was a military source within the South Korean government. The North Korean military launched two KN-02 short-range missiles into international waters, the report said.
http://www.nknews.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/north-korean-missile-comparison.gif (http://www.nknews.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/north-korean-missile-comparison.gif)

Graphic: BBC News
KN-02 missiles are mobile missiles. Based on the Soviet-era OTR-21 Tochka, they are launched from the back of SCUD-like trucks (see above headline image) and, of all North Korean missiles, they have the shortest range, as the above BBC infographic shows.
The short-range missile is a domestic variant of the Syrian ‘Scarab A’ missile, and has a range of 120-140km. It is usually used to take out large building targets and, when miniaturized, can carry a small, tactical, nuclear load.
This is not a ’rocket’ test or ICBM launch, and this is not the first time North Korea has tested this particular short-range missile. Pyongyang has reportedly been ‘test-launching’ the same missile from its East Sea [Sea of Japan] coast since 2004, and other launches were detected in 2005, 2006 and 2007.
Like the rest of the North Korean missile program, the KN-02 is based on old Soviet technology (in this case the reverse engineered 9K79 Tochka provided to North Korea by Syria in 1996 (http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/dprk/kn-2.htm)). However, what separates the the KN-02 from the rest of the North’s missile arsenal is that it uses solid-fuel, is more accurate than the notoriously inaccurate SCUD derivatives, and is road mobile.
The KN-02 allegedly (http://rokdrop.com/2009/10/13/why-north-koreas-test-firing-of-kn-02-missiles-is-significant/) also flies a cruise missile profile, making it difficult for PATRIOT missile batteries located in South Korea to intercept. If fired from close enough to the DMZ, it could target U.S. military installations in the ROK.
The question today, however, is timing. With tensions at boiling point, today’s launches will get a lot more attention than normal. John Swenson-Wright senior lecturer in East Asian International Relations at the University of Cambridge told NK NEWS earlier today “the danger of uncontrolled escalation in this situation seems real and therefore something to be managed very very carefully.”
“The real problem is one of miscalculation and misjudgement by either side – with the North believing it can risk a provocation comparable to the 2010 Yeonpyeong shelling, and the South determined to respond decisively.”

Source: http://www.nknews.org/2013/03/breaking-north-korea-launches-short-range-missiles-on-east-coast/