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AMID CONCERNS THAT North Korea is on the verge of executing its sixth nuclear test, a US-based monitoring group believes it has found evidence to show that the country is “primed and ready” at one of its nuclear sites.
38North says that satellite images of the Punggye-ri site in the north of the country shows that a nuclear test could be imminent.
On its website, the group said: “Commercial satellite imagery of North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site from 12 April shows continued activity around the site’s command centre.
“In the courtyards of the main administrative area are approximately 11 probable tarp-covered pallets of equipment or supplies, a formation of personnel, and several individuals walking about.”
US President Donald Trump has dispatched an aircraft carrier group to the Korean peninsula, to support allies Japan and South Korea in the face of increasingly hostile relations with North Korea.
“We are sending an armada. Very powerful,” he told the Fox Business Network.
We have submarines. Very powerful. Far more powerful than the aircraft carrier.
“He is doing the wrong thing,” he added of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. “He’s making a big mistake.”
Trump has tweeted on the subject on several occasions this week, appearing to be trying to get China on the side of the US.
Beijing has urged Trump to take a peaceful approach to resolving the issue, but the Global Times newspaper, which sometimes reflects the thinking of the leadership, issued an unequivocal warning to Pyongyang that it should “avoid making mistakes at this time”.
A new test would be a “slap in the face of the US government” and Beijing would not “remain indifferent”, it said.
Ready for war
The North has reiterated its constant refrain that it is ready for “war” with the US.
Successive governments in Washington have only attacked states which “do not have nukes”, the official North Korean KCNA agency quoted a foreign ministry statement as saying, “and the same is true of the Trump administration”.
What happened in Syria once again taught a bitter lesson that no one should have an illusion about the imperialists and one can defend oneself from the imperialist aggression only when one has one’s strength.
Today, KCNA reported separately that Kim had watched special forces drop from light transport planes “like hail” and “mercilessly blew up enemy targets” during an exercise.
“The contest proved once again that our Korean People’s Army… will show a real taste of gun shot and real taste of war to the reckless invaders,” KCNA said.
Nerve gas
Earlier today, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a parliamentary committee that North Korea is capable of delivering a deadly nerve gas attack, similar to the one the US believes the Syrian government used on its own people last week.
“There is a possibility that North Korea is already capable of delivering (via missile) a warhead containing sarin,” Abe told a parliamentary diplomacy and defence committee, referring to the poison nerve agent.
Government spokesperson Yoshihide Suga elaborated: “Referring to the Syrian situation, our prime minister displayed a recognition that we can’t deny the possibility that North Korea can equip (a missile) with chemical weapons.
North Korea… is likely to maintain several facilities to produce chemical weapons and already possess a considerable number of them.
With reporting from AFP - © AFP, 2017
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Syrian Observatory for Human Rights? You mean the pro-Al Nusra Brit in Coventry that refuses to cite his sources, data and methadology?
@Cormac Ó Braonáin: the SOHR the shifted is stance over the course of the war as the rebels became more extreme, while initially supporting the FSA during he first few years of the war, the SOHR does not support the rebels any more. The SOHR clearly sided with the Kurds during last January’s Turkish led Operation Olive Branch (the Turkish and Syrian Rebel invasion of Kurdish region of Afrin of NW Syria). The SOHR released a lot of inaccurate news reports that supported the Kurdish YPG (false claims of Kurdish victories against the Syrian Rebels). A bit like Comical Ali, remember him?
Here’s the bomb attack (graphic), seems it was a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest…
US backed terrorists killed by US backed terrorists?
Divide and conquer.
@paul kelly: wtf?
@paul kelly:
The US government supported the Free Syrian Army, which was not an Islamic militant organisation.
ISIS hates the Western powers. therefore, the idea that the US government would support ISIS is absurd.
@Ciarán Masterson: As absurd as them supporting the Taliban and Al Quida?
@Ciarán Masterson: LOL – America have been supporting ISIS for years in Syria,
They like to play both sides of the coin, You genuinely have blinkers on and a childlike understanding of Americas role in all of this
@paul kelly: “US backed terrorists killed by US backed terrorists?”
Eh no, 9 civilians killed and about 20 injured, including children, when an ISIS suicide bomber blew himself up in a cafe. Here’s the bomb attack (graphic)
@paul kelly: If you’re referring to the Kurds, no. The YPG doesn’t do suicide bombings and nowhere in the Journal article does it say who was responsible. And in any case, it was mostly civilians that were killed.
US-backed soldier? Who makes this shyte up? The word is Mercenary
Even thought US is leaving Syria the economic sanctions and sanctions against any ships going to Syria…By both the EU and US…..Will keep the people of Syria impoverished for years….Unable to rebuild their country….
5 US soldiers killed according to Turkish leader Erdogan in his address, He is stating that it was an attack designed to keep the us in Syria, but he thinks it won`t affect the US withdrawal as it would mean a victory for Daesh.
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