With North Korea warning of nuclear war, B-52s soar in 'Foal Eagle'

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  Nov. 20, 2012: A B-52 Stratofortress flies just under the sun after flying a routine sortie at Minot Air Force Base, N.D.U.S. Air Force / Andrew Crawford

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  April 20, 2011: U.S. Air Force aircrew assigned to the 23rd Bomb Squadron Minot Air Force Base N.D., pre-flight their B-52 Stratofortress aircraft before an 8hr sortie going over bomb dropping sequences and air refueling.USAF / Staff Sgt. Andy M. Kin

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  March 26, 2012: A B-52 Stratofortress, from the 2nd Bomb Wing, Barksdale Air Force Base, La., receives fuel from a Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker, from the 151st Air Fueling Wing, Utah Air National Guard.U.S. Air Force / Tech. Sgt. Dennis J. Henry Jr.

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  March 26, 2012: A B-52 Stratofortress, from the 2nd Bomb Wing, Barksdale Air Force Base, La., receives fuel from a Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker, from the 151st Air Fueling Wing, Utah Air National Guard.U.S. Air Force / Tech. Sgt. Dennis J. Henry Jr.

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  The behemoth B-52 Stratofortress is the biggest bomber that the Air Force flies -- so big that it takes 32 airmen more than 12 hours to wash one.U.S. Air Force / by Master Sgt. Lance Cheung

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With North Korea's bellicose rhetoric escalating by the day -- on Wednesday a spokesman said its military has been cleared to wage a nuclear attack -- the annual U.S. training exercise Foal Eagle continues just over the border.

Foal Eagle, which began March 1 and will run through April 30 in conjunction with South Korea, includes a nuclear attack submarine, F-22s and B-2 Stealth bombers, and the nuclear-capable B-52s Stratofortress, a veteran aircraft that can drop the largest array of weapons in the U.S. inventory.

The behemoth is the biggest bomber that the Air Force flies. It's so big that it takes 32 airmen more than 12 hours to wash one. The B-52 can do just about anything from nuclear weapon deployment to close air support.

And this American classic has been making headlines a lot lately.

Beyond the annual Foal Eagle training exercise, Americans across the nation were outraged when "The Amazing Race" used the wreckage of a B-52 shot down in Vietnam as a prop recently, asking contestants to sing communist songs. CBS later apologized for the insensitive show.

It's served the military well for more than half a century.

Inside an American classic
Capable of flying at altitudes of 50,000 feet, the aircraft has a 185-foot wingspan and is nearly 160 feet long. The long-range B-52 heavy bomber flies at subsonic speeds and provides a global strike capability.

Just how fast is that? Built by Boeing, this aircraft can fly at Mach 0.86–that’s 650 miles per hour.

Precision guided missiles, gravity and cluster bombs are just a few of the payloads the B-52 can deliver against targets – a single B-52 can launch a whopping 70,000 pounds of mixed ordnance.

The latest version, the B-52H, can carry up to 20 air-launched cruise missiles, or nuclear weapons for precision delivery anywhere in the world.

The aircraft plays other critical roles beyond attack such as providing critical surveillance and monitoring capabilities.

According to the Air Force, just two B-52s can monitor 140,000 square miles in a mere two hours - that’s like scanning an area larger than the size of Great Britain and Newfoundland combined.

The aircraft can be kitted out with electro-optical viewing sensor systems and forward-looking infrared.

Remarkably, the B-52 has unlimited combat range. The bomber can be refueled while in flight. A KC-135 Stratotanker, for example, can deploy to keep a mission going. Without refueling, it has a range of around 8,800 miles.

In 1989, modernizing updates began, incorporating GPS and adaptations to carry 2,000-pound munitions, according to the Air Force. Developing a full array of advance weapons is also underway.

New avionics, electronic defense and offensive systems, and more powerful engines updates will continue to enhance the aircraft’s utility.

Only the H model is still in the Air Force inventory with aircraft assigned to the Air Force Global Strike Command at the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot AFB in North Dakota and the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale AFB in Louisiana.

B-52Hs are also assigned to Air Force Reserve Command's 307th Bomb Wing at Barksdale.

Maintaining 50-year-young legends
Some of the B-52s are 50 years young -- meaning the dedication of crew chiefs and maintenance crews has been essential to maintaining this legendary aircraft.

After 450 hours or 24 months, the bomber’s parts are checked and rechecked. Subjected to a thorough intensive inspection, damaged pieces and key components are replaced.

Often 120 people will work around the clock.

These teams have ensured that the B-52s get airborne and return safely. They have kept the versatile aircraft in service for more than 60 years.

Proud Deployment History
Entering service in 1954, the B-52 Stratofortresses have been operating for nearly seventy years.

There are different models of the B-52: the B-52A first flew in 1954, and the B model entered service in 1955. Six years later in 1961, the first of 102 B-52H's was delivered to Strategic Air Command.

The B-52s delivered a whopping 40 percent of all the weapons dropped by all the coalition forces during Desert Storm, according to USAF statistics.

During Operation Enduring Freedom, they provided close air support through the use of precision-guided munitions.

In a single 2003 Operation Iraqi Freedom night mission, the B-52Hs launched approximately 100 conventional air launched cruise missiles.

The Air Force regularly deploys the B-52s with a bomber program based in Guam.

Every year, the B-52s participate in a number of training exercises.

The Global Strike Challenge, for example, is an opportunity for teams 96th Bomb Squadron setting up a a B-52H, aerial refueling training, flying mission at the range and landing.

War week is another exercise where B-52s work on aerial refueling, weapons tactics and high altitude maneuvering.

In Red Flag, another exercise with longstanding US allies, attack, air superiority, defense suppression are practiced to improve rapidly standing up combat and cooperation with partners.

Ballet dancer turned defense specialist Allison Barrie has traveled around the world covering the military, terrorism, weapons advancements and life on the front line. You can reach her at wargames@foxnews.com or follow her on Twitter @Allison_Barrie.

Allison Barrie

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North Korea's missile launchers on the move, indicating possible new provocation

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    The real danger of North Korea's threats

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    How dangerous is North Korea?

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    US commander: North Korea situation 'tense' and 'volatile'

South Korea says North Korea has moved a missile with "considerable range" to its east coast after an unnamed spokesman for the North Korean army warned the U.S. Wednesday that its military has been cleared to wage an attack using "smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear" weapons.

South Korea's defense minister said Thursday the missile moved is not capable of hitting the United States.

Kim Kwan-jin dismissed reports in Japanese and South Korean media that the missile could be a KN-08, which is believed to be a long-range missile that if operable could hit the United States.

Kim told lawmakers at a hearing that the missile's range is considerable but not far enough to hit the U.S. mainland. He said he did not know the reasons behind the missile movement, saying it "could be for testing or drills."

The range he described could refer to a mobile North Korean missile known as the Musudan, which has a range of 1,800 miles. That would make Japan and South Korea potential targets, but little is known about the missile's accuracy.

North Korea has railed for weeks against joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises taking place in South Korea and has expressed anger over tightened sanctions for a February nuclear test.

The army spokesman said in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency that troops have been authorized to counter U.S. aggression with "powerful practical military counteractions."

