By Susan Duclos
The North Korea military has announced it has authorized plans for nuclear strikes on targets in the United States, according to AFP and Obama has decided to slowly step away from the crazier-than-daddy-was Kim Jong-Un fir fear of how North Korea was going to react.
AFP:
North Korea dramatically escalated its warlike rhetoric on Thursday, warning that it had authorised plans for nuclear strikes on targets in the United States.
"The moment of explosion is approaching fast," the North Korean military said, warning that war could break out "today or tomorrow".
Pyongyang's latest pronouncement came as Washington scrambled to reinforce its Pacific missile defences, preparing to send ground-based interceptors to Guam and dispatching two Aegis class destroyers to the region.
Tension was also high on the North's heavily fortified border with South Korea, after Kim Jong-Un's isolated regime barred South Koreans from entering a Seoul-funded joint industrial park on its side of the frontier.
In a statement published by the state KCNA news agency, the Korean People's Army general staff warned Washington that US threats would be "smashed by... cutting-edge smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike means".
"The merciless operation of our revolutionary armed forces in this regard has been finally examined and ratified," the statement said.
(Those targets in the US were identified from photos of a recent emergency meeting held in North Korea. They are Hawaii, Washington DC, Los Angeles and Austin, Texas- More here on that) )
Via Wall Street Journal : "Administration 'Playbook' Outlined Publicized Exercises, but Officials Change Course Over Worries of North's Response."
The U.S. is putting a pause to what several officials described as a step-by-step plan the Obama administration approved earlier this year, dubbed "the playbook," that laid out the sequence and publicity plans for U.S. shows of force during annual war games with South Korea. The playbook included well-publicized flights in recent weeks near North Korea by nuclear-capable B-52 and stealth B-2 bombers, as well as advanced F-22 warplanes.
The U.S. stepped back from the plans this week, as U.S. officials began to worry that the North, which has a small nuclear arsenal and an unpredictable new leader, may be more provoked than the U.S. had intended, the officials said.
"The concern was that we were heightening the prospect of misperceptions on the part of the North Koreans, and that that could lead to miscalculations," a senior administration official said.
Readers at this point might be thinking.. wtf? North Korea knows and we know and just about everybody knows, that should NK attack any U.S. state, site or American facility, especially using their nuclear weapons, the U.S. could level North Korea without breaking a sweat or putting one boot on the ground within the North Korean borders.
Let's go back to April 1, 2013 where the Free Beacon shows the muscle China has prepared in "apparent support of North Korea."
Reports from the region reveal the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) recently increased its military posture in response to the heightened tensions, specifically North Korea’s declaration of a “state of war” and threats to conduct missile attacks against the United States and South Korea.
According to the officials, the PLA has stepped up military mobilization in the border region with North Korea since mid-March, including troop movements and warplane activity.
China’s navy also conducted live-firing naval drills by warships in the Yellow Sea that were set to end Monday near the Korean peninsula, in apparent support of North Korea, which was angered by ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills that are set to continue throughout April.
North Korea, meanwhile, is mobilizing missile forces, including road-mobile short- and medium-range missiles, according to officials familiar with satellite imagery of missile bases.
The missile activity is believed to be North Korea’s response to the ongoing U.S.-South Korean military exercises that last week included highly publicized flights by two B-2 strategic nuclear bombers near North Korean territory as part of annual military exercises.
American soldiers in South Korea, U.S. forces close by to protect South Korea, our ally and our military stationed there, China forces on site in support of North Korea and this just became a potential nightmare, all hinging on one crazy little thug by the name of Kim Jong-Un, who might just decide to shoot off a nuke to see what damage he can cause, you know, just for shits an giggles.