What Brought North Korea to the Bargaining Table

I am questioning the opinion,not the information. At least he has done the research, unlike others with ready-made opinions.


His timeline does not reflect the genocide carried out by the Americans,never forgotten by the Koreans. I am unsure who was responsible for the initial events but I can say that neither Mao Tse Tung nor Kim Il-sung were great peacemakers in 1950.

The Back Story: What Brought North Korea to the Bargaining Table . . .

Hal Turner,

11 March, 2018

The world was surprised by the announcement that North Korean Leader Kim Jung Un sought a meeting with US President Donald Trump, and that the President accepted.  The mass-media was quick to presume the meeting was sought because sanctions against North Korea are beginning to hurt.  That assessment is wrong.

Those in the Intelligence Community were decidedly NOT surprised by the requested meeting; they knew what _really_ brought North Korea to its senses: The newly reinforced USS Wasp putting to sea last Monday with F-35B Stealth jets . . . and  (at least) twenty, B-61-12 nuclear bombs. 

North Korea was literally  one week away from being nuked . . .  on March 16 beginning at 8:11 AM eastern US time.

First, Some Quick History

On June 25, 1950, with Russia's (Stalin) permission, North Korea invaded South Korea (Image 1 below). 

In less than three months, by September 14, the Communist North conquered most of the South, pushing them all the way down to Pusan; nearly into the sea! (Image 2 below) 

US Forces arrived in late September, invading via naval landing at Inchon on the peninsula's west coast. 

Less than TWO MONTHS later, by November 25, they had pushed the Communists back north, almost all the way to the China border! (image 3 below).

At that point, China intervened. The two sides slugged-it-out for almost three years until July 27, 1953, when the Armistice (Cease-fire) took effect.

The North never accepted their stalemate/defeat from the 1950's when they invaded the South, but were driven back within months, all the way to the China Border.  North Korea's goal, for the last 65+ years has been singular: To be able to invade and conquer South Korea, while holding the US at-bay with missiles and/or nuclear weapons.  

When China intervened, it prolonged the months-long battle for three years; a brutal slug-fest where both sides simply agreed to a cease-fire and a reset of the borders back to the 38th Parallel. There is no Peace Treaty ending that conflict.

For decades, North Korea has doggedly pursued their plan to forcibly "reunify" the Koran peninsula.  Building its nation around a "military first" doctrine, the North built plants and industry primarily designed to produce war fighting equipment.  The world saw this and didn't like what it was seeing.

For decades, the world has restricted North Korea in one form or another, mostly via trade sanctions.  North Korea begged, borrowed, stole, lied, cheated and killed, so as to continue pursuing its ultimate goal.

Here is a timeline of events from the end of the Korean War:

1953 - Armistice ends Korean War.

1960s - Rapid industrial growth.

1968 January - North Korea captures USS Pueblo, a US naval intelligence ship.

 1972 - North and South Korea issue joint statement on peaceful reunification.

1974 February - Kim Il-sung designates eldest son, Kim Jong-il as his successor.

1985 - North Korea joins the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, barring the country from producing nuclear weapons.

1986 - Research nuclear reactor in Yongbyon becomes operational.

1991 - North and South Korea join the United Nations.

1993 - International Atomic Energy Agency accuses North Korea of violating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and demands inspectors be given access to nuclear waste storage sites. North Korea threatens to quit Treaty.

1993 - North Korea test-fires a medium-range Rodong ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan.

1994 July - Death of Kim Il-sung. Kim Jong-il succeeds his father as leader.

1994 October - North Korea and the US sign an Agreed Framework under which Pyongyang commits to freezing its nuclear programme in return for heavy fuel oil and two light-water nuclear reactors.

Flood and famine

1996 - Severe famine follows widespread floods; 3 million North Koreans reportedly die from starvation.

1996 April - North Korea announces it will no longer abide by the armistice that ended the Korean War, and sends thousands of troops into the demilitarised zone.

1996 September - A North Korean submarine with 26 commandos and crew on board runs aground near the South Korean town of Gangneung. All but one on board is killed along with 17 South Koreans following several skirmishes.

1998 June - South Korea captures North Korean submarine in its waters. Crew found dead inside.

1998 August - North Korea fires a multistage long-range rocket which flies over Japan and lands in the Pacific Ocean, well beyond North Korea's known capability.

Historic handshake

2000 June - Landmark inter-Korean summit takes place in Pyongyang between Kim Jong-il and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, paving the way for the reopening of border liaison offices and family reunions. The South also grants amnesty to over 3,500 North Korean prisoners.

2002 January - US President George W Bush labels North Korea, Iraq and Iran an "axis of evil" for continuing to build "weapons of mass destruction".

2002 June - North and South Korean naval vessels wage a gun battle in the Yellow Sea. Some 30 North Korean and four South Korean sailors are killed.