National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden called the threats "unhelpful and unconstructive."

"It is yet another offering in a long line of provocative statements that only serve to further isolate North Korea from the rest of the international community and undermine its goal of economic development," she said. "North Korea should stop its provocative threats and instead concentrate on abiding by its international obligations."

Russia said Thursday that North Korea's disregard for U.N. sanctions has hurt the chances of resuming stalled six-party nuclear talks, Reuters reports.

"Attempts by Pyongyang to violate ... decisions of the U.N. Security Council are categorically unacceptable," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said during a briefing.

The Pentagon said in Washington that it will deploy a missile defense system to the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam to strengthen regional protection against a possible attack from North Korea. The defense secretary said the U.S. was seeking to defuse the situation.

Despite the rhetoric, analysts say they do not expect a nuclear attack by North Korea, which knows the move could trigger a destructive, suicidal war that no one in the region wants.

The strident warning from Pyongyang is latest in a series of escalating threats from North Korea, which has railed for weeks against joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises taking place in South Korea and has expressed anger over tightened sanctions for a February nuclear test.

Following through on one threat Wednesday, North Korean border authorities refused to allow entry to South Koreans who manage jointly run factories in the North Korean city of Kaesong.

Washington calls the military drills, which this time have incorporated fighter jets and nuclear-capable stealth bombers, routine annual exercises between the allies. Pyongyang calls them rehearsals for a northward invasion.

The foes fought on opposite sides of the three-year Korean War, which ended in a truce in 1953. The divided Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war six decades later, and Washington keeps 28,500 troops in South Korea to protect its ally.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Washington was doing all it can to defuse the situation, echoing comments a day earlier by Secretary of State John Kerry.

"Some of the actions they've taken over the last few weeks present a real and clear danger and threat to the interests, certainly of our allies, starting with South Korea and Japan and also the threats that the North Koreans have leveled directly at the United States regarding our base in Guam, threatened Hawaii, threatened the West Coast of the United States," Hagel said Wednesday.

In Pyongyang, the military statement said North Korean troops had been authorized to counter U.S. "aggression" with "powerful practical military counteractions," including nuclear weapons.

"We formally inform the White House and Pentagon that the ever-escalating U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK and its reckless nuclear threat will be smashed by the strong will of all the united service personnel and people and cutting-edge smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike means," an unnamed spokesman from the General Bureau of the Korean People's Army said in a statement carried by state media, referring to North Korea by its formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "The U.S. had better ponder over the prevailing grave situation."

However, North Korea's nuclear strike capabilities remain unclear.

Pyongyang is believed to be working toward building an atomic bomb small enough to mount on a long-range missile. Long-range rocket launches designed to send satellites into space in 2009 and 2012 were widely considered covert tests of missile technology, and North Korea has conducted three underground nuclear tests, most recently in February.

"I don't believe North Korea has to capacity to attack the United States with nuclear weapons mounted on missiles, and won't for many years. Its ability to target and strike South Korea is also very limited," nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker, a senior fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, said this week.

"And even if Pyongyang had the technical means, why would the regime want to launch a nuclear attack when it fully knows that any use of nuclear weapons would result in a devastating military response and would spell the end of the regime? " he said in answers posted to CISAC's website.

In Seoul, a senior government official said Tuesday that it wasn't clear how advanced North Korea's nuclear weapons capabilities are. But he also noted fallout from any nuclear strike on Seoul or beyond would threaten Pyongyang as well, making a strike unlikely. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly to the media.

North Korea maintains that it needs to build nuclear weapons to defend itself against the United States. On Monday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un led a high-level meeting of party officials who declared building the economy and "nuclear armed forces" as the nation's two top priorities.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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This time, things could be very, very different with North Korea

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North Carolina resolution rejects authority of federal courts

Published April 03, 2013

Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. –  Two North Carolina lawmakers have filed a resolution asserting that federal courts don't have the authority to decide what is constitutional and the state can make its own laws on the establishment of religion.

Two Rowan County lawmakers proposed the resolution Monday, along with 11 co-sponsors. It declares the state's sovereignty and rejects the authority of federal courts' rulings on religion in North Carolina or on any constitutional issue.

Chris Brook of the North Carolina American Civil Liberties Union says it's unfortunate the state is re-litigating issues that have been resolved for centuries.

Republican Reps. Carl Ford and Harry Warren sponsored the bill. Warren says the bill is only intended to allow Rowan County commissioners to open their meetings with prayers, not to establish a state religion.

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North Korea warns military cleared to wage nuclear attack against US

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  April 3, 2013: South Korean Marines pass by K-55 self-propelled howitzers during an exercise against possible attacks by North Korea near the border village of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea.AP

An unnamed spokesman for the North Korean army is warning the U.S. that its military has been cleared to wage an attack using "smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear" weapons in the latest of the country's escalating warnings. 

North Korea has railed for weeks against joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises taking place in South Korea and has expressed anger over tightened sanctions for a February nuclear test.

The spokesman said in a statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency that troops have been authorized to counter U.S. aggression with "powerful practical military counteractions."

National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden called the threats "unhelpful and unconstructive."

"It is yet another offering in a long line of provocative statements that only serve to further isolate North Korea from the rest of the international community and undermine its goal of economic development," she said. "North Korea should stop its provocative threats and instead concentrate on abiding by its international obligations."

The Pentagon said Wednesday it was deploying a missile defense shield to Guam to protect the U.S. and its allies in the region in response to the increasingly hostile rhetoric. 

The land-based missile defense system includes a truck-mounted launcher, tracking radar, interceptor missiles, and an integrated fire control system. The Pentagon said the system will boost defenses for American citizens in Guam, a U.S. territory, and U.S. forces stationed there.

On Wednesday, North Korea barred South Korean workers from entering a jointly run factory park just over the heavily armed border in the North.

The Kaesong industrial park started producing goods in 2004 and has been an unusual point of cooperation in an otherwise hostile relationship between the Koreas, whose three-year war ended in 1953 with an armistice. Its continued operation even through past episodes of high tension has reassured foreign multinationals that another Korean War is unlikely and their investments in prosperous dynamic South Korea are safe.

It is unclear how long North Korea will prevent South Koreans from entering the industrial park, which is located in the North Korean border city of Kaesong and provides jobs for more than 50,000 North Koreans. The last major disruption at the park amid tensions over U.S.-South Korean military drills in 2009 lasted just three days.

North Korea has already begun construction at a shuttered plutonium reactor that it is vowing to restart and it could be back in operation sooner than expected, a U.S. research institute said Wednesday.

The U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies has analyzed recent commercial satellite imagery of the Nyongbyon nuclear facility, where the reactor was shut down in 2007 under the terms of a disarmament agreement. A cooling tower for the reactor was destroyed in 2008.

The analysis published on the institute's website "38 North" says that rebuilding the tower would take six months, but a March 27 photo shows building work may have started for an alternative cooling system that could take just weeks.

"Pyongyang may be poised to prove wrong conventional wisdom that it will take months to restart its reactor, and in the bargain it is also showing us that they mean business by accelerating the process of producing more material for nuclear weapons," said Joel Wit, 38 North editor and a former U.S. State Department official.

