SKorea army on alert after North's military threat

[Dantheman62]

NKorea's Kim nominates third son as successor: reportTime is GMT + 8 hours
Posted: 15-Jan-2009 16:41 hrsA Korean Central News Agency picture shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Il (centre) inspecting a tractor plant. The North Korean leader has nominated his third son as successor and informed the ruling communist party leadership of his choice, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported

The North suffered a full-scale famine in the 1990s which killed hundreds of thousands of people, and severe food shortages persist despite foreign aid.
.
Seoul's state-run Korea Rural Economic Institute said Thursday the North would run short of one million tonnes of food this year. — AFP

[Humble Janitor]

Originally Posted by Dantheman62

NKorea's Kim nominates third son as successor: reportTime is GMT + 8 hours
Posted: 15-Jan-2009 16:41 hrsA Korean Central News Agency picture shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Il (centre) inspecting a tractor plant. The North Korean leader has nominated his third son as successor and informed the ruling communist party leadership of his choice, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported

The North suffered a full-scale famine in the 1990s which killed hundreds of thousands of people, and severe food shortages persist despite foreign aid.
.
Seoul's state-run Korea Rural Economic Institute said Thursday the North would run short of one million tonnes of food this year. — AFP

The timing is suspect. Perhaps Kim Jong Il knows something that we all don't know?

I wish for peace among both Koreas and we should send positive energy that way.

[Dantheman62]

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea warned Monday that it does not engage in "empty talk" and has "guns and bayonets" aimed at its southern neighbor, heightening tensions surrounding its threat to take military action to counter what it calls South Korean plans to invade.

But South Korean President Lee Myung-bak made clear that he won't bend to the North's saber-rattling. On Monday, he named a security expert hawkish on Pyongyang as his unification minister in charge of relations with the communist neighbor.

Like the president, Hyun In-taek is a strong critic of the "Sunshine Policy" espoused by Lee's two liberal predecessors, who sought to pave the way for reconciliation by offering the North unconditional aid.

Analysts say Hyun's appointment suggests Lee will stick to his hard-line policy on the North.

"I'll make efforts to back the president's philosophy and policy so as to move the South-North relations forward," Hyun told The Associated Press. He did not elaborate and declined to comment on views that he is a hard-liner.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090119/...oreas_tensions

Could this be the "test" that both Biden and Powell eluded too?

Flipping HAWKS....can't we all just get along?

[Dantheman62]

I think we need to keep an eye on the North Koreans because of the severe food shortages there.

[Dantheman62]

On Monday, the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper reiterated the military's warning that it will respond to any South Korean aggression with "one strike" capable of annihilation.

"The Lee Myung-bak group should bear in mind that our guns and bayonets ... are aimed at their throats," the paper said in an editorial carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, warning that its threats are not "empty talk."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090119/...oreas_tensions