Trump Administration responds to North Korean nuclear test
According to the New York Times, the North Koreans told the world that their sixth nuclear test was a hydrogen bomb, and although that’s not been proven yet, the Chinese and South Koreans claim that they felt tremors from the massive explosion. President Trump responded;
Mr. Trump hinted at one extreme option: In a Twitter post just before he met his generals, he said that “the United States is considering, in addition to other options, stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea.’’
Taken literally, such a policy would be tantamount to demanding a stoppage of any Chinese oil to North Korea, essentially an attempt to freeze out the country this winter and bring whatever industry it has to a halt.
The Chinese would almost certainly balk; they have never been willing to take steps that might lead to the collapse of the North Korean regime, no matter how dangerous its behavior, for fear that South Korean and American troops would occupy the country and move directly to the Chinese border.
According to the Washington Post, the South Koreans responded with bombing run drills;
As if to underline Seoul’s willingness to be tough, the South Korean military conducted bombing drills at dawn Monday, practicing ballistic missile strikes on the North Korean nuclear test site at Punggye-ri.
The South Korean military calculated the distance to the site and practiced having F-15 jet fighters accurately hit the target, the joint chiefs of staff said Monday morning.
“This drill was conducted to send a strong warning to North Korea for its sixth nuclear test,” it said.
The NYT reports on Defense Secretary Mattis’ public response;
After meeting with Mr. Trump, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis emerged to warn North Korea that “any threat to the United States or its territory, including Guam or our allies, will be met with a massive military response.” But Mr. Mattis, in a terse statement delivered on the White House driveway with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., also offered a word of reassurance to the North’s reclusive leader, Kim Jong-un.
“We are not looking to the total annihilation of a country, namely North Korea,” he said. “But as I said, we have many options to do so.”
Meanwhile, the Washington Post’s editorial board is asking the Trump Administration to capitulate to North Korea and immediately surrender;
There is no military solution to this crisis. Despite President Trump’s bluster a few weeks ago about “fire, fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before,” a war would engulf Seoul, only 35 miles from the inter-Korean border. Nothing is wrong with displays of strength designed to deter the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, but ultimately the danger he poses cannot be resolved by U.S. preemptive action without huge costs for both Koreas.
The editorial board seems to support more Clinton-esque bribery for the North, despite the fact that North Korea only uses the proceeds to further their nuclear program.
Stars & Stripes reports that South Korea is preparing to activate four more Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) launchers to defend from a North Korean missile attack.
Category: North Korea
The only reason the Norks have nukes in the first place is because of the wapo’s preferred response being implemented in the 90s. Brilliant idea!
Yes, Seoul is within artillery range, and the Norks have lots of (old) guns pointed at it. How many of them haven’t already been pinpointed and pre-targeted? Of those, how many will last more than a few minutes before being detected and smoked by counterbattery fire? Yeah, shells will fall on Seoul, but it won’t be “engulfed.” And even if it is, so what? South Korea has a booming construction industry. Within a year, the place will be good as new and you won’t be able to tell that anything happened.
Yes, NDtBF has lots and lots of (malnourished) troops. How many will defect at the first opportunity? As for the rest, that’s what cluster bombs are for.
South Korea’s military is first-rate, and has been looking for this fight for 64 years. That they will be supported by the US is icing on the proverbial cake. The North Korean army is stuck in the 70s, at best. Numbers don’t count for *that* much, especially with the aforementioned desertion/defection issue thinning them out before the shooting even starts.
The bully has been bragging about how he’s gonna beat up the neighbor kid. Meanwhile, the neighbor kid’s been in the gym learning how to fight, and putting nails in his gloves while he’s at it. How do you think that’s gonna end?
kind of like how those starving Russians could never stand up the suerior Nazis, or the South would have the North whupped by Christmas. Rarely, like in Desert storm, does an army just implode. More normally the folks predicting a walk in the park inherit a long and painful mess. A quick victory could happen… but normally not. Most likely, we are talking millions of Korean dead.
“Mr. President….If…we were to immediately launch an all-out and coordinated attack on all their airfields and missile bases we’d stand a damn good chance of catchin ’em with their pants down. Hell, we got five to one missile superiority as it is. We could easily assign three missiles to every target and still have a very effective reserve force for any other contingency…An unofficial study , which we undertook of this eventuality, indicate that we would destroy ninety percent of their nuclear capabilities. We would therefore prevail and suffer only modest and acceptable civilian casualties from the remaining force which would be badly damaged and uncoordinated.
