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Sapa
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
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 Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:01 am Post subject: So there's going to be a war this year? |
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Today for whatever reason I had 4 different students tell me there was going to be a war this year between the two Koreas. They obviously don't know what there talking about unless I've missed some crazy news today. Perhaps there is a few stories in the Korean media over the last few days playing with their little minds.
Last edited by Sapa on Tue Jan 20, 2009 4:31 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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| Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:05 am Post subject: |
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| Sapa wrote: |
| ..a war this year between the two Koreas.. |
yes, April 1st |
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Sapa
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
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| Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:07 am Post subject: |
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| I suppose it wouldn't be the first time a football match started a war! |
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Sapa
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
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| Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:10 am Post subject: |
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Anyway, I think I just found what they were talking about as they were trying to say something about ships....
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| "Strong military measures will follow from our revolutionary armed forces," the spokesman added, warning of a clash along a disputed maritime border. Disagreements over the boundary triggered naval skirmishes in 1999 and 2000. |
So it's just the usual weekly sabre rattling, just this week my students have worked themselves up a little over it. |
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chris_J2
Joined: 17 Apr 2006
Location: From Brisbane, Au.
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| Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 4:46 am Post subject: War? |
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| Relations between the two have taken a turn for the worse since Lee's conservative government took power last year. Lee has taken a harder line with North Korea than his predecessors. |
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1454047.php/North_Korea_military_makes_public_threats_against_South_Korea_
North Korea this weekend said it would "wipe out" the uncooperative conservative government in Seoul, accusing it of undermining efforts at reconciliation.
In a move likely to further aggravate Pyongyang, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak Monday put a hard-liner in charge of relations with the North.
Here are questions and answers on why North Korea is threatening the South and what it means for the incoming U.S. administration of Barack Obama.
* Why is North Korea threatening the South?
A North Korean army spokesman said the North's forces are "compelled to take an all-out confrontational posture" against the South because Lee has invited a fight with his uncompromising policy.
The comments are likely aimed at pressuring the South to drop its hardline policy and its questioning of huge economic projects signed by Lee's predecessors that were expected to pump tens of billions of dollars into the impoverished communist state.
The comments follow months of increasingly angry verbal attacks on the year-old conservative government of Lee, who has said he would get tough on the North and end years of unconditional aid.
The North has depended heavily on the South to prop up its moribund economy, and the threats are seen as an unlikely precursor to an actual attack.
* What does a new U.S. administration mean to the North? The threat, say analysts, is directed as much at Washington as at Seoul because North Korea loathes being ignored and is trying to use Tuesday's inauguration of Obama to win some attention by raising tension in the region.
Pyongyang may be trying to tell the Obama administration, which is poised to engage the North in direct dialogue, that it cannot afford to put the North Korean nuclear issue on the back burner and remind the world how quickly the problem can destabilize regional security.
It may also be trying to raise the stakes in the years-long six-country nuclear talks, of which both the South and the United States are involved, while signaling that it is ready to strike a deal if the price is right.
North Korea has been working to complete steps on disabling its aging nuclear complex in return for energy and aid, but has refused to allow sampling and other intrusive steps to check disclosure of its nuclear inventory.
* Will North Korea follow through on its military threat?
Given the frequency of past threats and how they played out, it is unlikely that the North will mobilize its more than one million-men army and mount an invasion or initiate battles along the two Koreas' land or naval borders.
It faces not only the well-equipped South Korean military but also about 28,000 U.S. troops stationed in the South.
However, in the past its navy vessels have crossed a disputed naval border and engaged the South. Dozens of sailors from both sides have been killed or injured.
South Korea's Defense Ministry said its stepped-up surveillance had detected no unusual military activities in the North.
