Quite frankly, we should deploy a couple subs. God knows we need to use them.

Our subs barely fucking work:lol:

To be fair, they ARE older than most of the people that crew them :P

North Korea issues new threats to US and 'puppets' South Korea; Kim Jong-Un visits frontline

by:
Park Chan-Kyong From:
AFP March 08, 2013
3:22PM

NORTH Korea responded to new UN sanctions today with fresh threats of nuclear war, the scrapping of peace pacts with South Korea and the severing of a hotline with Seoul.

The latest measures announced by Pyongyang ramped up tensions on the Korean peninsula that have surged since the North staged a third nuclear test last month.
Yesterday, the country had threatened a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States and South Korea.

North Korea "abrogates all agreements on non-aggression reached between the North and the South'', the state-run Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea (CPRK) said in a statement.

Pyongyang is known for its bellicose rhetoric, but the tone has reached a frenzied pitch in recent days, fuelling concerns that it might trigger a border incident, with both North and South planning major military exercises next week.

North Korean television broadcast emotional scenes of cheering soldiers and their young families greeting leader Kim Jong-Un as he visited a frontline unit that shelled the South in 2010.

With tensions surging on the Korean peninsula, Kim said the North's military was "fully ready to fight a Korean style all-out war", as he visited two islands close to the disputed maritime border on Thursday, state media said.

Footage of Friday's visit showed him being greeted by chanting troops who were held back as they surged towards him.

Their families brought their children to meet him, with one woman encouraging her daughter
forward for a hug.

At the end of the trip, the soldiers ran down to the beach and waded chest deep into the freezing water clutching at Kim's motor launch as it moved away.

The tour coincided with an outpouring of vitriol from Pyongyang over UN sanctions imposed for its nuclear test last month, with the North threatening pre-emptive nuclear strikes on the US and its allies, and vowing to rip up peace pacts with South Korea.

Speaking to troops stationed on the islands, Kim said the slightest provocation would result in his immediate order for a "great advance" along the entire frontline with the South, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

.On Mu island he inspected artillery units that shelled the nearby South Korean island of Yeonpyeong in November 2010, killing four people and triggering an exchange of fire that sparked fears of a full-blown conflict.

State television showed Kim inspecting the craters left by South artillery shells on the island in what he described as the "most gratifying" battle since the end of the Korean war in 1953.


A non-aggression pact signed in 1991 endorsed the peaceful settlement of disputes and the prevention of accidental military clashes.

The CPRK said the pact would be voided as of Monday, the same day that Pyongyang has vowed to rip up the 1953 armistice agreement that ended Korean War hostilities.


"It also notifies the South side that it will immediately cut off the North-South hotline,'' the committee said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

The hotline was installed in 1971 and the North has severed it on five occasions in the
past - most recently in 2010.

Pyongyang's latest announcement came hours after the UN Security Council beefed up existing sanctions on the communist state in response to its February 12 nuclear test.

The resolution adopted by the 15-member Council added new names to the UN sanctions blacklist and tightened restrictions on North Korea's financial dealings, notably its suspect "bulk cash'' transfers.

The new sanctions will "bite hard'', said the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice. "They increase North Korea's isolation and raise the cost to North Korea's leaders of defying the international community.''

China wants "full implementation'' of the resolution, said its UN envoy Li Baodong, while stressing that efforts must be made to bring North Korea back to negotiations and to defuse tensions.

Prior to the Security Council meeting, the North Korean foreign ministry had threatened a "pre-emptive nuclear attack'' against the United States and all other "aggressors''.

The United States responded by saying it was "fully capable'' of defending itself and its allies - including South Korea - against any missile strike.

The CPRK statement today condemned the UN resolution as proof that Washington and its "puppets'' in Seoul were "hell bent'' on confrontation.

"North-South relations have gone so far beyond the danger line that they are no longer reparable and an extremely dangerous situation is prevailing on the Korean Peninsula where a nuclear war may break out right now,'' it said.

The statement warned that the North Korean military would respond "mercilessly'' to any intrusion - "even an inch'' - into its land, sea or air space.

An annual US-South Korea military exercise known as Foal Eagle is currently underway and another joint drill is scheduled to begin Monday.

The North is also believed to be gearing up for nationwide military manoeuvres of its own next week, involving all three wings of its armed forces.

While most observers dismiss the North's nuclear war threats as bluster, there are fears about the volatile mix of hair-trigger tension and military exercises.

"There's always that risk of a miscalculation and rapid escalation,'' said Dan Pinkston, a Seoul-based security expert for the International Crisis Group.

"Most of this is bluster, but the regime in North Korea is also signalling that it's willing to take greater risks, and that's a dangerous sign,'' Pinkston told AFP.

KCNA said North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un yesterday visited a frontline military unit involved in the shelling of a South Korean island in 2010.