North Korea also said it would restart a uranium enrichment plant. Both facilities could produce fuel for nuclear weapons.

The new construction at the reactor began in the six weeks between February 7 and March 27, when another aerial image showed no building going on, 38 North says.

The analysis says the construction could be aimed at connecting the reactor to a pumping station that serves an adjacent light-water reactor that is still under construction. The light-water reactor still appears more than a year away from becoming operational but its pumping station appears from aerial imagery to be complete, it says.

But restarting the plutonium reactor would also depend on the availability of fresh fuel rods. According to 38 North, North Korea is believed to have a supply of rods, but many of them may need adapting for use in the reactor.

The North's plutonium reactor began operations in 1986 but was shut down as part of international nuclear disarmament talks in 2007 that have since stalled. Once it is up and running, the reactor is capable of producing six kilograms of plutonium a year -- enough for one or two bombs, the analysis says.

The North has already conducted three underground nuclear tests. Plans to restart the reactor and ramp up production of atomic material underscore worries about its progress in developing a nuclear-tipped missile that could target the United States. It is still believed to be years away from achieving that.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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This time, things could be very, very different with North Korea

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    Should US fear North Korea's nuclear threat?

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    US commander: North Korea situation 'tense' and 'volatile'

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    White House responds to North Korea's recent nuke threats

The rites of spring are: daylight savings time... cherry blossoms and daffodils… and another North Korean military crisis.

Every year, come spring, the North Korean people run low on their stocks of food, fuel and fear. 

Their leaders manage the situation by manufacturing a crisis. They threaten war, their people forget about hardships to rally round the flag, and the world trembles. 

Everyone agrees to consultations, the North Koreans get assistance, and the crisis is averted….until the same time next year. 

The annual North Korean display of braggadocio and brinksmanship is so predictable you can practically set your iCalendar to auto-renew.

But this year, things could well be different, and events could spiral out of control quickly, and fatally.

Kim Jong Un has shown he’s so reckless he shouldn’t even be allowed to play with matches, yet he is on the verge of getting nuclear weapons.

First, this year all the major players in the game are new. The new twenty-something North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, has little experience in crisis management outside of his beloved video games. 

The new leaders in South Korea, Japan and China have been in office for a scant few weeks, and all are thought to be hawkish on defense issues. 

The new Secretaries of State and Defense have their hands full with the Middle East, Afghanistan and defense cuts. 

The situation in the Korean Peninsula is at a hair trigger, and a slight miscalculation on the part of any of these players could lead to a rapid unraveling.

Second, North Korea is now, in effect, a nuclear weapons state and it has emboldened them. North Korea has successfully tested nuclear weapons, probably of both the plutonium and highly enriched uranium varieties. While they don’t yet have missiles capable of reaching the Continental U.S., nor nuclear weapons small enough to fit on the tip of those missiles, it’s only a matter of time before they do. 

Kim Jong Un has shown he’s so reckless he shouldn’t even be allowed to play with matches, yet he is on the verge of getting nuclear weapons. The closer he is to having those weapons, the further away he will be from backing down in a crisis. 

One thing recent history has shown, countries with nuclear weapons don’t get attacked (Pakistan). Countries which give up their nuclear weapons do (Libya and Iraq). 

Kim may be young and inexperienced but he’s probably figured out that lesson.

Third, the US has stationed nearly 30,000 troops on the Korean border since the 1950’s to serve as a tripwire for any North Korean aggression. The message to North Korea is, “you want to mess with South Korea? You’ve got to get past us first.” 

This has deterred North Korean adventurism and kept the peace for over 50 years. But as technology has advanced, it has made for a hair-triggered tripwire. 

The Demilitarized Zone between the two Koreas is about the width of New York’s Central Park. A North Korean missile can reach South Korea’s capital in about a minute. Seoul’s sprawling suburbs are nearly at the North Korean border. If someone does miscalculate, the situation would escalate within hours.

That’s the bad news. 

The good news is the Obama administration is taking the threat seriously. So far, they’ve walked the fine line between demonstrating our resolve and not fanning the flames. 

They’ve showed our South Korean and Japanese allies that we stand with them, by continuing with the planned military exercises with some of America’s most advanced weapons. 

They’re putting missile defense systems in place of the Korean coast. But they’ve not traded tit-for-tat in response to Kim Jong Un’s extreme sabre rattling.

Whether this crisis gets resolved short of war depends greatly on China’s willingness and ability to rein in North Korea. In the past China has been content to let the situation in Northeast Asia stay at a low boil to keep the South Koreans, the Japanese and Americans off balance. But the situation now threatens to boil over. The calculation for China has changed.

If North Korea continues down this road, Japan could rearm and South Korea decide to go nuclear, especially if they sense a lessening of America’s mutual defense commitment.

If the North Korean regime collapses, millions of poor and malnourished refugees would stream across the border into China stressing an already stressed Chinese economy. China’s recent mobilization at the North Korea border is as much to keep those refugees out as a show of solidarity with North Korea.

If a weakened North Korea unites with South Korea to form the East Asian equivalent of a United Germany – economically powerful, but with a strong, possibility nuclear capable military – would be China’s worst nightmare. 

For the first time, China has real incentives for resolving the annual North Korean crisis. There are indications at the United Nations and elsewhere that China is losing patience with North Korea.

It is time for the U.S. and China to reopen a strategic dialogue to deal with a host of issues, especially how to deal with North Korea. 

Mao once told my former boss Henry Kissinger, that without the lips the teeth grow cold. He meant that North Korea provided a buffer for Japan and South Korea. Those teeth would grow very cold indeed if the annual Korean crisis is not resolved peacefully.

Even so, no one knows how this will turn out. 

North Korea remains the most impenetrable country on the planet, and Kim Jong Un is an inscrutable leader. Know what makes this even scarier? The person who probably has spent more time with Kim and knows him best is his courtside basketball buddy Dennis Rodman.

Kathleen Troia "K.T." McFarland is a Fox News National Security Analyst and host of FoxNews.com's "DefCon 3." She is a Distinguished Adviser to the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and served in national security posts in the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations. She wrote Secretary of Defense Weinberger’s November 1984 "Principles of War Speech" which laid out the Weinberger Doctrine. Be sure to watch "K.T." every Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET on FoxNews.com's "

K.T. McFarland

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What kind of attack could North Korea launch?

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    North Korea threatens to 'settle accounts with the US'

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    Stealth bombers deployed over South Korea

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un's latest threat to "settle accounts with the U.S." -- while displaying a "strike plan" that shows missiles tracking toward American cities -- was widely seen as another example of the young leader's erratic bluster. 

The threat to lob long-range nuclear-tipped missiles at central U.S. cities is, in the opinion of most expert observers, overblown. But while making progress on its missile capability, the regime has other ways to wreak havoc, and this is what has officials and analysts increasingly worried. 

"You only need to be wrong once," Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said, in discussing assessments of North Korea. "I don't know what president or what chairman or what secretary of Defense wants to be wrong once when it comes to nuclear threats." 

Officials are concerned that with the rising threats, Kim is backing his regime into a corner where it may be compelled to act in order to save face. And in the near-term, the regime has plenty of ways to do that. 