(Reporting by Jack Kim and Kim Junghyun; Editing by Jonathan Thatcher and Jeremy Laurence)
Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/gc06/idUKTRE50I18I20090119?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0 |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 5:55 am Post subject: |
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| While it isn't likely that a 'war' as such will happen, your students were trying to express the heightened alert the military has been on since last week when the North threatened the South AND began moving troops and artillery around. There is suspicion that the military in the North has taken on power as Kim has weakened. My students (military) are all on heightened alert. Former members of the government are taking this very seriously and will be meeting tomorrow morning to discuss counter-measures. It may just be the usual Nork saber-rattling, but it could be much more this time. |
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Straphanger
Joined: 09 Oct 2008
Location: Chilgok, Korea
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| Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 6:10 am Post subject: |
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| God...always with the drama... I got this nine months ago during my interview with the consulate. "Didn't Kim Jong-Il just threaten to turn your country into a lake of fire?" "Yes, but he does that." "He does that?" "Yes." "Just...he threatens to kill everyone?" "Yes, he does that. Now, what makes you want to come to Korea?" |
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I'm no Picasso
Joined: 28 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 6:12 am Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| While it isn't likely that a 'war' as such will happen, your students were trying to express the heightened alert the military has been on since last week when the North threatened the South AND began moving troops and artillery around. There is suspicion that the military in the North has taken on power as Kim has weakened. My students (military) are all on heightened alert. Former members of the government are taking this very seriously and will be meeting tomorrow morning to discuss counter-measures. It may just be the usual Nork saber-rattling, but it could be much more this time. |
I'm hoping that it's just a combined reaction to insecurity about the world's view of the impending demise of Our Dear Leader and Obama's presidency, but then nobody tends to think anything is anything, until it's something. |
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Paddycakes
Joined: 05 May 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 6:16 am Post subject: |
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| Anyone remember Anda? |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 7:02 am Post subject: |
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| Straphanger wrote: |
| God...always with the drama... I got this nine months ago during my interview with the consulate. "Didn't Kim Jong-Il just threaten to turn your country into a lake of fire?" "Yes, but he does that." "He does that?" "Yes." "Just...he threatens to kill everyone?" "Yes, he does that. Now, what makes you want to come to Korea?" |
Yes, and I heard it in '94 when I came here. The difference is that this time the source is a former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff/minister of defense who is saying the military has strenghened it's power.
People can say, 'drama, drama' but that only means they are not paying attention. |
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Straphanger
Joined: 09 Oct 2008
Location: Chilgok, Korea
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| Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 8:34 am Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| Straphanger wrote: |
| God...always with the drama... I got this nine months ago during my interview with the consulate. "Didn't Kim Jong-Il just threaten to turn your country into a lake of fire?" "Yes, but he does that." "He does that?" "Yes." "Just...he threatens to kill everyone?" "Yes, he does that. Now, what makes you want to come to Korea?" |
Yes, and I heard it in '94 when I came here. The difference is that this time the source is a former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff/minister of defense who is saying the military has strenghened it's power.
People can say, 'drama, drama' but that only means they are not paying attention. |
I'm sure a lot of people said the same thing before the Berlin Wall came down... and that's all it was...drama.
And a lot of people said the same thing before the Soviet Union fell.. and that's all it was. Drama.
So you're talking 1994... Has it really been anything but drama... naw.. naw dude, not really. Nothing but drama. |
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Typhoon
Joined: 29 May 2007
Location: Daejeon
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| Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:11 pm Post subject: |
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| A lot of people don't realized that Lil' Kim was actually very pro-west (for a North Korean). He wanted relations with the USA and he was an American movie buff. With all that said he was still a crazy little freak and constantly was involved in stiring the pot with the South and the USA. Now it appears that his brother-in-law has assumed control of the country for the time being (as a regent). He is a military man (unlike Lil' Kim) and is a hardliner. Reports of a huge number of mass murders (more than before) are coming out of the North into China and reports of troops being mobilzed as well. Anytime there is a regime change or a possible power struggle one has to worry what will happen due to the instability. Probably nothing will happen due to this, but it would be wise for people to monitor the situation and make sure their information is up to date at their embassies in case anything does happen. |
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chris_J2
Joined: 17 Apr 2006
Location: From Brisbane, Au.