I’m not saying we wouldn’t get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops!
Uh, depending on the breaks.”
General “Buck” Turgidson
True, but the Norks are less well equipped and are led by a more incompetent dictator than Saddam’s army was in ’91. They also have a lot more in common with the Iraqis of ’91 than the Russkies of ’41, or the Rebs, for that matter. I could be wrong, of course.
David,
I’m totally with you on that. The Nork Army is far from Saddam’s forces in 91 and 03.
They are thoroughly indoctrinated and believe in what they have been fed for the past 67 years.
No matter what The World knows the average Nork Grunt will believe he is defending his home against US aggressors and South Korean Lackeys.
Its flat out foolish to believe the NORKs don’t have enough rations, fuel and ammo stockpiled locally throughout the country to hold out for a while. You can use airstrikes and missiles on every fricking hill and valley in the country.
South Korean and US boys will have to roust them out of every nook and cranny.
“They are thoroughly indoctrinated and believe in what they have been fed for the past 67 years.”
VERY TRUE, let’s not forget that North Korea has for the most part been hermetically sealed since the Korean War Ceasefire in 1953, children are brainwashed from birth to practically make “Thank You, Great leader” their first words and North Korean lifestyle is basically a cult of the Kim Dynasty. North koreans are fed a daily dose of propaganda blaming any and ALL of their problems on the USA and the ROK.
Oh! I was right!
My concern is not the Nork regime, it’s the people in the North who are not in favor with the Cheeseslayer’s chokehold. They would be and are the most vulnerable.
I’m thinking China will soon be “invited” into NKorea to act as a deterent to Western agression and they will stabilize the situation and sit on the fat kid.
That what the Russians did in Syria.
As soon as they were on the ground as “observers” for “tracking and cataloging” all of the chemical weapons, all bets were off.
And there’s still a possibility that Russia will do that in North Korea. Further economic destructive mistake for Russia, but Putin will do it to try to put further stress on us.
I would say the NORK’s rapid advances in both weapons and delivery systems can be at least partially attributed to both financial and technical support from Iran. Where did Iran acquire the largess to support these endeavors?
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/iran-may-received-much-33-6-billion-cash-gold-payments-u-s/
“Iran may have received an additional $33.6 billion in secret cash and gold payments facilitated by the Obama administration between 2014 and 2016, according to testimony provided before Congress by an expert on last summer’s nuclear agreement with Iran.”
Well done, Barry.
OH, you don’t think he meant that to be used against us, do you?
No, but I think Barry ignored easily predicted second and third order consequences. Again.
All part of his “strategic patience” plan to spread the wealth to everyone else!
Fuck the NYT and WaPo. They present a greater danger than NDtBF.
Well, then nuke them and have done with it. 🙂
“It’s the only way to be sure.”
Good thing Kim is only 3 ft tall and weighs 300lbs because he won’t be able to get to the red button on the other side of the room very fast when Trump drones him.
You think he’s that tall? I thought it was closer to 2.5 ft.
You have to account for the platform shoes.
Maybe if they want to placate him, the NYT and WaPo could offer Kim free lifetime subscriptions to their ass wipe. I’m sure he’d get off reading about how wonderful they think he is.
If Trump really wants to get every bodies attention he should order our defendants out of South Korea.
That’s how you know this is all just BS. If the dependas are still there, along with others slated for evacuation, and III MEF isn’t on the move, the good guys are just jawboning. USAF and ROK AF aren’t going to drop a few bombs, win it in an hour, and then we all go home. Big pieces making big moves will predict when shit is going to get real.
Of course, if the game plan actually -is- a surprise decapitation strike against the DPRK, the dependants, etc, will not be evacuated first.
Nope, they would never leave the dependas at Yongsan and they would never make a move without the ARG / III MEF loading in Okinawa and their gear getting U/W from Saipan. you know, that whole overwhelming force thing?
Are you just arguing with me for GP or something?
No. Seriously. If one intends a surprise attack, one can’t telegraph the punch with a giant “here we come” flag-waving team with a brass band as backup.
it may sound rather ruthless, but does it make strategic and tactical sense?
Seriously. The surprise decapitation attack has to be a “bolt from the blue”, no obvious prep, or it will fail miserably. Either you have good evidence and calculation that you -can- pull it off, in which case you use surprise, or you admit it cant work, and you plan for a head-on slog.
