I don't have any links as I heard it on the radio but Canada just imposed some new sanctions on North Korea....

N. Korea severing all ties with S. Korea
Pyongyang reportedly says its troops are bracing for war
The Associated Press
updated 9:38 a.m. CT, Tues., May 25, 2010

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea has announced it will sever all ties with South Korea, the country's official KCNA news agency said on Tuesday, citing a spokesman for the North's national reunification committee.

Pyongyang also said its troops were bracing for war as tensions spiked on the divided peninsula over the sinking of a South Korean warship in late March.

One Seoul-based monitoring agency reported that North Korea's leader ordered its 1.2 million-member military to get ready for combat after South Korea blamed the North for a March 26 torpedo strike that sank the warship Cheonan and killed 46 sailors.

South Korea started blaring propaganda broadcasts into North Korea on Tuesday after a six-year halt in an effort to ramp up pressure on the country.

The South's restarting of psychological warfare operations — including radio broadcasts into the North and placing loudspeakers at the border to blast out propaganda — were among measures the government announced Monday to punish Pyongyang. The South is also slashing trade and denying permission to North Korean cargo ships to pass through South Korean waters.

A team of international investigators concluded last week that a torpedo from a North Korean submarine tore apart the Cheonan. The sinking was one of the South's worst military disasters since the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

The North flatly denies involvement and has warned such retaliation would mean war. It has threatened to destroy any propaganda facilities installed at the heavily militarized border.

On Tuesday, the North's military claimed dozens of South Korean navy ships violated the countries' disputed western sea border earlier this month and threatened to take "practical" military measures in response, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

South Korea's military had no immediate response other than to say that North Korea routinely makes similar accusations.

North Korea is already subject to various U.N.-backed sanctions following earlier nuclear and missile tests. The latest steps announced by Seoul were seen as among the strongest it could take short of military action.

The U.S. has thrown its full support behind South Korea's moves and they are planning two major military exercises off the Korean peninsula in a display of force intended to deter future aggression by North Korea, the White House said. The U.S. has 28,500 troops in South Korea.

South Korea also wants to bring North Korea before the U.N. Security Council over the sinking. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday he expects the council to take action against North Korea, but China — North Korea's main ally and a veto-wielding council member — has so far done little but urge calm on all sides.

'Very productive' discussions
In Beijing, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she had "very productive and very detailed" discussions with Chinese officials but could not say if any progress had been made in convincing the Chinese to back U.N. action.

"No one is more concerned about peace and stability in this region as the Chinese," she told reporters. "We know this is a shared responsibility, and in the days ahead we will work with the international community and our Chinese colleagues to fashion an effective, appropriate response."

Chinese State Counselor Dai Bingguo, speaking at a news conference with Clinton, called for "relevant parties" to "calmly and properly handle the issue and avoid escalation of tension."

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev talked with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on Tuesday and said he "understands well" about South Korea's moves and will try to give an "appropriate signal" to North Korea over the sinking, according to Lee's office.

As part of its propaganda offensive, South Korea's military resumed radio broadcasts airing Western music, news and comparisons between the South and North Korean political and economic situation late Monday, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The military also planned to launch propaganda leaflets by balloon and other methods on Tuesday night to inform North Koreans about the ship sinking.

In coming weeks, South Korea also will install dozens of loudspeakers and towering electronic billboards along the heavily armed land border to send messages urging communist soldiers to defect to the South. The North warned Monday it would fire at any propaganda facilities installed in the Demilitarized Zone.

On Tuesday, North Korean state media cited the powerful National Defense Commission as saying the North's soldiers and reservists were bracing to launch a "sacred war" against South Korea.

North Korea often issues fiery rhetoric and regularly vows to wage war against South Korea and the U.S. It put its army on high alert following a November sea battle with South Korea near where the Cheonan went down in March. The Koreas also fought bloody maritime skirmishes in the disputed area in 1999 and 2002.


Seoul-based North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity said Tuesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il last week ordered his military to get ready for combat.

The group, citing unidentified sources in North Korea, said the order was read by Gen. O Kuk Ryol, a Kim confidant, and broadcast on speakers installed in each house and major public sites throughout the country last Thursday, hours after the multinational report blaming Pyongyang for the sinking was issued in Seoul.

The South Korean military said they had no indication of unusual activity by North Korea's military.

