North Korea will turn U.S. military bases in the region into a “sea of fire” if war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, North Korean media on Friday quoted a communist officer as saying. The North’s state-run news media highlighted the comment hours after South Korea released a new defense policy paper that revealed a U.S. reinforcement plan to dispatch 690,000 troops and 2,000 warplanes if war breaks out in Korea.
Most U.S. Army personnel in Korea are presently stationed within twenty miles of the Korean DMZ, within range of thousands of North Korean artillery pieces. Much of the North Korean artillery is sited inside underground roll-in / roll-out emplacements. Other U.S. installations are located in the middle of crowded residential areas in the South Korean cities of Seoul, Taegu, and Pusan.
For the first time, the South Korean Defense Ministry’s annual white paper does not list North Korea as its “main enemy.” Although attitudes among South Koreans have grown increasingly pro-North Korean and anti-American, the South Korean government recently asked the United States to slow down the planned withdrawal of one-third of the U.S. forces from South Korea.
Some South Koreans want to keep U.S. forces in their country to act as a “trip wire” in the event of a North Korean attack. Others fear the economic impact of U.S. troop withdrawals. Others want the troops to remain near the DMZ to restrict U.S. options. They believe that without thousands of U.S. troops in North Korean artillery range, the United States would be free to consider attacks against North Korean nuclear facilities.
American troops in South Korea have recently been the victims of a spate of violent assaults. Recent polling data suggest that the U.S. defense contribution to South Korea, which, according to the Cato institute, costs U.S. taxpayers $15-20 billion annually, has resulted in little appreciation from the South Korean people. According to one survey last year, more South Koreans consider the U.S. the greatest threat to their nation’s security than North Korea. In the event of war between the U.S. and North Korea, 20% of South Koreans say their country should take the North’s side; another 30% were undecided. Fifty-eight percent of South Koreans were disappointed that the Iraqi Army did not fight harder outside Baghdad, more than twice the number who said they were pleased with the quick Iraqi collapse.
Last night Federal Authorities forced a plane to land south of Houston. The occupants of the plane are suspected illegals from China. To make things more interesting, the owner of the plane owns a flight school that hosted one Abdul Hakim Murad who, as Malkin puts it,
who was arrested in Manila in 1995 and later convicted in New York of plotting to blow up a dozen U.S. airliners over the Pacific, then crash a suicide plane into CIA headquarters.
Michelle Malkin seems to be the only one trumpeting this. Her first post references the Houston Chronicle. She has a follow up as well.
[UPDATE] Heaven help us…the Freeps are on the case. Malkin references some of their “findings”. While Powerline gets the credit for breaking the Document problems at CBS, I believe the discussion first started with the Freeps (That’s Free Republic website for the uninitiated). (Disclaimer: Powerline is a fine bunch of folks and they did some OUTSTANDING work on the Bush NatGuard anti-documents, I’m just clearing some confusion).