Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott on Monday warned an audience of a threat to the Lone Star state far greater than those from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un: Democrats.

Abbott made his comments at a McLennan County Republican Club lunchtime event in Waco, TX, using the venue to repeatedly slam the Obama administration’s policies. In doing so, Abbott took the time to warn his fellow Republicans of the encroaching threat that Democrats pose to their very way of life. Pointing to the group Battleground Texas, composed of veterans of the Obama presidential campaigns, the Abbott argued that the Democratic Party is a far greater concern to the state than North Korea:

“One thing that requires ongoing vigilance is the reality that the state of Texas is coming under a new 
assault, an assault far more dangerous than what the leader of North Korea threatened when he said he was going to add Austin, Texas, as one of the recipients of his nuclear weapons,” Abbott said. “The threat that we’re getting is the threat from the Obama administration and his political machine.”

Austin was one of the cities seen on a North Korean map, supposedly comprising the targets should North Korea carry out nuclear strikes in the United States. North Korea’s vast supply of missiles, however, are unable to reach that far, whether or not they are able to be nuclear-armed.

During his speech, Abbott also weighed in heavily against the recently passed United Nations Arms Trade Treaty, which the U.S. is still reviewing. “We fought a war in 1776 to fight against foreign dictators telling us what to do, not now to turn around and give that power to them,” Abbott warned about the treaty, calling it an “incredible danger.” He has already threatened to file suit against the administration should President Obama sign it, despite admitting that it does not infringe on the Second Amendment.

h/t: Hayes Brown at Think Progress Security

Tensions on the Korean peninsula are nothing new — historically, North Korea frequently rattles its saber for one reason for another. But the recent escalation in tensions between the North and South have experts worried that this time might be different, that the threat of the United States being drawn into a devastating war with the nuclear-armed North is real in a way that it might not normally be. At the very least, it’s worth paying special attention this time around.

The escalation of tensions began in mid-February, when North Korea conducted its third-ever nuclear test. While the North’s ability to strike the United States is limited at best, the Obama administration interpreted the test as a violation of international law, and pushed throughstricter, though still porous, sanctions on North Korean elites.

North Korea responded in turn by threatening to nullify the armistice that ended the original Korean War, reverting the North and South to a legal state of war. Two days ago, it shut off the last remaining line of communication between the two Korean militaries, warning that “Not words but only arms will work on the U.S. and the South Korean puppet forces.”

Thursday night, the United States responded in kind, conducting a bombing drill with two B-2 bombers over South Korea. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel described the thinking behind the move: “The North Koreans have to understand that what they’re doing is very dangerous.”

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un got the message Friday morning. He ordered his country’s missile arsenal be readied to strike South Korea and the United States if necessary. While North Korean Unha-3 missiles could theoretically reach the West Coast, it’s not clear the missiles actually work. Moreover, North Korea lacks the technology to arm the missiles with nuclear warheads and to deliver them accurately even if they can get them in proper working order. 

So how is this different from the last 60-odd years of North Korean provocations? Many think it isn’t. Writing in the National Interest, Rajon Menon says the current Northern provocations are an example of the Hermit Kingdom’s “measured madness,” an attempt to wring more concessions out of an overcompensating international community.

But North Korea experts Victor Cha and David Kang disagree. They argue that Kim Jong Un’s inexperience (he’s only been running the country since December 2011), together with the South’s new President and more aggressive military stance, means there’s a greater risk (not certainty by any stretch, but risk) of escalation this time around:

So why worry? Two reasons. First, North Korea has a penchant for testing new South Korean presidents. A new one was just inaugurated in February, and since 1992, the North has welcomed these five new leaders by disturbing the peace. Whether in the form of missile launches, submarine incursions, or naval clashes, these North Korean provocations were met by each newly elected South Korean president with patience rather than pique. The difference today is that South Korea is no longer turning the other cheek…for half a century, neither side believed that the benefits of starting a major war outweighed the costs. The worry is that the new North Korean leader might not hold to the same logic, given his youth and inexperience.

So how do we know where this is going? The Washington Post’s Max Fisher suggests that you watch the joint North-South Kaesong Industrial Plant, which he believes the North would shut down in advance of any war.  Of course, states have gone to war with far less economic foresight, though there are other reasons to believe the North won’t go as far as war. It’s likely we’ll just have to wait and nervously see.

h/t: Zack Beauchamp at Think Progress Security

Fred Luter, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, appeared Wednesday onTruNews with Rick Wiles, the Religious Right talk show host who is convinced President Obama is literally a demon.

