OH HELL YEAH: U.S. Urges All Nationals In North Korea To ‘Depart Immediately’, Bans Tourists From Visiting
Posted: July 21, 2017 Filed under: Asia, Diplomacy, Global, Terrorism, War Room | Tags: BBC, China, Intercontinental ballistic missile, Kim Jong-un, North Korea, Nuclear weapon, Pyongyang, South Korea, Today (BBC Radio 4), United States Leave a comment
YA THINK? The U.S. is to ban its citizens from travelling to North Korea.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement that the ban would be published next week in the Federal Register, to come into effect 30 days later.
US officials linked the move to the death of jailed American student Otto Warmbier.
Once the ban is in effect, US citizens will need special validation to travel to or within North Korea.
Mr Warmbier travelled to North Korea with Young Pioneer Tours. He was arrested in 2016 for trying to steal a propaganda sign and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was returned to the US in a coma in June and died a week later.
How did the news come to light?
Koryo Tours and Young Pioneer Tours, who both operate in North Korea, revealed on Friday that they had been told of the upcoming ban by the Swedish embassy, which acts for the US as Washington has no diplomatic relations with Pyongyang.
Rowan Beard, of Young Pioneer Tours, told the BBC the embassy was urging all US nationals to depart immediately.
He said the embassy was trying to check on the number of US tourists left in the country.
What form will the ban take?
Ms Nauert’s statement said: “Due to mounting concerns over the serious risk of arrest and long-term detention under North Korea’s system of law enforcement, the Secretary has authorised a Geographical Travel Restriction on all US nationals’ use of a passport to travelling through, or to North Korea.
“Once in effect, US passports will be invalid for travel to, through, and in North Korea, and individuals will be required to obtain a passport with a special validation in order to travel to or within North Korea.
“We intend to publish a notice in the Federal Register next week.
“The restriction will be implemented 30 days after publication.”
Rowan Beard said that the 30-day grace period would “give leeway for any [Americans] currently in the country as tourists or on humanitarian work”.
How have the travel agencies reacted?
Simon Cockerell of Koryo Tours told the BBC the agency would still conduct tours and take Americans until the ban came into effect.
“If their country allows them to go, we will take them,” he said.
Mr Cockerell added: “It’s unfortunate for the industry but also for North Koreans who want to know what Americans are really like.”
After the death of Mr Warmbier, the China-based Young Pioneer Tours announced it would no longer take visitors from the US to the country. Read the rest of this entry »
NBC’s Report Of Preemptive Strikes On North Korea Contested, Declared ‘Wildly Wrong’
Posted: April 14, 2017 Filed under: Breaking News, Guns and Gadgets, Mediasphere, Self Defense, War Room | Tags: Agence France-Presse, Donald Trump, Intercontinental ballistic missile, Kim Jong-un, Missile, North Korea, Nuclear weapons testing, South Korea, United Kingdom, United States 1 Comment
Ryan Pickrell reports: Senior defense officials and administration officials are refuting NBC’s story that the U.S. will launch a preemptive strike on North Korea if it anticipates a sixth nuclear test.
“The U.S. is prepared to launch a preemptive strike with conventional weapons against North Korea should officials become convinced that North Korea is about to follow through with a nuclear weapons test,” NBC reported Thursday evening. The news outlet, citing multiple intelligence sources, claimed that the U.S. would use destroyers stationed nearby to launch the attack.
Citing multiple high-level sources, several journalists are saying that the report is “wildly wrong,” “crazy,” and “extremely dangerous.” VOA claims that the a “preemptive strike is NOT planned.” … (read more)
Source: The Daily Caller
[VIDEO] HISTORY: Feb. 6, 1959: Titan Launches; Cold War Heats Up
Posted: February 6, 2017 Filed under: Guns and Gadgets, Mediasphere, Science & Technology, Self Defense, Space & Aviation, War Room | Tags: Ash Carter, Donald Trump, Intercontinental ballistic missile, Kim Jong-un, KN-08, Korean Central News Agency, North Korea, Pyongyang, United States, Yonhap Leave a comment(1) Titan launch test from Cape Canaveral, only first stage engine tested, 2nd stage only a dummy, engine with 300,000 lbs thrust successful (2) News In Brief – Berlin mayor Willy Brandt arrives in U.S., speaks in English (3) “Virginia” – Fort Meyer VA funeral of 6 bodies returned by Russia, crew of plane shot done by Russia, no word of other 11 crew missing (partial newsreel).
1959: The United States successfully test-fires its first Titan I intercontinental ballistic missile. The threat of global nuclear holocaust moves from the plausible to the likely.
Tony Long The Titan I was not the first ICBM: Both the United States and Soviet Union had already deployed ICBMs earlier in the 1950s (the Atlas A by the Americans, the R-7 by the Russians). But the Titan represented a new generation, a liquid-fueled rocket with greater range and a more powerful payload that upped the ante in the Cold War.