On Tuesday, the presidential Blue House said officials were reviewing whether South Korea should resume calling North Korea its "main enemy" in formal defense documents for the first time in six years.

In downtown Seoul, about 30 conservative activists burned North Korean flags and ripped up photos of Kim Jong Il.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37329506/ns/world_news-asiapacific/

South Korea loses track of North's subs
By North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy

Updated 4 hours 0 minutes ago

South Korea's military is trying to find four North Korean submarines that have disappeared from tracking screens in the East Sea.

Tensions are running high on the Korean peninsula after Pyongyang was blamed for sinking a South Korean warship.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency has quoted an unnamed military official as saying that four North Korean submarines have vanished from their screens.

The 300-tonne Sang-O class submarines are part of Pyongyang's 40-strong fleet.

They disappeared after leaving their base in the country's north-east two days ago.

The South Korean and United States militaries are preparing to hold anti-submarine drills near the site of the sinking of the Cheonan.

The 1,200-tonne corvette Cheonan sank in the Yellow Sea on March 26, leaving 40 sailors confirmed dead and six still unaccounted for.

It is believed to have been sunk by a torpedo fired from a North Korean submarine.

Earlier this week the South announced a series of measures against Pyongyang over the sinking.

South Korea said it would cut trade ties, vowed to take North Korea to the UN Security Council and pledged to undertake joint military exercises with the United States.

North Korea's official news agency says the country is severing all relations with the South and cutting communication links with Seoul.

Meanwhile, United States secretary of state Hillary Clinton says South Korea has America's full support in dealing with Pyongyang.

Ms Clinton was in Seoul to meet president Lee Myung-Bak to discuss possible responses to the sinking of the warship.

She says the international community has a duty to respond to the torpedo attack.

"We will be working together to chart a course of action in the United Nations Security Council," she said.

"We call on North Korea to halt its provocations, end its policy of threats and belligerence towards its neighbours and take steps now to fulfil its denuclearisation commitments and comply with international law."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/26/2910229.htm

well, well, why don't we all go there....., hmmmm, to add:


http://en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20100526/159160444.html

Military news
UPDATE: Russia sends its mightiest warships for drills in Far East[b]

09:4026/05/2010
Multimedia

* Photo:

The Pyotr Veliky cruiser inspects a fishing boat
* Video:

Russian missile cruiser joins St George Ribbon campaign
* Video:

Pyotr Veliky,battle cruiser, visits Syria

Flagships of three Russian fleets have united in Russia's Far East for the large-scale naval exercises in the Sea of Japan in June, a Pacific Fleet spokesman said on Wednesday.

The flagship of the Black Sea fleet, the Moskva missile cruiser, arrived at a naval base near Vladivostok on Wednesday and teamed up with the flagship of the Northern Fleet, the Pyotr Veliky nuclear-powered guided-missile cruiser, and the flagship of the Pacific Fleet, the Varyag guided-missile cruiser.

"After the Moskva crew has had a short rest, warships of three Russian fleets will sail to the Sea of Japan to complete combat training tasks and hold naval drills," the official said.

During the exercises, warships of the three Russian fleets will conduct live firing at naval and aerial drones and practice combat interoperability and repelling simulated attacks by hostile submarines and aircraft.

Earlier reports indicated that the naval drills would be part of the Vostok-2010 strategic exercises in Siberia and the Russian Far East in June-July.

The land drills will involve units from the Far Eastern, Siberian and Volga-Urals military districts.

The units will practice the deployment of additional troops to strengthen the existing military contingent in the region in case of a potential military conflict.

Russia holds Vostok strategic exercises every two years. More than 8,000 troops took part in Vostok-2008.

Oh, Human, I like you!

Yeppers seems to be the day for some serious doom.

So we have the Ruskis, the North Koreans, the US, the South Koreans and goodness knows who else roaming around in the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea.

Who else? The Iranians show up next? No - I got it the Venezuelan Navy will show up next!

Oh dear, do they have a navy as well?? I think we had better send in the Canadians to mediate this mess!! L, do you have a rowboat hanging around? We are going to need ours this weekend.

Seriously, isn't the Sea of Japan small?????? They could really have an accident and not mean too!

yes it's called ACCIDENTLY MEANT TO DO IT ON PURPOSE!!!

Freek!!!

This is NOT looking good folks, this one good explode at any moment

========================



SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea's most powerful state organ said Friday that South Korea faked the sinking of one of its own warships and warned that the Korean peninsula was edging ever closer to war.

