North Korea expected to launch missile

By CHOE SANG-HUN
Published: April 7, 2013


SEOUL, South Korea — The South Korean government warned on Sunday that the North might launch a missile later this week, while a top military leader postponed a scheduled trip to Washington, citing escalating tensions on the peninsula.

The warning by Kim Jang-soo, director of national security for President Park Geun-hye, came three days after the South Korea’s defense minister said that the North had moved to its east coast a missile with a “considerable range” but not capable of reaching the mainland United States.

The missile was widely believed to be the Musudan, which the South Korean military says can travel “more than” 3,000 kilometers or 1,864 miles. But South Korean media and analysts say the missile can extend its range to 4,000 kilometers or 2,490 miles, which would put American bases in Guam within its reach.

Mr. Kim said that the North Korean authorities had told foreign embassies in Pyongyang to inform them by Wednesday whether they needed assistance in evacuating should they wish to because of rising tensions on the peninsula.

The North gave a similar warning to some of the 123 South Korean factories in the joint industry park in the North Korean city of Kaesong, Mr. Kim said. For a fifth consecutive day, North Korea blocked South Korean workers and supplies from entering the factory park, forcing 13 plants to stop production as of Sunday.

The Kaesong complex is the last remaining major project of inter-Korean cooperation and a crucial test of whether North Korea was willing to sacrifice a lucrative source of hard current to push its political and military priorities.

“We believe this is a calculated move by the North,” Mr. Kim said during a meeting of security-related officials on Sunday. The North, he said, “may launch a provocation, such as missile launch,” around Wednesday, he said.

His comments were relayed by Kim Haing, a presidential spokeswoman.

“North Korea has been engaged in a so-called headline strategy,” Mr. Kim, the national security director, said, referring to an almost daily drumbeat of North Korean threats that has made newspaper headlines since early March.

North Korea was raising tensions in an effort to frighten and force the United States and South Korea to return to dialogue with possible concessions, Mr. Kim said. The pressure was also aimed at China and Russia to mediate on North Korea’s behalf.

“We see through their motive," he said. Although North Korea shows no signs of attempting a full-scale war, it will suffer damage many times more than we doif it launches even a localized provocation.”

South Korea “has no intention of attempting premature dialogue just because of a crisis,” Mr. Kim said, urging the North to ease tensions so dialogue can start.

Foreign embassies told to consider evacuating Pyongyang have dismissed the advisory.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said on Sunday that the Chinese embassy in Pyongyang was operating normally, and urged the North to "thoroughly ensure the safety of Chinese embassy and consular personnel resident in North Korea." The Xinhua News Agency on Saturday quoted Foreign Minister Wang Yi as telling United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that Beijing would “not allow trouble on China’s doorstep.”

Also on Sunday, Gen. Jung Seung-jo, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the South Korean military, postponed plans to meet with his American counterpart, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, in Washington on April 16, military officials said. General Jung could not be away from South Korea amid the rising tension, the officials said.

South Korea’s military is on heightened alert after North Korean threats to strike the United States and its allies. North Korea has been angry over United Nations sanctions imposed on it for its February nuclear test and joint American-South Korean military drills.

Washington responded by flying nuclear-capable bombers over South Korea in training missions and moving two of the Navy’s missile-defense ships closer to the Korean Peninsula. It also planned to deploy a land-based missile-defense system to Guam later this month.


Christopher Buckley contributed reporting from Hong Kong.

USPAF: "US Is not sending B-1s to Guam."

FB: NATIONAL SECURITY: Despite reports that are beginning to circulate on the Internet, the U.S. is not sending B-1 Lancer heavy bombers to its massive Pacific Ocean base on Guam.

"They're not at Guam," a U.S. Pacific Air Forces spokeswoman just told Killer Apps. "They definitely didn't even stop through."

The U.S. constantly rotates B-2 stealth bombers and B-52 Stratofortress bombers through Anderson Air Force Base, Guam under a scheme meant to maintain a constant heavy bomber presence in the Pacific. Last week, the U.S. sent six B-52s from Minot AFB in North Dakota to Guam.  Also last week, a pair of B-2s also flew a 13,000-mile round-trip mission from Missouri to South Korea to perform a practice bombing run over the peninsula -- the North Koreans loved that.

B-1s, however, often deploy to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean or to a base on the Persian Gulf, where they are used to provide air support to troops in Afghanistan.

"They're pretty concerned with the desert, so they're pretty busy over there," added the spokeswoman when asked if the B-1s ever deploy to Anderson as part of the Air Force's "continuous bomber presence" mission.

Editors note: A source at Dyess has notified this author that two of the fight of seven (spares) B-1Bs I monitored a couple of nights ago have returned to the base. The others have not. He could not tell me where the five eventually landed at. In the statement above "not sending" is ambiguous at best. Maybe it should have been re-worded as "didn't send or hasn't sent." - Steve Douglass 

War warning? DPRK advises countries to consider evacuating Pyongyang embassies.

NYTIMES: MOSCOW — The North Korean government on Friday advised Russia and other countries to consider evacuating their embassies in Pyongyang amid rising tension there, Russia’s foreign minister said.
British officials said that they had received a similar communication, but that there were no immediate plans to evacuate the British Embassy.

Analysts in Russia and South Korea suggested that the North’s advisory was not an indication that Pyongyang was considering military action but was instead part of an unrelenting drumbeat of threats calculated to frighten the United States and its Asian allies, possibly to force concessions including much-needed aid.

“I don’t think they are doing this because they think there is going to be a war,” said Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean studies in Dongguk University in Seoul, South Korea. “Rather, this is part of a calculated, psychological campaign to increase a sense of crisis and get international attention.”