It is like learning to throw an effective punch off balance, with the feet out of position. It is not nearly as good as a “proper” feet-planted punch, but it lands to effect and then you can finish “properly”. You do not throw a sucker punch from a boxer’s stance.
If we pull out dependants, it is -highly- likely we may trigger an attempt at a DPRK first strike. What would -you- do if your opponent started hustling women and children out of town? We can use such a move to telegraph intent, but not if surprise is any part of our planning.
And catching -that- particular skittish mouse out of his hole would take one very, very cagey cat.
Now, if several key units coudl bee shuffled into a set of those big-ass roll-on/roll-off car carriers, that would be a feat of deception for the ages. And those things frequently call in ROK ports.
But our units have far, far too large a footprint to pull that off unless someone really screws up their intel game. The removal of a MEU from its usual habitation would be -huge- to newsies, let alone any intel folks. The DPRK plays an effective intel game,and they have China feeding their efforts.
So how would -you- achieve the strategic surprise necessary to snuff both the regime command and the masssed artillery that will snuff tens of thousands of civilians in the first salvo?
It is not just -one- guy we have to get. We have to either snuff or dissuade a whole bunch of folks, or the civilian slaughter will be huge.
Here we come, the whole shebang, -might- work on the DPRK, but there is no way, zero nada nicht, that China would stay out of a US “overwhelming force” situation a few hundred km from their border. They would act to stop us, if only so we do not flush 10-20 million starving North Koreans into China.
So we either persuade someone to change the DPRK, or we cut off the head of the snake in a sudden act. That latter option will require total surprise and a ruthlessness we seldom display.
Come on 11B You think Mad Dog is going to let some Twinkie grazing dependa, and her booger eating offspring, come close to getting a scratch on their fat little heads especially when her parents would sue the shit out of DoD for little Suzy Rottencrotch getting herself blowed the hell up in Ko-ree-uh? Not going to happen.
I can say that there are Non-Combatant Evacuation (NEO) plans for all of the dependents and non-essential GS civilians that work on military bases in the ROK. There are even “Pet” NEO plans to ensure we get all the pets out, if feasible. (Especially the dogs, so they don’t become ‘Kegogi’)
They may or may not be enacted as soon as hostilities ramp up, or they may not. It depends on how things work out with those hostilities. There are primary and alternate plans and avenues, etc etc etc.
Those plans have been practiced 2-3 times a year (at various levels) for decades. Just the same as there are 2-3 major exercises every year for us in the ROK. Some more flashy than others, some even do big deal events like bringing over a whole BCT for an exercise. It just depends.
I completely concur, and agreee that getting our noncombtants out is moral and fairly easily done. I just cannot imagine the DPRK ignoring such a -huge- tell.
Dependants
This is a step in the right direction. As Bill Munny says: All right, I’m coming out! Any man I see out there, I’m gonna kill him! Any sonofabitch takes a shot at me.. I’m not only gonna kill him, I’m gonna kill his wife, all his friends, and burn his damn house down!
This is a very clear, unequivocal policy statement. By this point, there was no doubt that he would follow through.
Whatever happens you can damn well bet the domestic terrorists will ramp it up and pledge their allegiance to Best Korea.
I always thought there would be a limited nuke exchange in my life time.
the second one will be in the Middle East and it won’t involve Israel at first
Thank you Clinton and Obama for sitting on your ass and letting this happen
You forgot a few. How about every sitting president since the armistice was signed that allowed the NorK regime to continue to exist?
The problem is, they are a “sovereign nation” and as such are provided protection by the UN, treaties and international law against being invaded. The military HQ there is also hatted as the “United Nations Command” because our Commander, US Forces Korea also wears the UNC Commander hat.
If the people rebelled, if the North started attacking South, or if the dipshit Kim line was interrupted by assassination, we could “potentially” go in to resolve the issue and even help the ROK absorb the North. But at this point, the ROK doesn’t want to deal with the North. That’s 23 million more people they’d have to deal with, feed, take care of, etc. They are doing quite well without the extra burden of fixing the North.
The larger issue now is, “we” don’t want to do that. The North is a wasteland filled with millions of malnourished peasants who generation after generation are getting shorter, skinnier, and eating less. Resources have been consumed to excess for the military and to keep the Kim’s chubby like Cartman.
