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Having raged at President Trump’s “suicide mission” on Saturday, North Korea’s foreign minister Ri Yong Ho called for an impromptu press conference this morning following President Trump’s extended travel ban, in which the diplomat said that Trump’s recent tweet that DPRK’s leadership would not be around much longer amounted to “a declaration of war” and added that North Korea has “every right to take countermeasures against the United States, including to shoot down American jets outside the DPRK’s airspace” as part of its right to self-defense under the United Nations charter.

“The UN Charter acknowledges member states’ right of self-defense,” Ri said outside a hotel near the UN headquarters on Monday. “As the United States has declared a war, even though its strategic bombers don’t cross our border, we will come to own all rights to respond for self-defense including shooting down its planes at any time.”

“The whole world should clearly remember it was the U.S. who first declared war on our country,” Ri added as he was leaving the United Nations after a week of General Assembly meetings in New York.

“Since the United States declared war on our country, we will have every right to make countermeasures, including the right to shoot down United States strategic bombers even when they are not inside the airspace border of our country.”

Referring to Mr. Trump’s assertion that the North Korean leadership may not “be around much longer,” Mr. Ri said that the question of “who would be around much longer will be answered” by North Korea.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Earthquake Detected Near North Korea Nuclear Test Site; China “Suspects Explosion”

September 23, 2017

Earthquake Detected Near North Korea Nuclear Test Site; China “Suspects Explosion”

In what may be the latest major escalation involving North Korea – and potentially the nation’s 7th nuclear test – China’s earthquake administration said it detected a magnitude 3.5 earthquake in North Korea, which it suspects “was caused by an explosion”, raising fears that the rogue state has tested another nuclear bomb. The Chinese administration said in a statement on its website that the quake was recorded at a depth of zero kilometers, while Xinhua said the epicenter was in roughly the same place as a similar shallow earthquake on 3 September, which turned out to be caused by North Korea’s sixth and largest nuclear test.

However, in analyzing the same earthquake, South Korea came to a different conclusion, and said it was likely to be natural or man-made such as a nuclear test. South Korea’s weather agency assessed the seismic activity as a natural event.

“The quake is presumed to have occurred naturally,” an agency official said, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. “A sound wave, which is usually generated in the event of an artificial earthquake, was not detected.”

Furthermore, all of North Korea’s previous six nuclear tests registered as earthquakes of magnitude 3.9 or above. The last test on 3 September registered as a 6.3 magnitude quake. A secondary tremor detected after that test could have been caused by the collapse of a tunnel at the mountainous site, experts said at the time.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Barbarism and Shame: Why the US Refuses a Korea Peace Treaty

September 22, 2017

Barbarism and Shame: Why the US Refuses a Korea Peace Treaty

The Korean crisis is a powerful lens on American barbarism, past and present. Despite Washington’s self-righteousness and pretensions of virtue, the modern history of Korea is an especially powerful lesson that destroys the American national mythology.

Listening to President Trump’s conceited rhetoric about wiping out North Korea has an eerie resonance with the rhetoric of President Truman. Truman launched into the Korean War more than six decades ago with same arrogant, mythical presumptions of American virtue and self-ordained right to use overwhelming military force.

For reasons of political self-preservation, Washington must live in denial of historical reality. US leaders out of necessity have to construct an alternative, fictional narrative for their nation’s conduct. Because if historical reality were acknowledged, the rulers in Washington, and the whole edifice of presumed American greatness, would implode from the endemic moral corruption.

The Korean War (1950-53) has been described as the most barbaric war since the Second World War. Up to four million people were killed in a three-year period. The US air force dropped more tonnage of bombs on the country than was dropped during the whole of its Pacific War against Japan.

Despite this massive and barbaric effort in Korea, the first war of the incipient Cold War turned out to be a source of potentially crippling shame for the US. This risk of shame to the American mythical self-image of virtue explains why the Korean War has become known as the “forgotten war”. It would also explain why present and past US governments prefer to bury their responsibility to end the conflict on the Korean Peninsula.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Trump — American Gaullist

September 22, 2017

Trump — American Gaullist

If a U.S. president calls an adversary “Rocket Man … on a mission to suicide,” and warns his nation may be “totally destroyed,” other ideas in his speech will tend to get lost.

Which is unfortunate. For buried in Donald Trump’s address is a clarion call to reject transnationalism and to re-embrace a world of sovereign nation-states that cherish their independence and unique identities.