Pyongyang has made similar statements through state media since a multinational probe said last week that a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine downed the vessel, killing 46 sailors in the worst attack on the South Korean military since the Korean War.

This time, though, the comments were delivered at an extremely rare press conference in the North Korean capital presided over by a uniformed official with the secretive country's National Defense Commission, which is headed by leader Kim Jong Il.

North Korea has denied any responsibility and warned that retaliation or punishment for the sinking would mean armed conflict. So far, it has issued various threats, including one to cut off South Korean access to a joint industrial zone in the North and wage "all-out war."

South Korea's military has reported no unusual moves by the North's troops.

"The South Korean puppet regime's faked sinking of the Cheonan has created a very serious situation on the Korean peninsula, pushing it towards the brink of war," Maj. Gen. Pak Rim Su, director of the commission's policy department, said at the press conference, according to broadcaster APTN.

A number of people attended, including some foreigners who may have been Pyongyang-based diplomats, footage showed. A uniformed foreign military officer could be seen watching the proceedings, which were aired in full on state television.

Tensions have soared further since South Korea laid out Monday a series of punitive measures and pledged to haul Pyongyang before the U.N. Security Council. The steps include slashing trade, resuming anti-North Korean propaganda broadcasts across the border and launching large-scale naval exercises off the western coast.

"These anti-North Korean confrontations are an open declaration of war against us and an extraordinarily criminal act that pushes inter-Korean relations into a state of war," Pak said.

Oh puhlease!

This is just absurd but it is the shear absuridty that just might, and I emphasize might, start another war.

China is not looking too happy about the North here lately so maybe this was aimed at them because nobody in their right minds would believe something like this.

haha, LOL, last i heard the Belgians are coming..., they sent a submarine with 30 paratroopers!lol
..everything will be ok now:)

no, it looks like things just need one spark to explode..., any country who's got a beef in the region might take advantage of this, or the two korea's can mess it up all by themselves..., eerie situation.
All we can do is keep a close eye on it, and make 'educated guesses' about everything they're not telling us...

IF prophecies come true, at least we know there's the ability to forsee 'stuff', and only that will make me smile, as it is logical to assert then that things are pre-ordained, even if it's one out of five possible futures, it gives hope:)

It is almost like it is preordained isn't it?

China's Korean balancing act

Relations between North and South Korea are tense but China maintains ties with both [REUTERS]

The fallout from the sinking of the Cheonan is causing a diplomatic dilemma for China, which has important strategic links with both countries on the Korean Peninsula.

In recent years China has carefully cultivated relationships with both North and South Korea, glossing over the apparent contradiction in maintaining close ties with two sworn enemies.

In doing so, China has become one of South Korea's biggest trade partners, while continuing to support Seoul's authoritarian neighbour.

But with the South demanding action against North Korea for its apparent role in sinking the Cheonan, those relationships, painstakingly built through years of regional summits and bilateral diplomacy, have taken a blow.

Important ties

China's relationship with North Korea dates back to the Korean War, when communist Chinese fighters joined their North Korean comrades against the South and its Western allies in 1950.

The conflict, the first of the Cold War, quickly escalated, with the communist North drawing support from China and the South backed by an American-led United Nations force.

The war left the Korean peninsula divided, and set up a political dynamic that has endured to the present day.

China is one of the isolationist North's few international allies, and its biggest trading partner, providing crucial shipments of food, arms and fuel that have helped the authoritiarian regime in Pyongyang avoid collapse under the pressure of international sanctions.

In return, North Korea has provided Beijing a useful buffer between its borders and the thousands of US troops who have been stationed in South Korea for the past half-century.

Beijing recognises that its support for the volatile regime in North Korea is not problem-free and has at times attempted to use its influence over Pyongyang constructively, for example bringing the country to the table for six-party nuclear talks.

There have also been signs that China's patience with its unpredictable ally is not inexhaustable. When North Korea carried out a nuclear weapons test in May last year, Beijing agreed to harsher sanctions against Pyongyang, showing there are limits to its support.

But one thing China does not want is a significantly weakened North Korea. Any collapse of the regime would likely cause a crisis that would spill over the border into China, and destabilise the region.