It can continue to proliferate dangerous weapons to places like Iran and Syria. And, as it has repeatedly demonstrated, the regime can attack and provoke South Korea -- the scenario many are worried about. 

"We're one dead fisherman away from something that could escalate quite quickly," said Jim Walsh, an international security expert and research associate at MIT. "That's the one I worry about." 

Walsh said despite the rhetoric, the "war fundamentals" have not changed. North Korea would be obliterated by South Korea in the event of a war, with or without U.S. military support -- and the North Koreans know that. 

But he said the "accidental war" -- the provocation that goes too far and spirals into all-out conflict -- is the real worry. 

"The whole system is set up like a deck of cards right now," Walsh said. 

North Korea is infamous for testing and prodding South Korea. In 2010, under the current leader's late father Kim Jong Il, North Korea was blamed for sinking a South Korean ship and killing 46 sailors, though North Korea denied it. That time, there were no serious repercussions for the North.   

Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, suggested South Korea's new president, Park Geun-hye, would not let such an attack slide. 

"If that were to happen again or something like it, I believe it could lead to war," O'Hanlon said. 

Walsh said that while North Korea would fall, in the best-case scenario "you still get ... 1,000 artillery shells landing on Seoul." 

O'Hanlon described a scenario where South Korea retaliates and North Korea escalates -- and eventually the U.S. would be faced with the question of how to get involved militarily. 

Hagel said Thursday that the U.S. "will unequivocally defend and we are unequivocally committed to that alliance with South Korea." 

Back in 1984, the U.S. prepared a campaign plan that would have made possible the destruction of the entire North Korean air force in 100 hours. Retired U.S. Air Force generals say the military could do it even faster today. 

The Pentagon made clear this week that it is taking the threat seriously. It flew B-2 bombers 13,000 miles to a South Korean island where they dropped inert bombs. It is the first time the U.S. has ever sent B-2 bombers to the Korean Peninsula. A tweet from the U.S. embassy in Seoul said the bombers were "demonstrating the US's ability to conduct precision strikes at will." 

Christian Whiton, a former State Department official now with the D.C. International Advisory, told Fox News that the major threat from North Korea is that "it's proliferated virtually every weapon system it's ever produced." 

"There's a real threat that North Korea will continue to do what it does best, which is to profit off of proliferating the world's most dangerous weapons to some of the world's most odious people," he said.  

Despite repeated nuclear and missile tests, it is believed North Korea is still years away from being able hit the U.S. with a nuclear-tipped missile. 

The Council on Foreign Relations projects that only North Korea's Taepodong-2 missile could reach America. But that missile could only go as far as Alaska and has not yet been successfully tested. Its other rockets have a considerably shorter range. 

While having made progress in their ballistic missile program, the North Koreans still have not mastered the technology of delivering a nuclear device by a long-range missile. 

"If they ever do it, it's going to be a while," Walsh said of any effort to develop a missile capable of hitting the continental U.S. 

Walsh also said it's unlikely North Korea would ever send out a suicide bomber -- equipped with a radioactive "dirty bomb" or some similar device -- describing the move as too risky without much payoff for Pyongyang.   

FoxNews.com's Judson Berger and Fox News' Jennifer Griffin contributed to this report.

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Amid increased rhetoric from North Korea, combat ship USS Freedom debuts in Pacific

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    Next-gen battleship joining the Pacific fleet

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    US flies B-2 bombers over South Korea

A fast, maneuverable surface warrior, the Navy's first littoral combat ship USS Freedom has joined the 7th Fleet in the Pacific.

Its arrival coincides with further heavy rhetoric from North Korea. News agency KCNA carried the government’s message Wednesday that it had ordered artillery and rocket units into "combat posture" to prepare to target U.S. bases in the United States mainland, Hawaii and Guam.

On its maiden deployment, USS Freedom arrived in the U.S. 7th Fleet Area of Responsibility (AOR) on March 20 -- a zone that covers more than 48 million square miles, stretching west from the International Date Line to the western coast of India. At any given moment, about 100 ships and submarines are deployed there and assigned to 7th Fleet.

On March 15, the fleet marked the 70th anniversary of its maintaining security and stability in the region.

While North Korea is not thought to have ballistic missiles or nuclear weapons capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, it is capable of striking U.S. bases in the region, including Guam, where Freedom will be visiting.

The ship will participate in some large scale training exercises in Southeast Asia, involving maritime security operations with regional partners.

North Korea, meanwhile, has been carrying out its own large-scale military exercises.

Surface and anti-submarine warfare ready
Designed and developed by Lockheed Martin, the littoral combat ship (coastal and shallow water areas are called “littoral”) is quick and agile, and loaded with mission packages that can be configured for surface warfare, countering sea mines and anti-submarine warfare.

'As the U.S. Navy supports the U.S. government rebalance to the Indo-Asia-Pacific, there is no better place to demonstrate LCS capabilities.'

- Vice Adm. Scott Swift, commander of the U.S. 7th Fleet

Led by Cmdr. Timothy Wilke, Freedom will initially be manned by her crew of 91 sailors, who include mission package personnel and an aviation detachment to operate its MH-60 helicopter.

Freedom can provide critical access and dominance in coastal water battlespaces.

As designed, Freedom can operate with substantially fewer crew, requiring only 40 core sailors plus support crew for the aviation and mission packages.

Should a battle erupt, Freedom can act as a hub to tie together sea, air and land assets.

COMBATTS-21 Combat Systems
The ship’s battle management system, also produced by Lockheed Martin, provides a flexible, next-generation defense system that can be reconfigured for a specific threat in days.

COMBATSS-21 is a self-defense suite and integrates the radar, electro-optical infrared cameras, gunfire control system, countermeasures and short-range anti-air missiles, as well as a variety of missile and torpedo systems, naval guns and more.

Let's say the mission required weapons systems to defeat enemy subs. An anti-submarine package would include an MH-60 Romeo carrying an active dipping sonar, sonobuoys and heavy-weight torpedoes.

What if the enemy had littered the coastal waters with mines? Freedom’s countermeasures package can search twice as quickly as earlier systems. It requires only two operators and would include tech like the Remote Multi-Mission Vehicle and Raytheon’s airborne SONAR mine countermeasure detection system, AQS-20A.

Remember the USS Cole incident where American lives were lost? Small boats continue to be an ongoing threat.

To protect the fleet from this sort of asymmetric warfare, Freedom’s tech could include the Gun Mission Module MK 50 MOD, a Non-Line of Sight Launch System Mission Module, a MH-60R helicopter and vertical takeoff drones.

Led by prime contractor Lockheed Martin, the team includes naval architect Gibbs & Cox and ship builder Marinette Marine Corporation.

USS Fort Worth, the team’s second littoral combat ship, was delivered two months early last year and included improved fuel efficiency and speed, reduced weight, improved satellite and launch, recovery and handling systems and landing aids with advanced night vision capability.

The next two ships, the Milwaukee and the Detroit, are currently under construction.

Ballet dancer turned defense specialist Allison Barrie has traveled around the world covering the military, terrorism, weapons advancements and life on the front line. You can reach her at wargames@foxnews.com or follow her on Twitter @Allison_Barrie.