And yes, in the 90s there would’ve been ample opportunity to resolve this situation better. Clinton was a pussy who just pushed it off to the next guy (as happened in previous administrations) and made it even worse by signing that stupid Nuclear deal with them. Sanctions won’t do shit but make the populace even more downtrodden and weaker.
So, are we in South Korea to stop the North from coming South? Or to stop the South from going North? And are countries like Iran and Russia secretly helping to keep the DPRK afloat because it is such a pain in our ass and keeps us occupied on another front?
The endgame may involve a portion of the DPRK, with China grabbing ~2/3 of the physical land as a DMZ/buffer,and the ROK gainignthe so unither third of the land and ~2/3rds to 4/5ths of the North Korean folks.
China maintains a buffer, but doesn’t have to feed 10-20 millions of half-starved fanatics. The ROK will be effectively hog-tied for two or three generations trying to modernize and just -feed- the new folks.
That is probably the least deadly option, but there is absolutely -no- way any of our opponents in the UN would -ever- allow us to finesse such a solution.
Worthwhile ideas, but yes, there are those on the security council who would vote against just about anything we vote for just because we vote yea.
But Nikki don’t play that.
Damn she’s hot, in multiple ways.
What DOES the vast majority of the United Nothing do other than stay as corrupt as possible while doing all it can to fuck the USA over?
Good points all MSG Eric. Thanks for making me think.
Well, this is how debate/discussion is supposed to be. (as much as the internet fights against that.) …smile…
I would also say that there are many senior ranking military leaders stationed in the ROK who have the same thoughts as you do about this whole situation. Even to the point of, “Fuck this, lets leave the peninsula and go home already!” Even if that isn’t official policy. (Even the ones married to Korean women.)
I am totally down with the ROK alliance. I have been involved in training exercises with the ROK Navy off and on since 1994. The professionalism and seamanship of the ROK Navy has come a long way and they are a capable force. The ROK’s are good allies, it might not seem like it at times, but they’ll be there standing shoulder to shoulder with us when the poo hits the fan.
Hell I did a tour there myself in the early 90’s and the ROK’s I saw were quite a capable band of badasses!
“Mr. Trump hinted at one extreme option: In a Twitter post just before he met his generals, he said that “the United States is considering, in addition to other options, stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea.’’
A twitter post? Seriously? That’s how we go about preparing for possible thermonuclear warfare now? Twitter?GEN Kelly please, I am begging you, with tears in my eyes, please take away and smash that GD phone he uses for twitter. Twitter FFS.
Would you prefer a teleprompter?
I agree, twitter is retarded, but that’s what the kids are doing these days…
TOW, the dude is 70+. Can’t he just sit in a lawn chair and yell at kids to get off his grass? And yes, I would prefer a teleprompter when you discuss serious shit like nuclear weapons. Let’s the adults in the room know you’re one of them.
And while I am no kid, I think kids gave up twitter a long time ago. Just like with FB, once their parents and grandparents started logging on, the kids left.
Yeah, President trump IS 70+ and he’s doing a FAR better job than his predecessor OR “Blowjob Willie” who did a lot to enable the Kim Dynasty to get where they are now!
W2, if you can’t tell when Trump is yanking the press’s left ear or third hind leg, you need to pull back, regroup and strike again.
Ex, honestly the man doesn’t have a mute button. Sometimes you need a mute button. Also, I don’t think he can pull anybody’s ear or hind leg. He’s Pavlovian with that twitter phone. Action / reaction.
That direct-connection got him elected. People got sick of the “filtered” bullshit from endless politicians.
11B, come on man. Seriously? President Trump connected with people? That twitter feed from the President is an embarrassment. It was funny for a while because it made snowflakes cry, but now it’s just getting old and he is sounding more like a lunatic. The MSM isn’t twisting those tweets either. They are coming directly from the President. When he tweets something crazy, it’s on him and he tweets some crazy shit.
You and I both know it was hatred for the weakest, most corrupt possible candidate, Hillary, that got President Trump elected. I think the world may have been different if the Demo’s had went with James Webb. Maybe not, but one thing is for sure, if President Trump had tried to stalk SEN Webb during the debates, hilarity would have surely ensued.
I seem to recall that HRC walked around quite a bit at that show. her version of events is more than just a bit specious. “Stalk” is absurd.
And you seem to ignore tha fact hat most of his supporters are rather fond of his antics, because it is a giant middle finger to the establishment hacks of both parties. I find myself enjoying his tweaking of sensibilities, just to watch the fireworks.
