News Story: S.Korean presidents stresses need for early transfer of wartime operational control from U.S.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in

SEOUL, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Thursday stressed a need for early transfer of wartime operational control of its forces from the United States to better tackle the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s nuclear and missile threats.

Moon said in a speech to celebrate the 69th anniversary of Armed Forces Day that the government aimed to regain the wartime command of South Korean forces early from Washington, and that the transfer will make the military's capability leap forward.

The president said the DPRK will be scared of the South Korean military when it has the wartime control of its own troops.

South Korea handed over its operational command to the U.S. forces after the three-year Korean War broke out in 1950. The country won back its peacetime operational control in 1994.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: Japan evaluating sites for Aegis Ashore missile defense system

CGI of an Aegis Ashore Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) System

By: Mike Yeo

MELBOURNE, Australia ― Japan is evaluating locations to base the Aegis Ashore land-based ballistic missile defense system of which it has expressed interest in acquiring to better defend against North Korean ballistic missiles.

According to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, which quoted Japanese Defense Ministry sources, Japan is looking at placing the Aegis Ashore on two sites along the country’s western coast to give complete coverage against North Korean ballistic missiles.

The newspaper reported that the sites under consideration for the northern system are either the Kamo sub-base in Oga, Akita prefecture, and the Sado sub-base in Sado, Niigata prefecture; for the system covering the southern part of Japan, either the Unishima sub-base in Tsushima or the Fukuejima sub-base in Goto, both in Nagasaki prefecture.

These sites are all part of Japan’s current early-warning and ballistic missile-defense radar network operated by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, operating a mixture of J/FPS-3, J/FPS-5 and other older radars.

The Asahi Shimbun reported that Japan plans to have its Aegis Ashore systems operational by 2023, although this could be pushed forward if the regional security changes. The newspaper quoted Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera as saying that “we want to introduce the system at the earliest possible schedule”.

Read the full story at DefenseNews

News Report: US to Shoot Down North Korea's Missile if It Flies Over Guam - State Dept

The US State Department stated that Washington will shoot down a North Korea's missile if it flies over the territory of Guam.

"If a missile targeted Guam or flew over it, we would have shot it down," US Assistant Secretary of State Susan Thornton said at a briefing for foreign journalists.

Reporters asked Thornton why the US does not respond (to) North Korea's missile launches, which violate the airspace and allies — Japan and South Korea.

Thornton recalled that this issue was previously cleared by US Secretary of Defense James Mattis.

She noted that now it is possible to determine exactly where the rocket will fly and where it will land. According to her, in Japan there are special alert systems for the civilian population.

AUS: Australia-United States Alliance stronger than ever before

Minister for Defence
Marise Payne

Minister for Defence, Senator the Hon Marise Payne, said the Australia-US Alliance continues to go from strength to strength, following a successful visit to the United States.

Minister Payne travelled to Honolulu and Washington DC from 18-22 September, where she met with senior members of the Trump Administration, including US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis.

At their 20 September meeting in Washington DC, Minister Payne and Secretary Mattis discussed global security threats and challenges, as well as priorities for the Alliance.

“Australia and the US will continue to work together on the security challenges in the Indo-Pacific, including countering the threat posed by Daesh in the Philippines," Minister Payne said.

News Report: US Strategic Command - We Assume North Korea Has Nuclear ICBM

North Korea's Hwasong-14 Ballistic Missile

North Korea’s nuclear program is on the verge of developing accurate nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that can strike the US mainland, according to the commander of US Strategic Command.

Air Force General John Hyten spoke at a Wednesday forum held by the Hudson Institute, a right-wing think tank whose stated goal is to promote "global security, prosperity and freedom." Hyten, whose background is in military engineering and space warfare, said that the United States must "look at [the ICBM] capability of North Korea as a matter of when, not if."

Pyongyang has struggled with the problem of a guidance system that survives orbital re-entry, one of the most challenging aspects of ICBMs. Nuclear warheads are very dense and heavy, and the heat of re-entry can warp the missile and render it totally inaccurate.

But Hyten cautioned that Pyongyang won't be delayed for long. "If you're going down that path, you'll eventually figure it out. You will. So we have to assume, and as commander of Strategic Command I have to assume, that they have the bomb and they will have the capability to deploy it on an ICBM," Hyten said. "And I have to figure out how to respond if asked by the president of the United States."

News Report: South Korea Pledges Not to Deploy Tactical Nuclear Weapon - Foreign Ministry

Click Image to Enlarge

According to a statement published by the South Korean Foreign Ministry's website, the country won't deploy any tactical nuclear weapon on the Korean peninsula.