Allison Barrie

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North Korea training teams of 'cyber warriors,' experts say

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  March 21, 2013: South Korean computer researchers, left, check the computer servers of Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) as a South Korean police officer from Digital Forensic Investigation watches at the Cyber Terror Response Center at the National Police Agency in Seoul, South Korea.AP

SEOUL, South Korea –  Investigators have yet to pinpoint the culprit behind a synchronized cyberattack in South Korea last week. But in Seoul, the focus remains fixed on North Korea, where South Korean security experts say Pyongyang has been training a team of computer-savvy "cyber warriors" as cyberspace becomes a fertile battleground in the standoff between the two Koreas.

Malware shut down 32,000 computers and servers at three major South Korean TV networks and three banks last Wednesday, disrupting communications and banking businesses, officials said. The investigation into who planted the malware could take weeks or even months.

South Korean investigators have produced no proof yet that North Korea was behind the cyberattack, and on Friday said the malware was traced to a Seoul computer. But South Korea has pointed the finger at Pyongyang in six cyberattacks since 2009, even creating a cyber security command center in Seoul to protect the Internet-dependent country from hackers from the North.

It may seem unlikely that impoverished North Korea, with one of the most restrictive Internet policies in the world, would have the ability to threaten affluent South Korea, a country considered a global leader in telecommunications. The average yearly income in North Korea was just $1,190 per person in 2011 -- just a fraction of the average yearly income of $22,200 for South Koreans that same year, according to the Bank of Korea in Seoul.

But over the past several years, North Korea has poured money and resources into science and technology. In December, scientists succeeded in launching a satellite into space aboard a long-range rocket from its own soil. And in February, North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test, its third.

"IT" has become a buzzword in North Korea, which has developed its own operating system called Red Star. The regime also encouraged a passion for gadgets among its elite, introducing a Chinese-made tablet computer for the North Korean market. Teams of developers came up with software for everything from composing music to learning how to cook.

But South Korea and the U.S. believe North Korea also has thousands of hackers trained by the state to carry its warfare into cyberspace, and that their cyber offensive skills are as good as or better than their counterparts in China and South Korea.

"The newest addition to the North Korean asymmetric arsenal is a growing cyber warfare capability," James Thurman, commander of the U.S. forces in South Korea, told U.S. legislators in March 2012. "North Korea employs sophisticated computer hackers trained to launch cyber-infiltration and cyber-attacks" against South Korea and the U.S.

In 2010, Won Sei-hoon, then chief of South Korea's National Intelligence Service, put the number of professional hackers in North Korea's cyber warfare unit at 1,000.

North Korean students are recruited to the nation's top science schools to become "cyber warriors," said Kim Heung-kwang, who said he trained future hackers at a university in the industrial North Korean city of Hamhung for two decades before defecting in 2003. He said future hackers also are sent to study abroad in China and Russia.

In 2009, then-leader Kim Jong Il ordered Pyongyang's "cyber command" expanded to 3,000 hackers, he said, citing a North Korean government document that he said he obtained that year. The veracity of the document could not be independently confirmed.

Kim Heung-kwang, who has lived in Seoul since 2004, speculated that more have been recruited since then, and said some are based in China to infiltrate networks abroad.

What is clear is that "North Korea has a capacity to send malware to personal computers, servers or networks and to launch DDOS-type attacks," he said. "Their targets are the United States and South Korea."

Expanding its warfare into cyberspace by developing malicious computer codes is cheaper and faster for North Korean than building nuclear devices or other weapons of mass destructions. The online world allows for anonymity because it is easy to fabricate IP addresses and destroy the evidence leading back to the hackers, according to C. Matthew Curtin, founder of Interhack Corp.

Thurman said cyberattacks are "ideal" for North Korea because they can take place relatively anonymously. He said cyberattacks have been waged against military, governmental, educational and commercial institutions.

North Korean officials have not acknowledged allegations that computer experts are trained as hackers, and have refuted many of the cyberattack accusations. Pyongyang has not commented on the most recent widespread attack in South Korea.

In June 2012, a seven-month investigation into a hacking incident that disabled news production system at the South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo led to North Korea's government telecommunications center, South Korean officials said.

In South Korea, the economy, commerce and every aspect of daily life is deeply dependent on the Internet, making it ripe grounds for a disruptive cyberattack.

In North Korea, in contrast, is just now getting online. Businesses are starting to use online banking services and debit cards have grown in popularity. But only a sliver of the population has access to the global Internet, meaning an Internet outage last week -- which Pyongyang blamed on hackers from Seoul and Washington -- had little bearing on most North Koreans.

"North Korea has nothing to lose in a cyber battle," said Kim Seeongjoo, a professor at Seoul-based Korea University's Department of Cyber Defense. "Even if North Korea turns out to be the attacker behind the broadcasters' hacking, there is no target for South Korean retaliation."

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North Carolina wife reportedly buys billboard to embarrass alleged cheating husband

Published March 21, 2013

FoxNews.com

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  The individual behind this billboard in Greensboro, N.C. has not been identified.MyFox8.com

A billboard in Greensboro, N.C., claims to be from a scorned woman who apparently caught her husband with another woman, MyFox8.com reported.

The red billboard has been slowing down traffic on Battleground Avenue and reads, "Michael,
GPS Tracker – $250, Nikon Camera with zoom lens – $1600, Catching my lying husband and buying this billboard with our investment account, – Priceless.  – Jennifer."

Outdoor Signage, the company that owns the billboard, just recently erected it leaving many questioning if it's a marketing ploy.

Someone from the company told the station, "We cannot comment on the billboard content right now. We have asked the sponsor for a statement based on your inquiry."

The billboard also makes a note to Michael's apparent mistress Jessica. "Tell Jessica you’re moving in!"

Click for more from MyFox8.com

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North Dakota looks at more abortion restrictions

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  March 18, 2013: Dr. Stephanie Dahl, a Fargo infertility specialist, speaks out against two anti-abortion bills in the North Dakota Legislature during a news conference in Fargo, N.D.AP

FARGO, N.D. –  North Dakota lawmakers who approved what would be some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the U.S. are now considering outlawing all abortions.

The "personhood" measures would ban abortions by defining human life as beginning with conception. It's drawing opposition from some doctors who say it could cause problems for infertile couples seeking to use in vitro fertilization to conceive, but supporters insist that's addressed in the legislation.

The state Senate passed two personhood measures last month, and the House could vote as soon as Tuesday. One of the bills would make the proposal a state law and another is a resolution that would put the definition into the state constitution, if passed by voters.

North Dakota is one of several states with Republican-controlled Legislatures and GOP governors that is looking at abortion restrictions, but the state is could go further than any other in challenging the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 decision that legalized abortion.

Last week, the Legislature sent Gov. Jack Dalrymple what would be two of the most restrictive abortion laws in the U.S., banning abortions as early as six weeks in a pregnancy and on the basis of genetic defects such as Down syndrome. North Dakota also would be the first to adopt a personhood law if that measure passes. Abortion-rights activists have vowed to fight the measures in court.