Western man has engaged in this great quarrel since Woodrow Wilson declared America would fight in the Great War, not for any selfish interests, but “to make the world safe for democracy.”

Our imperialist allies, Britain, France, Russia, Japan, regarded this as self-righteous claptrap and proceeded to rip apart Germany, Austria, Hungary and the Ottoman Empire and to feast on their colonies.

After World War II, Jean Monnet, father of the EU, wanted Europe’s nations to yield up their sovereignty and form a federal union like the USA.

Europe’s nations would slowly sink and dissolve in a single polity that would mark a giant leap forward toward world government — Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.”

Charles De Gaulle lead the resistance, calling for “a Europe of nation-states from the Atlantic to the Urals.”

For 50 years, the Gaullists were in constant retreat. The Germans especially, given their past, seemed desirous of losing their national identity and disappearing inside the new Europe.

Today, the Gaullist vision is ascendant.

“We do not expect diverse countries to share the same cultures, traditions, or even systems of government,” said Trump at the U.N.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

China Fears “Vicious Circle” On Korean Peninsula, US Sees “Tipping Point” If Kim Tests H-Bomb Over Pacific

September 22, 2017

China Fears “Vicious Circle” On Korean Peninsula, US Sees “Tipping Point” If Kim Tests H-Bomb Over Pacific

In a considerably more aggressive, and less diplomatic, ‘story’ in China’s government mouthpiece Xinhua, writers warn:

“It is not hard to tell that the situation has become a vicious circle where more missile tests trigger more sanctions, while more sanctions trigger more tests…” urging the double-freeze solution once again, saying that “the parties concerned need to respect each other’s security concerns.”

At this moment, the United States and the DPRK, two key actors in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, should stay calm and exercise restraint, and avoid any provocative action or rhetoric that might further escalate tensions.

Political courage, wisdom and a responsible attitude are required to address the current crisis, instead of provocations or threats.

However, following last night’s less than veiled threat from North Korea that the next escalation will be to test a hydrogen-bomb over the Pacific:

North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho suggested leader Kim Jong Un was considering testing “an unprecedented scale hydrogen bomb” over the Pacific in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat at the United Nations to “totally destroy” the country.

Officials across the globe have frantically responded.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has chimed in…

“In the absence of a meaningful commitment by North Korea to return to serious talks aimed at denuclearisation, enhanced pressure remains essential to compel North Korea to change its course.”

As Reuters reports that such an atmospheric h-bomb test would be the first globally since China detonated a device in 1980. Tests of nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles are rarer still. The United States’ only test of an operational ballistic missile with a live warhead was fired from submarine far out in the Pacific Ocean in 1962.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Trump To Impose More Sanctions On North Korea Today

September 21, 2017

Trump To Impose More Sanctions On North Korea Today

Update: According to Bloomberg, Trump won’t be declaring war (yet), and instead the announcement is sanctions related.

TRUMP’S N. KOREA ANNOUNCEMENT TO BE SANCTIONS-RELATED: OFFICIAL
TRUMP SAYS `WE WILL BE PUTTING MORE SANCTIONS ON NORTH KOREA”

* * *

Following yesterday’s anticlimatic Rex Tillerson press conference in which the Secretary of State was expected, by some, to make an important announcement only to disappoint, moments ago National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said on CNN that “the president will make an important announcement today about the continuation of our efforts to resolve this problem with North Korea short of war.”

McMaster added that Trump will “make that announcement as he meets with our very close allies South Korea and Japan.”

As Bloomberg reminds us, President Trump is set to meet with South Korea President Moon Jae-inat 11:30am and Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at 12:15pm in New York.

Presidential Bomb Threats at the UN

September 21, 2017

Presidential Bomb Threats at the UN

Photo by Nathaniel St. Clair

Donald Trump denounced North Korea and its president Kim Jong-un as “depraved” before the United Nations Sept. 19, saying the nation “threatens the entire world with unthinkable loss of life.” Of course, North Korea can barely feed itself, and yet has to defend itself against an onslaught of Western hostility, UN sanctions, and ongoing US/South Korean war games which are rehearsals for an invasion of the North. It tests rockets and bombs to be sure, just as the US and its allies and adversaries do all year round. It’s big business.

