Thread: Piers Morgan: The One Simple Thing China MUST Do That Will Stop North Korea In Its Tr

September 5, 2017 By Ron Eagle

Piers Morgan: The One Simple Thing China MUST Do That Will Stop North Korea In Its Tracks



On Sunday, North Korea detonated its sixth nuclear weapon and first hydrogen bomb.

It was by far the most powerful yet, sparking a 6.3-magnitude earthquake and prompting tremors felt in China and Japan.

According to dailymail.co.uk:

This, according to experts, indicates the hydrogen bomb had a 100-kiloton yield.

Like me, you probably don’t know your kiloton from your kilogram.

But here’s an analogy that will make the scale of this weapon and explosion crystal clear for everyone: that means the device was SEVEN TIMES stronger than the atomic bomb America dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

The kind of intercontinental ballistic missile North Korea deploys to carry such a bomb could technically reach the United States.

And Vipin Narang, a nuclear expert at MIT, told the Washington Post that North Korea could ‘destroy the better part of a city with this yield.’

Put all these facts together, and you start to understand just how serious and potentially catastrophic this crisis has become.

No wonder then that Secretary of Defense James Mattis warned ‘any threat to the United States or its territories, or our allies, will be met with a massive military response – both effective and overwhelming.’

Nor that Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said the Korean peninsular was now ‘closer to war than at any time’ which would be ‘a disaster for the region and world.’

The question, once again, remains a simple yet highly complex one: what the hell do we do about this?

Nobody, least of all the US, actually wants a nuclear war.

I’m pretty certain North Korean leader Kim Jong-un doesn’t want one either.

Why would he? His whole strategy to date, like his father, has been to build a military defence so big and powerful it protects his vile regime from attack.

If Jong-un fires one bomb at the US or its allies, he would sentence himself and his country to instant annihilation.

But the world can no longer just sit back and let this crazed upstart act with such brazen and dangerous impunity given the increasing size and power of his nuclear weaponry.

What worries me most about this situation is the chance of North Korea making a horrendous mistake and accidentally provoking war with a test that goes horribly wrong.

So Jong-un must be stopped in his nuclear tracks, that much is clear.
But how, if military action is not a realistic option?

Tough new United Nations Security Council sanctions implemented last month were a good start, and it was very encouraging to see every member country signing up to them.

Unfortunately, I fear they don’t go nearly far enough.

North Korea needs to be attacked financially in a way so devastating it is rendered economically impotent, and the most lethal administer of such an attack is its biggest trading partner, China.

http://rightalerts.com/piers-morgan-...in-its-tracks/

North Korea nuclear crisis: Putin calls sanctions useless

9/5/17

South Korea carries out live-fire drills amid continuing tension on the peninsula

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said pursuing further sanctions against North Korea is "useless", saying "they'd rather eat grass than give up their nuclear programme".

The US said on Monday it would table a new UN resolution on tougher sanctions in the wake of the latest test of a nuclear bomb by the North on Sunday.
Mr Putin also said that the ramping up of "military hysteria" could lead to global catastrophe.

He said diplomacy was the only answer.
China, the North's main ally, has also called for a return to negotiations.

• How much leverage does China have over North Korea?
• What do we know about N Korea's nuclear site?
• How do you defend against North Korea?
• North Korea crisis in 300 words

Meanwhile, North Korea's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Han Tae-song, said his country's recent "self-defence measures" were a "gift package addressed to the US".

"The US will receive more gift packages from my country as long as it relies on reckless provocations and futile attempts to put pressure on the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea)," Reuters news agency quoted him as saying.

What did Vladimir Putin say about sanctions?

The Russian leader was speaking at the meeting of the Brics group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) in Xiamen, China.

Although he condemned the North's test as "provocative", Mr Putin said: "Sanctions of any kind would now be useless and ineffective.

Media captionPeople in Seoul, South Korea, give their views about the nuclear test "They'd rather eat grass than abandon their [nuclear weapons] programme unless they feel secure. And what can establish security? The restoration of international law. We should promote dialogue among all interested parties."

Citing a "humanitarian aspect", Mr Putin said millions of people would suffer under tougher measures, adding: "Sanctions have been exhausted."

On Monday, at the United Nations in New York, US envoy Nikki Haley argued that only the strongest sanctions would enable the problem to be resolved through diplomacy.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed that stance on Tuesday, saying more sanctions were urgently needed to counter the North's "flagrant breach of international conventions".

North Korea's Han Tae-song said sanctions would never work and that his country would "never under any circumstances put its nuclear test runs on the negotiating table".

Where are we with sanctions?