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| Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:29 pm Post subject: North Korea |
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Nuclear news heightens fears over tough-talking N Korea
Posted Mon Jan 19, 2009 11:00am AEDT
Updated Mon Jan 19, 2009 12:22pm AEDT
North Korea's military is warning the South to keep in line. (AFP)
Its military parades may be predictable and synchronised, but North Korea's brand of public diplomacy is anything but.
And over the weekend, Pyongyang pulled another surprise, with a senior member of the Korean People's Army joint chiefs of staff appearing on state television.
A uniformed member of the military bobbing up on TV is unusual, and he delivered a message dripping with menace.
Accusing South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his government of pushing for confrontation, the North's spokesman vowed his country would respond by taking an all-out confrontational posture to shatter the South.
He also warned that strong military measures will follow from the North's armed forces.
At issue here is the passage of South Korean ships into disputed waters of the Yellow Sea, a quarrel which triggered naval skirmishes between the two sides in 1999 and 2002.
In response to Pyongyang's threat, South Korea has put its military on alert along its land and sea borders.
North Korea watchers say this is a worrisome development, but with Barack Obama to be sworn in as US President this week, it could all be just elaborate posturing by Pyongyang to set up a negotiating position on its nuclear program.
The sabre-rattling came shortly after an American scholar returned from a visit to Pyongyang, revealing that North Korean officials told him that they had enough plutonium for four or five nuclear bombs.
US scholar and North Korea expert Selig Harrison says in Pyongyang he was told by regime officials that they had "weaponised" 31 kilograms of plutonium.
"It does change the game and it's going to make it a much more difficult negotiation than it looked like before this," he said.
Mr Harrison's admission, and the appearance of a senior military official on North Korean TV, both raise new questions about who is doing the day-to-day running of the communist state.
With Kim Jong-Il suffering a stroke last year and struggling with reported heart and diabetes troubles, Mr Harrison believes the Dear Leader has loosened his grip on the affairs of state.
"People I talked to have many indications that some important things are submitted to him, but he is not working in the way he used to before," he said.
Which all means the new Obama Administration will face an even more unpredictable regime in Pyongyang.
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/01/19/2468972.htm
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SEOUL: The North Korean military has declared an "all-out confrontational posture" against South Korea as an American scholar said North Korean officials told him they had "weaponised" enough plutonium for roughly four to six nuclear bombs.
US intelligence officials had previously estimated that the North had harvested enough fuel for six or more bombs, although it was never clear if the North constructed the weapons.
The scholar, Selig Harrison, said the officials had not defined what "weaponised" meant, but the implication was that they had built nuclear arms.
After the threats, made on Saturday, South Korea ordered its military to heighten vigilance along its heavily fortified border with North Korea, a spokesman with the South Korean military joint chiefs of staff said.
North Korea's saber-rattling towards the South has increased in intensity since the President, Lee Myung-bak, took office in Seoul a year ago, vowing to take a tougher stance on the North, reversing 10 years of his liberal predecessors' efforts to engage it with economic aid. But what made the threat on Saturday more worrisome to some South Korean analysts was the way it was delivered: in a statement read on North Korean television by a uniformed spokesman for the North's joint chiefs of staff.
Usually the North Korean Government issues written statements that are delivered by the country's state-controlled media.
The New York Times |
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/north-korea-suggests-bombs-built/2009/01/18/1232213448850.html |
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chris_J2
Joined: 17 Apr 2006
Location: From Brisbane, Au.
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Bibbitybop
Joined: 22 Feb 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2009 12:51 am Post subject: |
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| Remember, these were probably the same students who insisted US beef had Mad Cow Disease. |
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