Dr. Stephanie Dahl, a Fargo infertility specialist, said Monday that the personhood measures could ban in vitro fertilization and force doctors to leave the state rather than face health care restrictions or possible criminal penalties. In vitro fertilization, or IVF, involves mixing egg and sperm in a laboratory dish and transferring resulting embryos into the womb.

"This is something that would affect the patient and doctor relationship," Dahl said at a news conference with a group of doctors who oppose the measures. "That's somewhere we want to keep the government out of."

One of the key players in the anti-abortion campaign, state Sen. Margaret Sitte, a Republican from Bismarck, said she was "floored" by the assertions about limitations on in vitro fertilization. She said the proposals allow exceptions for the "screening, collecting, preparing, transferring, or cryopreserving a human being created through in vitro fertilization for the purpose of being transferred to a human uterus." Sitte said that clause was crafted with Dahl's help.

But Dr. Steffen Christensen, who founded an in vitro fertilization clinic in Fargo 19 years ago, said he can't put himself or his workers at risk of legal action.

"The concern is that this is criminal negligence if anything should happen to an embryo," he said.

Gualberto Garcia Jones, an attorney for Personhood USA, noted that two doctors in the Senate -- Fargo Republican Spencer Berry and Bismarck Republican Ralph Kilzer -- voted for the proposals. "Clearly they would not vote to criminalize themselves," Jones said in a phone interview.

Opponents also noted that the North Dakota Medical Association is against the bill and a group of 26 students from the University of North Dakota medical school signed a letter to the state Senate against it.

Dr. Ted Kleiman, a Fargo pediatrician, said the law would set North Dakota back to "the stone age" of medicine.

"This is abhorrent in the highest degree," he said.

Efforts to pass personhood legislation in other states have failed. In Oklahoma, a measure this year that would have granted human embryos "all the rights, privileges and immunities available to other persons," was not given a hearing in a House committee and appears to be shelved for the legislative session.

North Dakota lawmakers are considering several bills this session that would restrict abortion. Dahl said that the legislation would ultimately impact medical care to women and families and allow no exceptions for rape or incest.

"A woman who has been sexually assaulted will be forced to carry a pregnancy to term, regardless of the nature of her assault," she said.

Sitte said she doesn't think women should abort pregnancies resulting from rape.

"Rape is a horrible crime. It is absolutely devastating," Sitte said. "But do we believe in capital punishment for those children?"

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North Dakota passes most restrictive abortion bills in nation

North Dakota’s Senate passed a pair of anti-abortion measures Friday that are considered to be the most restrictive in the nation, including one that would prevent women from having an abortion based on a genetic defect. 

The measures now to go to Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple who has indicated he will sign them.

The new state laws are even more strict than one finalized last week in Arkansas that would make the procedure illegal after 12 weeks of pregnancy. One North Dakota measure would prevent women from having abortions based on a genetic defect, like Down syndrome. The other would ban doctors from performing an abortion if a fetal heartbeat is detected -- as early as five or six weeks. 

Republican state Rep. Bette Grande of Fargo sponsored both bills. Grande, a ninth-term legislator, is one of the more conservative lawmakers in the state. She’s pushed for controversial right-to-life issues and has been vocal about the issues.

Grande recently said she had relatives who had children born with genetic abnormalities and has been surprised at the discrimination she’s seen.

“It takes you back to Hitler, and we know where that went,” she has said. “He started going after those with abnormalities, and I think it’s an absurdity we would go back to that kind of thing."

Bette has said she doesn’t understand why there is such an uproar over banning abortions in the fifth or sixth week. According to National Right to Life, a fetus’ heartbeat begins at the 22nd day.

“Why would a heartbeat not be considered life?” she said. “It makes so much sense; we all relate life to a heartbeat, and here we have a heartbeat, so isn’t it life?”

Not everyone agrees.

“I recognize that we don't all feel the same way about abortion, but we should be able to agree that this personal decision is best made by a woman and her family, not politicians,” Elissa Berger of the ACLU wrote in a statement Thursday. “First, in Arkansas, now in North Dakota, politicians seem to have completely lost sight of this.”

Battles over abortion in the United States have seen a shift from the federal courts to statehouses in recent years.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights, states in 2011 passed a record-breaking 92 new abortion restrictions. In 2012, 43 were passed – the second highest number of abortion laws.

Last week, the Arkansas legislature passed a ban on abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy, which some have called a bold challenge to the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion. 

The Arkansas ban, which would make exceptions in cases of rape, incest and certain medical contingencies, is scheduled to go into effect 90 days after the current legislative session adjourns. Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe had vetoed the measure, but the legislature overrode the veto Wednesday.

Abortion rights groups have vowed to challenge the laws in court.

An Ohio bill, similar to the North Dakota and Arkansas “heartbeat” bills, was debated and defeated last year in the state Senate. The measure, which could be revived this year, fractured Ohio’s anti-abortion movement in a debate over its tactical effectiveness.

In Oklahoma, a “personhood” bill has been introduced that would ban abortions by defining human life as beginning with conception.

“When you pass a law, the end goal is surviving in court,” said Michael Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life, told The Associated Press.  He predicted the Arkansas law would be struck down because it contradicted Supreme Court rulings allowing abortions prior to viability — the stage at about 22 to 24 weeks of pregnancy when a fetus could survive outside the womb.

“It’s easy to say, ‘Let’s save all the babies,’” Gonidakis, an attorney, said. “But you could pass 100 bills a day, and they’ll never go into effect and save one baby’s life.”

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What to expect from an erratic North Korea

“A deliberate attempt by Pyongyang to revive a high level of tension with the United States …the North Koreans may have felt compelled to make up for the loss of face they suffered…when they were unable to disrupt or deter the joint U.S.-South Korean military exercise.”

--Briefing for CIA Director Richard Helms, April 16, 1969

The above CIA briefing document from over 40 years ago could be just as true today. Currently,the North Koreans are protesting the joint U.S.-South Korea military exercise “Foal Eagle” and are expected to launch a large scale military exercise of their own. 

Sure, there’s plenty of drama today just like there was in 1969. The North Koreans are making multiple threats against the United States, threatening South Korea with “final destruction,” and announcing it’s quitting the 1953 armistice. And if that’s not enough drama, you’ve got Dennis Rodman’s recent visit with Kim Jong-Un for good measure.

Unfortunately for America and our allies in South Korea and Japan, the threat posed by North Korea today is perhaps the gravest national security threat we will face in the near term.

Unfortunately for America and our allies in South Korea and Japan, the threat posed by North Korea today is perhaps the gravest national security threat we will face in the near term. North Korea’s ballistic missile capability, coupled with its ever increasing nuclear capability, is no laughing matter and all indications are that it’s only going to get worse.

Here’s what Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) is telling us is taking place and what to expect.

--A massive North Korean mobilization is presently underway, complete with troop movements, submarines on alert and missile batteries being deployed.

--Look for 2 more nuclear bomb tests and 1 other rocket launch to further test their ballistic capability this year. In fact, new preparations at the Puggye-ri nuclear bomb test site have been detected since last month’s test.

--North Korea and Iran are both using the same miniaturized warhead design that can be traced back to the infamous Pakistani scientist, Dr. A.Q. Khan.

--Iranian intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) technicians are continuing to work on the next North Korean missile test.