Last month, the Security Council voted unanimously to ban North Korean exports and limit investments in the country.

Ms Haley did not spell out what additional measures might be taken, but diplomats have suggested an oil embargo would have a crippling effect.

There could also be a ban on the North's national airline, curbs on North Koreans working abroad, and asset freezes and travel bans on officials.

On Tuesday, South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said after a conversation with her Chinese counterpart that she believed Beijing "could be open to more sanctions".

Mr Putin said Russia's trade with North Korea was negligible and did not violate current international sanctions.

What about the military situation?

After telling the UN Security Council that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was "begging for war", Nikki Haley said: "War is never something the United States wants.

"We don't want it now but our country's patience is not unlimited."

In talks overnight, US President Donald Trump and South Korea's Moon Jae-in agreed in principle to scrap a warhead weight limit on the South's missiles, which are currently capped at 500kg (1,100lb), giving it a greater strike force against North Korea.

The South on Tuesday also carried out further live-fire exercises at sea, following missile drills on Monday that simulated the targeting of the Punggye-ri nuclear site where North Korea carried out its bomb test.

Seoul has said there will be more live-fire drills this month.

South Korea's Asia Business Daily quoted sources on Tuesday as saying the North had been observed moving a rocket towards its west coast.

The rocket, which appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), was moved overnight to avoid surveillance, it said.

The reports followed South Korean defence ministry statements on Monday that the North was preparing more missile tests.

The South has also said it is deploying four more launchers of the US Thaad (Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence) missile defence system to join two already at a site in Seongju, south of Seoul.

But Mr Putin said that "ramping up military hysteria will lead to nothing good. It could lead to a global catastrophe. There's no other path apart from a peaceful one."

He said that given the North's range of weaponry, including long-range artillery, simply setting up missile defence systems made no sense.

China also demanded a peaceful resolution.

China's envoy to the UN, Liu Jieyi, said: "China will never allow chaos and war on the peninsula."

• Can the world live with a nuclear North Korea?
• Have North Korea's missile tests paid off?

---

Talks about what?

By Jonathan Marcus, BBC defence and diplomatic correspondent
President Putin's comments underline the closeness of the positions of Russia and China on the North Korean crisis, making a further punitive sanctions resolution from the UN Security Council unlikely.

Moscow and Beijing are pushing for a diplomatic opening but their "roadmap" has been rejected by Washington and it is far from clear what the Pyongyang regime's attitude is to potential talks.

More significantly, what would talks be about? Reducing tensions certainly, but would Pyongyang be willing to halt or give up its nuclear and missile programmes? What kind of grand bargain might be struck if any?

Mr Putin's comments also reflect Russia's own position as the target of US and EU economic sanctions, imposed in the wake of its seizure of the Crimea and its wider behaviour in eastern Ukraine.

---

How big was the latest test?

On Sunday, the North tested a bomb underground, which was thought to have had a power range from 50 to 120 kilotonnes. A 50kt device would be about three times the size of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945.
It was North Korea's sixth nuclear test to date.

Kim Jong-un was pictured on camera being shown what state media said was a new type of hydrogen bomb.

• Kim inspects 'nuclear warhead': A picture decoded
• 'Tunnel collapse' at nuclear site may provide clues
• China mutes discussion of North Korea bomb

South Korea said it was now presumed that the North had reduced its nuclear warhead in size to below 500kg, and would be able to attach one to an ICBM.
Image copyright EPA Image caption Recent photos show North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (centre) inspecting a bomb But analysts have said the North's claims about miniaturisation should be treated with considerable caution.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41158281

Putin also said NK was aware of what had happened to Iraq, Libya, etc.

Maybe they just don't want to be invaded and are taking steps to see they don't - or if they are, the price will be unthinkable.

If the US decided for some reason to invade NK, as they did in Afghanistan and Iraq, Libya and Syria, NK is gone anyway - so what do they have to loose.

It's the rest of the world that stands to loose.

Putin's right, sanctions against North Korea are useless to the extent that no matter what sanctions we do, the outcome will be the same, they will still have nuclear weapons. Another reason Putin is right is because he knows approximately the size of the black market that feeds North Korea's military. It's sort of like illegal immigration into the US. It's against the law but everybody does it. People who follow the laws aren't playing to begin with. Only those who will and do break the law participate, so new laws don't matter, on the modis operandi, rules were made to be broken. It's the same thing with sanctions on North Korea. It's just a game to them, because they can get all the money they want or need from the black market.

We have no right to tell another country they can't have nuclear weapons when most of the world has them.

Again, NK just doesn't want to end up like Iraq and other countries - completely destroyed, raped and pillaged.