[url]http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,90833,00.html[/url]


SEOUL, South Korea  — North Korea threatened on Tuesday to abandon the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War, and warned that it will take "merciless retaliatory measures" in response to any economic blockade.

U.S. efforts to pressure the communist state to abandon its suspected nuclear weapons program have pushed Korea to "the crossroads of war or peace," said the North Korean military's representative at Panmunjom, a truce village where the U.N. Command and the North's military meet to oversee the armistice.

His statement was carried by the North's state-run KCNA news agency. KCNA did not give his name.

North Korea has recently stepped up its anti-U.S. rhetoric in an apparent attempt to force the United States to negotiate a dispute over the North's nuclear ambitions.

"It is, in fact, hardly possible to preserve the cease-fire in Korea by the unilateral efforts of the Korean People's Army side," the representative said.

North Korea has often threatened to scrap the armistice, the key legal document that keeps an uneasy peace on the divided Korean Peninsula. It has called the armistice a "dead document" or a "useless piece of paper."

The United States and its allies are pressuring North Korea to abandon its suspected development of nuclear weapons. In recent weeks, they began cracking down on alleged North Korean trading in illicit drugs, counterfeit money and weapons.

North Korea calls the moves part of a U.S. plan to impose an international siege on the isolated state and says they violate the armistice.

Meanwhile, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer did not directly answer a question about a New York Times article Tuesday reporting North Korea is developing technology to make nuclear warheads small enough to fit on its missiles.

"We have concerns," Fleischer said.
"We can say it's well known that Korea — North Korea is working hard on its WMD (weapons of mass destruction program, as well as on the means to deliver those programs," he said. "This is one of the reasons that the president has been such an ardent proponent of missile defense."
On Tuesday, the North said that if Washington applies sanctions or bolsters troops in the region, it "will promptly regard it as a complete breach of the armistice agreement by the U.S. side and will immediately take strong and merciless retaliatory measures."

Also Tuesday, North Korea accused the United States of conducting some 200 spy flights over its country in June.

KCNA said the United States used various reconnaissance planes to conduct aerial espionage last month.

The nuclear standoff began in October when U.S. officials said North Korea admitted having a covert nuclear program in violation of a 1994 pact.

The 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not with a peace treaty.
Can we nuke them yet?

Hey, it's KJI's army.  If he wants to throw it away...

What again, come on this is like the fourth or fifth time N. Korea has said that any economic sanctions or the like would be considered an act of war. there is nothing really new about this. And we should have been dealing with N. Korea first than Iraq. but better late than never.

Good, I hope they do attack.  The sooner we get rid of that rabid insane SOB the better.

Is he truly insane or is he just harping to get another bag of rice?

Part of me wants to see them do it simply to get it over with.

blah blah blah blah

I am that the Pentagon has yet to show it's full warfighting capability.

THIS would make them show their hand, and I wager that the NKs would be in for rude surprise.

[marines]

Aren't we about to go into an election year?


heh heh heh...  [devil]

--LS

The ants at the Korean picnic would of course be China's, Peoples Liberation Army. Who unlike the fickle French from our last little military foray into Iraq, would quite happily come storming back across the Yalu River just like they did the last time.

The utter contempt and bravado that many of you show twards China's military is the highest form of what I like to think of as "The Custer Syndrome" (The other guys are all stupid savages and we as Americans will always win because god is on our side and we have the coolest looking gear.)

I see posts on here every day about crummy ChiCom gear, Leapers, NC, BEC, Norinco and so forth. However, on the day that 1.5 million PLA soldiers come marching down into the central part of Northern Korea, equipped with brand new Norinco Bullpups, Cheesy Leapers Scoped rifles and all that other cheap military stuff that China has been buying, building and re-equiping it's army with for the last 10 years....You might not think that the PLA is such a joke.

