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| China-Japan-Koreas | ||
| Norks threaten 'merciless' fire over propaganda leaflets | ||
| 2011-04-23 | ||
| SEOUL -- North Korea on Friday threatened to launch "unpredictable and merciless" fire against South Korea over its anti-Pyongyang leaflets, the latest warning amid a flurry of diplomatic efforts to ease tensions on the divided Korean Peninsula and revive stalled talks on the North's nuclear programs. South Korean activists and defectors frequently send hundreds of thousands of leaflets calling for a popular revolt to topple North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, which the North sees as psychological warfare against it. In a carefully orchestrated move, they floated some 200,000 leaflets on April 15 that included stories of the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East in hopes of inspiring North Koreans to eventually rise up against their longtime autocratic leader.
"Direct fire at the area where leaflets are let fly will be a legitimate punishment" against the violator of an armistice agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, the North's military said in the message carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency. It also warned that it will "expand the scope of direct fire ... into full-scale destruction fire at any area anytime," noting that confrontational moves from Seoul against the North "will result only in unpredictable and merciless punishment from our army." But as the North's news agency issued the warning, South Korean activists floated some 300,000 leaflets near the eastern land border with North Korea. Lee Min-bok, who organized the campaign, said he will continue to send leaflets, saying the North's threat is an indication that leaflets are having an impact on North Koreans. | ||
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #5 CHINA'S CPC + PLA are prob quietly thanking the GOD OF EARTHQUAKES for 03/11 + Japan's ongoing FUKUSHIMA CRISIS, as the scenario is there that they could takeover Japan + recover Okinawa, Taiwan etc. islands in due time widout need of waging any major Regional War. RADICAL ISLAM HAS ITS POTENTIAL JASMINE-INDUCED PROTO-CALIPHATE; CHINA MAY YET HAVE ITS FUTURE PROVINCE OR VASSAL STATE FORMERLY KNOWN AS SOVEREIGN JAPAN. * CHIN BLOGGERS = China wid its 1.4 - 2.6 Bilyuhn population can afford to lose some to Japan-based radiation poisoning iff it means taking over Japan + rolling back US power. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2011-04-23 22:21 |
| #4 Kimmie's ace is US-CHINA = NE ASIAN NUKULAAR BRINKMANSHIP + CONFLICT. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2011-04-23 22:10 |
| #3 If the Norks are crazy enough to do it, they probably could hurt the people launching the balloons. Those folks should take reasonable precautions to operate quickly, launch at different times, from different places, and get away quickly. |
| Posted by: rammer 2011-04-23 17:50 |
| #2 The Norks have a lot of guns in bunkers to menace SKor. Using 155mm artillery with accurate fires would need one round per bunker, which just takes too long. One solution would be a peculiarity: heavy, medium range bombers capable of dropping dozens of independently GPS targeted Small Diameter Bombs that can penetrate 5-8 feet of reinforced concrete. The bombers themselves would be fairly low tech, and would drop their bombs from far outside any SAM range, probably three dozen bombs per aircraft. Just a dozen such aircraft would neutralize most of the Norks offensive artillery capabilities within a few minutes. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-04-23 11:36 |
| #1 If the Norks do launch artillery at the ROK the smart move would be to immediately launch counter battery fire. I doubt that the Norks are prepared to up the ante and it would alter the Norks political calculations of the possible costs of provoking the south in the future. |
| Posted by: Mike Ramsey 2011-04-23 11:02 |