Korea Thread: Liberal Moon Jae In Elected

[Razgovory]

Also it's only a "career" in the same way that Fredrick Douglas had an early "career" in agriculture.

[jimmy olsen]

Booked a hotel for my stay in Hanoi, four stars in a prime location for $45 a night! 

[Tonitrus]

Is it the Hilton? 

[jimmy olsen]

Is it the Hilton? 

The Hanoi Imperial Hotel. 

[jimmy olsen]

Waiting for my plane to take off.

VJ961

[jimmy olsen]

Currently at a fancy private beach resort full of Russians.

[Tonitrus]

Yell "Putin huoy!".

[DGuller]

Currently at a fancy private beach resort full of Russians.

They're Korean separatists. 

[Syt]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/08/20/uk-northkorea-southkorea-border-idUKKCN0QP0PC20150820

South Korea fires rounds at North in response to suspected projectile

South Korea fired tens of artillery rounds towards North Korea on Thursday after the North fired a suspected projectile towards a South Korean loudspeaker that had been blaring anti-Pyongyang broadcasts, South Korea's defence ministry said.

North Korea did not immediately respond to the South's shots, it said, as tensions rose on the peninsula.

South Korea said its detection equipment had spotted the trajectory of a suspected North Korean projectile launched at around 3:52 pm (0652 GMT), which did not appear to have damaged the loudspeaker or caused any injuries.

The suspected North Korean projectile landed in an area about 60 km (35 miles) north of Seoul on the western part of the border zone, the defence ministry said. South Korean residents in the area were ordered to evacuate, according to Yonhap.

South Korea's presidential office said it was convening an urgent meeting of the national security council, Yonhap said.

Tension between the two Koreas has risen since early this month when landmine explosions in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) wounded two South Korean soldiers. Seoul accused North Korea of laying the mines, which Pyongyang has denied.

Seoul then began blasting anti-North Korean propaganda from loudspeakers on the border, resuming a tactic that both sides had halted in 2004.

North Korea on Saturday demanded that the South halt the broadcasts or face military action, and on Monday began conducting its own broadcasts.

Thursday's exchange of fire came amid ongoing annual joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises, which began on Monday and which North Korea regards as preparation for war.

[jimmy olsen]

The South isn't going to take this kind of shit anymore, so if they think they can force President Park to cave, they are gravely mistaken.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/north-and-south-korea-exchange-artillery-fire-across-tense-border/2015/08/20/f26b6fa5-d5e1-45dd-8831-ce7b128e651c_story.html

By Anna Fifield August 20 at 5:19 PM    

Tokyo — North Korea Thursday threatened to escalate a propaganda war against South Korea into a military one, with Kim Jong Un's regime telling Seoul it has until Saturday evening to remove speakers blasting anti-Pyongyang messages across the demilitarized zone that separates the two countries.

The warning came shortly after a rare exchange of heavy artillery fire between the countries, rattling nerves in the South during a time of heightened tensions.

"The North side threatened to start military action if the South does not stop its anti-Pyongyang psychological broadcasting and remove all the facilities in 48 hours from 5 p.m.," South Korea's ministry of national defense said, quoting a letter from the North's general staff department, according to Yonhap News Agency.

For the first time in 11 years, the two Koreas have resumed a propaganda war across the heavily fortified 2.5-mile wide DMZ that runs between them.

South Korea set up loudspeakers to blast messages across the border to the North, delivering news from the outside world to the information-starved North Koreans living on the border, after an attack earlier this month.


Seoul has blamed North Korea for deliberately planting land mines on a patrol path on the southern side of the border, severely injuring two South Korean soldiers.

The North responded by putting up its own speakers, broadcasting derogatory remarks about South Korea and lauding the superiority of its communist system.

The speakers were a longtime fixture in the DMZ, part of a psychological warfare program, but were taken down in 2004 during a period of improving relations.

But the battery of words turned into live fire Thursday afternoon, when the North sent two rockets across the border near the South's speakers. Pyongyang had previously threatened to carry out "indiscriminate strikes" on South Korea unless it stopped the broadcasts.

The South reported no damage or casualties from Thursday's attack, and its military retaliated soon after, firing dozens of 155mm artillery rounds at the North Korean firing location.

Such incidents are rare, with the last exchange of fire in October, when Northern soldiers used machine guns to try to shoot down balloons carrying pamphlets critical of the North Korean regime into the country.

South Korea's National Security Council convened an emergency meeting, during which President Park Geun-hye ordered the military to maintain readiness, an official said.