I know my father, who was over in Korea the last time, did'nt think it was all that funny and the PLA that came across the Yalu then, was wearing cheap quilted jackets, rubber shower flip flops and carring bolt action rifles and PPsh's.

How well equipped does a 1.5 million strong force have to be to kick the hell out of the limited forces we could commit to Korea?

I would think that the PRC, might have figured out by now, that the stupidest thing you can do when fighting the U.S., Is to allow the Americans months of negotiation in which we ship all our cool gear over to the theater.

The PLA might just get on their crude trucks, drive like hell and be on the DMZ before American Reserve formations finish packing their rucks back in the states.

Your concerns are valid but are easily taken care of with the push of a button.
[img]http://photos.ar15.com/ImageGallery/Attachments/DownloadAttach.asp?iImageUnq=4522[/img]

NK is trying to create a crisis atmosphere so they can shake us down for more money.

It is unlikely that China would intervene on North Korea's side. They'd have nothing to gain from it, and quite a bit to lose. They generally regard NK as a loose cannon, too, and are getting increasingly ticked off about them. An aggressive, nuclear NK could result in a nuclear South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, and encourage Japanese cooperation in anti-missile defense.

A war would be very bad for children and other living things. You can figure on Seoul getting flattened, thousands of US casualties, NK commando raids on Japan and elsewhere, and maybe a few nukes flying. Not to mention gas and biologicals. The US would win, eventually, but it would take a while and involve some hard fighting.

They have been singing this same song for how long now? Of course the US news has only been covering it since it becams convenient for the liberal agenda. I remember in 1999 waking up, going outside, and finding leaflets that NK had dropped all over the Army post I was stationed at. The leaflets said that Korea would be unified by force by the turn of the century. Never happened. He's been singing this same song and dance since the fifties.  

I bet these guys would still be against it.

http://www.sp-usa.org/

Well, no.  China would NOT involve themselves militarily were NK to invade SK and we intervened.  They MIGHT POSSIBLY try to do something if we proactively struck NK, but probably not.  The fact is, China's economy is totally dependant on sales to the US and they are not about to upset that applecart.
And yes, we are dismissive of the Chinese military because it is simply not that good.  They have a lot of cannon fodder, and we might have to nuke them if they shipped enough of them south, but that's about it.

Stop the presses! Raise the sail! Kill the fatted calf!

Cousin Rikky and I agree on something!

Well, those "hoards of Chicoms storming across the Yalu", would first have to GET ACROSS the Yalu.


In case you hadn't noticed, the U.S.A.F. has become quite adept at turning bridges into piles of little rocks. In event of war, I'm sure those bridges would be target #2, right after anything emitting more than normal background radiation.

I am sure we agree on lots of things, Gobby.  It's simply that those things on which we disagree have become such sore subjects for both of us.

Nothing but a bunch of huff-puffery!  The North isn't about to abrogate the armistice and start the shooting again.  While they wouldn't even be yakking about it UNLESS they think they can leverage it into something useful, Kim's options are VERY limited...and at this time I don't see what he's after.

In a straight up fight, we kick their asses very meanly and very badly.  Kim may be a pudgy little weasely, fag nut case but his staff aren't all that dumb.  They KNOW Ol' Dubya wouldn't stop this time until we had ALL of the North under our control...FOR GOOD.

And IF the Little Nut-Job wanted to REALLY test his mettle with a nuc...well, one EAM to just one sub and North Korea ceases to exist as a nation state...and Kim and all his buds are crispy critters.

No...this is just more blathering.  One day, they'll learn this ain't Clinton they are dealing with now.

there is another aspect that you are not considering - the HUGE marketplace the Chinese now have over here.

The NKs invade, we hose em, AND tell the Chinks that IF they do ANYHTING that even SMELLS like intervention, we cut them off.

They lose, in one fell swoop their largest source of foreign currency and their biggest trade market.

then the Febes start arresting all the Wen Ho Lees that are over here, wrecking whatever intel ops they have.....

that's a tough pill to swallow.