Trump’s claim that North Korea is threatening is preposterous since it has no deliverable nuclear weapons at all. Secretary of Defense James Mattis said last week that North Korea is no danger to the United States. In June 2016, the Institute for Science and International Security reported that Pyongyang may have between 13 and 21 warheads. The CIA, whose job it is to find hostile weapons (even where they don’t exist) says Pyongyang has at most about 21. US intelligence agencies’ combined estimates are that while it may have miniaturized a nuclear warhead, North Korea has no missile that can drop them on the United States. The Federation of American Scientists is more skeptical and estimates it has “potentially produce[d] 10-20 nuclear warheads.”

Like an 8th grade imbecile contradicting and humiliating himself in nearly every sentence, Trump claimed in his speech that North Korean President Kim Jong-un “is on a suicide mission.” In April 2016 Trump had called Kim a “smart cookie.” There is absolutely no evidence of Kim being suicidal, in fact quite the opposite since the North’s military missile and nuclear program are aimed at fending off a repeat of the Korean War in which, according to US Air Force General Curtis LeMay, “we burned down every town in North Korea.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Trump’s China-Sanctions Madness Imperils the Dollar

September 20, 2017

Trump’s China-Sanctions Madness Imperils the Dollar

Last week US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin warned the US will impose new sanctions on China if it doesn’t conform to UN sanctions on North Korea:

“If China doesn’t follow these sanctions, we will put additional sanctions on them and prevent them from accessing the U.S. and international dollar system, and that’s quite meaningful.”

In other words, the administration wants to sanction one of the US’s biggest trading partners, and the world’s second-largest economy.

China is the world’s third-largest recipient of Americans exports, behind only Canada and Mexico. China is the world’s largest source of imports for Americans, slightly ahead of both Mexico and Canada.

In 2016, Americans exported $169 billion in goods and services to China while importing $478 billion of goods and services. Every year, both consumers and producers benefit from the importation of Chinese electronics, machinery, food, footwear, and more.

Ratcheting up economic warfare with China could serve to cut off these avenues of trade and thus will only cost consumers and small business owners who currently benefit from lower-cost machinery, clothing, and more.

For the mercantilists in the Trump administration, of course, American consumers import “too much” from China anyway, and Americans and ought to be prohibited by the US government from purchasing what they want. The North Korea situation could serve as a convenient excuse for slapping prohibitions on American consumers in the name of “fair trade” while also serving as a foreign policy tool.

The last thing the US consumer needs is a trade war with China.

At this point, however, the US isn’t talking about cutting off trade in such a blunt manner.

As Mnuchin notes, the strategy here is to “prevent [the Chinese] from accessing the U.S. and international dollar system.” In practice, this would likely mean restricting access to the so-called SWIFT system which facilitates international transactions in dollars.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Jim Rogers Warns “If Trump Starts A Trade War With China, It Will End US Hegemony”

September 17, 2017

Jim Rogers Warns “If Trump Starts A Trade War With China, It Will End US Hegemony”

Following Treasury Secretary Mnuchin’s threat that the US could impose economic sanctions on China if it does not implement the new sanctions regime against North Korea:

“If China doesn’t follow these sanctions, we will put additional sanctions on them and prevent them from accessing the US and international dollar system, and that’s quite meaningful.”

Billionaire investor and commodity guru Jim Rogers has a warning for the Trump administration – this would hurt America more because it just forces China and Russia and other countries to cooperate.

RT: What is the likelihood that the US will go through with and actually impose economic sanctions on China if it does not implement the new sanctions regime against North Korea?

Jim Rogers: Sanctions are sanctions. They could do sanctions which are not very important or don’t do much damage. And then they will have good public relations which says they have sanctions, but it is meaningless. I would suspect if anything, that is what they will start with. If they put sanctions on China in a big way, it brings the whole world economy down. And in the end, it hurts America more than it hurts China because it just forces China and Russia and other countries closer together. Russia and China and other countries are already trying to come up with a new financial system. If America puts sanctions on them, they would have to do it that much faster and in the end America will lose its monopoly on the financial system, which will hurt America more than anybody.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Fearful Californians Prepare For A Nuclear Attack: “A Lot Of People Will Be Killed”

September 16, 2017

Fearful Californians Prepare For A Nuclear Attack: “A Lot Of People Will Be Killed”

With each passing day and each new ICBM launch from a seemingly unhinged North Korean dictator, the fears of an attack on the U.S. mainland, though faint, increasingly weigh on the hearts and minds of Americans, particularly those in California. As The Guardian points out today, those fears have even prompted a group of California public health officials and emergency responders to gather for a strategy session with Hal Kempfer, a retired marine lieutenant colonel, to discuss which areas are the most likely targets and how citizens should respond to an attack.