Yeah, well, the middle finger thing is dumb and I would have paid good money to hear Webb ask him if he had ever killed a man or not. It’s cool when you’re in High School to try to give it to the man. When you grow up, those days are over though.
Trump won, by being Trump. I suspect he plans to continue doing things his own way, despite all the helpful advice from folks who want that to change.
Maybe, well see how long GEN Kelly hangs around.
Many of us wish Trump had a mute button. Some of the things I hear him say or tweet, I can’t do anything but shake my head and laugh. “Holy fuck, did he really just say that?” Yep.
It is good when he does put aside “The Donald” and act like President Trump though. I’d like to think he slows on the first and moves more as the latter as his term continues.
Well….I guess there’s a new President in town and people are just gonna have to deal with it. 🙂
Yep. Trump has said he’ll continue to Twitter as long as the news media keeps spinning and outright lying. I see mo end to his use of Twitter.
80 years ago, I’m sure people thought FDR was nuts for talking to the people every week. We just might be looking at fireside chat of our time.
I think it’s funny that everybody bashes the media, but then quotes them. See above quotes from NYT and WaPo. The MSM is ok to quote, but when the story the print doesn’t fit the narrative, they’re liars. Twitter, pfffft.
Twitter is how some folks communicate. It is also how Trump ensures that folks are talking about what -he- wants them talking about.
“I will do what -I- want, not what my detractors want me to do.” is a -very- American sentiment.
Twitter is no more ridiculous a medium than radio or TV. It works, and social medial like it will become even more prominent as time passes. Welcome to the 21st century.
He’s the President of the United States of America and by default the most powerful man on this miserable little rock. His message shouldn’t be limited by the number of characters that can fit on a smart phone.
Nor should it be limited by various hacks in the media, etc, etc, etc.
Time have changed. Better try to keep up.
Are you saying I have to get rid of my flip phone?
What’s a flip phone?
Exactly. You know, a phone that folds in half?
I don’t want to try that with mine, it would most certainly break.
I gave up my telegraph key, so why not?
President Trump can at least give a speech sans a teleprompter without a single “*Uuuhhhm*” or “*Uuuuhhh*” and his predecessor in Office COULD NOT! BTW where was his predecessor when Louisiana was flooded? That’s right he was out golfing while now-President Trump visited the area and donated multiple truckloads of aid on his own dime and his election opponent didn’t do shit either! BTW, our President DID donate $1 million of his own money to the Harvey Relief, just how much was donated by the likes of the Clintons, Kerry and all those other snotnosed libs? OH, and those in the Cajun Navy? Yeah they’re “Deplorables” who not only took off work, they spent their own time and money to help others without a second thought, just how many of them are say, College Perfessers, news media mouths, etcetera?
I recently saw a clip with President Clinton saying the deal he struck with North Korea was a great deal! No a great deal would have been to put on his big boy pants and swat the NK flies dead! Now look what he gave us to deal with
Fat Bastard Kim the Elder probably shared a couple of his harem girls for it.
Especially the underage ones, I hear Slick Willy likes them too.
The UN should just declare all of North Korea a missile defense testing zone. We can bring the PAC-3s, Russia can bring their S-400s and China can bring their HQ-9s. If anything gets 100 feet off a launchpad in the DPRK, first nation to shoot it down wins a prize.
Where is Bezerkley Poodle Dick been? I can’t believe that he hasn’t chimed in with all of his Berney leftist bullshit on this entire thread? Did his Mommy finally take away his computer for pissing his bed so much? Come on Lars, where is your final solution for this situation???
Shush!! Do not wake the ground-dwelling synapseless sluggard.
“Final solution”? That was -cold-, dude.
I don’t miss ‘ol Babbles McButthead even one damned bit, according to what he spouted off a while ago we should ALL be dead from the Zika virus by now!
While I find Trump’s twitter rants entertaining; I believe he is just jerking chains right now. The 800lb. Gorilla in the room (China) won’t allow any shenanigans against the Norks. It’s that simple and has been so for 64 years. If NDtBF was ever serious about launching a nuke, China would put an end to him, because once that happens, they (China) know that all bets are off and they would lose just as much as anyone else.
We go through this exercise every time there is a new President. The brat in the room throws a temper tantrum in order to see what reaction they get from the new adult. Every tin pot dictator around the world wants to see what happens when they stomp their feet. Because NDtBF doesn’t have much, he has to resort to throwing out the nuke threat. It’s the only card he has.
+10