DPRK missile launch sites, increased activities

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2013/03/29 14:44 KST
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(LEAD) N. Korean missile launch sites show increased activities: sources
By Kim Eun-jung
SEOUL, March 29 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's missile sites have recently shown increased activities in the wake of the communist nation's threat to strike South Korea and the United States in response to their ongoing military drill involving nuclear-capable bombers, military sources in Seoul said Friday.

The latest move comes after the North Korean military on Tuesday put its strategic rocket units on the highest level of combat readiness, threatening to strike targets in South Korea as well as U.S. bases in Hawaii and Guam.

Following the U.S. military's unprecedented announcement that its nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bombers participated in the joint military drill in the South, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Friday ordered the country's strategic rocket forces to assume combat ready status in a fresh threat to hit U.S. bases with its long-range missiles.

Amid heightened tensions, South Korean and U.S. forces have focused their intelligence efforts on monitoring the North's missile sites, which have shown brisk activities.

"North Korea's launch sites to fire off mid- and long-range missiles have recently shown increased movement of vehicles and forces," the official said, asking for anonymity. "We are closely watching possibilities of missile launches."


North Korea's missile launch site in Dongchan-ri, located in the northwestern region (Yonhap file photo)


Another source said several vehicles were seen moving to the Tongchang-ri missile site on the western coast, in what seemed like preparations for testing its long-range missiles.

Seoul's defense ministry saw the latest move as a "follow-up measure" to the North Korean military's announcement of the heightened level of combat readiness, but it did not elaborate on "a rocket preparation plan" signed in the North.

Tensions on the peninsula have risen after the North launched a long-range rocket in December 2012 and conducted its third nuclear test last month, which drew new rounds of U.N. sanctions on the isolated state.

After the North announced it had voided the Armistice Agreement and cut the military hotline connecting two Koreas, concerns rose over unprovoked attacks by the recalcitrant neighbor, which launched deadly attacks near the western maritime border in 2010.

Although Pyongyang has routinely denounced past annual drills in the South, Seoul and Washington have taken its bellicose rhetoric more seriously this year as the North has even threatened an "all-out battle" and "pre-emptive nuclear strike" against the U.S. mainland, which are unusually intense threats.

Outside watchers, however, consider Pyongyang's latest remarks to be aimed at strengthening control domestically and building military credentials, raising doubts over whether it has the technology to build an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland.

On Friday morning, a North Korean Mig-21 fighter jet flew near South Korea's front-line airspace, known as the Tactical Action Line (TAL), and returned to its base, according to military officials. The supersonic fighter jet has a maximum speed of about 2,000 km/h.

The provocative flight prompted the South Korean Air Force to dispatch a KF-16 fighter, they said, without further elaboration.

TAL is the point between 20 and 50 kilometers north of South Korean airspace. Any aircraft approaching that line compels fighter jets in the South to scramble.

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(END)

this might the the start will be back with other sources if any

KNCA has this to say; titled: There Is No Prospect for Peaceful Settlement of DPRK-U.S. Relations: Minju Joson (2013.03.29)

There Is No Prospect for Peaceful Settlement of DPRK-U.S. Relations: Minju Joson



Korean / English / Chinese / Spanish / Japanese
Pyongyang, March 29 (KCNA) -- An opportunity for peacefully settling the DPRK-U.S. relations is no longer available as the U.S. opted for staking its fate. Consequently, there remains only the settlement of accounts by a physical means. Minju Joson Friday says this in a bylined commentary.
It is the U.S. which pushed the situation on the Korean Peninsula to the extreme phase, the news analyst notes, and goes on:
The DPRK has so far made every possible effort with sincerity to prevent a war on the Korean Peninsula.
The U.S. has staged the drill for a preemptive nuclear attack on the DPRK with huge forces for aggression involved. It has staged even the drill for nuclear strike under the simulated conditions of an actual war targeting the depth of the DPRK by inveigling even B-52 formation. Worse still, it worked out an operational plan for hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK and is watching for a chance to carry it into practice.
All facts prove that the U.S. hostile acts against the DPRK have entered the phase of practical implementation to hurt the idea, social system, sovereignty and dignity of the DPRK, after going beyond the phase of threat and blackmail. Herein lies the gravity of the issue.
There were many military contradictions between the DPRK and the U.S. But the U.S. did not openly reveal its intent to stab a dagger into the DPRK on its back. This shows the U.S. is going reckless bereft of reason, being engrossed in the ambition for stifling the DPRK.
The DPRK's army and people can never overlook the present grime reality in which the sovereignty of the country and the dignity of its supreme leadership, which they regard more precious than their lives, are encroached upon.
A battle to be fought by the DPRK against the U.S. will become a war for national liberation to defend the sovereignty and dignity of the country and, at the same time, a revolutionary war to defend the human cause of independence and the justice of the international community. -0-

www.kcna.kp...