During his inspection, Kim declared the North was ready for all-out war and that he would order attacks in all frontline areas in case of any provocation, KCNA said.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/north-korea-issues-new-threats-to-us-and-puppets-south-korea/story-fnd134gw-1226593315526

It's a well known fact that we actually have some of the best, if not the best non-nuclear powered submarines in the world. The major problem is they're bloody expensive to run, and we don't have the numbers to man them, even though the Submarine roles in the Navy are the best paid.

Public executions? What is this, the 1800s?

The last public execution in the USA was in 1936.

The last public execution in the Muslim world was, like, ten minutes ago.

Falklands referendum: David Cameron hails 'clear result' as 99.8 per cent of islanders vote to remain British

Cahal Milmo Port Stanley
Tuesday 12 March 2013

David Cameron today called on Argentina to respect the wishes of Falkland Islanders, who have overwhelmingly voted to stay British.

After two days of voting the inhabitants of the South Atlantic archipelago decided by 99.8 per cent in favour of retaining their status as a United Kingdom overseas territory. Turnout from the electorate of 1,649, some of whom had queued in wind and rain yesterday to cast their ballots in Stanley, was 92 per cent.

The Prime Minister said this was "the clearest possible results there could be" and that he would always be there to defend the islands.

Speaking at 10 Downing Street just hours after the result of the referendum was announced, Mr Cameron said it sent a clear message to Argentina.

"They should take careful note of this result," said the Prime Minister.

"The Falkland islanders couldn't have spoken more clearly. They want to remain British and that view should be respected by everybody, including by Argentina."

The emphatic approval of the status quo of British sovereignty, which saw just three "no" votes cast out of 1,517, is no surprise in a community which still bears the memory of Argentina's 1982 invasion and Britain's subsequent liberation in a brutal three-week land war.

As the result was announced in Port Stanley's town hall there was gasps at the scale of the yes vote. One spectator shouted: "Listen to us."

A few hundred metres at the street part beneath the Whalebone Arch, erected 80 years to commemorate a century of British rule of the Falklands, a fully party was in swing with islanders singing from printed sheets carrying the words to "God Save the Queen" and Rod Stewart's "I Am Sailing".

Port Stanley resident Alice Clarke said: "It's a brilliant, brilliant result. We hoped it would be convincing but the turn out and the percentage in favour is a very powerful statement."

It will be held up by islanders as proof of their right to self-determination and a counter-blast to the ongoing campaign by Argentina to corral Britain to the negotiating table for talks - rejected out of hand by London - in which Buenos Aires insists the Falklanders would have no right to participate.

The Argentine government of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has made clear it does not recognise the referendum, insisting it has no legal validity.

However Mr Cameron insisted that the islanders were entitled to the right to self-determination.

"It is the clearest possible result there could be," he said.

"The Falkland Islands may be thousands of miles away but they are British through and through and that is how they want to stay. People should know we will always be there to defend them.

"We believe in self-determination. The Falkland Islanders have spoken so clearly about their future and now other countries right across the world, I hope, will respect and revere this very, very clear result."

The vote was greeted with jubilation in Port Stanley, where hundreds of residents braved squally snow showers to hold a street party on a green decked in the Falklands flags and red, white and blue bunting.

Members of the Falklands' legislative assembly will later today use the results from the plebiscite to lobby foreign governments. Meetings are due to be held in America, which has been criticised on the islands and in Britain for sticking rigidly to its longstanding formula of recognising the UK's de facto administration of the islands but stopping short of accepting the right of its inhabitants to self-determination. In London, there is an expectation that diplomats and ministers will use the referendum result to counter Argentine complaints.

Barry Elsby, one of the islands' elected legislators, told The Independent: "The point of this referendum was not for islanders to know what they feel. The message here is for the outside world. Argentina has told the world we don't exist but we have tonight made our views clear in the most emphatic manner possible.

"Argentina is afraid of this referendum because it shows that we have a voice on the international stage."

Mr Elsby hit back at criticism from Buenos Aires that the referendum amounted to nothing more than a publicity stunt.

He said: "This is not a stunt. It is publicity for the watching world because on behalf of our 3,000 people, the islanders have gone to the ballot boxes and made a statement about their future. That is not a stunt."

The high turnout for the vote will be seen as an indication of the determination of the islanders to make their views known as well as a signal of success for the complex logistical operation for the referendum put in place by the Falklands' government, which involved mobile polling stations touring the Camp or countryside beyond Port Stanley and the use of an aircraft to gather ballot boxes as well as visit voters in outlying islands.

A team of international observers monitoring the ballot gave the process a clean bill of health in an initial assessment of the conduct of the referendum. Brad Smith, the head of the ten-strong Referendum International Observer Mission, said: "We believe that this referendum represented the will and the spirt of the voters of the Falkland Islands."

Argentina and its president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who has led a voluble campaign against the islanders while asserting the case from Buenos Aires that London must negotiate over the Falklands' status, is likely to respond with indignation to the result and could expand its strategy of applying economic pressure on the islands.