Hal Kempfer, a noted international security expert, is getting a roomful of California public health officials and emergency responders to think about the unthinkable – a nuclear bomb exploding at the port of Long Beach, about four miles away.

“A lot of people will be killed,” he said, “but a large percentage of the population will survive. They will be at risk and they will need help.”

“If you want to mess up southern California, if you want to mess up the west coast, if you want to mess up our country – where do you attack?” Kempfer asks. “If I’m sitting in North Korea and looking at possible targets, I’m going to be looking at Long Beach very closely.”

He talks about the port and downtown Long Beach being “toast” – no exaggeration, since the blast wave is likely to vaporize everything in its immediate path. But the city health department, the Long Beach airport and fire department might not be; they are all somewhat protected by a hilly area that is likely to halt the initial blast wave. And so the city can, tentatively, think about setting up a center of emergency operations.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

North Korea Fires Ballistic Missile Which Passes Over Japan

September 14, 2017

North Korea Fires Ballistic Missile Which Passes Over Japan

Update 1: According to Fox News, the U.S. has now confirmed the latest North Korean missile launch.

U.S. OFFICIAL CONFIRMS #NORTHKOREA FIRED BALLISTIC MISSILE: FOX NEWS

* * *

All the diplomatic posturing, the jawboning, the UN sanctions, and threats over the past three weeks has achieved absolutely nothing because as Yonhap and NHK report, North Korea has just launched an “unidentified” missile eastward from the capital Pyongyang.

A live feed from NHK in English is available after clicking on the image below:

Following the launch Japan has issued a missile alert to mobile phones and on national television, with the government advising people outside to take shelter immediately.

Worse, it appears that the missile has once again flown over Japan:

NORTH KOREA MISSILE PASSES OVER JAPAN, GOVT SAYS
N.KOREA MISSILE PASSES OVER JAPAN’S HOKKAIDO, GOVT SAYS

As NHK further adds, the missile which was launched at 6:57am local time, passed over Hokkaido at 7:06am local time, and came down in the Pacific Ocean, some 2,000 KM east of Japan’s Erimo Misaki.

The missile flew a total of 3,700 kilometers and reached an altitude of 770km, according to Yonhap.

Japan’s cabinet minister Suga said that the missile situation is similar to that on August 29, NHK adds, and that Japan will take appropriate response in contact with the US and South Korea.

NHK adds that Japan did not attempt to shoot down the missile though the South Korean military has confirmed it fired a test missile into the sea as part of training drill.

The South Korean presidential office has noted that the country’s national security council will meet at 8am local time.

Separately, according to South Korea military, North Korea fired unidentified missile in eastern direction. South Korea’s president Moon will chair a national security meeting shortly.

And now we await whether the US will finally escalate militarily or once again use even harsher, and more powerless, language.

North Korea Preparing For ICBM Launch: Japan Press

September 14, 2017

North Korea Preparing For ICBM Launch: Japan Press

Gold spiked and USDJPY tumbled as headlines from Japan’s Nikkei newspaper confirmed US military officials’ observations last night that North Korea is said to show signs of missile launch preparation.

As the Nikkei adds, citing an unidentified Japanese government official, the missile is being prepared for launch has engine for liquid fuel, suggesting missile is an ICBM. It adds that the missile is said to be fueled already, ready for launch. As Japan’s Asahi further notes, the North Korean missile prep may be for a Hwason 14 ICBM and adds that missile prep is said to have started on Wednesday.

The immediate reaction was a risk-off spike in the Yen and dollar.

This Nikkei report comes after North Korea’s threats overnight that it will “sink” Japan and reduce America to “ashes.”