The Titan that the U.S. Air Force successfully launched from Cape Canaveral featured a two-stage 
liquid rocket capable of delivering a 4-megaton warhead to targets 8,000 miles away. A 4-megaton detonation, puny by today’s standards, nevertheless dwarfed the destructive power of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan.
Read the full story here, at WIRED]
The Titan’s range meant that, firing from its home turf, the United States was now capable of hitting targets in Eastern Europe, the western Soviet Union and the Soviet Far East.
The first squadron of Titan I’s was declared operational in April 1962. By the mid-’60s, five squadrons were deployed in the western United States.
The missiles were stored in protective underground silos, but had to be brought to the surface for firing. The Titan II, which began appearing in large numbers during the mid-’60s and eventually supplanted the Titan I, would be the first ICBM that could be launched directly from its silo.
Today, ICBMs can be launched from silos, from mobile launchers and, most effectively, from submarines. Read the rest of this entry »
China Tests Missile With 10 Warheads
Posted: January 31, 2017 Filed under: Asia, China, Guns and Gadgets, Mediasphere, Space & Aviation, War Room | Tags: Ash Carter, Beijing, Donald Trump, Intercontinental ballistic missile, Kim Jong-un, KN-08, Lockheed Martin, Missile, Missile Defense Agency, Multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle, North Korea, Outer Space Treaty, People's Liberation Army, President of the United States, Pyongyang, RIM-161 Standard Missile 3, South China Sea, The Pentagon, Yonhap Leave a comment
Multi-warhead weapon tested amid growing tensions with the United States.
The flight test of the DF-5C missile was carried out earlier this month using 10 multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles, or MIRVs. The test of the inert warheads was monitored closely by U.S. intelligence agencies, said two officials familiar with reports of the missile test.
The missile was fired from the Taiyuan Space Launch Center in central China and flew to an impact range in the western Chinese desert.
[DF-5 launch]
No other details about the test could be learned. Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Gary Ross suggested in a statement the test was monitored.
“The [Defense Department] routinely monitors Chinese military developments and accounts for PLA capabilities in our defense plans,” Ross told the Washington Free Beacon.
The test of a missile with 10 warheads is significant because it indicates the secretive Chinese military is increasing the number of warheads in its arsenal.
Estimates of China’s nuclear arsenal for decades put the number of strategic warheads at the relatively low level of around 250 warheads.
U.S. intelligence agencies in February reportedthat China had begun adding warheads to older DF-5 missiles, in a move that has raised concerns for strategic war planners.
Uploading Chinese missiles from single or triple warhead configurations to up to 10 warheads means the number of warheads stockpiled is orders of magnitude larger than the 250 estimate.
Currently, U.S. nuclear forces—land-based and sea-based nuclear missiles and bombers—have been configured to deter Russia’s growing nuclear forces and the smaller Chinese nuclear force.
Under the 2010 U.S.-Russian arms treaty, the United States is slated to reduce its nuclear arsenal to 1,550 deployed warheads.
[Read the full story here, at freebeacon.com]
A boost in the Chinese nuclear arsenal to 800 or 1,000 warheads likely would prompt the Pentagon to increase the U.S. nuclear warhead arsenal by taking weapons out of storage.
The new commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, Air Force Gen. John Hyten, stated during a Senate confirmation hearing in September that he is concerned about China’s growing nuclear arsenal.
“I am fully aware that China continues to modernize its nuclear missile force and is striving for a secure second-strike capability,” Hyten told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“Although it continues to profess a ‘no first use’ doctrine, China is re-engineering its long-range ballistic missiles to carry multiple nuclear warheads and continues to develop and test hyper-glide vehicle technologies,” Hyten added. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Dr. K: North Korea Would Be the First ‘Insane Regime’ with Long-Range Nukes
Posted: January 2, 2017 Filed under: Asia, Global, Mediasphere, Terrorism, Think Tank, War Room | Tags: Donald Trump, Intercontinental ballistic missile, Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un, Korean Central News Agency, List of leaders of North Korea, North Korea, Nuclear weapon, Pyongyang, South Korea Leave a commentNorth Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S. It won’t happen!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2017
“If this occurs, if the North Koreans test an intercontinental ballistic missile, that means they could wipe out Los Angeles tomorrow, if they can mount a warhead on it. That would be the single most important and threatening action that one can imagine for 2017. When Trump says “It’s not going to happen,” I don’t know what he quite means. But if he means a preemptive attack by the United States or something of that sort, we are looking at a crisis of the ultimate proportions.”
“…he’s aware of the fact that we are looking at what could be a strategic hinge point in history. That would be really serious. This is an insane regime with the ability to push a button and wipe out a U.S. city. That has never happened. We have had the Chinese, the Russians, but they are not insane. That’s quite different. I think he is recognizing we have an issue. I think he ought to be asked in the next press conference, ‘What exactly do you mean by ‘It ain’t gonna happen’?”