After Wiles shared with Luter his theory that gay rights activists are to blame for North Korea’s threats to launch a nuclear strike against the US, Luter explained that while he is “not that strong in prophecy” he would not be surprised that there might be a connection.

“I would not be surprised that at the time when we are debating same-sex marriage, at a time when we are debating whether or not we should have gays leading the Boy Scout movement, I don’t think it’s just a coincidence that we have a mad man in Asia who is saying some of the things that he’s saying,” Luter said.

Listen:

Wiles: You know at precisely the same time the Supreme Court is hearing these arguments on same-sex marriage in Asia a crazy man in possession of nuclear weapons, Kim Jong-un, is openly saying: I have ordered our military to position our rockets on US targets in Hawaii, Japan, Guam and the mainland of the United States. He has gone into a full state of war this week. I don’t know, Pastor Luter, I don’t know if anybody is — I know they’re not — they’re just not putting this together. You got this happening over here and you got this happening over here: could the two be connected? Could our slide into immorality be what is unleashing this mad man over here in Asia to punish us?

Luter: It could be a possibility, I’m not that strong in prophecy but I would not be surprised that there’s not a connection there simply because of the fact we’ve seen it happen in scripture before. I would not be surprised that at the time when we are debating same-sex marriage, at a time when we are debating whether or not we should have gays leading the Boy Scout movement, I don’t think it’s just a coincidence that we have a mad man in Asia who is saying some of the things that he’s saying.

Indeed, Wiles started the program by warning that the US is being “transformed into a socialist, homosexual, anti-God, anti-biblical morality cesspool” and will commit “national suicide” if the Supreme Court rules “that homosexuals can marry.”

h/t: Brian Tashman at Right Wing Watch

(CNN) — North Korea’s leader approved a plan to prepare standby rockets to hit U.S. targets, state media said Friday, after American stealth bombers carried out a practice mission over South Korea.

In a meeting with military leaders early Friday, Kim Jong Un, “said he has judged the time has come to settle accounts with the U.S. imperialists in view of the prevailing situation,” the state-run KCNA news agency reported.

The rockets are aimed at at U.S. targets, including military bases in the Pacific and in South Korea, state media reported.

“If they make a reckless provocation with huge strategic forces, [we] should mercilessly strike the U.S. mainland, their stronghold, their military bases in the operational theaters in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam, and those in South Korea,” KCNA reported.

Analysis: Just what is Kim Jong Un up to?

North Korean state media carried a photo of Kim meeting with military officials Friday. In the photo, the young leader is seated, leafing through documents with four uniformed officers standing around him.

On the wall behind them, a map entitled “Plan for the strategic forces to target mainland U.S.” appears to show straight lines stretching across to the Pacific to points on the continental United States.

South Korea and the United States are “monitoring any movements of North Korea’s short, middle and middle-to-long range missiles,” South Korean Defense Ministry Spokesman Kim Min-seok said Friday.

The fact is that despite the bombast, and unless there has been a miraculous turnaround among North Korea’s strategic forces, there is little to no chance that it could successfully land a missile on Guam, Hawaii or anywhere else outside the Korean Peninsula that U.S. forces may be stationed,” James Hardy, Asia-Pacific editor of IHS Jane’s Defense Weekly, wrote in an opinion column published Thursday on CNN.com.

North Korea’s latest threat Friday morning came after the United States said Thursday that it flew stealth bombers over South Korea in annual military exercises.

The mission by the B-2 Spirit bombers, which can carry conventional and nuclear weapons, “demonstrates the United States’ ability to conduct long-range, precision strikes quickly and at will,” a statement from U.S. Forces Korea said.

The North Korean state news agency described the mission as “an ultimatum that they (the United States) will ignite a nuclear war at any cost on the Korean Peninsula.”

The North has repeatedly claimed that the exercises are tantamount to threats of nuclear war against it.

But the U.S. military stressed that the bombers flew in exercises to preserve peace in the region.

“The United States is steadfast in its alliance commitment to the defense of the Republic of Korea, to deterring aggression, and to ensuring peace and stability in the region,” the statement from U.S. Forces Korea said, using South Korea’s official name. “The B-2 bomber is an important element of America’s enduring and robust extended deterrence capability in the Asia-Pacific region.”

The disclosure of the B-2 flights comes a day after North Korea said it was cutting a key military hotline with South Korea, provoking fresh expressions of concern from U.S. officials about Pyongyang’s recent rhetoric.

Tensions escalated on the Korean Peninsula after the North carried out a long-range rocket launch in December and an underground nuclear test last month, prompting the U.N. Security Council to step up sanctions on the secretive regime.

