THE HARBINGER - 52- By Luke - March 29th, 2013

Russia warns against military activity near North Korea http://news.yahoo.com/russia-warns-against-military-activity-near-north-korea-095429925.html

March 29, 2013

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Friday that heightened military

activity near North Korea was slipping into a "vicious cycle" that could

get out of control, implicitly criticizing U.S. bomber flights that

followed threats from Pyongyang.

Foreign Ministry Sergei Lavrov suggested that North Korea should also

cool down, calling on "all sides not to flex their military muscle" and

avoid the danger of a belligerent response.

"We are concerned that alongside the adequate, collective reaction of

the U.N. Security Council, unilateral action is being taken around

North Korea that is increasing military activity," Foreign Minister

Sergei Lavrov said.

"The situation could simply get out of control, it is slipping toward the

spiral of a vicious cycle," he said when asked about tensions on the

Korean Peninsula at a joint news conference after talks with his

Ukrainian counterpart.

North Korea put its missile units on standby to attack U.S. military

bases in South Korea and the Pacific, after the United States flew two

nuclear-capable stealth bombers over the Korean peninsula following a

barrage of threats from the North.

Russia supported new U.N. Security Council sanctions against its

neighbor and former Soviet-era client state North Korea in early

March, but Moscow has criticized actions taken outside the council,

including U.S. and South Korean military drills.

North Korea readies rockets after U.S. show of force

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/29/us-korea-north-

idUSBRE92R13R20130329?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

March 29, 2013 (Reuters) - North Korea put its missile units on standby on Friday to attack U.S. military bases inSouth Korea and the Pacific, after the United States flew two nuclear-capable stealth bombers over the Korean peninsula in a rare show of force.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed off on the order at a midnight meeting of top generals and "judged the time has come to settle accounts with the U.S. imperialists in view of the prevailing situation", the official KCNA news agency said.

KCNA said North Korea and the United States could only settle their differences by "physical means". The North has an arsenal of Soviet-era short-range Scud missiles that can hit South Korea but its longer-range Nodong and Musudan missiles, which could in theory hit U.S. Pacific bases, are untested.

China, the North's sole major ally, repeated its calls for restraint on the Korean peninsula at a regular Foreign Ministry briefing and made no criticism of the U.S. flights.

"We hope that relevant parties will work together in pushing for a turnaround of the tense situation," ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters.

Tension has been high since North Korea conducted a third nuclear weapons test in February in breach of U.N. sanctions and despite warnings from China for it not to do so.

Russia's foreign minister implicitly criticized the U.S. bomber flights.

"We are concerned that alongside the adequate, collective reaction of the U.N. Security Council, unilateral action is being taken around North Korea that is increasing military activity," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"The situation could simply get out of control, it is slipping toward the spiral of a vicious cycle," Lavrov told reporters in Moscow when asked about the situation.

He called for efforts to get stalled six-party talks on North Korea going again. The talks have involved the two Koreas, the United States, Russia, China and Japan.

THREATS

On Thursday, the United States flew two radar-evading B-2 Spirit bombers on practice runs over South Korea, responding to a series of North Korean threats. They flew from the United States and back in what appeared to be the first exercise of its kind, designed to show America's ability to conduct long-range, precision strikes "quickly and at will", the U.S. military said.

The news of Kim's response was unusually swift.

"He finally signed the plan on technical preparations of strategic rockets of the KPA (Korean People's Army), ordering them to be on standby for fire so that they may strike any time the U.S. mainland, its military bases in the operational theatres in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam, and those in South Korea," KCNA said.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported there had been additional troop and vehicle movements at the North's mid- and long-range missile sites, indicating they may be ready to fire.

It was impossible to verify the report which did not specify a time frame. South Korea's Defense Ministry said it was watching shorter-range Scud missile sites closely as well as Nodong and Musudan missile batteries.

The North has launched a daily barrage of threats since early this month when the United States and the South, allies in the 1950-53 Korean War, began regular military drills.

The South and the United States have said the drills are purely defensive and that no incident has taken place in the decades they have been conducted in various forms.

The United States also flew B-52 bombers over South Korea earlier this week.

The North has put its military on highest readiness to fight what it says are hostile forces conducting war drills. Its young leader has previously given "final orders" for its military to wage revolutionary war with the South.

