Senior North Korean Defector Tells Lester Holt: "World Should Be Ready."
Source: NBC News
SEOUL, South Korea — A senior North Korean defector has told NBC News that the country's "desperate" dictator is prepared to use nuclear weapons to strike the United States and its allies.
Thae Yong Ho is the most high profile North Korean defector in two decades, meaning he is able to give a rare insight into the secretive, authoritarian regime.
According to Thae, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is "desperate in maintaining his rule by relying on his [development of] nuclear weapons and ICBM." He was using an acronym for intercontinental ballistic missiles — a long range rocket that in theory would be capable of hitting the U.S.
"Once he sees that there is any kind of sign of a tank or an imminent threat from America, then he would use his nuclear weapons with ICBM," he added in an exclusive interview on Sunday. Thae was living in London and serving as North Korea's deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom when he and his family defected to South Korea and were announced to the world in August.
Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/north-korean-defector-tells-lester-holt-world-should-be-ready-n741901?cid=eml_nbn_20170403
= new reply since forum marked as read
And they will get louder as the Trump administration implodes - War is always good for the corrupt and evil
Here's excerpts from a lengthy article analyzing how N.K. may respond to a strike and what their capabilities are:
"North Korea is powerless to prevent a U.S. strike on its nuclear program, but retaliation is well within its means. The significant military capability that North Korea has built up against South Korea is not advanced by Western standards, but there are practical ways Pyongyang could respond to aggression.
The North Korean military's most powerful tool is artillery. It cannot level Seoul as some reports have claimed, but it could do significant damage. Pyongyang risks deteriorating its forces by exposing them to return fire, however, which significantly restricts their use. Less conventional methods of retaliation, such as sabotage or cyber warfare, are less risky but also limit the shock that North Korea would desire."
"After a strike, North Korea's most immediate and expected method of retaliation would center around conventional artillery. Many of the North's indirect fire systems are already located on or near the border with South Korea. By virtue of proximity and simplicity, these systems have a lower preparatory and response times than air assets, larger ballistic missiles or naval assets. Nevertheless, there are several critical limitations to their effectiveness.
Tube and Rocket Artillery
The biggest anticipated cost of a North Korean artillery barrage in response to an attack would be the at least partial destruction of Seoul. But the volume of fire that the North can direct against the South Korean capital is limited by some important factors. Of the vast artillery force deployed by the North along the border, only a small portion — Koksan 170-mm self-propelled guns, as well as 240-mm and 300-mm multiple launch rocket systems — are capable of actually reaching Seoul. Broadly speaking, the bulk of Pyongyang's artillery can reach only into the northern border area of South Korea or the northern outskirts of Seoul."
more:https://www.stratfor.com/analysis/how-north-korea-would-retaliate
We are told simultaneously that they are a dangerous threat and their technology is laughably dysfunctional. I wouldn't be so sure about either one. They seem to operate in a different mentality than we do. If enough of their people starve, they might start some shit to hang onto power and keep people occupied. Plus they seem a bit paranoid and suicidal, which we have experience with in the Middle East. And they are also an excuse for the US to keep a large military presence in the area near China.
Trump and Bannon want to go to war with someone to justify their defense build up boost their poll numbers here. Many in the Trump administration enjoy killing innocent civilians in the Middle East and would like to carpet bomb Koreans to show the world the might of the alpha males after the weak and soft Obama years. 
There are shitheads who told us the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts would be easy and quick. Those people should be punched in the face.
...apparently serves a new master.
.....and miniaturized a warhead. But if Pakistan can do it I think N Korea can also.