BEIJING (Sputnik) — South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha reiterated Thursday the country's stance on the North Korean crisis at a meeting with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, saying that Seoul would not deploy a tactical nuclear weapon on the Korean peninsula.

"South Korea is making every effort to sort out the nuclear problem of the Korean Peninsula and does not want a war on the peninsula to erupt again. South Korea stands for denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and will firmly stick to its commitment not to deploy a tactical nuclear weapon on the peninsula again," Kang said in a statement, published on the South Korean Foreign Ministry's website.

The Chinese foreign minister confirmed that the issue of denuclearization remained on top of Beijing's agenda.

The ministers held their meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

News Story: S. Korea, China hold high-level military talks amid THAAD row

SEOUL, Sept. 20 (Yonhap) -- Senior South Korean and Chinese military officials held bilateral talks here on Wednesday amid drawn-out diplomatic standoffs between the neighboring countries, South Korea's Army said.

The half-an-hour meeting between Gen. Kim Yong-woo, the South Korean Army chief of staff, and Lt. Gen. You Haitao, deputy commander of the Chinese Army, took place on the sidelines of the 10th Pacific Armies Chiefs Conference (PACC) underway in Seoul.

You is leading China's delegation to the biennial conference. He is the first high-level Chinese defense official to visit South Korea since Seoul's agreement with the U.S. Forces Korea last year to deploy the THAAD missile defense system on its soil.

The allies have stressed that it's aimed at countering North Korea's nuclear and missile threats. But China does not want a THAAD battery, which includes a state-of-the-art X-band radar, on its doorstep.

The South's Army officials confirmed that the Kim-You meeting occurred earlier in the day but stopped short of providing details. They also didn't release a relevant photo.

Read the full story at YonhapNews

News Story: U.S. senator tells China to be aggressive with N. Korea, not just S. Korea

US Sen. Cory Gardner (Image: Wiki Commons)

WASHINGTON, Sept. 19 (Yonhap) -- A U.S. senator urged China on Tuesday to use the same aggressive approach to North Korea that it has used to punish South Korea for hosting a U.S. missile defense system.

Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) made the comment as North Korea has fired ballistic missiles and carried out its sixth nuclear test in defiance of international sanctions.

"China has actually carried out its vindication. It's a vindictive campaign against South Korea, vindictiveness over the deployment of a missile defense system in South Korea," he said in an interview on CNN.

The senator was referring to China's economic retaliation for the deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in South Korea, which it views as a threat to its security. Seoul and Washington insist it is a purely defensive measure aimed at countering North Korea's missile threats.

Read the full story at YonhapNews

News Story: Japan deploys PAC-3 missile interceptor near North Korea flight path

A Japanese Patriot PAC-3 Missile System

By: Mari Yamaguchi

TOKYO (AP) — Japan on Tuesday moved a mobile missile-defense system on the northern island of Hokkaido to a base near recent North Korean missile flyover routes.

Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptor unit was deployed at the Hakodate base on southern Hokkaido “as a precaution” as part of government preparations for a possible emergency.

The relocation came after a North Korean missile was test-fired last week and flew over southern Hokkaido and landed in the Pacific off the island’s east coast — the second flyover in less than a month.

The PAC-3 was brought from another base in Yakumo town on Hokkaido, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Hakodate. The system has a range of about 20 kilometers.

Read the full story at DefenseNews

News Story: U.S. Senate passes bill calling for enhanced extended deterrence for S. Korea

WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 (Yonhap) -- The United States Senate on Monday passed a bill that calls for boosting missile defenses and providing greater security assurances to its ally South Korea amid North Korea's growing threats.

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018 passed 89-8 to inject US$700 billion into the Pentagon budget, including some $8.5 billion toward strengthening U.S. missile and defense systems. That was $630 million more than what the Donald Trump administration reportedly sought.

The defense policy bill calls on Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to submit a plan to enhance the extended deterrence of the U.S. toward South Korea and Japan.

Tensions have escalated in the region in the wake of North Korea's repeated provocations, including two intercontinental ballistic missile tests in July and a sixth nuclear test earlier this month.

Through extended deterrence, the U.S. has committed to defending its allies by mobilizing all military capabilities, including nuclear and conventional.

Read the full story at YonhapNews

News Report: Mattis - No Need to Shoot Down North Korean Missiles Yet

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says the U.S. has not yet shot down any North Korean missiles because they have not posed a threat to the United States or its allies.

In remarks to reporters at the Pentagon, Mattis said Monday that if the missiles were perceived as a threat, "that would elicit a different response from us.''