Despite the hostile rhetoric from the North, it has kept open a joint economic zone with the South which generates $2 billion a year in trade - money the impoverished state can ill-afford to lose.

"VERY DANGEROUS"

North Korea has cancelled an armistice agreement with the United States that ended the Korean War and cut all communications hotlines with U.S. forces, the United Nations and South Korea.

"The North Koreans have to understand that what they're doing is very dangerous," U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday.

"We must make clear that these provocations by the North are taken by us very seriously and we'll respond to that."

The U.S. military said that its B-2 bombers had flown more than 6,500 miles to stage a trial bombing raid from their bases in Missouri as part of the Foal Eagle war drills being held with South Korea.

The bombers dropped inert munitions on the Jik Do Range, in South Korea, and then returned to the continental United States in a single, continuous mission, the military said.

It was the first time B-2s flew round-trip from the mainland United States over South Korea and dropped inert munitions, a Pentagon spokeswoman said.

Victor Cha, a North Korea expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the drill fitted within the context of ramped-up efforts by the Pentagon to deter the North from acting upon any of its threats.

Asked whether he thought the latest moves could further aggravate tension, Cha, a former White House official, said: "I don't think the situation can get any more aggravated than it already is."

South Korea denied suggestions that the bomber drills contained an implicit threat of attack on the North.

"There is no entity on the earth who will strike an attack on North Korea or expressed their wishes to do so," said a spokesman for the South's Unification Ministry, which deals with North Korea.

Few believe North Korea will risk starting a full-out war.

Still, Hagel, who on March 15 announced he was bolstering missile defenses over the growing North Korea threat, said all of the actions by the North had to be taken seriously.

"Their very provocative actions and belligerent tone, it has ratcheted up the danger and we have to understand that reality," Hagel said, renewing a warning that the U.S. military was ready for "any eventuality" on the peninsula.

U.S. B-2 bombers sent to Korea on rare mission: diplomacy not destruction

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/29/us-korea-north-usa-b-idUSBRE92S0IE20130329?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

March 29, 2013 (Reuters) - The stealthy, nuclear-capable U.S. B-2 bomber is a veteran of wars in Iraq and Libya, but it isn't usually a tool of Washington's statecraft.

Yet on Thursday, the United States sent a pair of the bat-winged planes on a first-of-its-kind practice run over the skies of South Korea, conducting what U.S. officials say was a diplomatic sortie.

The aim, the officials said, was two-fold: to reassure U.S. allies South Korea and Japan in the face of a string of threats from North Korea, and to nudge Pyongyang back to nuclear talks.

But whether North Korea's young new leader, Kim Jong-un, interprets the message the way the White House hopes is anybody's guess. His first reaction, according to North Korean state media, was to order his country's missiles ready to strike the United States and South Korea.

A senior U.S. official said Kim's late father, Kim Jong-il, was at least more predictable: He would issue threats that got the world's attention without provoking open conflict, and then use them as leverage in subsequent diplomatic negotiations.

This time, U.S. intelligence analysts are divided over whether Kim Jong-un is pursuing the same strategy. "It's a little bit of an 'all bets are off' kind of moment," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity,.

The official said the idea for the practice bombing run, part of annual U.S.-South Korean military exercises named Foal Eagle, emerged from government-wide discussions over how to signal to Seoul and Tokyo that Washington would back them in a crisis.

It is less clear whether Washington informed China, North Korea's neighbor and only major ally, in advance.

The plan was approved by the White House and coordinated with South Korea and Japan, the official said.

REASSURING ALLIES

While the 20-year-old B-2 often flies for long durations - 44 hours is the record - Thursday's flight of approximately 37-1/2 hours was the plane's first non-stop mission to the Korean peninsula and back from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, Air Force officials said.

With Pyongyang threatening missile strikes on the U.S. mainland, as well as U.S. bases in Hawaii and Guam, the flight seemed designed to demonstrate how easy it would be for the United States to strike back at North Korea.

It is far from clear that Pyongyang, which has had mixed success in its missile tests, can make good on its own threats.

"This is useful reminder to the South Koreans that the U.S. nuclear arm can reach out and touch North Korea from anywhere. We don't need to be sitting there at Osan Air Base," south of Seoul, said Ralph Cossa, president of the Hawaii-based Pacific Forum CSIS think tank.