--North Korea has obtained proven missile control electronics from Russia and China.

--It appears that North Korea is expanding a new missile launch site at Musudan-ri, which will be much bigger than the missile test site at Tongchang-ri, where the Unha-3 rocket was launched in December, 2012.

And if this isn’t bad enough, additional OSINT suggests that a plan for a high altitude nuclear burst over the Pacific is on the books. 

Further, Dr. Vincent Pry from the U.S. Nuclear Strategy Forum, has recently made a convincing case that North Korea possesses an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) nuclear warhead which would have the ability to take out a national power grid and destroy critical infrastructures throughout the U.S.

The recent power struggle in China is also spilling over into the North Korean situation. China helped draft the recent U.N. Security Council Resolution and sanctions. However, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad approved many millions of dollars in payment to North Korea, in conjunction with the February nuclear bomb test, through Beijing’s Bank of Kunlun.

The North Korean threat is real, it’s here and it’s not getting better. 

President George W. Bush understood that key military bases in the western United States represented one of our best hopes of dealing with the increasing North Korean threat and deployed missile interceptors to Fort Greely, Alaska. 

Unfortunately, President Obama has severely cut missile defense and last year announced plans to decommission Missile Field 1 at Fort Greely. Originally, there were to be three silo fields housing interceptors. Today, Fort Greely is down to one. The time is now for the administration to reverse its decision.

In addition to taking steps to protect the western United States from the North Korean threat (North Korea’s long range ballistic missiles are now believed to have a range of 6,200 miles), it’s time now to give Kim Jong-Un what he fears most—an educated and well informed citizenry.

Several years ago, U.S. based Farsi speaking satellite TV stations, with a pro-western values message, had such an impact that Iran was forced to send out police units to take satellite dishes down from people’s homes. Just as we did during the Cold War, let’s do an intensive “Radio Marti-Radio Free Europe” broadcast operation, consisting of TV, SatTV and radio, against North Korea broadcast from locations in South Korea and Japan.

The North Korean threat is the greatest nuclear weapons challenge to the United States since the Cold War. It’s time for America to act and to lead.

Van D. Hipp, Jr. is Chairman of American Defense International, Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm specializing in government affairs, business development and public relations. He is the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Army and currently serves on Board of Directors of the American Conservative Union and The National Capitol Board of The Salvation Army. Follow him on Twitter @VanHipp.

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America, North Korea's threats are not coming from a crazy uncle -- they're real

This week, North Korea threatened to nuke Washington. If that does not constitute a hostile signal, then nothing does. And yet, there is a tendency among Washington officials and Asia hands to ignore Pyongyang’s bellicose language.  Problematically, these individuals also downplay North Korea’s capabilities—even as they grow steadily stronger.

Like a crazy uncle, the Kim regime in Pyongyang can be counted on to make truly outrageous statements—often in the wake of truly outrageous conduct. Whether threatening to turn allied cities into a “sea of fire,” labeling the USA as an “imperialist aggressor,” or branding regime critics as “political dwarfs,” Pyongyang’s PR people could make even the ghosts of Nazi propagandists like Joseph Goebbels blush.

With those in allied capitals responsible for defending against North Korea, there is a tendency to tune this out. After all, how can a country with widespread malnourishment, economic output the CIA estimates to be just about 3% of that of its southern neighbor, and a large but obsolete military really purport to take on anyone?

The crazy uncle of Northeast Asia cannot be ignored.

Indeed, after going through the motions of condemning North Korea after one of its brazen acts, officials on both sides of the Pacific tend to forget about Pyongyang until the next incident. This week’s sanctions from the U.N. Security Council, said to “bite hard” by U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, are nearly identical to previously applied sanctions that proved as vacant as Chinese promises to pressure their client state.

Unfortunately, this tendency to tune out Pyongyang also distracts from what should be an alarming trend: North Korea’s capabilities have been steadily improving.

After Pyongyang’s first nuclear test in 2006 yielded only about one kiloton, U.S. officials refused even to designate North Korea as a nuclear-weapons state.  (By comparison, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima was about 16 kilotons; the largest U.S. weapon ever tested was 15,000 kilotons.)  Similarly, the high frequency with which North Korean missile tests ended in catastrophic failure led to chuckles about the threat from a penny-ante dictator with laughable ambitions who seemed to be living up to a parody of himself.

But as with our own nuclear and rocket programs, every failure is a step on the path to success. Scientists approximate North Korea’s February nuclear test to have achieved a yield of seven kilotons.  

In December, its missile test involved a successful multistage separation and put an object into space. While the North Korean military may not yet be able to push a button and launch a nuclear assault on an American city, it is clearly on a trajectory to have that capability one day.

Moreover, even if North Korea never initiates a general war, it is pushing ahead with its most immediate dangerous activity: proliferation. 

Everything North Korea has accomplished in recent months has burnished its catalog of weapons systems and know-how. These are routinely sold to rogue regimes around the world. Syria has been a recent customer; North Korea helped it build a carbon copy of Pyongyang’s plutonium-producing reactor (since destroyed by Israel).  Iran and North Korea cooperate closely as well.  Reports indicate officials from both countries have been present at each other’s nuclear sites.  This is the more likely path to North Korea’s nuclear program destroying an American or allied city.

Thus, the crazy uncle of Northeast Asia cannot be ignored. The Obama administration seems to accept this, but the only idea the Washington foreign policy establishment ever has with North Korea is to talk more to the regime.  The two previous U.S. administrations tried this, and it is clear Pyongyang only engages in talks to extract foreign aid and buy time; never to follow through with promises to disarm or behave.

Washington should remember what won the Cold War.  A combination of opposition within dictatorships and a growing external military posture were the precursors of oppressed people freeing themselves—and ending the threat.  To adapt this to North Korea and the changing threat it poses, the U.S. should move intermediate-range nuclear cruise missiles to the region.  To make deterrence seem more real, we should also have a NATO-style Nuclear Planning Group with Canada, Japan and perhaps other Pacific allies.  This could finally force China to rethink its sponsorship of North Korea, as Beijing’s own security would be negatively impacted for the first time.

Combined with this, the U.S. and other free countries should aid dissenters in North Korea.  They are there, but keep their heads down to survive in the gulag nation.  Funding independent media broadcast from outside North Korea would replicate something that worked well during the Cold War.  It would give an encouraging, peaceful lifeline of information to beleaguered North Koreans.

Freedom for North Koreans—not U.N. pronouncements or endless diplomatic talks—will be the long-awaited harbinger for security in the Pacific.  

Christian Whiton was a State Department senior advisor during the George W. Bush administration.  He is principal at DC International Advisory . His book “Smart Power: Between Diplomacy & War,” will be published by Potomac Books in September.  Follow him on Twitter@ChristianWhiton.

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North Korea vows nuclear attack on US, saying Washington will be 'engulfed in a sea of fire'

North Korea on Thursday vowed to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States, amplifying its threatening rhetoric hours ahead of a vote by U.N. diplomats on whether to level new sanctions against Pyongyang for its recent nuclear test.

An unidentified spokesman for Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry said the North will exercise its right for "a preemptive nuclear attack to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors" because Washington is pushing to start a nuclear war against the North.

