Category: North Korea
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
What A War With North Korea Would Look Like / Politics / North Korea
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN : The possibility of war between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the United States has recently increased. It is necessary to consider what such a war might look like.
I use the term war rather than merely American attacks on North Korean nuclear and missile program facilities. We have to consider the possibility of North Korea’s response and a more extended conflict.
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Sunday, May 29, 2016
Wargaming North Korea - Assessing the Threat / Politics / North Korea
By: STRATFOR
Editor's Note: This is the first installment of a five-part series examining the measures that could be taken to inhibit North Korea's nuclear weapons program. The purpose of this series is not to consider political rhetoric or noninvasive means of coercion, such as sanctions. Rather, we are exploring the military options, however remote, that are open to the United States and its allies, along with the expected retaliatory response from Pyongyang. Part two of this series looks at what targets would need to be struck to derail the North Korean nuclear program.
Few countries intrigue and perplex like the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Isolated by choice from the ebbs and flows of the international system, North Korea is an island of its own making. It is often painted as a weak, fearsome lunatic with delusions of grandeur and aspirations to become a nuclear power, but the truth is a little more complicated. Despite outward appearances, Pyongyang is not reckless in its ambition. Nor does it foolhardily invite destruction. It walks a fine line, hoping to quietly attain a credible nuclear deterrent without inciting world powers to take decisive action.
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Sunday, May 08, 2016
A Rare Congress and Mixed Signals in North Korea / Politics / North Korea
By: STRATFOR
For the first time in more than 35 years, North Korea is preparing to hold a full Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK). Originally intended to be a regular occurrence for the WPK, party congresses convened only sporadically until 1980, when Kim Jong Il was named as Kim Il Sung's successor, and juche (loosely translated as self-reliance) was formalized as the government's official guiding philosophy. In the years since, though the WPK has officially remained at the center of the North Korean political system, party congresses have lost their central role in the political cycle. Scheduled to begin May 6, the 2016 congress marks the revival of a more public political style in the country, playing on the formalism of party structure and events.
Sunday, February 07, 2016
Western Double Standards on North Korea / Politics / North Korea
By: Stephen_Lendman
North Korean military related activities are solely for self-defense - given longstanding US-led Western hostility and forced isolation.
Provocative US-led NATO military activities are far more extensive and menacing, preparing for premeditated wars alliance members frequently wage.
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Tuesday, December 24, 2013
North Korea's Ferocious, Weak and Crazy Strategy / Politics / North Korea
By: STRATFOR
North Korea's state-run media reported Sunday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered the country's top security officials to take "substantial and high-profile important state measures," which has been widely interpreted to mean that North Korea is planning its third nuclear test. Kim said the orders were retaliation for the U.S.-led push to tighten U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang following North Korea's missile test in October. A few days before Kim's statement emerged, the North Koreans said future tests would target the United States, which North Korea regards as its key adversary along with Washington's tool, South Korea.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
China and North Korea: A Tangled Partnership / Politics / North Korea
By: STRATFOR
China appears to be growing frustrated with North Korea's behavior, perhaps to the point of changing its long-standing support for Pyongyang. As North Korea's largest economic sponsor, Beijing has provided the North Korean regime with crucial aid for years and offered it diplomatic protection against the United States and other powers. To outsiders, China's alliance with North Korea seems like a Cold War relic with little reason for persisting into the 21st century. However, Beijing's continued support for Pyongyang is not rooted in shared ideology or past cooperation nearly as much as in China's own security calculations.
Monday, April 08, 2013
The North Korea Paper Tiger / Politics / North Korea
By: BATR
If you listen to the alarm coming out of the imperium empire media, you would think that missiles would be flying at any moment. That medieval torture regime noted for starving their population is boasting that a bellicose attack is imminent. Of course, their propagandists are pointing the finger at the Yankee bully that is the perennial bogyman posed to snuff out the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Such an earthly paradise is billed as a “genuine workers' state in which all the people are completely liberated from exploitation and oppression. The workers, peasants, soldiers and intellectuals are the true masters of their destiny and are in a unique position to defend their interests.”
Sunday, April 07, 2013
North Korea Nuclear Threat Beyond the Cold War Theatrics / Politics / North Korea
By: Patrick_Henningsen
The recent show of force by the United States marks one of the lowest points in modern diplomacy, but beyond the geopolitical threatrics it turns out that very little is actually known about the North Korean threat.
North Korea’s recent series of weekly verbal provocations towards Seoul and their ally the US – should be taken seriously in diplomatic terms, but is Pyongyang’s bark worse than its bite?