The incident coincides with the start of military exercises, always a time of heightened tension on the peninsula. The annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercises, which involve more than 80,000 troops from a number of countries, led by South Korea and the United States, simulate the defense of South Korea in the face of an external attack.

North Korea bristles at the drills, viewing them as preparations for an invasion, and this week threatened the "strongest military counteraction" in response.

[Tonitrus]

I wonder if the South is thinking that, by now, the North is a teetering, rotten hulk...where they just need to kick in the door, and the entire mess will come crashing down.

[jimmy olsen]

I wonder if the South is thinking that, by now, the North is a teetering, rotten hulk...where they just need to kick in the door, and the entire mess will come crashing down.

I'm pretty sure they do, but they also don't want to pay for the estimated 5,800 Trillion Won 30 year reconstruction program that would be required to lift it out of the 1930s.

[KRonn]

I wonder if the South is thinking that, by now, the North is a teetering, rotten hulk...where they just need to kick in the door, and the entire mess will come crashing down.

I wonder when this will be true and how long can this Stalinist slave labor state endure. The government does have a strong strangle hold on the people and all dissent. It would probably take a coup by top officials and then a desire to change the way the nation is governed, including those new leaders giving up complete power.

[Syt]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/21/us-northkorea-southkorea-border-idUSKCN0QQ08H20150821

North and South Korea stand their ground as deadline looms

North and South Korea appeared headed toward another clash, as Seoul refused an ultimatum that it halt anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts by Saturday afternoon or face military action, and North Korea said its troops were on a war footing.

South Korean Vice Defense Minister Baek Seung-joo said on Friday it was likely the North would fire at some of the 11 sites where the loudspeakers are set up on the South's side of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the countries.

Tension escalated on Thursday when North Korea fired four shells into South Korea, according to Seoul, in apparent protest against the broadcasts. The South fired back 29 artillery shells. Pyongyang accused the South of inventing a pretext to fire into the North.

Both sides said there were no casualties or damage in their territory, an indication that the rounds were just warning shots.

"The fact that both sides' shells didn't damage anything means they did not want to spread an armed clash. There is always a chance for war, but that chance is very, very low," said Yang Moo-jin, professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

Since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, Pyongyang and Seoul have often exchanged threats, and dozens of soldiers have been killed, yet the two sides have always pulled back from all-out war.

But the renewed hostility is a further blow to South Korean President Park Geun-hye's efforts to improve North-South ties, which have been virtually frozen since the deadly 2010 sinking of a South Korean navy ship, which Seoul blames on Pyongyang.

Park canceled an event on Friday and made a visit to a military command post, dressed in army camouflage.

Both sides traded harsh rhetoric late on Friday.

The North committed "cowardly criminal acts," South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo said. "This time, I will make sure to sever the vicious cycle of North Korea's provocations."

The North's official KCNA news agency said its military was not bluffing.

SOUTH SAYS WON'T STOP BROADCASTS

The North's shelling came after it had demanded last weekend that South Korea end the broadcasts or face military action - a relatively rare case of following up on its frequent threats against the South.

Its 48-hour ultimatum, delivered in a letter to the South Korean Defense Ministry, was also uncharacteristically specific, said John Delury, a North Korea expert at Yonsei University in Seoul. The deadline is around 5 p.m. (0800 GMT) on Saturday in Seoul.

South Korea began blasting anti-North propaganda from loudspeakers on the border on Aug. 10, resuming a tactic both sides had stopped in 2004, days after landmines wounded two South Korean soldiers along the DMZ.

North Korea on Monday began its own broadcasts.

Baek told parliament the South's broadcasts would continue unless the North accepted responsibility and apologized for the mines. Pyongyang has denied responsibility.

"There is a high possibility that North Korea will attack loudspeaker facilities," Baek said.

KCNA said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had declared a "quasi-state of war" in frontline areas.

There were indications the North was preparing to fire short-range missiles, the South's Yonhap news agency said, citing an unnamed government source. The North often fires rockets into the sea during annual U.S.-South Korean military exercises, which are currently under way.

The U.S. military, which bases 28,500 personnel in South Korea, said it was monitoring the situation.

Washington earlier urged Pyongyang to halt "provocative" actions after Thursday's exchange of fire, the first between the two Koreas since October.

Daniel Pinkston of the International Crisis Group think-tank said the large U.S. troop presence in the South for the military exercises could reduce the risk of escalation by pressuring the South to exercise restraint, and as a deterrent to the North.

"This is a bad time to pick a fight with the South while it has all these resources there," he said.

[Monoriu]

None of them wants to change the status quo.  There won't be war.