Asked what that response is likely to be, Mattis refused to elaborate.

Earlier this month, North Korea tested what it described as a thermonuclear weapon suitable for mounting on an intercontinental ballistic missile.

At the beginning of this year, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announced plans to develop a long-range intercontinental ballistic missile that can target the U.S. mainland.

On Monday, almost a dozen U.S., Japanese and South Korean warplanes armed with live weapons flew over the Korean Peninsula in what the U.S. military is describing as a "sequenced bilateral show of force" in response to North Korea's latest missile launch.

News Story: To shoot down or not? NKorea launch highlights intercept issues

CGI of an Aegis Ashore system (Click Image to Enlarge)

By Thomas Watkins with Shingo Ito in Tokyo

North Korea's latest missile launch over Japan set sirens blaring and triggered alerts telling people to seek shelter -- yet neither Tokyo nor Washington tried to shoot the rocket down.

The test follows one in August that saw another rocket soar over Hokkaido. In that case too, much-vaunted Japanese and US missile-intercept capabilities were not used.

Now some in the United States are wondering why all this sophisticated weaponry isn't being used, especially as North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un accelerates toward his goal of building a nuclear missile capable of striking the United States.

"The next time the North Koreans launch a rocket, especially one that will traverse over our ally Japan, I would hope that we shoot it down as a message to the North Koreans and to other people, like in Japan, who are counting on us," Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher told lawmakers this week.

"Unless we demonstrate we're willing to use force, there's no reason for them to believe we will."

The US Pacific Command confirmed Friday's rocket was an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), and Seoul's defense ministry said it probably traveled around 3,700 kilometers (2,300 miles), hurtling to a maximum altitude of 770 kilometers.

The missile, which fell in the Pacific Ocean, represented North Korea's furthest-ever flight.

Evans Revere and Jonathan Pollack of the Brookings Institution wrote in a paper that Washington should declare that any future North Korean missiles toward or over US or allied territory would be deemed a direct threat that would "be addressed with the full range of US and allied defensive capabilities."

Read the full story at SpaceDaily

News Story: 'Take cover' - but where? Japanese helpless over N.Korea threat

By Kyoko HASEGAWA, Hiroshi HIYAMA

Take cover in a sturdy building or get underground.

That's the emergency advice given to the Japanese people in the event of a North Korean missile strike.

But there are two big problems: most Japanese homes are made of wood and lack a basement. In the countryside, there is often no building made of concrete.

And with only a matter of minutes from launch to impact, there's simply no time to take cover.

As North Korea this week fired its second missile over Japan in less than a month and threatened to "sink" the country into the sea with nuclear weapons, many Japanese feel a sense of helplessness in the face of the threat from Pyongyang.

Sushi chef Isamu Oya, 67, who runs a restaurant in the small fishing town of Erimo, right under the flightpath of Friday's missile, summed up the feelings of many.

"The government told us to take cover in a stable building or underground, but there isn't one here. We have no choice but just do nothing.

"Scary? Yes, but we can't help it."

Read the full story at SpaceDaily

News Story: U.S. to send aircraft carrier to Korea next month - ministry

SEOUL, Sept. 18 (Yonhap) -- The United States plans to send an aircraft carrier to waters near the Korean Peninsula next month for a joint training with South Korea's Navy, the defense ministry said Monday.

In a report to the National Assembly, the ministry said the allies will hold the exercise in October involving "the U.S. aircraft carrier strike group."

It did not reveal the name of the carrier.

South Korea and the U.S. will also conduct a combined missile alert drill joined by Japan between late September and early October, according to the ministry.

The U.S. is expected to dispatch B-1B strategic bombers stationed in Guam to Korea later this month in a warning to the North.

Read the full story at YonhapNews

News Story: U.S. not to defend Canada from ICBM attack - TV report

North Korean Hwasong-14 Ballistic Missile

OTTAWA, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- The United States will not defend Canada if it is targeted in a ballistic missile attack, according to Canadian television network CTV on Thursday.

"We're being told in Colorado Springs that the extant U.S. policy is not to defend Canada," said Lt.-Gen. Pierre St-Amand, deputy commander of Colorado-based North American Air Defense Command (NAADC) and also top Canadian officer at the NAADC.

"That is the policy that's stated to us. So that's the fact that I can bring to the table," St-Amand told the Canada's House of Commons Defence Committee, which is studying the extent to which Canada is ready for an attack by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

St-Amand said Canadian and U.S. military personnel at the NAADC headquarters in Colorado Springs work side-by-side detecting potential airborne threats to North America.