Source: National Review
BREAKING: North Korea Unveils Mission to ‘Plant Flag on the Moon’
Posted: August 4, 2016 Filed under: Global, Mediasphere, Science & Technology, Space & Aviation | Tags: Associated Press, Flag of North Korea, Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Intercontinental ballistic missile, Jonathan McDowell, Kim Jong-un, List of Earth observation satellites, North Korea, Pyongyang, United States Leave a comment
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korean space officials are hard at work on a five-year plan to put more advanced satellites into orbit by 2020, and don’t intend to stop there: They’re also aiming for the moon, and beyond.
“Even though the U.S. and its allies try to block our space development, our aerospace scientists will conquer space and definitely plant the flag of the DPRK on the moon.”
— Hyon Kwang Il, director of the scientific research department of North Korea’s National Aerospace Development Administration
In an interview with The Associated Press, a senior official at North Korea’s version of NASA said international sanctions won’t stop the country from launching more satellites by 2020, and that he hopes to see the North Korean flag on the moon within the next 10 years.
“Even though the U.S. and its allies try to block our space development, our aerospace scientists will conquer space and definitely plant the flag of the DPRK on the moon,” said Hyon Kwang Il, director of the scientific research department of North Korea’s National Aerospace Development Administration.
North Korea’s official name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
An unmanned, no-frills North Korean moon mission in the not-too-distant future isn’t as far-fetched as it might seem. Outside experts say it’s ambitious, but conceivable. While the U.S. is the only country to have conducted manned lunar missions, other nations have sent unmanned spacecraft there and have in that sense planted their flags.
“It would be a significant increase in technology, not one that is beyond them, but you have to debug each bit,” Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who maintains an exhaustive blog on international satellites and satellite launches, said in an email to the AP. Read the rest of this entry »
China Tests New Hypersonic Weapon
Posted: November 26, 2015 Filed under: China, Diplomacy, Science & Technology, Space & Aviation, War Room | Tags: Beijing, Boeing, Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, China, Chinese language, DF-5, Great Barrier Reef, Intellectual property, Intercontinental ballistic missile, JL-2, President of the People's Republic of China, Seattle, Type 094 submarine, United States, Xi Jinping Leave a comment
China has conducted yet another test of a hypersonic glide vehicle designed to defeat U.S. missile defenses.
Franz-Stefan Gady reports: This week, the People’s Republic of China successfully conducted a sixth flight test of its DF-ZF (previously known as WU-14) hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV), Bill Gertz of The Washington Free Beacon reports.
The DF-ZF is an ultra-high-speed missile allegedly capable of penetrating U.S. air defense systems based on interceptor missiles.
The launch of the DF-ZF took place at the Wuzhai missile test center in central China’s Shanxi Province. A ballistic missile transported the DF-ZF HGV near the edge of the atmosphere, where it separated from its launcher and then glided to an impact range a few thousands kilometers away in western China, according to The Washington Free Beacon.
“The DF-ZF flight was tracked by U.S. intelligence agencies and flew at speeds beyond Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound,” Gertz notes. Previous tests of the DF-ZF took place on June 7, January 9, and August 7, 2015, and December 2, 2014. Read the rest of this entry »
Iran Still on Track for 2015 ICBM Flight Test
Posted: July 14, 2014 Filed under: Mediasphere, War Room | Tags: Defense Intelligence Agency, Greg Thielmann, Intercontinental ballistic missile, Iran, Iran Still, North Korea, Tehran, United States Leave a commentIran Still on Track for 2015 ICBM Flight Test – http://t.co/6renGSm20Z pic.twitter.com/nT18xgaXh5
— Marc Hilliker (@MarcHilliker) July 14, 2014
[VIDEO] Russia TEST-Fires an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, it’s a TEST, really, a TEST
Posted: March 4, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, White House | Tags: CNN, Intercontinental ballistic missile, Kazakhstan, News agency, RUSSIA, START I, Ukraine, United States Leave a commentCNN is looking like Chicken Noodle News again. The morale at this news organization must be depressingly low, judging by the amateur quality of this segment alone. The reporter feels an abnormal, bizarre, overwrought compulsion to remind viewers multiple times that it’s a TEST, people, it’s all perfectly normal, it’s a test, it’s permitted under the START Treaty, it’s just a TEST, really only a TEST, actually just a TEST, it’s a TEST firing of a missile, people, only a TEST, and in case we didn’t mention it, it’s a TEST.
Question. Is she a spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry? Or a Public Relations Firm associated with the Pentagon? Or reporting on behalf of a Russina News Agency? Is she even reporting from the U.S.? Is she a even a reporter?
Is there something about this person, or CNN’s obligation to some unseen agency, that we should know? If she worked for a serious news organization, she’d have been fired for this report. But — it IS entertaining.
pundit from another planet 