12-12-17

WW3 is a tantrum away. Stay at the ready and prepare!

RUSSIA has warned the stand-off between the US and North Korea is moving towards a “hot phase” as fears continue over World War 3.

AND

NORTH KOREA could be joined by China in a conflict between the US and its allies as fears increase over the Chinese position in the brewing conflict.

PLUS

Satellite imagery of North Korea’s main military shipyards shows the regime is ramping up its development of submarine-launched ballistic missiles… or SLBMs. Experts say the North is close to developing a SLBM that is longer and more powerful than its previous one. Park Soyun reports.

There are strong indications North Korea’s submarine-launched ballistic missile program is advancing and a new SLBM barge will soon be up and running at Nampo Navy Shipyard on the country’s west coast. South Korean and U.S. intelligence agencies are also monitoring North Korea’s Sinpo shipyard, on the country’s east coast, where North Korea’s SLBM development station is located. Using satellite imagery,… those agencies say the North appears to have developed a SLBM that is three meters longer than the previous Pukkuksong-1.

There’s speculation the missile has a considerably increased range since it can store more fuel. (Korean) – “If the missile is three meters longer,… the overall weight is likely to be 28 tons. If the Pukkuksong-1′s projected range is 1,600 kilometers, the new one could have a range of up to 4,000 kilometers. That would put Guam within its range.”

Breaking News North Korea – U.S. & Allies Prepared As N. Korea Threatens With Developing New Weapon

Source The Trump Era

North Korea WARNING: China could side with Kim Jong-un if World War 3 erupted with US – DAILY NEWS

North Korea in ‘hot phase’: Russia WILL act with China & India to protect Kim – WW3 threat

Sources Daily News

North Korea appears ready to accelerate submarine weapons tests, adding to nuclear threat

• A second missile test stand for North Korea’s submarine-launched ballistic missile development is “almost operational,” says think-tank 38 North.
• Recent satellite imagery appears to show the new test platform for the missiles, which it called “a strong indicator that Pyongyang is advancing.”
• An expert said the nuclear-armed state is working at a feverish pace and could launch a submarine with SLBM capability as early as next year.

There are signs that North Korea’s submarine missile program is expanding as it prepares its second test, adding to the risk that the nuclear-armed country could one day threaten the U.S. or its Asian allies with yet another powerful weapon in its arsenal.

Experts suggest North Korea having fully submersible submarines firing a nuclear ballistic missile pose a dangerous scenario because they could offer the hermit regime a better chance of survival and might be harder to detect. It comes on the heels of North Korea on Tuesday launching a new Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile, a road-mobile weapon the state-owned KCNA media claimed could carry a “super-large heavy warhead, which is capable of striking the whole mainland of the U.S.”

The North Koreans appear to be getting more aggressive on submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) development and now have several shipyards active in the offshore-weapons program. The North is not believed to have the capability today to launch multiple ballistic missiles from a submarine. However, experts say the totalitarian state is working at a feverish pace and could have this submersible as early as next year.

“If North Korea can deploy not only developmentally a submarine-launched ballistic missile that is effective and deploy it on ballistic missile submarines, it certainly complicates defense against missile attacks,” defense analyst Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., co-founder and CEO of Colorado-based imagery analysis firm KPA Associates LLC, told CNBC in an interview Friday.

In a 38 North blog post Friday, he revealed that “commercial satellite imagery from Nov. 11, 16 and 24 show that North Korea’s second submersible ballistic missile test stand barge — a platform that allows for underwater missile launches outside of submarines — located at the Nampo Navy Shipyard is being prepared to enter service.”

38 North, a project of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, said the “second missile test stand barge [is] almost operational.” Bermudez wrote, “Once in service, this barge will help facilitate a broader SLBM testing regime and potentially establish a SLBM capability within the West Sea fleet [of North Korea's navy].”

Bermudez, a 38 North contractor, explained that the test stand barge and platform are used to simulate the weapons that would be inside the submarine because it’s considered too dangerous and costly to do such early testing inside a real submarine. He also said that the North Koreans know the U.S. military is watching its SLBM and submarine development so they have been doing things to mitigate the satellite surveillance capabilities, including resorting to concealment in some cases.

Still, Bermudez called the Nampo shipyard activities on the regime’s west coast “a strong indicator that Pyongyang is advancing” in its SLBM program. And he said the North Koreans will need a series of tests from the submersible barge before deploying ballistic missiles on submarines.

Last year, North Korea conducted a test of its SLBM technology near its port city of Sinpo and reportedly flew one missile at least 500 kilometers (or about 300 miles), according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. Sinpo, located on the country’s northeast coast, also is where the North reportedly has renovated large buildings that might be involved in the construction of a new SLBM-capable submarine.

The Sinpo-class experimental submarine that the North Koreans have today is believed to be up to about 2,000 tons and have a nautical range of about 2,800 kilometers (about 1,500 miles). Yet it features just a single launch tube and Bermudez said “no one considers that an operational capability.”

According to Bermudez, Pyongyang is apparently building a submarine that will feature multiple tubes for ballistic missiles and greater capability at sea. He estimated the new submarine “could be launched any time next year and going forward.”

To be clear, though, he said just because the submarine may launch doesn’t necessarily mean it’s fully operational. The expert explained how it typically takes a year or two after the submarine is launched that it “truly becomes operational” because it will go through a range of sea trials and necessary crew training.

Even so, having the submarine-launched ballistic missiles with nuclear capability is potentially a nightmare scenario for South Korea and Japan. That’s because the submarines could potentially avoid detection by some of the most advanced defense systems.

For example, missiles fired by North Korean submarines off the east coast of Japan could potentially dodge detection from Japan’s Patriot anti-missile system by launching from behind radar. At present, the detection is focused on missiles coming from land-based missiles in North Korea.