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Tuesday, March 12, 2013
North Korea's Strategy - Ferocious, Weak and Crazy / Politics / North Korea
By: STRATFOR
On Jan. 29, I wrote a piece that described North Korea's strategy as a combination of ferocious, weak and crazy. In the weeks since then, three events have exemplified each facet of that strategy. Pyongyang showed its ferocity Feb. 12, when it detonated a nuclear device underground. The country's only significant ally, China, voted against Pyongyang in the U.N. Security Council on March 7, demonstrating North Korea's weakness. Finally, Pyongyang announced it would suspend the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953, implying that that war would resume and that U.S. cities would be turned into "seas of fire." To me, that fulfills the crazy element.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Ferocious, Weak and Crazy: The North Korea Military Strategy / Politics / North Korea
By: STRATFOR
North Korea's state-run media reported Sunday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered the country's top security officials to take "substantial and high-profile important state measures," which has been widely interpreted to mean that North Korea is planning its third nuclear test. Kim said the orders were retaliation for the U.S.-led push to tighten U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang following North Korea's missile test in October. A few days before Kim's statement emerged, the North Koreans said future tests would target the United States, which North Korea regards as its key adversary along with Washington's tool, South Korea.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
How Important is North Korea's Leadership Change? / Politics / North Korea
By: James_Pressler
This weekend, North Korean officials announced the passing of Supreme Leader Kim Jong-il, supposedly from a heart attack. Not too surprisingly, the next day Pyongyang heralded Kim's youngest son, Kim Jong-un, as the new head of state along with the title of "Great Successor." While it is widely known that the elder Kim was in poor health and rushing the grooming process for his son's succession, the Supreme Leader's sudden death leaves plenty of reasons to speculate as to just how the transition will impact North Korea and its relations with the world.
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Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Korea Steps Back From The Brink / Politics / North Korea
By: Mike_Whitney
Realizing that its plan to intimidate North Korea has backfired and brought the peninsula to the brink of war, the Obama administration is now looking for ways to ease tensions. But South Korea's tough-talking President Lee Myung-bak has decided to go ahead with the controversial artillery tests on Yeonpyeong Island and risk a resumption of hostilities. The North has warned that if the drills proceed, they will respond with a "counterattack....that would be deadlier than the strike on Nov. 23."
Thursday, December 09, 2010
Korean Conflict Spiralling Out of Control into Risk of New Korean War / Politics / North Korea
By: Global_Research
Gregory Elich writes: An artillery duel between North and South Korean forces on November 23 has set in motion a series of events which threaten to spiral out of control.
On November 22, South Korea began its annual military exercise, involving including 70,000 troops, dozens of South Korean and U.S. warships and some 500 aircraft. The following day, South Korean artillery stationed on Yeonpyeong Island began a live ammunition drill, firing shells into the surrounding sea.
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Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Markets Rattled by New Conflict Between North and South Korea / Politics / North Korea
By: Static_Chaos
U.S. stocks dropped more than one percent on Tuesday with two Korea's exchanging fire adding to the already worrisome Irish debt crisis in Europe.
The latest with Ireland is that European Union (EU) officials estimate that a rescue package may amount to about 85 billion euros ($114 billion). That news sent S&P issuing a new downgrade on Ireland's sovereign debt.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
North Korea Attacks South, Start of a Major New War? / Politics / North Korea
By: Pravda
North Korea attacked Yeonpyeong island of South Korea in the Yellow Sea. The attack was launched in the afternoon, local time, in the area of the western sea border, where the situation had been extremely tense lately.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
North Korean Artillery Attack on a South Korean Island / Politics / North Korea
By: STRATFOR
North Korea and South Korea have reportedly traded artillery fire Nov. 23 across the disputed Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the Yellow Sea to the west of the peninsula. Though details are still sketchy, South Korean news reports indicate that around 2:30 p.m. local time, North Korean artillery shells began landing in the waters around Yeonpyeongdo, one of the South Korean-controlled islands just south of the NLL. Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, June 28, 2010
The Truth about North Korea, Contradictory Evidence About Cheonan Ship Sinking / Politics / North Korea
By: Pravda
An exclusive Pravda.Ru interview with: Alejandro Cao de Benos, Special Delegate, Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, Government of the DPR of Korea, President of the Korean Friendship Association (KFA)
In the interest of peace and mutual understanding, counteracting misinformation and propaganda and a commitment to seeing all nations made to equally adhere to international law, the following interview is being presented for Pravda readers.
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Thursday, May 28, 2009
North Korea ready for Nuclear Third World War / Politics / North Korea
By: Pravda
The events on the Korean Peninsula are developing speedily. Following the underground nuclear explosion and a series of missile launches, North Korea proceeded to diplomatic attacks. Pyongyang pulled out from the 1953 Truce Agreement with South Korea.
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Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Can North Korean Nukes Rattle Global Stock & Financial Markets? / Stock-Markets / North Korea
By: Gary_Dorsch
News that North Korea’s mercurial leader Kim Jong Il authorized the detonation of a nuclear bomb on May 25th, comparable to those that obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki, barely caused a ripple in the global financial markets. Japanese and South Korean stocks initially fell in a knee-jerk reaction, but soon recouped most of their losses, as traders shrugged off the nuclear fallout, - figuring it was just a harmless display of Kim Jong Il’s temper tantrums that erupts once every few years.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
The North Korean Nuclear Test and Geopolitical Reality / Politics / North Korea
By: STRATFOR
North Korea tested a nuclear device for the second time in two and a half years May 25. Although North Korea’s nuclear weapons program continues to be a work in progress, the event is inherently significant. North Korea has carried out the only two nuclear detonations the world has seen in the 21st century. (The most recent tests prior to that were the spate of tests by India and Pakistan in 1998.)