Violence and atrocities : #nuclear threat

Showing posts with label #nuclear threat. Show all posts

Friday, October 21, 2022

North Korea fires hundreds of artillery shells in retaliation to annual defense drills of the South

South Korea conducted its annual defense drills. The aim of such drills is to boost its ability to respond to nuclear and missile threats of Pyongyang. This has not gone down well with the North. It retaliated by firing hundreds of artillery shells off its eastern and western coasts and said the shells did not land in South Korean territorial waters. They instead fell inside maritime buffer zones the two Koreas established under a 2018 inter-Korean agreement aimed at reducing front-line animosities. This is the second such incident. North Korea carried out a similar exercise recently in direct violation of the 2018 agreement. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) confirmed this. He said that North Korea fired some 250 shells of its eastern and western coasts late on Tuesday and launched an additional 100 rounds, starting at around midday on Wednesday. In a statement he said - “We strongly urge North Korea to immediately halt its actions. North Korea’s continued provocations are actions that undermine peace and stability of the Korean Peninsula and the international community.” N Korea fires artillery shells in ‘grave warning’ to Seoul.

A spokesperson for the North Korean People’s Army (KPA) explained that the purpose of firing the shots was designed to send a “grave warning” to South Korea in response to its own artillery training. These took place earlier in an eastern border region. Seoul did not immediately confirm this. The Hoguk drills of the South are due to end soon. These are the latest in a series of military exercises conducted in recent weeks and include joint activities with the United States and Japan. Incidentally, the artillery tests of the North attracts less outside attention than its missile launches. However, its forward-deployed long-range artillery guns pose a serious security threat to the populous metropolitan region of its neighbor. This is because its location is about 25 to 30 miles from the border with North Korea and a matter of concern.

Friday, August 26, 2022

South Korea updates operational plans to counter nuclear and missile threats from the North

During his first visit to a military bunker in the capital Seoul, South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol said that this would serve as a command post in the event of a war. He gave orders for an update of the military's operational plans. This is necessary for his country to address the growing nuclear and missile threats of the North. His visit was significant because it coincided with the beginning of military drills by the armed forces of South Korea and the United States. These would be the largest in years. Renamed as Ulchi Freedom Shield these would conclude on Sep 1. The exercises involve the first field training between the two militaries since 2017. These were subsequently scaled back amid the COVID-19 pandemic and an effort to improve relations with North Korea. South Korea's Yoon orders update of war plans over North Korea's threats. President Yoon made it clear that the current drills were conducted under a changed scenario. He also added that the operational plans reflect North Korea's evolving threats.

During his visit, the President told commanders that there is an urgent need to ensure safety of the lives and properties of the people. These would include updating operational plans against nuclear and missile threats of North Korea. He also mentioned that these are gradually becoming a reality. Another point he made referred to the so-called "Kill Chain" system. Its design can launch preemptive strikes against the missiles of North Korea in case of an imminent attack. This year, its missile tests are progressing at an unprecedented pace. It seems it is ready to conduct its first nuclear test since 2017 at short notice. Last week it launched two cruise missiles from the west coast.

Monday, August 22, 2022

The US and South Korea begin their joint military exercises in view of North Korean nuclear threat

North Korean nuclear threat prompts the US and South Korea to undertake the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises. These are their biggest combined military training in years and will continue through 1 September in South Korea. It will cover field exercises and involve aircraft, warships, tanks and tens of thousands of troops. North Korea describes these exercises as rehearsals for an invasion. Pyongyang has raised the pace of its weapons testing activity and has been simultaneously threatening conflicts with Seoul and Washington. There is a long state of stalemate in diplomacy. Incidentally, a spokesperson of the Unification Ministry of South Korea says there is no immediate signs of any unusual activities from the North. The Unification Ministry handles inter-Korean affairs. US and South Korea begin biggest military training in years amid growing North Korean nuclear threat. The United States and South Korea already canceled some of their regular drills in recent times in order to create space for diplomacy with North Korea apart from concerns associated with COVID-19.

Last week, North Korea rejected South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's offer to exchange denuclearization steps and economic benefits. To this, Kim Yo Jong described the proposal as foolish. She also stressed the North did not have any intention to barter away an arsenal her brother apparently sees as his strongest guarantee of survival. She is the increasingly powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. She heaped criticism on Yoon Suk Yeol and the military exercises with the US. moreover, she also blamed him for the failure to stop South Korean civilian activists from using balloons to send anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border. There are worries in certain quarters that the threats might end up in something worse like a nuclear or missile test or even border skirmishes.

Saturday, April 2, 2016

Nuclear threat from ISIS is very real - Obama and Cameron play imaginary war games

The nuclear threat from ISIS is a very real scenario because security officials are apprehensive that the Islamic State is plotting to use drones to spray deadly nuclear waste over British cities. Since the threat is considered to be real enough, David Cameron and Barack Obama held a ‘war game’ session on how to respond to such an attack that could kill thousands and leave the target town or city uninhabitable for years.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 1 April 2016.

It is common knowledge that drones can be purchased quite easily on websites such as Amazon and there was already evidence of IS trying to use them.
Prime Minister David Cameron cautioned that the terrorists would want to kill as many people as they possibly could, using whatever materials they can get their hands on. Speaking before the war-games dubbed as a ‘doomsday scenario’, The Prime Minister added that many summits are about dealing with things that have already gone wrong and that we are trying to put right. But, this Nuclear Summit is about something we are trying to prevent.
At a nuclear terror summit in Washington, world leaders had conducted a planning session, complete with TV footage of fictitious news broadcasts, to prepare for a drone attack. In the scenario, terrorists managed to steal nuclear material from a health facility and smuggle it into Britain and other Western countries. Some was detected by the intelligence agencies but other consignments got through.
The toxic material was apparently procured by jihadists on the highly encrypted ‘dark web’ after being stolen from the health site. Subsequently, drones – similar to those used to dust crops – were used to spread the lethal material. The gravity of the situation can be gauged from the fact that American commando units have been trained to seize and disable nuclear or radioactive bombs.

Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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