Friday, February 23, 2018

this peaceful world: Putin and Kim Jong Un

7-31-17  
       When you have almost 200,000 people in prison camps, export what amounts to slave labor and threaten to nuke most of Asia and America on a daily basis, you aren't exactly going to win a global popularity contest.  That belligerence combined with Washington's military capabilities and its ability to impose regime change have driven Pyongyang to develop the ultimate weapon: nuclear warheads paired to ballistic missiles that could soon be able to kill millions in the continental United States.
   Shared enemies plus shared interests equal shared goals.  That means Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un could be partners in crime, developing deeper ties while eventually seeking to push back against Washington.  Indeed, there even seems to be some evidence that this could already be happening.  http://theweek.com/articles/714278/how-vladimir-putin-kim-jong-un-could-become-partners-crime
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3-6-17    Even Abel Romero
, the director of government relations
 at the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance,
 told Business Insider that missile defense is not "solely the answer" to stopping threats from North Korea.  China and Russia have missiles that can reach the US in less than 30 minutes, defeat all existing missile defenses, and target up to 10 separate locations with individual warheads, but no one in the US looks to defend against such attacks, according to Romero.
"As of right now I've never heard anyone come out and say we need to build a missile defense system to defend us from Russia and China," said Romero. Instead, the US uses diplomacy and the doctrine of mutually assured destruction to coexist with Russia and China.   http://nordic.businessinsider.com/north-korea-thaad-missile-defense-2017-3/
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Military vehicles carry missiles with characters reading 'Pukkuksong'

Military vehicles carry missiles with characters reading 'Pukkuksong' CREDIT: REUTERS/DAMIR SAGOLJ
4-15-17   North Korea displayed its submarine-launched ballistic missiles for the first time on Saturday ahead of a massive military parade in the capital, Pyongyang.  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/15/north-korea-displays-submarine-based-missiles-first-time-nuclear/
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May 28, 1989     In a highly secret arrangement, the United States has long provided substantial covert assistance to the French nuclear weapons program, apparently in violation of American law, an authority on international relations says. 
  Under the arrangement, Washington furnished information to France on how to design and build nuclear weapons and to deliver them by missiles and aircraft.  It has been highly beneficial to both countries and since the mid-1970's has encouraged the de facto reintegration of France into North Atlantic Treaty Organization's defense plans, Richard H. Ullman wrote in an article for the summer issue of Foreign Policy magazine.  The French withdrew from the NATO defense arrangement in 1966. 
  The agreement to share secret nuclear information with France was instituted more than 15 years ago by President Richard M. Nixon and his national security adviser, Henry A. Kissinger, who was also Secretary of State, and has been endorsed and approved by every President since, Mr. Ullman said.    http://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/28/world/us-secretly-helped-france-develop-nuclear-weapons-an-expert-writes.html?pagewanted=all
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The M51 SLBM is a submarine-launched ballistic missile, built by Airbus Defence & Space, and deployed with the French Navy.   Airbus Defence and Space has its corporate headquarters in OttobrunnGermany, and is led by Dirk Hoke, the Chief Executive Officer.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M51_(missile)     (M-51 is mirved--carries multiple nukes.    
-r.)
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In a recent poll, 85 percent of Germans spoke against the continued deployment of U.S. nuclear weapons in Germanyhttp://carnegieendowment.org/2016/12/06/sudden-german-nuke-flirtation-pub-66366
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7-3-17   Germany’s leading serious newspaper today reported on Abbott’s comments because back in April 2016 Thyssen Krupp Marine Services (TKMS) had lost out in a competition to Naval Group  a.k.a. DCNS of France; the Australian government picked the French firm to build 12 submarines for the price of 50 billion dollars.  Australia chose the French to build conventional submarines.  But, according to the FAZ, “the order could be redefined at any time” to specify nuclear-powered craft. When the German firm dropped out of the race to build Australian boats, it asserted darkly, “behind the scenes it was suspected that that had happened because the Germans offer no nuclear option.”  (The above-linked article from 15 months ago in fact mentioned the French vendor’s atomic advantage over TKMS.)  https://www.armscontrolwonk.com/archive/1203491/australia-and-nuclear-submarines/
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9-13-17    According to Geoff Hellman, Chairman and CEO of the Economic Policy Forum which focuses on business dealings in the Asia-Pacific Region and Russia, it (Putin's deep support of Kim Jong Un) is all an “Asymmetric Hybrid Warfare” (AHW) tactic aimed at promoting Russia’s image at home, as a place of “law and order, peace-loving and devoted to economic prosperity” compared to a more “war-mongering” United States.