"This also reminds the Chinese that North Korean actions have consequences. It tells them that the U.S. is taking North Korean threats seriously but we're not panicking," he added.

The senior U.S. official said that once the Foal Eagle exercises are concluded, the Obama administration hopes to pivot to a diplomatic approach to North Korea, and hopes Pyongyang will reciprocate.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to travel to East Asia in about two weeks, the first of a parade of senior Washington officials headed toward the region.

45-MINUTE NAPS

Thursday's drill was a rare moment in the limelight for the B-2 "Spirit" bomber, which began life with a slew of cost and development troubles for manufacturer Northrop Grumman Corp but has become a mainstay of U.S. nuclear deterrence.

Long-duration missions, in which the bomber is refueled in midair, are "a challenge on your body and mind, staying sharp," said an Air Force

captain and B-2 pilot. Under the service's security rules, the pilot could only be identified by his radio call sign, "Flash."

The captain, who did not participate in Thursday's practice mission over South Korea, said flight doctors have devised special regimens to keep the plane's two-man crew sharp.

They include 45-minute naps, on a cot in the back of the plane, that end a half hour before "critical events" such as in-air refueling or dropping ordinance, he said.

All 20 of the United States' B-2 bombers are based at Whiteman, and they saw combat during the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the NATO mission that led to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's overthrow.

In the 1980s, the Pentagon had planned to buy 132 of the bombers, whose main mission was to penetrate the Soviet Union's airspace undetected. The program was drastically cut back after the Berlin Wall collapsed in 1989.

So elite is the B-2 pilot corps that more people have been in outer space than have flown the aircraft, "Flash" said.

Mass rally in Pyongyang in support of Kim Jong Un

http://news.yahoo.com/mass-rally-pyongyang-support-kim-jong-un-043129729.html

March 29, 2013

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Thousands of North Koreans have

turned out for a mass rally at the main square in Pyongyang in support

of their leader's call to arms.

Chanting "Death to the U.S. imperialists" and "Sweep away the U.S.

aggressors," soldiers and students marched through Kim Il Sung

Square in downtown Pyongyang on Friday during a 90-minute rally.

State media reported early Friday that leader Kim Jong Un called an

emergency military meeting to order the army's rocket unit to prepare

to strike the U.S. and South Korea in case of a "reckless provocation" by

Washington or Seoul.

A full-blown North Korean attack is unlikely, though there are fears of

a more localized conflict. Pyongyang has railed against the U.S.

decision to send B-2 bombers for military drills with South Korea.

Inside the Ring: New Bear bomber flights

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/20/inside-the-ring-new-bear-bomber-flights

March 20, 2013 Two Russian strategic nuclear bombers carried out a fourth high-profile

training flight last week, flying near South Korea, where large-scale war

games are under way, and near Japan and the U.S. military bases on

Okinawa.

It was the fourth time since June 2012 that Russian bombers have run

up against U.S. and allied air defense zones in the Pacific.

Defense officials told Inside the Ring that two Tu-95 Bear-H nuclear-

capable bombers, Russia’s main nuclear cruise-missile delivery vehicle,

were detected Friday in the Pacific Command theater of operations

coming from a base in Russia’s Far East.

A Japanese Embassy spokesman confirmed that two Tu-95s were

intercepted by Japanese fighter jets on March 15. He did not elaborate.

Pacific Command spokeswoman Air Force Lt. Col. DeDe

Halfhill declined to provide details of the flights or say whether any U.S.

interceptor jets were sent aloft to follow the bombers. She instead

referred questions to the Russian, Japanese and South Korean

governments, even though she acknowledged that the incident took

place within the command’s area of responsibility.

It could not be learned whether South Korean interceptor jets were

scrambled to trail the bombers.

The latest Russian strategic bomber flights near Okinawa, where U.S.

Marines are deployed, followed a Feb. 12 incursion around Guam, July

4 bomber flights near the California coast, and practice bomber sorties

near Alaska in June.

The failure of the Pacific Command to discuss the incident appears to

be part of a new Pentagon policy of refusing to answer reporters’

questions about troubling developments that might undermine

the Obama administration’s conciliatory policies toward

both Russia and China. For example, Friday’s flights took place just

over a month after two other Tu-95s flew around the U.S. Pacific island

of Guam — a major hub for the U.S. military buildup in the region.