Argentina's ambassador to London, Alicia Castro, last week refused rule out the imposition of new measures against the Falklands, which already include an attempt to squeeze the islands' tourist industry by banning cruise ships which call at Port Stanley from visiting Argentine ports and threats to restrict the lucrative squid catch which has funded much of the islands' development in recent years by expanding fishing in its own waters.

Mrs Castro said: "Let's wait and see."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/falklands-referendum-david-cameron-hails-clear-result-as-998-per-cent-of-islanders-vote-to-remain-british-8529669.html

Argentina can whinge and moan all they want, but they won't do anything about it. They're still licking their wounds from '82. If they tried to repeat their actions in '82, they'd get their arses kicked even worse than last time.

Brits don't have the Navy they had in '82.

U.S. Bolstering Missile Defense to Deter North Korea’s Threats
undefined
Win Mcnamee/Getty Images

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, center, after a Pentagon briefing where he said America was increasing its missile defenses.
By THOM SHANKER, DAVID E. SANGER and MARTIN FACKLER.
Published: March 15, 2013184 Comments

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WASHINGTON — The Pentagon will spend $1 billion to deploy additional ballistic missile interceptors along the Pacific Coast to counter the growing reach of North Korea’s weapons, a decision accelerated by Pyongyang’s recent belligerence and indications that Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, is resisting China’s efforts to restrain him.
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"We do not play war games for the fun of it. We are ready, willing and able to act in our best interests."

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The new deployments, announced by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Friday, will increase the number of ground-based interceptors in California and Alaska to 44 from 30 by 2017.

The missiles have a mixed record in testing, hitting dummy targets just 50 percent of the time, but officials said Friday’s announcement was intended not merely to present a credible deterrence to the North’s limited intercontinental ballistic missile arsenal. They said it is also meant to show South Korea and Japan that the United States is willing to commit resources to deterring the North and, at the same time, warn Beijing that it must restrain its ally or face an expanding American military focus on Asia.

“There’s been a quickening pace of provocations,” said one senior administration official, describing actions and words from North Korea and its new leader, Mr. Kim. “But the real accelerant was the fact that the North Koreans seemed more unmoored from their Chinese handlers than even we had feared.”

Although American and South Korean intelligence officials doubt the North is close to being able to follow through on a nuclear strike, or that it would even try, given its almost certain destruction, analysts say the country’s aggressive behavior is an important and worrying sign of changing calculations in the North.

In interviews over recent days, Obama administration officials described internal debates at the White House and the Pentagon about how strongly to react to the recent provocations. It is a delicate balance, they said, of defending against real potential threats while avoiding giving the North Koreans what one official called “the satisfaction of seeming to make the rest of the world jumpy.”

In announcing the deployments at a Pentagon news conference, Mr. Hagel cited North Korea’s third test of nuclear weapons technology last month, the successful test of a long-range missile that sent a satellite into space, and the discovery that a new generation of mobile missiles appeared closer to development.

“We will strengthen our homeland defense, maintain our commitments to our allies and partners, and make clear to the world that the United States stands firm against aggression,” Mr. Hagel said.

All 14 of the new interceptors will be placed in silos at Fort Greely, Alaska, where 26 interceptors are already deployed. Four others are at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

North Korea has always been an unpredictable, provocative dictatorship. But even by its own standards, the isolated Communist regime’s recent decision to nullify a wartime cease-fire and weeks of increasingly hyperbolic warnings, including of a pre-emptive nuclear strike, appear to have crossed new and dangerous lines.

Adm. James A. Winnefeld Jr., the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also spoke at the Pentagon on Friday and described how the United States was deliberately building a two-tiered system of deterrence against North Korea.

The United States will “put the mechanics in place to deny any potential North Korean objectives to launch a missile to the United States, but also to impose costs upon them if they do,” Admiral Winnefeld said.

In an unusually pointed warning to the new North Korean leader, Admiral Winnefeld added, “We believe that this young lad ought to be deterred by that — and if he’s not, we’ll be ready.”

The arguments for bolstering the limited missile defense were symbolic of the larger problem.

The antimissile systems are considered less than reliable, and some administration officials were reluctant to pour additional resources into deploying more of the existing technology.

But in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gen. C. Robert Kehler, the commander of the United States Strategic Command, made clear they serve a larger purpose. “Deterring North Korea from acting irrationally is our No. 1 priority,” he said. He acknowledged that there were doubts that the 30 existing antimissile systems would be sufficient, and added that an additional site in the United States, on the East Coast, may be needed to deter Iran.

Does anyone know if North Korea have the capability to mass launch ballistic missiles, or are talking only 1 at a time?

Blasphemy is a hugely sensitive issue in Pakistan, where 97 per cent of the 180 million population are Muslims, and even unproven allegations can trigger a violent public response.