The deteriorating relations have killed hopes of reviving multilateral talks over North Korea’s nuclear program for the foreseeable future. Indeed, Pyongyang has declared that the subject is no longer up for discussion.

On Tuesday, the North said it planned to place military units tasked with targeting U.S. bases under combat-ready status.

Most observers say North Korea is still years away from having the technology to deliver a nuclear warhead on a missile, but it does have plenty of conventional military firepower, including medium-range ballistic missiles that can carry high explosives for hundreds of miles.

Little said Thursday that the United States was keeping a close eye on North Korea’s missile capabilities.

H/T: CNN.com

Pyongyang said its long-range missile and artillery units have entered combat posture and are targeting US military bases in Guam, Hawaii and mainland America.

“From this moment, the Supreme Command of the Korean People’s Army will be putting in combat duty posture No. 1 all field artillery units including long-range artillery units strategic rocket units that will target all enemy object in US invasionary bases on its mainland, Hawaii and Guam,” the North’s KCNA news agency said.

The North has previously threatened nuclear attacks on the US and its ally South Korea. Military experts believe the threats to be empty, since North Korea is several years from building a nuclear warhead or a missile capable of reaching the mainland US.

Pyongyang has made increasingly aggressive threats recently after the UN Security Council issued a new round of sanctions over North Korea’s third nuclear test in February. The isolated nation says it needs nuclear capabilities to protect its sovereignty from its southern neighbor and the US.

Pyongyang previously threatened to attack US bases in Guam and Okinawa, Japan, last week as the bases are used to launch nuclear-armed US B-52 bombers for the joint exercise.

h/t: RT.com

A few weeks ago, we started listening to Rick Wiles’ “Trunews” radio program because we discovered that he regularly interviews a variety of Religious Right activists that we monitor here.  But since then, we’ve begun listening just because his show - “the only newscast reporting the countdown to the second coming of Jesus Christ” - is also a cavalcade of insanity.

And yesterday’s program was no exception, as Wiles’ grew increasingly worked up about North Korea’s latest threat against the United States, which he blamed on “gay rights fanatics.”

Elsewhere in the program, Wiles declared that the “Fast and the Furious” scandal is part of an effort by the Obama administration to arm Mexican gangs who will then wage war on Texas and Arizona while the administration stockpiles ammunition to supply “Obama’s commie army.”

Wiles is definitely THE craziest religious right broadcaster in existence, beating out Bryan Fischer AND Buster Wilson for the title (so far).

H/T: Right Wing Watch

Hong Kong (CNN) — The North Korean army has declared invalid the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War in 1953, the official newspaper of the country’s ruling Workers’ Party said Monday.

Since last week, North Korea had been threatening to scrap the armistice after the U.N. Security Council passed tougher sanctions against it in response to its February 12 nuclear test.

On Monday, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported that the Supreme Command of North Korea’s army had done so.

“The U.S. has reduced the armistice agreement to a dead paper,” the newspaper said.

North Korea also cut off direct phone links with South Korea at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. The phone line was the emergency link for quick, two-way communication between the two sides.

The armistice agreement, signed in 1953, ended the three-year war between North and South Korea in a truce.

Since the two sides remain technically at war, it remains to be seen whether the invalidation means that either side can resume hostilities.

The Rodong Sinmun reported the Supreme Command saying that it can now make a “strike of justice at any target anytime, not bound to the armistice agreement and achieve the national reunification, the cherished desire of the Korean nation.”

However, the North has nullified the agreement on several occasions in the past. 

What is the armistice agreement?

It is the agreement that ended the war between North and South Korea. It is a truce, rather than a peace treaty.

Has the North ended the armistice before?

Yes. In 2003, Pyonyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) announced that it may have “no option” but to stop honoring the armistice because of the United State’s “persistent war moves.”

In 2009, North Korea said its military would no longer be bound by the agreement because South Korea was joining a U.S.-led anti-proliferation plan.

Part of the reason for the latest move are the joint exercises between the United States and South Korea. A bigger reason is tougher sanctions passed in the U.N. Security Council against North Korea in response to its nuclear test on February 12.

Pyongyang carried out its third nuclear test, despite international condemnation.

What caused the division of Korea?

For most of the first half of the 20th century, Japan controlled the Korean peninsula as its colony. By the end of the World War II as Japan neared defeat, the allies agreed to an independent Korea. The United States and Soviet Union divided postwar occupation of Korea along the 38th parallel and the two sides were ideologically opposite.

Why did war break out?