  “Russia supports actions that benefit Russia.  Russia purports to support sanctions against North Korea, but in practice supports North Korea in its effort to evade sanctions,” he said.  “Russia employs criminal networks to set up front companies in Singapore, for example, to transship oil.”...
  North Korea has undertaken 16 missile tests this year alone – including two intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests and one possible hydrogen-bomb test this month.  President Trump has warned the rogue state that the sanctions imposed are “nothing compared to what ultimately will have to happen.”   http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/09/13/why-russia-props-up-dangerous-north-korean-regime.html
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10-6-17     But to prevent the Kim regime from holding the U.S. civilian population hostage to an EMP threat, or even to prevent an irrational North Korean attack, the United States should turn to new technologies to construct a far more effective missile defense now....
Advanced drones could patrol North Korean airspace to destroy Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons arsenals, research facilities, and missile sites.  Others could seek to fire on North Korean ICBMs in their initial boost phase, when the missiles are slow and at their most vulnerable.  We could deploy Aegis anti-missile cruisers, equipped with upgraded radar and sensor systems, in the seas around North Korea to also fire on any launches.  ...
Second, the United States should unleash the cyber arsenal that it has steadily built over the last decade.  Cyber weapons alone cannot prevent North Korea from launching a nuclear missile.  But North Korea needs networked computers to conduct research and development, such as the design of missiles and nuclear warheads and simulated testing, to carry out command and control of the weapons and to conduct intelligence and reconnaissance....
as advances in robotics and communications have sparked a revolution in precision-guided munitions, the United States (may) be able to soon deploy a rudimentary anti-missile system over North Korea.  Firing down on North Korea from the ultimate high ground of space would add another layer of defense behind anti-missile cruisers and aerial drones.   http://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/354176-space-weapons-robotics-and-cyber-are-key-to-defeating-north-korea
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updated 7-6-17      "There is a very strong belief that the US -- through cyber methods -- has been successful on several occasions in interrupting these sorts of tests and making them fail," former British Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind told the BBC earlier this year.
    Rifkind's comments came on the heels of a report in the New York Times saying US President Donald Trump inherited a cyberwar on North Korea meant to sabotage its missile tests.
    "It's clear United States policy to develop the cyber capability to disable enemy ballistic missiles," said Greg Austin, a professor at the Australian Centre for Cyber Security at the University of New South Wales.
    As far as what to hack, "there's lots of ways in, which makes it very hard for the defender to know what's being attacked and what's not being attacked," said Austin, who is leading the UNSW's newly announced Research Group on Cyber War and Peace.  Most missiles have a self-destruct button, which could be activated.  Something like the Stuxnet virus, which penetrated Iran's Natanz nuclear facility, could be deployed. 
    In theory, it could be as simple as infecting systems with corrupted software via a USB thumb drive, says Jai Galliott, a defense analyst and professor at UNSW.  Though the question remains how that could physically be done in a country as closed off as North Korea.
    Austin believes a successful hack would most likely target the launch sequencing, which could potentially degrade the launch.  "All you'd have to do in a complex missile launch system is like the (Stuxnet virus in the) Iranian nuclear enrichment facility.  Just interfere with a process that creates a physical effect of some sort that then has a destructive effect on the operation of the missile."
    Most advanced missiles also have an air-gap built in -- a way to keep the technology disconnected from the outside world -- says Galliott, though some research shows they can be hacked using other methods. 
    Measuring its efficacy would be difficult, too.  A lot can go wrong in a missile launch and it may not always be clear if a launch fails because of meddling or an error on the North Korean side.  The technology also raises thorny questions.  Some might argue deploying this sort of offensive technology is tantamount to a pre-emptive military strike -- something North Korea says it would respond to militarily.   https://www.cnn.com/2017/04/18/asia/cyber-missile-defense-north-korea/index.html


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