North Korea Threatens To “Sink” Japan With Nuclear Weapons, “Reduce The US To Ashes”

September 14, 2017

North Korea Threatens To “Sink” Japan With Nuclear Weapons, “Reduce The US To Ashes”

Less than a day after US officials observed North Korea moving mobile missile launchers and engaging in preparations for what appears to be another missile test, a North Korean state committee has stepped up its belligerent rhetoric, threatening to use nuclear weapons to “sink” Japan and reduce the US to “ashes and darkness” after the UN Security Council passed new sanctions against the isolated country earlier this week, Reuters reported. The North also accused the US of “cooking up” the latest restrictive measures against it and demanded that the US be beaten “to death as a stick is fit for a rabid dog.

These latest threats follow reports from last night that US satellites had spotted the North’s military moving mobile missile launchers and preparing hard sites for what’s expected to be the country’s fourteenth missile test of 2017. The revelations followed reports of new commercial satellite imagery confirming an earlier analysis identifying numerous landslides throughout the Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site on the slopes of Mt. Mantap (and beyond) resulting from North Korea’s sixth nuclear test. The data suggest that the hydrogen bomb test was up to three times more powerful than previously believed.

According to Reuters, North Korea’s Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, which handles the North’s external ties and propaganda, called for the breakup of the security council, which it accused of being “a tool of evil” made up of “money-bribed” countries that move at the order of the US. Then it turned its attention to Japan…

“The four islands of the archipelago should be sunken into the sea by the nuclear bomb of Juche. Japan is no longer needed to exist near us,” the committee said in a statement carried by the North’s official KCNA news agency.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

US Threatens To Cut Off China From SWIFT If It Violates North Korea Sanctions

September 13, 2017

US Threatens To Cut Off China From SWIFT If It Violates North Korea Sanctions

In an unexpectedly strong diplomatic escalation, one day after China agreed to vote alongside the US (and Russia) during Monday’s United National Security Council vote in passing the watered down North Korea sanctions, the US warned that if China were to violate or fail to comply with the newly imposed sanctions against Kim’s regime, it could cut off Beijing’s access to both the US financial system as well as the “international dollar system.”

Speaking at CNBC’s Delivering Alpha conference on Tuesday, Steven Mnuchin said that China had agreed to “historic” North Korean sanctions during Monday’s United Nations vote. “We worked very closely with the U.N. I’m very pleased with the resolution that was just passed. This is some of the strongest items. We now have more tools in our toolbox, and we will continue to use them and put additional sanctions on North Korea until they stop this behavior.”

In response, Andrew Ross Sorkin countered that “we haven’t been able to move the needle on China, which seems to be the real mover on this, in terms of being able to apply the real pressure. What do you think the issue is? What is the problem?”

The stunner was revealed in Mnuchin’s answer: “I think we have absolutely moved the needle on China. I think what they agreed to yesterday was historic. I’d also say I put sanctions on a major Chinese bank. That’s the first time that’s ever been done. And if China doesn’t follow these sanctions, we will put additional sanctions on them and prevent them from accessing the U.S. and international dollar system. And that’s quite meaningful.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

CONFIRMED: North Korea has enough oil to survive embargo

September 10, 2017

CONFIRMED: North Korea has enough oil to survive embargo

While a full scale oil embargo against North Korea is unlikely, the reality is that North Korea would be able to survive such a measure with comparative ease.

The United States has recently suggested a global oil embargo against North Korea, something both China and Russia oppose. The DPRK’s neighbours to the north support UN sanctions against Pyongyang, but have firmly opposed unilateral US sanctions against North Korea.

Russia and China have made a commitment never to support sanctions against Pyongyang which could negatively impact on the civilian population of their neighbour and this would almost certainly include a full-scale oil embargo.

On the contrary, Russia’s plan to de-escalate tensions on the Korean peninsula is to develop trilateral economic initiatives linking South and North Korea to Russia. Given the realities on the peninsula, Russia’s ‘carrot’ is seen as preferable on both sides of the 38th parallel to Washington’s increasingly bellicose ‘stick’.

But even if Donald Trump was somehow able to convince the world to engage in an oil embargo against North Korea, North Korea would appear to have enough domestic oil reserves to make up for the loss of imports.

In addition to large reserves of domestic coal and the increased reliance on green energy in the form of hydroelectric power , North Korea’s domestic oil reserves are likely far greater than previous conservative estimates have indicated.

Even prior to the new threat of sanctions, North Korea has been increasingly self-sufficient in beginning to tap its still largely unused oil reserves.

In 2015, when relations between the DPRK and the rest of the world were somewhat better than they are at present, independent oil exploration expert Michael Rego investigated North Korea’s oil potential.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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