Aleksandr Zhebin, a leading Korean expert at the Russian Academy of Sciences, also played down the significance in a statement to the Interfax news agency: “If Pyongyang were getting ready for an armed conflict in earnest, it would hardly have asked the foreign missions to leave the country,” because the presence of diplomats, especially from Russia and China, could help shield the city in case of military conflict.

He also said North Korea’s advisory was not accompanied by any moves indicating that the North was preparing for large-scale hostilities, like mobilizing reservists, and suggested that Friday’s warning might be aimed at enlisting help from Moscow and Beijing, both potential advocates, as the United States strengthens its military presence in the region.

In any case, the advisory appeared to cause confusion among the countries that were notified, a relatively small group, since few nations maintain embassies in the isolated and often belligerent North.

Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said Russia was pushing for clarification.

“We are very concerned about the increase in tension, so far verbal,” he told reporters traveling with him in Uzbekistan, according to an official transcript. “We want to understand the reasons for this proposal to evacuate embassies.” He said it also remained unclear if the North Koreans were actually ordering diplomats to leave despite their indication that it was a proposal meant to guarantee diplomats’ safety in the event of a conflict.

Mr. Lavrov said Russia was consulting with officials from the United States, China, South Korea and Japan on the matter.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry released a statement condemning the rising tensions.

“Prevention of military operations on the Korean Peninsula is imperative,” the statement said. “We consider the policy of stirring up military tension as absolutely unacceptable, and we hope for the parties’ maximum restraint.”

The British Foreign Office also expressed confusion, first issuing a statement suggesting that the North had said it would be unable to guarantee the safety of embassies “in the event of conflict from April 10,” raising the possibility that it was planning some action. But the foreign office later said that was a misinterpretation and that the North had asked diplomats to let Pyongyang know by that date if they needed help moving from the embassies.

In a statement, the foreign office also condemned North Korea for ratcheting up tensions “through a series of public statements and other provocations.”


Julia Werdigier contributed reporting from London.

B-1Bs practicing to pound North Korea - and on their way to Guam.

I intercepted an interesting communication off a military satellite (most likely UFO) yesterday.

 A B-1B (SLAM ONE) was training to hit a "missile facility"possibly a practice run for a mission in the DPRK - but with a school bus depot in Snyder, Texas standing in for the real thing.

Here's the recorded audio snippet: http://www.webbfeatproductions.com/satcom.mp3

You can ascertain the coordinates for Snyder, Texas from the audio.

Here's a link to those coordinates on Google Maps: http://goo.gl/maps/Ss4UP

The B-1 was  from Ellsworth AFB  and practice-bombed (no real ordinance was expended) a school bus depot (yard) in Snyder, Texas.

Now using a little educated guesstimation based on the look of the yard on Google Maps - the school buses could have been a decent stand-in for mobile missile launchers and the building next to it the "missile maintenance" center.

You'll also notice they mention SA-6 and SA-8 - these are mobile ground-to-air missile launchers similar to this Russian example:

 

SLAM ONE was cleared to use 2000 lb GBU 3 JDAMS to take out the hypothetical target.

All communications were made in the clear. 

Also:

Late last night I monitored "DARK" flight of seven on PRIME (311.000 MHZ STRATCOM PRIMARY) asking for current weather for UAM. 

On the frequency of 251.100 Mhz DARK flight also was calling for "GASSR 11 and GASSR 12" (KC-135s)  for "Tanker drag to BAB." BAB is Beal AFB in California.

PS:  A source in Oklahoma says Tinker AFB just sent 2 E-6 Mercury aircraft up. The controller remarked on their departure:  "Be safe and see you back in a few weeks. Come back in one piece!"

-Steve Douglass

UPDATE" "USPAF: US Not sending B-1s to Guam."

PPS: You can listen in to the heavy iron flying westward on the live radio feed at the top of this page.

Please note: There are two receivers on the feed - civil and military ATC communications. Sometimes you'll hear an overlap. 

My monitoring post 

My DIY UHF SATCOM antenna

Anonymous hacks DPRK's Twitter Account

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Hackers apparently broke into at least two of North Korea's government-run online sites Thursday, as tensions rose on the Korean Peninsula.

The North's Uriminzokkiri Twitter and Flickr accounts stopped sending out content typical of that posted by the regime in Pyongyang, such as photos of North's leader Kim Jong Un meeting with military officials.

Instead, a picture posted Thursday on the North's Flickr site shows Kim's face with a pig-like snout and a drawing of Mickey Mouse on his chest. Underneath, the text reads: "Threatening world peace with ICBMs and Nuclear weapons/Wasting money while his people starve to death."

Another posting says "We are Anonymous" in white letters against a black background. Anonymous is a name of a hacker activist group. A statement purporting to come from the attackers and widely circulated online said that they had compromised 15,000 user records hosted on Uriminzokkiri.com and other websites. The authenticity of the statement couldn't be confirmed, but the North's official website did not open Thursday.

Tweets on the North's Twitter account said "Hacked" followed by a link to North Korea-related websites. One tweet said "Tango Down" followed by a link to the North's Flickr page.

North Korea opened its Twitter account in 2010. It has more than 13,000 followers. The North uses the social media to praise its system and leaders and also to repeat commentaries sent out by North's official Korean Central News Agency.

Tensions have been high in recent days between North and South Korea, and the North's military warned Thursday that it had been authorized to attack the U.S. North Korea is angry about sanctions against its nuclear program and joint military drills between the U.S. and South Korea.