N.Korea Defense Chief Vows to Punish 'U.S. Hawks'

[Seeker]

The Story

I guess the North Koreans are feelin' a little froggy. Heard a clip on the radio yesterday where some Pentagon or Govt type saying we could handle war with Iraq and N. Korea at the same time - guess he was feelin' a little froggy, too.

Tue Dec 24, 3:49 AM ET Add Top Stories - Reuters to My Yahoo!

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea (news - web sites)'s military will deal "merciless punishment" to the United States in the event of nuclear war, Pyongyang's Defense Minister Kim Il-chol said on Tuesday.


Ratcheting up North Korea's often belligerent rhetoric amid tensions over the communist state's nuclear weapons program, Kim said his army will "fight to the end against the imperialists and class enemies under the present serious situation.


"The U.S. hawks are arrogant enough to groundlessly claim that the DPRK (North Korea) has pushed ahead with a "nuclear program," bringing its hostile policy toward the DPRK to an extremely dangerous phase," the state-run Korean Central News Agency quoted Kim as saying.


"If they, ignorant of their rival, dare provoke a nuclear war, the army and people of the DPRK led by Kim Jong-il, the invincible commander, will rise up to mete out determined and merciless punishment to the U.S. imperialist aggressors with the might of single-hearted unity more powerful than A-bomb," he said.


North Korea, denounced by President Bush (news - web sites) as a member of an "axis of evil" with Iraq and Iran, has set alarm bells ringing by removing U.N. monitoring equipment at a nuclear reactor capable of yielding weapons-grade plutonium.

 

[Tamara]

Y'know...

...since the end of the Cold War, I'd forgotten how much I missed KommunistPressReleaseSpeak.

I just wish he'd used the phrase "running-dog lackeys of the bourgoise", 'cause that was my favorite.

 

[Preacherman]

"If they, ignorant of their rival, dare provoke a nuclear war, the army and people of the DPRK led by Kim Jong-il, the invincible commander, will rise up to mete out determined and merciless punishment to the U.S. imperialist aggressors with the might of single-hearted unity more powerful than A-bomb,"

That is, provided they can feed their army - most of the country is existing on US and EU food aid right now...

Hey - Skunk's over there right now! Can we get him to ship them some radioactive kimchee???

 

[Airwolf]

Ah yes... As a child of the cold war I used to spend hours with my shortwave listening to the bombastic diatribes from Radio Moscow and Radio Pyongyang. Ah, the memories of days gone by.

You can still get a taste of that on-line:

http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm

This one just killed me:

Peasants' recreation begins in Korea

Pyongyang, December 23 (KCNA) --The winter recreation of agricultural working people has begun in Korea. According to Hong Sung Dok, deputy director of the Bureau of Recreation of the Ministry of Labor, a large number of peasants are enjoying themselves at the expense of the state at recreation centers situated in nearly twenty scenic spots including Mt. Kobang, Sokam, Mt. Myohyang, Sokdamgugok and the Sokwangsa area.

During the 15-day holidays, they visit revolutionary sites and scenic spots, have art performances and enjoy folk plays, amusements, sports games, etc.

For the holidaymakers from different farms, the Kobangsan Recreation Centre organizes a visit to the Korean Revolution Museum and appreciation of art performances in theatres in Pyongyang and such amusements as yut and chess. They also hold an art performance themselves.

At the Sokam Recreation Centre, peasants in South Phyongan Province visit revolutionary sites and scenic spots, meet to exchange their experience in this year's farming and give impressions of books they read and play volleyball, basketball, table-tennis and sports events.

The period of the peasants' annual recreation is from early December to late February next year.

 

[eviltravis]

That "invincible commander" crack is kind of funny. This is kind of a "My A-bomb is bigger than your A-bomb!" exchange going on.

 

[Tamara]

"...the might of single-hearted unity more powerful than A-bomb"

If I recall correctly, the Imperial Japanese military was all ate up with single-hearted unity.

It proved to be somewhat less powerful, however, than an A-bomb.

 

[Watchman]

Same trash that we hear from the middle east.

These Yahoos on Korea are still thinking with a WW2 mentality.

They proabably dont even realize that we could literally waste the whole country without ever setting foot on N. Korean soil.

You would think that with a score of something like a 1000+ to 1 kill ratio in Desert Storm, that they would remember that. Even with that ratio it was mostly friendly fire.