Oddly, South Korea reaps similar benefits from the uncomfortable status quo it endures with regard to its neighbour. Seoul has no desire to suddenly absorb North Korea's 23 million inhabitants, whose poverty and lack of education would place a major strain on the economy.

It also has no illusions over what a sudden conflict could do to the international investment that has driven its economic growth.

China will hope that this will be enough to defuse tensions in the region, allowing it to continue policies towards the two Koreas that place pragmatism firmly over principle.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/05/20105309617365594.html

I like your tag-line: "If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?" A. Einstein

spot on, as I also believe/deduct that The Primordial Force doesn't play dice:)

Human!

South Korean children's balloons mistaken for parachuting North Koreans

Published: 11:39AM BST 18 Jun 2010

Amid growing military tensions between the North and South, Seoul mobilised troops and police early on Thursday after a resident of Ansan, 22 miles south-west of the South Korean capital, reported that 40 to 50 flying objects resembling parachutes had fallen on a mountain the previous night.

Upon inspection, the objects were identified as helium balloons released by children at a nearby school.

Tensions on the Korean peninsular have been high since the sinking of the South's warship earlier this year. Seoul has said that the ship was torpedoed by Pyongyang.
snip

http://tinyurl.com/2b5txqb

North Korean soldiers defect to China fuelling fears of imminent military clash

An upsurge in the number of North Korean soldiers defecting into China fuelled fears of food shortages and an imminent military clash.

By Julian Ryall in Tokyo
Published: 3:41PM BST 12 Jul 2010

Previously considered to be among the regime's most important assets, the North Korean People's Army has always been well provisioned in order to ensure the troops remain loyal.

But a poor harvest and the disastrous revaluation of the North Korean currency in November of last year has worsened the nation's already dire economic straits.

Defectors have claimed that they were required to survive on noodles made of ground corn and that meat or fish were a luxury, a journalist for Japan's Asahi Shimbun reported from the Chinese city of Shenyang.

On one stretch of the border, Chinese troops apprehended five North Korean soldiers in May alone. Prior to the sinking of the South Korean corvette Cheonan in March, allegedly by a torpedo fired from a North Korean submarine, it was rare for troops to be taken into custody on the Chinese side of the Yalu River.

The defectors have claimed that senior members of the party and the armed forces were stockpiling provisions, another indication that the regime is steeling itself for a military confrontation.

"In the past there have been cases of North Korean troops crossing the border and plundering Chinese farms for their food, which they then took back to their posts in the North," Kim Sang-hun, a human rights activist in Seoul, told The Daily Telegraph.

However, these soldiers chose to return to the North with the supplies.

Robert Dujarric, a professor of international relations specialising in North-East Asia, said the situation in North Korea was "very bad" at present, due to the poor harvest, but a more dramatic indicator of the scale of the problem would be if military officers or members of elite military units opted to follow in the footsteps of these soldiers.

The defectors apprehended by the Chinese were reportedly returned to North Korea, where they face execution.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... clash.html?

Gen welcome back

This can be read two ways, the N. Koren's are simply cutting back and this article is a fear mongering piece or they are right on the money the N. Korens are bracing for conflict...

Let's hope this is just journelistic speculation and nothing more, because the other option could be scary.

I really do believe that Kim Jon STUPID is crazy enough to believe that the rest of the world cannot defend S. Korea thanks to the US and the two wars they are currently in

Pray for peace folks.....

North Korea threatens 'physical response' to U.S. military exercise

Hanoi, Vietnam (CNN) -- North Korea vowed Friday that there would be a "physical response" in reaction to the planned joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea.

"There will be a physical response against the threat imposed by the United States militarily," North Korea spokesman Ri Tong Il told reporters outside the Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting.

About 8,000 military personnel from the United States and South Korea are scheduled to participate in joint military exercises beginning this weekend.

Earlier Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sharply criticized North Korea in prepared remarks at the meeting.

"Peaceful resolution of the issues on the Korean Peninsula will be possible only if North Korea fundamentally changes its behavior," she said.

Clinton said North Korea was responsible for the March attack on South Korea's Cheonan warship, which killed 46 South Korean sailors.

An international investigation blamed North Korea for the sinking, an assertion the North has denied. Earlier this month, the United Nations formally condemned the sinking of the ship, but did not specifically name North Korea.

But Clinton was clear in her condemnation Friday.

"Here in Asia, an isolated and belligerent North Korea has embarked on a campaign of provocative, dangerous behavior," she said.