Similarly, the current THAAD anti-missile system deployed by the U.S. in South Korea is focused on identifying missile threats from the North. As a result, a submarine missile from the North Korean navy could be launched behind radar and perhaps evade existing defense systems.

“Up to now we’ve only had to worry about them coming from north to south or from west to east in the case of Japan and the United States,” said Bermudez. “If they deploy a ballistic missile submarine with operational missiles, it can come from almost any direction around the peninsula.”

Experts say U.S. bases in the Western Pacific, including Guam, also are potentially at risk if North Korea deploys submarines with SLBM weapons. At this point, though, it’s not believed that the North Korean submarines have a range to reach the United States mainland.

That said, if the North’s submarines could reach closer to the U.S. West Coast they would not need an intercontinental ballistic missile to threaten major American cities, says Loren Thompson, a defense industry consultant and chief operating officer of the Lexington Institute, a Virginia-based public-policy think tank.

“The biggest problem the U.S. faces in dealing with a North Korean nuclear launch is that you can’t stop it if you don’t know where it’s coming from,” Thompson said. “That is why the North Koreans are building mobile missile launchers on land and why they’re trying to develop the ability to launch from under the seas.”

At the end of the day, Thompson said what the North Koreans want is something the United States has in its nuclear arsenal — “a survivable retaliatory capability. If it’s at sea, they might be very well obtain it.”

But he said technological hurdles in developing a submarine with multiple ballistic missiles is rather challenging. That may be one reason North Korean hackers last year reportedly stole blueprints from Daewoo Shipbuilding, a large South Korean maker of submarines.

“You can’t just launch the missile,” Thompson said. “The exhaust will destroy the submarine. You have to push it into the air with gas, like compressed oxygen, and then ignite it once it’s in the air. That is just more more complicated than launching from a land base.”

North Korea’s largest submarines at present include the so-called Romeo-class submersibles that are based on an old design from the Soviet Union. The 1,800-ton vessels are considered relatively easy to detect using anti-submarine warfare technology available to the U.S. and its Asian allies.

In fact, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been featured in state-run media taking tours and riding on board the green-painted Romeo-class submarines operated by the North’s navy. Some estimates are the North has around 20 of the Romeo-class submarines.

The North Koreans also are known to have some 50 smaller submarines that are harder to detect and can sink ships with torpedoes. One of those submarines was believed to be responsible for sinking the South Korean Cheonan navy ship in 2010, resulting in the deaths of 46 sailors.   SOURCE CNBC Jeff Michaels

North Korea in ‘hot phase’: Russia WILL act with China & India to protect Kim – WW3 threat

RUSSIA has warned the stand-off between the US and North Korea is moving towards a “hot phase” as fears continue over World War 3.

By MARK CHANDLER

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the risks of tensions escalating were very high.

And he announced Russia, India and China were ready to intervene in the conflict.

Mr Lavrov insisted the row over Pyongyang’s missiles programme could only be solved through diplomatic means. 

He was speaking after a ministerial meeting between Russia, India and China.

Mr Lavrov warned: “We shared our opinions regarding the situation on the Korean Peninsula that remains extremely tense.

“We pointed to the absence of an alternative to the solution of the specified problem solely by political and diplomatic means in line with the Russian-Chinese roadmap.”

Diplomatic tensions have soared between Washington and Pyongyang again in recent weeks over Kim Jong-un’s military ambitions. 

But China and Russia have vowed to stand-by the otherwise diplomatically isolated nation.

It comes after Russian armed forces chief General Valery Gerasimov warned military exercises by Japan, South Korea and the US were causing “hysteria” on the peninsula.

He said: “Carrying out military training in regions surrounding North Korea will only heighten hysteria and make the situation unstable.”

This week’s exercise by the allies will see them share information on tracking ballistic missiles.

That happened just days after large-scale drills by US and South Korean forces that North Korea said made the outbreak of war “an established fact”.

China, the North’s main trading partner, has also repeatedly called for the United States and South Korea to stop their exercises. 

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang, asked in Beijing about the new drills, said the situation was a vicious cycle.

He said: ”All relevant parties should do is still to completely, precisely and fully implement the relevant UN Security Council resolutions toward North Korea, and do more for regional peace and stability and to get all parties back to the negotiating table. 

“Not the opposite, mutual provocation.”

China’s Defence Ministry said yesterday it had begun a joint simulated anti-missile drill with Russia in Beijing.

It said the exercise which had “important meaning” for both countries in facing the threat from missiles but claimed it was not aimed at any third party. 

The hermit state has defiantly continued its testing of ballistic missiles as angry rhetoric tyrant Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump continues.

On November 29, it test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile which it said was its most advanced yet, capable of reaching the mainland United States.

After the secretive state’s most recent missile launch, it warned it was now capable of striking any country in the world.

And experts warned this week that new submarine-launched missiles posed a severe threat to the US. 

Mr Trump has said the US could take military action against the regime, promising “fire and fury”. 

But US UN Ambassador Nikki Haley ahs insisted the US will take the Korean situation “into our own hands” if China refuses to do more.

She told Fox News: “We’re putting as much pressure on them as we can. 

“The last time they completely cut off the oil, North Korea came to the table.  

“And so we’ve told China they’ve got to do more. 

“If they don’t do more, we’re going to take it into our own hands and then we’ll start to deal with secondary sanctions.”

And she said new sanctions against the North were having an effect and leaving Pyongyang “stressed out”.

She said: “What we have managed to do is the United States has led, and the international community is all with us, in isolating North Korea.

“That’s a very important move. They feel it, they are getting paranoid, they’re stressed out about it but we are going to continue to keep up the pressure.”      SOURCE Express

#northKorea #war #russia #china #geopolitics #shtf

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