Strange headlines coming out of Korean news agency within past hour.

[JaneyVee]

within the past couple of hours there was this:

N. Korea warns of military response to U.S. B-52 bomber

SEOUL, March 20 (Yonhap) -- North Korea warned Wednesday that it will take a military action should the United States deploy B-52 strategic bombers again on the peninsula.

"We are keeping close tabs on the activity of the B-52 strategic bomber," a spokesperson for the North's foreign ministry said, according to its official news agency KCNA.

If the bomber appears again over the Korean Peninsula, it won't be able to avoid a strong military response, added the unnamed spokesperson.

The U.S. sent at least one B-52 based on Guam to Korea for ongoing joint military drills, apparently in a show of firepower.

link: http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/2013/03/20/39/0200000000AEN20130320000300315F.HTML

AND then THIS just now:

(URGENT) N. Korea issues air raid alert, orders military to take immediate actions

link: http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/2013/03/21/12/0200000000AEN20130321002400315F.HTML
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This is a site of a news agency where immediate reports come in and then fed to other news outlets. Usually only journalists and news media monitors these type of sites. News media will usually receive alerts from news agency sites like these. So this could be a false alarm or it could be a breaking story.

[Posteritatis]

1. Or it could be typical North Korean histrionics; we'll see what we'll see, I suppose. (nt)

[pscot]

2. Israel is getting all the attention

[StrayKat]

3. Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/21/us-korea-north-drill-idUSBRE92K01D20130321

[Comrade Grumpy]

4. Nothing new at Yonhap as of right now.

[Poll_Blind]

5. IMO, the key thing to watch for is anything involving artillery on the mainland. There's...

...an island the North Koreans like to shell, there are various naval altercations they have.

But the only thing which apparently "counts" with such a hyperbolic adversary as North Korea, and means serious business, is any kind of shelling of South Korea. The DPRK are some fucks, but hopefully they're not suicidal. Any shelling of South Korean mainland would be a warning or an indication that for whatever goddamned loony reason, DPRK is pushing all the chips on the table.

Which I would hope to shit they would loose pretty quick. I have no qualms with US forces being used to halt what could be a massacre of unimaginable proportions by a truly insane, truly maddog regime.

But I'm curious where all this is going to lead. It's in everyone's interests that it leads nowhere. Even the Chinese are not looking like they're going to cut NK slack. Bad sign for the DPRK.

PB

[Poll_Blind]

6. (URGENT) Malicious code in NongHyup system came from Chinese IP: gov't

That just came across, too. No es bueno.

PB

[rgbecker]

7. Listen, this is all trouble.

The casual attitude of the US military about N. Korea will lead to trouble. Flying b-52's around to rattle swords is stupid. Why give these guys the slightest excuse?

Remember this one? These guys are not to be joked with.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Pueblo_(AGER-2)

[Skip Intro]

8. First, we protect South Korea. Second, they're holding one of our ships captive?

I have never heard this until now.

"Pueblo is the only ship of the U.S. Navy currently being held captive."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Pueblo_%28AGER-2%29

Wtf?

At any rate, we must protect SK.


And appeasing hostility fails every time.

[Gravitycollapse]

10. Meh, it's an old ship with holes blown in it. Not exactly top priority.

[TwilightGardener]

9. We're conducting annual exercises, I'f I'm not mistaken.

My husband used to participate in them when he was stationed in Korea. Air power is part of it.

[Posteritatis]

11. That was also 44 years ago. Linear time's weird that way. (nt)