Kim Jong Il Orders Military to Get Ready for Combat (Update1)

Source: Bloomberg

May 25 (Bloomberg) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il ordered the country’s military to get ready for combat in a message televised nationwide last week following South Korea’s announcement that North Korea torpedoed the South’s warship.

The message was broadcast on May 20 by O Kuk Ryol, vice chairman of the National Defense Commission, according to the website of North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity, a Seoul-based group run by defectors from the communist country. Yonhap News agency reported on the group’s posting earlier today.

While Kim doesn’t want war, North Korea is ready to counter any attacks from South Korea, O said in the message, according to the group, which cited an unidentified person in the country. North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity is one of the Seoul-based agencies to first report on North Korea’s currency revaluation late last year.

Officials at South Korea’s Defense Ministry weren’t immediately reachable for comment.

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Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-24/kim-jong-il-orders-military-to-get-ready-for-combat-update1-.html

:scared:

I've got to get out of here...

:spank:
:hi:

By shooting a torpedo at the S. Korean submarine, he knew it would be provocative. Either SK would retaliate, allowing KJ-II the illusion of "self defense" or KJ-II would attack SK for NK's "honor" if accused of shooting the torpedo. Circular logic with the same goal: war with SK to "finish" the war.

Please, please let there be no interventionism from either.

So no we won't sit it out, sorry to say. But with military stretched and broken as it is, there's going to have to be some creative mutual defending.

However, neither US nor China want war with each other. So it's possible both might agree to let the kids fight it out among themselves.

The treaty mentions "mutual assistance," but also has language about that requiring unprovoked attacks, which this certainly wouldn't be if Kim decided to go for Seoul out of the blue. On top of that there's simply the fact that China tends to be pretty pragmatic about these sorts of things; if the Koreas went to war, the US will massively intervene, and nobody on either side wants a Sino-American war. If the balloon goes up I'd be more than a little surprised if they do anything other than try to mediate or simply make sure their border's locked down enough.

More likely a diplomatic squash, like the US pressure on Israel to put up with the SCUDS, back in the first Iraq war. I'm also sure China could apply the same pressure and probably would.

Letting them actually fight can't end well can it? First we'd have to remove all our own soldiers from in between them. Then when N Korea starts to lose they toss there nuke or attack Japan.

Or say the N somehow starts winning? Who's going to bother with an ally like us ever again, if we just let the S die?

Their equipment is Korean and Vietnam War era stuff. They'll lob some heavy artillery on Seoul, which will take a beating for a day. The artillery will be taken out quickly, though, along with NK's vintage air force. It'll be over in a matter of days, with or without US help. Once lil' Kim's palace is bombed, taking out his porn collection, NK will surrender.

North Korea's a loose cannon at best, but they'd prefer a relatively consistent loose cannon to the smouldering rubble of a state that would be that half of the peninsula one month after the outbreak of war. That's before going into things like the refugee problem it would cause.

Kim visits China a few times a year; it's one of the only countries that he's willing to visit, between his travel requirements and the fact that he can't really get too far from Pyongyang for security reasons.

I guess that means feeding them so they don't pass out while marching!

The North Koreans could add a new meaning to an army traveling on its stomach.

this is not a funny subject, but, HECK

after reading all the post here, I can't stop laughing - LOL

He's a man who has been treated as a god his entire life, and now he's facing his end.

I'm afraid his last wish is to go out in a blaze of "glory".

That guy's started showing up in front of cameras recently, and there were noises about this whole situation being about getting him some spotlight time.

Although, this situation is pretty bad, it won't amount to anything.

Just more of the norths insanity.

They know fully well, that if they go to war, they 1) won't get the kind of help they got from china the first go around 2) it will destroy their country and 3) NK's leaders are enormous ego-maniacs and the last thing they want is to be dead.

We will go through more BS with them before this finally gets pushed the the back pages.

South Korea has resumed propaganda broadcasts to the North, amid high tension over the sinking of a Southern warship.

Late on Monday it began playing radio programmes, soon to be broadcast via border loudspeakers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/asia_pacific/10151893.stm

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Uh oh. Let's see if NK makes good on their threat to hit those transmitters.

Honestly, the Dear Leader's saber-rattling is hardly news anymore. The sinking of that South Korean warship, on the other hand, is.

South Korea is, ah, meeting them halfway on the ratcheting-up. Not without cause considering what happened to them, but Seoul's crossed quite a few lines - the propaganda broadcasts, shutting down shared waterways - that North Korea's explicitly said for years they'll open fire over. On top of news of mobilizations over the last few days, they're currently expelling what few South Koreans are in the country and so on as well, including that industrial park that's a non-trivial part of the north's trade income.

they're already supposed to be ready already.

Hard to to take this lunatic seriously.