Ri described the planned U.S.-South Korea joint military exercise as "another example of a hostile policy" against North Korea.

"It is a grave threat to the Korean peninsula and also to the region of Asia as a whole," he said.

He said the exercise was against North Korea's sovereignty and security.

The military exercise, dubbed "Invincible Spirit," is scheduled to run from July 25 to July 28. In addition to the 8,000 personnel involved, military officials say it will include 20 ships and submarines and about 200 aircraft.

"The purpose of this readiness exercise is to highlight Alliance resolve to face any threat North Korea may pose," the Combined Alliance Joint Naval and Air Exercises said said in a statement announcing the military exercises Tuesday.

Gen. Han Min-koo, chairman of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in Tuesday's statement that the exercises will show the military's readiness and resolve.

"We stand fully prepared to respond militarily to any further North Korean provocation," he said.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/07/23/north.korea.threat/index.html?hpt=T2

24 July 2010 Last updated at 09:15 ET

North Korea warns of nuclear 'sacred war'


North Korea says it will use its "nuclear deterrent" in response to joint US-South Korean military exercises this weekend.

Read article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-10748148

North Korea Vows 'Nuclear' Response To U.S. Military Exercises

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/2 ... 58136.html

North Korea unveils first photo of Kim Jong-un as heir apparent

He’s chubby-cheeked and serious, wearing a dark blue Mao suit. He's sandwiched between two elderly generals, his father one general away on his left.

snip

The image of Kim Jong-un as a specimen of good health is clear, but there’s no disguising his father's fragility. Kim Jong-il looks frail and weak as a result of the stroke that he suffered in August 2008 and a host of other illnesses that help explain the need to elevate his son to high positions on the road to power

Read more here: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2010/0930/North-Korea-unveils-first-photo-of-Kim-Jong-un-as-heir-apparent

Report: 'Brisk' activity at N. Korea nuke site

Movements spark speculation that Pyongyang might be considering 3rd test
updated 10/21/2010 6:02:08 AM ET 2010-10-21T10:02:08

SEOUL — A U.S. satellite has detected increased activity at a North Korean nuclear weapons test site, suggesting it could be preparing for a third test, a major South Korean newspaper reported Thursday.

The report comes after satellite images taken last month also showed heightened activity at the North's main Yongbyon nuclear complex, indicating Pyongyang was pushing ahead with its nuclear plans in defiance of international pressure.

The Chosun Ilbo daily quoted an unnamed government source as saying "brisk movement" of vehicles and people had been recently detected by the reconnaissance satellite in Punggye-ri, the location of the North's past tests in 2006 and 2009.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39772673/ns/world_news-asiapacific/

South Korean military kicks off live-fire exercise amid tensions
By Ashley Rowland
Stars and Stripes
Published: December 6, 2010

SEOUL — South Korea began a live-fire exercise Monday, one day after North Korea said Seoul was “hell-bent” on trying “to escalate the confrontation and start a war.”

The training is scheduled to last through Sunday and could include firing from land and sea at 29 locations across the peninsula, a spokesman for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said....... The spokesman also said some drills this week are also expected to take place at Yeonpyeong island, where North Korean artillery fire killed four people on Nov. 23. South Korea would not say how many of its troops were participating, citing security concerns.

U.S. and South Korean military spokesmen described the exercise as routine training that was planned before North Korea’s bombardment of Yeonpyeong. U.S. Forces Korea spokesman David Oten said Monday that no U.S. troops were participating in the exercise, which he said is a monthly event.

Full article here: http://www.stripes.com/news/south-korea ... s-1.127706

This is NOT a very smart move on their part this will only provoke the North.

Why not let tensions settle before doing something like this.

It's almost like they want WAR

China, North Korea tout 'consensus' amid US anger
Dec 9 03:08 AM US/Eastern

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and a top Chinese envoy Thursday touted "consensus" between the communist allies regarding the region's worst crisis in years, official media reported.

China's most senior foreign policymaker Dai Bingguo visited Pyongyang as pressure intensifies on Beijing to rein in its unruly ally, after North Korea's deadly shelling of a South Korean island inflamed tensions on the peninsula.

snip

"Northeast Asia is today more volatile than it has been in much of the last 50 years," Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said.

"Much of that volatility is owed to the reckless behaviour of the North Korean regime, enabled by their friends in China."

Much more here: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id ... _article=1