 

[Slotback]

Airwolf:
That is great one heck of a press release. Too bad Pyongyang doesn't say what their poor peasants are going to eat-which is roots or the like-if they are lucky.

 

[Scott Evans]

Korea is a threat in as much as it could trigger real war with China. China can, or is very near able, to make a serious go of it. Prudence on our part demands that any action against Korea be worth all out war with China. The Koreans being aware of this are taunting.

 

[Blackcloud6]

Shaking in my boots.

 

[Schuey2002]

One Boomer could totally devistate the northern part of the Korean Peninsula..

Bring it on!

 

[Frank Jones]

I did not know that "hawk" was a term in common usage by the Joyful Children of the Invincible Commander.

Unless of course, the rays of his immortal leadership now shine upon UC Berkley.

 

[JimP]

They can have this place. The South doesn't want us here. We don't want us here. The assaults on US soldiers are increasing exponentially. Time to go.

 

[Bruce H]

The problem of fat mouth windbags from any country is they have the uncanny ability to get us common folk killed. They never come close to harm. The really bad part is they have very fragile egos. When they start running around with their lower lip pushed out, sniveling, someone is going to get it.

 

[Lennyjoe]

JimP, Im with you brother. You close to the Osan AB area?

North Korea is using this whole thing to try and blackmail the U.S. into giving them back the oil and stuff they were used to getting in the past. They know they will get that backside kicked if we go to blows.

 

[Stetson_CO]

Let's bring our guys home.

Just do a massive pull out, all monies and infrastructure...bring it home. If its movable, pack it. If it isn't, destroy it. Put the soldiers and airmen on our southern border.

Just my opinion.

c):{

 

[Tady45]

Let them eat snow and freeze to death over there! If that entire commie country were to be isolated by the world, they would come begging for our help. Big brother China keeps them afloat...


Larry

 

[M2HMGHB]

That's the one thing i never hear anyone mentioning. I have yet to hear a news caster or anybody say that a war with Korea could very well escalate into a war with China. Any modern info on China's military strength?

 

[Finch]

Originally posted by M2HMGHB
That's the one thing i never hear anyone mentioning. I have yet to hear a news caster or anybody say that a war with Korea could very well escalate into a war with China. Any modern info on China's military strength?

People's Liberation Army (PLA): comprises ground forces, Navy (including naval infantry and naval aviation), Air Force, and II Artillery Corps (strategic missile force), People's Armed Police Force (internal security troops, nominally a state security body but included by the Chinese as part of the "armed forces" and considered to be an adjunct to the PLA), militia

Military manpower

military age: 18 years of age (2002 est.)

availability: males age 15-49: 370,087,489 (2002 est.)

fit for military service: males age 15-49: 203,003,036 (2002 est.)

reaching military age annually: males: 10,089,458 (2002 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
$20.048 billion (2002); note - this is the officially announced figure, but actual defense spending more likely ranges from $45 billion to $65 billion for 2002

Source - http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ch.html#Military
-------------------------------------------------

I think we'd be in for a fight...

 

[Blackhawk]

Idle threat. In the event of nuclear war between NK and the U.S., there won't be any NK left. We're still trying to figure out how to make one small enough to use there....

 

[JimP]

LennyJoe, you the Hawg-driver from Osan?? I'm up at CRC. Give me a shout sometime if you ever feel frisky about coming North. I'll be down your neck of the woods someday soon for some R&R. Will give you a shout and we can drink sdome normal beer.

Stetson - While I'm waiting for my beer here, please go down to Jack Quinns and drink a draft of Guinness for me. I miss the springs.

 

[Watchman]

Well then...

there is your 200 Million Man Army that will march on the Middle East...sometime in the future...

 

[Bergeron]

Y'know, I really wonder why we were even shipping food and oil to that rat-hole of nation. They think that communism is so great, let them live without our capalist genorosity.

 

[JimP]

Y'all can thank that idiot "Peanut" (Jimmy-Carter) and $Bill for this one. Appeasement went out with the hula-hoop. What the heck were these idiots thinking??

 

[PATH]

China has a lot of folks in the military but as in the korean war they will be slaughtered if they get into a shooting match with the U.S.. I think the Chinese will reign in the comrades if the flow of exports from China to Wal-Mart is threatened in any way!