Earlier, a Pentagon spokeswoman referred a reporter to China’s

communist government when asked about the country’s expanding

nuclear forces, despite the Pentagon having a legal requirement to

provide public information about those forces in its annual report

to Congress on the Chinese military.

The Feb. 12 bomber flights were the first time the Russians had

conducted such long-range strategic operations near Guam in more

than 20 years. Yet, a military official described the bomber incursions

as “routine.”

Guam was used by two U.S. B-52 strategic bombers for flights

over South Korea on March 8 and March 15 as part of ongoing military

exercises that Pentagon officials said demonstrated U.S. “extended

deterrence” nuclear protection, in the face of growing nuclear threats

from North Korea.

The earlier Russian bomber incident near California was also

dismissed by military spokesmen as routine after two Bear H bombers

on July 4 flew the closest to the U.S. West Coast that any Russian

bomber had flown since the days of the Soviet Union.

Obama hit on missile defense

A senior member of the House Armed Services Committee on

Wednesday wrote to President Obama, expressing concerns about

the administration’s concessions to Russia on missile defense and

revealing Moscow’s violations of current arms treaties.

“I am deeply concerned about your sudden shift in the U.S. missile

defense strategy,” Rep. Mike Rogers, Alabama Republican and

chairman of the strategic forces subcommittee, stated in his letter to

the president.

Mr. Rogers said the Pentagon’s decision to cancel deployment in

Europe of the SM-3 IIB advanced missile-defense interceptor, which

was opposed by Moscow, sends a signal of U.S. weakness.

The cancellation, announced Friday, is “unambiguously another

concession” to the Russians on missile defense, similar to the 2009

decision to abandon deployment in Europe of more powerful ground-

based interceptors that Russia also opposed.

Mr. Rogers said the decision on the SM-3 IIB came weeks before

the administration’s defense budget submission to Congress and also

prior to the upcoming visit to Moscow by National Security Adviser

Thomas E. Donilon, who is said to be seeking to gauge Moscow’s

willingness to engage in a new round of strategic arms cuts.

“Russia has been violently opposed to our missile defenses,

specifically the Phase IV development of the SM-3 block IIB missile,

almost since you announced it,” Mr. Rogers said in his letter.

“Indeed, Russia’s Chief of its General Staff Col. Gen. [Nikolai]

Makarov, threatened to attack U.S. missile defenses in Europe. And

now, your administration has terminated the SM-3 IIB, just as the

Russians demanded.”

Mr. Rogers added that new arms talks are being sought despite

“ongoing and significant concerns about Russian arms control

compliance.” He did not elaborate. Mr. Rogers said he believes

presidential advisers are urging Mr. Obama to announce a new push

for deeper strategic nuclear cuts on the upcoming fourth anniversary of

his April 5, 2009, speech in the Czech Republic capital Prague where

he called for eliminating all nuclear weapons.

McMaster on war

Army Maj. Gen. H.R. McMaster, a combat veteran of two Iraq wars and

current commander of the Maneuver Center of Excellence, provided

some candid assessments of U.S. military doctrine during a speech in

Washington on Wednesday.

Gen. McMaster is the closest thing in the Army to a policy rock star and

is regarded as an outspoken and innovative strategic thinker.

Some of the comments by the two-star general during a speech to the

Center for Strategic and International Studies sounded indirectly critical

of past U.S. military efforts in Iraq and current efforts in Afghanistan.

Gen. McMaster criticized what he termed the “raiding mentality” among

some military strategists who argue that bombing or special operations

forces will win wars fast and cheap, calling it “a fundamental unrealistic

expectation.”

Another “wrong lesson” of the past 12 years of warfare is the

exaggerated benefit of using proxy military or security forces, Gen.

McMaster said.

In Iraq, the U.S. military built up Iraqi police and security forces and

later found that the Iraqis were “largely captured by Shia Islamist

militias that were to some degree under the direction of the Islamic

Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran,” Gen. McMaster said.

Some U.S.-trained Iraqis were involved in ethnic-cleansing campaigns

against opponents, while other Iraqi forces defected and joined al

Qaeda, he said. In Afghanistan, some U.S.-trained Afghan security

forces were taken over by local criminal networks, Gen.

McMaster said.