Although North Korea boasts of nuclear bombs and pre-emptive strikes, it is not thought to have mastered the ability to produce a warhead small enough to put on a missile capable of reaching the U.S. It is believed to have enough nuclear fuel, however, for several crude nuclear devices.

Such inflammatory rhetoric is common from North Korea, and especially so in recent days. North Korea is angry over the possible sanctions and over upcoming U.S.-South Korean military drills. At a mass rally in Pyongyang on Thursday, tens of thousands of North Koreans protested the U.S.-South Korean war drills and sanctions.

The U.N. Security Council is set to impose a fourth round of sanctions against Pyongyang in a fresh attempt to rein in its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, the current council president, said the council will vote on the draft sanctions resolution Thursday morning.

The resolution was drafted by the United States and China, North Korea's closest ally. The council's agreement to put the resolution to a vote just 48 hours later signaled that it would almost certainly have the support of all 15 council members.

The statement by the North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman was carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

It accused the U.S. of leading efforts to slap sanctions on North Korea. The statement said the new sanctions would only advance the timing for North Korea to fulfill previous vows to take "powerful second and third countermeasures" against its enemies. It hasn't elaborated on those measures.

The statement said North Korea "strongly warns the U.N. Security Council not to make another big blunder like the one in the past when it earned the inveterate grudge of the Korean nation by acting as a war servant for the U.S. in 1950."

North Korea demanded the U.N. Security Council immediately dismantle the American-led U.N. Command that's based in Seoul and move to end the state of war that exists on the Korean Peninsula, which continues six decades after fighting stopped because an armistice, not a peace treaty, ended the war.

In anticipation of the resolution's adoption, North Korea earlier in the week threatened to cancel the 1953 cease-fire that ended the Korean War.

North Korean threats have become more common as tensions have escalated following a rocket launch by Pyongyang in December and its third nuclear test on Feb. 12. Both acts defied three Security Council resolutions that bar North Korea from testing or using nuclear or ballistic missile technology and from importing or exporting material for these programs.

U.S. U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice said the proposed resolution, to be voted on at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT), would impose some of the strongest sanctions ever ordered by the United Nations.

The final version of the draft resolution, released Wednesday, identified three individuals, one corporation and one organization that would be added to the U.N. sanctions list if the measure is approved.

The targets include top officials at a company that is the country's primary arms dealer and main exporter of ballistic missile-related equipment, and a national organization responsible for research and development of missiles and probably nuclear weapons.

The success of a new round of sanctions could depend on enforcement by China, where most of the companies and banks that North Korea is believed to work with are based.

The United States and other nations worry that North Korea's third nuclear test pushed it closer to its goal of gaining nuclear missiles that can reach the U.S. The international community has condemned the regime's nuclear and missile efforts as threats to regional security and a drain on the resources that could go to North Korea's largely destitute people.

The draft resolution condemns the latest nuclear test "in the strongest terms" for violating and flagrantly disregarding council resolutions, bans further ballistic missile launches, nuclear tests "or any other provocation," and demands that North Korea return to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. It also condemns all of North Korea's ongoing nuclear activities, including its uranium enrichment.

But the proposed resolution stresses the council's commitment "to a peaceful, diplomatic and political solution" and urged a resumption of six-party talks with the aim of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula "in a peaceful manner."

The proposed resolution would make it significantly harder for North Korea to move around the funds it needs to carry out its illicit programs and strengthen existing sanctions and the inspection of suspect cargo bound to and from the country. It would also ban countries from exporting specific luxury goods to the North, including yachts, luxury automobiles, racing cars, and jewelry with semi-precious and precious stones and precious metals.

According to the draft, all countries would now be required to freeze financial transactions or services that could contribute to North Korea's nuclear or missile programs.

To get around financial sanctions, North Koreans have been carrying around large suitcases filled with cash to move illicit funds. The draft resolution expresses concern that these bulk cash transfers may be used to evade sanctions. It clarifies that the freeze on financial transactions and services that could violate sanctions applies to all cash transfers as well as the cash couriers.

The proposed resolution also bans all countries from providing public financial support for trade deals, such as granting export credits, guarantees or insurance, if the assistance could contribute to the North's nuclear or missile programs.

It includes what a senior diplomat called unprecedented new travel sanctions that would require countries to expel agents working for sanctioned North Korean companies.

The draft also requires states to inspect suspect cargo on their territory and prevent any vessel that refuses an inspection from entering their ports. And a new aviation measure calls on states to deny aircraft permission to take off, land or fly over their territory if illicit cargo is suspected to be aboard.

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Basketball personality Rodman says North Korea leader wants Obama to call

Former NBA star and provocateur Dennis Rodman delivered a message Sunday from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to President Obama: Call me.

Rodman, who has made headlines for several days as a result of his trip to North Korea with the Harlem Globetrotters, told ABC’s “This Week” that the 28-year-old leader “doesn’t want to do war.”

Rodman is the highest-profile American to meet Kim since he took power in December 2011 after his father's death.

He did the interview in the network’s New York studio dressed in sunglasses and a sports coat emblazoned with images of U.S. dollar bills.

The trip took place amid strained ties between the United States and North Korea over that country’s recent underground nuclear test.

The State Department on Friday distanced itself from Rodman's visit.

Rodman also defended the suggestion that he’s putting out propaganda and attempted to explain why he earlier called Kim "an awesome guy,” despite widespread reports about the country’s imprisoning citizens and other human rights violations.

“I don’t condone that,” Rodman said. “He’s not his father. He’s not his grandfather.”

Rodman said when Kim said he loved basketball, he said: "Obama loves basketball. Let's start there" as a way to warm up relations between the countries.

The State Department also has criticized North Korea for "wining and dining" Rodman while its own people go hungry.

Rodman said he was aware of North Korea's human rights record, which the State Department has characterized as one of the worst in the world, but said he wasn't apologizing for Kim.

Basketball is popular in North Korea, and an exhibition game Thursday with two Americans playing on each team alongside North Koreans ended in a 110-110 tie. Following the game Kim threw an "epic feast" for the group, plying them with food and drinks and making round after round of toasts.

Rodman said he planned to go back to North Korea to "find out more what's really going on."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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Welcome to Pyongyang: North Korea's first video game is awful

You know how much fun you have driving around and finding places to fill up your car with fuel?

Now you don't even have to leave your house. North Korea's come up with a fascinatingly awful simulation of this mind-numbingly menial chore.

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Koryo Tours, in conjunction with IT firm Nosotek and the Government have developed North Korea's first ever PC "game" - Pyongyang Racer.

"Collect petrol barrels to keep your car full of fuel. If you don't, you will run out of petrol and the game ends."

The last thing you need between bouts of Modern Warfare and episodes of Breaking Bad, is having to tend to a virtual video-game car that's sitting on empty. You don't want that.

At least marketing knows it's not likely to challenge Halo and Call of Duty in the high-end gaming market.

"This game was developed in 2012 and is not intended to be a high-end technological wonder hit game of the 21st century, but more a fun race game (arcade style) where you drive around in Pyongyang and learn more about the sites and get a glimpse of Pyongyang."

It certainly sounds like fun.

Get more tech news and reviews at News.com.au.

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