Intelligence reports from South Korea and the US show images of medium range ballistic missiles being moved to its east coast for a possible test launch or, more ominously, attack positions. This is the kind of miscalculation that could lead to war. What happens if they are testing the rocket and something goes horribly wrong, such as striking downtown Seoul? No one will see it as an accident and a full on attack will be the response. What if they are dumb enough to believe their own press and attack on purpose?
The missiles in question is considered to be a mid-range Musdan, first revealed at a North Korean military parade in 2010. The Musdan is estimated to have a range of 1000 to 3000 miles. Japan and Guam, both of which have US bases, are within its range.
Should an attack occur, everyone agrees the end result would be absolute suicide, especially if nuclear weapons enter the mix. Should Un use nukes, the general response will be North Korea becoming a big glass parking lot. It will be regime change to the extreme.
China is showing how angry they are with their neighbor by shooting down a request from the North for a Chinese envoy to arrive to help mend their relationship, which has been less than friendly lately.
Multiple sources in Beijing told the JoongAng Ilbo on Tuesday that: “North Korea asked China to send a high-ranking envoy at the deputy-ministerial-level, but China rejected it. China said ‘if they want an envoy, North Korea should send their envoy [to China] first,’” the source said. However, the North hasn’t sent an envoy to Beijing so far, the sources said. If they do, China is likely to pressure them to stop saber-rattling and return to the six-party talks."
This is especially bad for the North Koreans and proving my point that if North Korea does something reckless, China will either sit this one out or even help get rid of Un. It is the only positive spin on this increasingly bad story which could lead to the death of millions in a regional nuclear war.
There is a more conspiratorial angle to this story is that some feel that this is all being engineered to help stop the inevitable economic crash that many feel is due any day now. Wars have been being manipulated since at least the first Korean war, perhaps longer. Vietnam was started with the Gulf of Tonkin, which we now know didn't happen the way they said it did and as a result, 58,000 servicemen lost their lives. Both Gulf Wars were started with lies and even Afghanistan may have been bogus if, as some conspiracies say, Bin Laden had nothing to do with 9/11.
If we are in as deep do-do as many economists think, war is the ultimate palate cleanser. It forces people to accept grinding poverty as a way to "support the troops," gives the rich all sorts of new ways to make money, and will improve the economy somewhat, mostly for the upper class. It's happened many times in our recent past and it will happen again. It could be happening now as we don't really have any wars going on, at least not the kind that makes obscene amounts of money for defense contractors.
But the meat of the matter is that the odds have increased the Un is either in some sort of power struggle with members of his own family, he is over-posturing to consolidate his power, or he is insane. With the movement of missiles to the border, if someone sneezes the wrong way, the world could see it's first nuclear exchange on a massive scale.
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