Page 1 of 2 Kim Jong-eun has Obama blinking
By Kim Myong Chol
"The captured crew members of the armed spy ship USS Pueblo must be
brought to Pyongyang for a photo session. Photos of thePueblo crew
members arriving with their hands raised should be sent worldwide to show for
all to see that the Americans are captured red-handed violating our sovereign
territorial waters."
- Kim Jong-il, January 1968
"The South Korean puppet regime of LMB [South Korean President Lee Myung-bak]
and its American wirepullers have blinked at our prompt merciless
counter-strike to their reckless provocation. They are again going to play with
fire despite the mounting global objections. This time only a wiser course of
action is to refrain from military retaliation at their face-keeping
show of force, unless our territorial integrity is in direct jeopardy. We
instead use the drill to expose LMB and his American masters to the world as
dangerous, trigger-happy warmongers. "
- Kim Jong-eun, December 2010
"It [South Korea's December 20 live-fire drill] was aimed at serving propaganda
purposes as much it was aimed at saving the face of the present puppet
authorities. They find themselves in such a profound ruling crisis, it will be
hard for them to complete their tenure of office. This is due to their
ignorance and incompetence in halting the puppet military’s decline.
"This was nothing but childish playing with fire by cowards. They made much
fuss, firing shells left unused during the military provocation on November 23,
after stealthily shifting the target in fear of second and third retaliatory
blows in self-defense by the KPA [Korean People’s Army].
"The revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of
Korea] do not feel any need to retaliate against every despicable military
provocation. The world should properly know who is the true champion of peace
and who is the real provocateur of war."
- Korean People's Army Supreme Command, December 20, 2010
A series of much-ballyhooed military war games were launched by South Korea in
the last two months of the bygone 2010, a 90-minute live-ammunition firing
drill conducted on the Island of Yeonpyeong on December 20, a November
28-December 1 US-South Korean joint naval war game and on December 23 the
greatest military exercise of the year. These drills carried not less than four
important collateral messages.
Jealous guardians of peace
The foremost message is that supreme leader Kim Jong-il and his heir-apparent
struck the Korean public, North and South - as well as the rest of the world
community - as jealous guardians of peace on the ancestral Land of Morning
Calm. As well as being the greatest of victorious, iron-willed commanders.
The constitution of the two leaders is such that they chose to watch musical
performances despite tensions edging ever closer to catastrophic war.
Agence France-Presse ran a story with the headline on November 29, "While war
games go on in his backyard, Kim Jong-il and his heir watch musical".
"The Korean Central News Agency said the leader and Kim Jong-eun attended a
performance by the state orchestra along with dozens of other top military and
communist party officials."
Like leader, like people. Even after the artillery exchange, it was business as
usual throughout North Korea. The North Korean people remain totally unfazed by
the increasing risks of war with the US and South Korea.
The New York Times reported December 2; "Inside North Korea, ‘Business As
Usual.'"
"While North Korea's state-run media continued to rage over the military
exercises being held off the North's coastline, saying the four days of drills
that ended Wednesday afternoon had brought the Korean Peninsula to 'the brink
of war', much of daily life in the secretive North appeared remarkably normal,
or at least what passes for normal.
"Accounts from the North reaching Seoul suggested that residents of Pyongyang,
the North Korean capital, had been calmly discussing last week's artillery duel
with South Korea, foreigners living in the city were worrying about an
escalation in tensions with the South and the nation's leader was celebrated
for his legendary contributions to 'the brilliant tradition of Korean dancing
art'."
The most dangerous men
The second message is a widely shared international recognition of the Lee
Myung-bak and Barack Obama administrations as warmongers and brazen tin-foil
hatters, still wishfully believing in a collapse scenario for North Korea.
This has generated international pressure on them to change their brinkmanship
policy with North Korea.
The famed British daily Guardian warned December 12 that South Korea's risked
escalating tensions already slipping dangerously close to war. A Guardian
article by its Beijing correspondent, Jonathan Watts, was headlined, "South
Korea Brazen in Defence of Military Drills near North's Border."
"South Korea will step up the pressure on North Korea by staging another huge
live-fire drill close to a border region gripped by the worst tensions since
war devastated the peninsula 60 years ago.
"F-15 jets, K-1 tanks, artillery and hundreds of troops will take part in the
military exercise tomorrow - the biggest of the year and the second this week,
despite accusations of provocation and threats of retaliation from Pyongyang.
The act of brinkmanship risks an escalation of conflict after two deadly
attacks by North Korea and warnings from neighbouring nations that the
peninsula is slipping dangerously close to war."
An Asia Times Online article by Peter Lee on December 23 characterized Lee
Myung-bak as "The most dangerous man in Korea." (See
The most dangerous man in Korea, Asia Times Online, December 23.)
"The big story in North Asia in 2010 was the destabilizing effort by South
Korea to use its growing profile as a regional power to seize control of the
reunification agenda and promote a policy for reunification under its aegis.
Its initiative attracted the determined opposition of North Korea and China,
the qualified support of the United States, and the glum acquiescence of Japan.
"But the Lee government has succeeded only in foreclosing alternatives. Fear of
North Korean reprisal has constrained major, overt moves by South Korea to
hasten the collapse of Kim Jong-Il's regime."
CNN aired a story December 16, headlined: "General: South Korea Drill Could
Cause Chain Reaction".
The US's second-highest ranking military officer and vice chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff sharply dissented from the US State Department that supported
the trigger-happy South Korean company of Lee Myung-bak.
F/A-18 pilot-turned Marine Corp General James Cartwright told the press in the
Pentagon, "What we worry about, obviously, is if that it [the drill] is
misunderstood or if it's taken advantage of as an opportunity.
"If North Korea were to react to that in a negative way and fire back at those
firing positions on the islands, that would start potentially a chain reaction
of firing and counter-firing.
"What you don't want to have happen out of that is ... for us to lose control
of the escalation. That's the concern."
Agence France-Presse reported on December 11 quoted former chief of US
intelligence retired admiral Dennis Blair as predicting that South Korea would
be taking military action against North Korea.
"The former chief of US intelligence warned Sunday that South Korea has lost
its patience with provocations by North Korea and ‘will be taking military
action.'"
The Associated Press quoted Admiral Blair as saying: "A South Korean government
who does not react would not be able to survive there.”
Drill juggled to not invite KPA counter-strike
The third message is that Lee and Obama left no stone unturned to cover up
their blinking at the merciless pinpoint counter-strike of the Korean People's
Army, nuclear-armed to the teeth, and ready and eager to torch Seoul and
Washington.
An outdated attempt at gunboat diplomacy failed to intimidate North Korea, even
with the participation of nuclear-powered USS George Washington carrier
group in the November 29-December 1 naval exercise on the West Sea with a
high-flying US J-STARS (joint surveillance and target attack system)
surveillance aircraft.
The British daily Daily Telegraph reported on December 1 "The War Games Are
Over, But North Korea Hasn't Blinked. The US Is Running Out of Options."
Joong Ang Daily reported on December 18, presidential defense adviser and
chairman of the National Defense Advancement Committee, Dr Lee Sang Woo, said
in a face-to-face meeting with Lee on December 6, "With such an army as we
have, we cannot win a war with North Korea. The South Korean government,
military and people are so intoxicated with small successes that they are
arrogant enough to underestimate North Korea. No other country is less informed
of the enemy. We were not able to take proper counter-measures while the enemy
used EMP [electromagnetic pulse] shells and jammed GPS [global positioning]
communications."
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