On June 25, 1950, a surprise attack by North Korean soldiers who crossed the 38th parallel easily overwhelmed South Korean forces. The United States leapt to the defense of the South. As South Korean, U.S. and U.N. forces fought back and gained ground into North Korea, Chinese forces joined the war on the North’s side later that year. To this day, China remains a crucial ally of North Korea and the U.S. of South Korea. 

Without an armistice, what can happen?

The two sides can resume hostilities if they so choose.

What are the risks of a military clash?

A military clash could risk drawing in the United States, which has about 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea as part of the security alliance between the two countries.

h/t: CNN.com

I just read a very interesting article on Busan Haps by Bobby McGill. It does a good job presenting the side of Psy that not many people care to bring up today: the guy who was dumping gasoline on the anti-American bonfire that raged following the tragic death of two school girls who were crushed by a U.S. military vehicle in 2002.

I was here in 2002, and it was intense. Restaurants were putting up signs that said, “No Americans.” Psy was just a kid at the time, and I am sure that he was caught up in the emotion. Still, Psy’s more risqué or controversial performances are becoming more and more well known, and all those kids listening to Gangnam style may not want to see the same guy singing something like, “Kill the yankees and their daughters, mothers, and fathers” on YouTube.

I do find it interesting that we have never seen a modern Korean artist of considerable fame do any anti-North Korean song or performance. After the bombings last year, there was barely a whimper let a lone a giant spectacle produced by Psy or anyone else to buoy the spirits of the families who were victims of the North Korean shelling.  At least I don’t recall such a thing. If there was, please let me know.

FUCK PSY!

h/t: Korea Law Today

BEIJING (Reuters) - Impoverished North Korea is gearing up to experiment with agricultural and economic reforms after young leader Kim Jong-un and his powerful uncle purged the country’s top general for opposing change, a source with ties to both Pyongyang and Beijing said.

The source added that the cabinet had created a special bureau to take control of the decaying economy from the military, one of the world’s largest, which under Kim’s father was given pride of place in running the country.

The downfall of Vice Marshal Ri Yong-ho and his allies gives the untested new leader and his uncleJang Song-thaek, who married into the Kim family dynasty and is widely seen as the real power behind the throne, the mandate to try to save the battered economy and prevent the secretive regime’s collapse.

The source has correctly predicted events in the past, including North Korea’s first nuclear test in 2006 days before it was conducted, as well as the ascension of Jang.

The changes could herald the most significant reforms by the North in decades. Previous attempts at a more market driven economy have floundered, most recently a drastic currency revaluation in late 2009 which triggered outrage and is widely believed to have resulted in the execution of its chief proponent.

“Ri Yong-ho was the most ardent supporter of Kim Jong-il’s ‘military first’ policy,” the source told Reuters, referring to Kim Jong-un’s late father who plunged the North deeper into isolation over its nuclear ambitions, abject poverty and political repression.

REFORMS

Some North Korea experts said the comments confirmed their belief that the new leadership would try to make some changes to the stultifying controls over the economy.

“This should not come as a surprise. Kim Jong-un appears to have done considerable study on this (reform), taken a lot of lessons, and is probably trying to mould it in a way that suits their situation and in a way that blends with the existing policy. Ri’s departure has a lot to do with this process,” said Korea University professor Yoo Ho-yeol, speaking from Seoul.

He predicted that Jang would increasing press ahead with joint-venture projects with China, the only major ally to which the North can turn for economic help.

But Zhang Lianggui, a North Korea expert at China’s Central Party School, was skeptical.

“You can see this from the repeated criticisms of reform and opening up that appear in the Rodong Sinmun (North Korean party newspaper). They openly criticize any moves in this direction. North Korea is quite indignant when it comes to this point.”

POLITICAL BUREAU

A North Korea’s cabinet has created a “political bureau” designed to wrest power from the 1.2 million-strong military in order to run the economy, which has been in shambles after a crippling famine in the 1990s, the source said.

“In the past, the cabinet was empty with no say in the economy. The military controlled the economy, but that will now change,” the source said.

Kim Jong-un has set up an “economic reform group” in the ruling Workers’ Party to look at agricultural and economic reforms, the source said, adding that North Korea will learn from its giant neighbor and solitary benefactor, China.

Beijing leaders are thought to have been pressing Pyongyang to do more to reform the economy, worried that a collapse of the North could send refugees streaming across its border, and cause the loss of a strategic buffer to South Korea and the large contingent of U.S. troops which help protect it.

In sharp contrast to the austere, reclusive image of his father, state media have shown Kim Jong-un visiting fun fairs, speaking in public and applauding at a rock concert.

Women appear to have been given more freedoms, including wearing short skirts, although 200,000 people are in prison camps in the impoverished and isolated country.

h/t: Yahoo! News