"Strategic Force Plan for Striking US Mainland"

This source says, that source says, and another unconfirmed source say...
Kim Jong Un is not stupid folks.
Even if he has all of the worlds backing and not just the BRICKS, if he went nuclear, he would certainly die!
He knows this.
All of this bullspit talk of N.Korea says... is theater for the stupid.
N.Korea is no threat unless we move first, and that is even questionable.
Just more fear mongering, too bad we don't still have a strong president in office like J.F. Kennedy was, all we have had since are "(ATS will not allow me to write this bad word)" but it ends in ssies!!!
I miss the days when I truly believed that the USofA was the good guys, and I want it back...
Live and let live folks.

Not once growing up do I recall being told the North Koreans were horrible people, or that they wanted to destroy us. Yet in North Korea that's what they teach their people, all while they threaten us, the innocent people in the South along with Japan, and they starve their people and put their lives in danger while they (the leaders) live in luxury.

Remind me who's the issue... Also, didn't the U.S. provide food aid to the North?

Doesn't matter what continent it is, seems the US likes to purposely provoke nations into war.

N Korea threatens to launch nukes, it must be Thursday again

You guys think this is funny too?

Friday's DPRK rally images

Isn't China their friend/ally?

Whats to stop a rogue Chinese general (yes, they have threatened the US before), transporting one of their ICBM's through their vast underground tunnel complexes into North Korea, Kin Jung paints it in north koran colors, calls it his own.

US taunts him, saying you dont have the tech to reach LA, and he launches it. Surprise surprise......there goes Honolulu.

I wonder if the people in the rally play Homefront as a preparation..

Originally posted by Darce
You guys think this is funny too?

Friday's DPRK rally images

How long could a country wage war - that does not have enough energy to heat a room that has people working at computer terminals??

This is not a mutually assured destruction scenario -- it will be pretty unilateral. Particularly if their bomb misfires.

We are past the point where waves of soldiers and tanks wins.

reply to post by Melbourne_Militia

Whats to stop a rogue Chinese general (yes, they have threatened the US before), transporting one of their ICBM's through their vast underground tunnel complexes into North Korea, Kin Jung paints it in north koran colors, calls it his own.

US taunts him, saying you dont have the tech to reach LA, and he launches it. Surprise surprise......there goes Honolulu.

Glad you asked... THIS:

www.mda.mil...

So, unless they are smuggling 1000's of such missiles...well...good luck!

reply to post by spyder550

How long could a country wage war - that does not have enough energy to heat a room that has people working at computer terminals??

Most analysts put it at 4 days, I'd be more generous and put it at two weeks, because they'd seize any civilian assets that could be used.

Seriously though, there are stockpiles and manufacturing etc. in some very deep bunkers...but yeah, they'd still run out of a lot of basics (mostly fuel) very fast, in a full out war.

reply to post by Melbourne_Militia


It is well established that they have thousands of miles of tunnels and many of them extend miles into China. Plus it is well known that China likes to dig in the ground just as much as our dear USA to hide bases and not show the public what they are moving place to place.

Well all know NK is a puppet for China...

I think your on to something here as much as I wish you were not.

reply to post by Darce

You guys think this is funny too?

No, which is why boots on the ground in NK is a dumb idea...but their primary fighters being MiG-21s is pretty damn funny....(they were designed in the 50's)....

They do have a few nicer toys though too...(MiG-29s, a few nice tanks, etc.)..but not enough to factor.

As long as we can avoid a ground invasion of NK for a while.....

Perhaps NK is doing it's own drills to countermeasure ours.
One can hope.

If they do not launch or do something stupid, then I would guess this is all practice drills on their side to co-inside with ours.

That is a totally unrealistic optimistic approach though....

Scary situation.

reply to post by Darkblade71


No, it's just further posturing.

Originally posted by chishuppu
Doesn't matter what continent it is, seems the US likes to purposely provoke nations into war.

????????????? Wait, I thought NK started these military threats. How is the US provoking?

reply to post by Gazrok


I hope you are correct.

Just a new leader asserting himself.....

Originally posted by Darce
You guys think this is funny too?

Friday's DPRK rally images

As a matter of fact, I do think this is funny. I think it's funny when I imagine all these people being told to attend this rally under penalty of death by the regime if they don't comply. Also I think it's funny at the thought of someone having to go to great pains to photoshop extra people in this picture to make the crowd larger than it really was.