However, he said Canada would have no role in deciding what to do if the DPRK or any other country fired a missile at North America. Canadian military personnel would instead be forced to sit on the sidelines and watch as U.S. officials decided how to act.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: THAAD deployment hurts China-ROK trade ties - spokesman

BEIJING, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- The deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system in the Republic of Korea (ROK) has affected China-ROK trade, a spokesman with China's Ministry of Commerce said Thursday.

The deployment "seriously harms China's strategic security interests," spokesman Gao Feng said at a press conference.

"[China] hopes the ROK side respects China's major interests and legitimate concerns and properly deals with the issues in question," Gao said.

Read the full story at Xinhua

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Story Quote: "and properly deals with the issues in question"

PacificSentinel: They are properly dealing with the issues in question, by installing THAAD no mater what China thinks, wants, does, or says! What some people completely forget is that money (trade) is secondary to security.

News Story: Japan refuels US missile defense ships under new security laws

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The Maritime Self-Defense Force has refueled U.S. ships patrolling to counter North Korean missile launches under new security laws that took effect last year, a Japanese government source said Thursday.

The refueling missions to U.S. Aegis ships sailing in the Sea of Japan were conducted multiple times since April, making them the second instance in which Japanese Self-Defense Forces were known to have performed their expanded roles under the security legislation.

The legislation has loosened the constraints of Japan's war-renouncing postwar Constitution imposed on the activities of the defense forces, setting the stage for U.S. and Japanese troops to work more closely than ever.

Top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said the SDF personnel are engaging in activities to provide supplies to the U.S. military based on the legislation, but refrained from acknowledging specific operations.

"I cannot comment on the issue because it will unveil the details of the operations of the SDF and the U.S. military," the chief Cabinet secretary said at a regular press conference.

In May, the MSDF engaged in a mission to protect a U.S. Navy vessel off Japan for the first time under the legislation, although Tokyo has also not officially confirmed that operation to avoid impacting U.S. military activities and bilateral relations.

Read the full story at The Mainichi

News Story: China supports UN Security Council resolution on DPRK

BEIJING, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- China supports the UN Security Council in taking necessary measures regarding the DPRK's nuclear test, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said Tuesday morning.

The UN Security Council Monday unanimously adopted a resolution to impose fresh sanctions on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) over its nuclear test on Sept. 3 for violation of previous Security Council resolutions.

Geng said the resolution reflected the unanimous stance of Security Council members in safeguarding peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the region, advancing denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and upholding international non-proliferation.

He said the resolution called for a peaceful settlement through diplomatic and political means, supported the resumption of six-party talks and stressed measures to de-escalate tension on the peninsula.

"The Chinese side hopes that this resolution will be implemented comprehensively and completely," the spokesperson said.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: N. Korea may possess nuclear weapons for war use - Japan minister

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- North Korea may now possess nuclear weapons that can be used in an actual war, Japan's defense minister said Sunday following the North's sixth nuclear test a week ago.

The nuclear test explosion "was 160 kilotons, 10 times the force of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima" in 1945, Itsunori Onodera told reporters. "I can't help but think the country possesses nuclear weapons."

On whether to recognize that North Korea is a nuclear state, Onodera said, "It is up to the international community to judge. Apart from the issue of recognizing whether or not the country is a nuclear state, it has repeatedly conducted nuclear tests and has the capabilities to do so."

In a television program earlier Sunday, Onodera said he expects the next provocative action by North Korea to be a test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

He said it is possible a missile may be launched over Japan again, like the intermediate-range missile that North Korea fired over Hokkaido late last month.

"The capability which North Korea wants to acquire is an ICBM," he said.

Read the full story at The Mainichi

News Story: Foreign ministry sees hike in cyberattack attempts from China this year

SEOUL, Sept. 10 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's foreign ministry has seen a sharp rise in attempted hackings from China in 2017 from a year earlier, parliamentary sources said Sunday.

A total of 8,263 cases of cyberattacks or attempted hackings were detected in the foreign ministry servers from January through July, according to data provided to Rep. Park Joo-sun of the minor opposition People's Party by the foreign office.

The figure is almost on par with the corresponding number of 8,482 tallied for all of 2016, the lawmaker said.

The analysis on Internet IP addresses that attempted the cyberattacks showed that a considerable portion of them came from China.

The cyberattacks detected from the neighboring country stood at 4,509, accounting for 75 percent of all attempted cyber penetrations. The percentage has risen sharply from 54.7 percent in 2016.

Read the full story at YonhapNews