2002 September - Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi makes historic visit during which North Korea admits to having abducted 13 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s and that at least four are still alive.

Nuclear brinkmanship

2002 October - US and its key Asian allies Japan and South Korea halt oil shipments following North Korea's reported admission that it has secretly been developing a uranium-based nuclear programme.

2002 December - North Korea announces it is reactivating nuclear facilities at Yongbyon and expels UN inspectors.

2003 January - North Korea withdraws from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, marking the beginning of a series of six-party talks involving China, the Koreas, the US, Japan and Russia to try to resolve the nuclear issue.

2003 May - North Korea withdraws from 1992 agreement with South Korea to keep the Korean Peninsula free of nuclear weapons.

Six Party Talks

2003 October - Pyongyang declares it has completed the reprocessing of 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods. Experts say this would give the North enough weapons-grade plutonium to develop up to six nuclear bombs within months.

2005 February - North Korea admits publicly for the first time that it has produced nuclear weapons for "self defence".

2006 July - North Korea test fires seven missiles including a long-range Taepodong-2 missile, which crashes shortly after take-off despite it reportedly having the capability to hit the US.

2006 October - North Korea conducts its first nuclear weapons test at an underground facility. The UN imposes economic and commercial sanctions on North Korea.

2007 July - North Korea shuts down it main Yongbyon reactor after receiving 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil as part of an aid package.

2007 August - South Korea announces it will send nearly 50m US dollars in aid to the North after Pyongyang makes rare appeal for flood relief.

Nuclear declaration

2007 October - Second inter-Korean summit held in Pyongyang. President Roh Moo-hyun becomes the first South Korean leader to walk across the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South.

2008 March - North-South relations deteriorate sharply after new South Korean President Lee Myung-bak promises to take a harder line on North Korea.

2008 August - Kim Jong-il suffers a stroke

2008 October - North agrees to provide full access to Yongbyon nuclear site after US removes it from terrorism blacklist.

Nuclear tensions rise

2009 January - North Korea says it is scrapping all military and political deals with the South, accusing it of "hostile intent".

2009 April - North Korea launches a long-range rocket, carrying what it says is a communications satellite; its neighbours accuse it of testing long-range missile technology. Condemnation from the UN Security Council prompts North Korea to walk out of six-party talks and restart its nuclear facilities.

2009 May - North Korea carries out its second underground nuclear test. UN Security Council condemns move in June.

2009 August - North Korea frees American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee after former US President Bill Clinton facilitates their release. The pair was sentenced to 12 years hard labour for allegedly crossing the border illegally.

North makes conciliatory gestures to South, sending delegation to funeral of former President Kim Dae-jung, releasing four South Korean fishermen, and agreeing to resume family reunions.

2009 November - North Korea's state-run news agency reports the reprocessing of 8,000 spent fuel rods is complete, garnering enough weapons-grade plutonium for one to two nuclear bombs.

2010 February - Increased social unrest reportedly leads the government to relax free market restrictions after a 2009 currency revaluation wiped out many cash savings in the country.

Sinking of Cheonan

2010 March - North Korea sinks South Korean warship Cheonan near sea border.

2010 September - Kim Jong-il's youngest son Kim Jong-un is appointed to senior political and military posts, fuelling speculation of a possible succession.

2010 November - North Korea reportedly shows an eminent visiting American nuclear scientist a new secretly-built facility for enriching uranium at its Yongbyon complex. The revelation sparks alarm and anger in US, South and Japan.

Cross-border clash near disputed maritime border results in the deaths of two South Korean marines. North Korea's military insists it did not open fire first and blames the South for the incident.

Succession

2011 December - Death of Kim Jong-il. Kim Jong-un presides at funeral and takes over key posts by April.

2012 April - Rocket launch - viewed internationally as a banned test of long-range Taepodong-2 missile technology - fails. North Korea says aim was to put a satellite into orbit to mark 100th birth anniversary of Kim Il-sung.

2012 October - North Korea claims it has missiles than can hit the US mainland after South Korea and Washington announce a deal to extend the range of South Korea's ballistic missiles.

2012 December - North Korea successfully launches a "rocket-mounted satellite" into orbit following a failed attempt in April.

Third nuclear test

2013 February - UN approves fresh sanctions after North Korea stages its third nuclear test, said to be more powerful than the 2009 test.

2013 April - North Korea says it will restart all facilities at its main Yongbyon nuclear complex and briefly withdraws its 53,000-strong workforce from the South-Korean-funded Kaesong joint industrial park stalling operations at 123 South Korean factories.

2013 July - Panama impounds a North Korean ship carrying two MiG-21 jet fighters under bags of sugar. The UN later blacklists the ship's operator.

2013 September - Sole ally China bans export to North Korea of items that could be used to make missiles or nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

2013 December - Kim Jong-un's uncle, Chang Song-thaek, is found guilty of attempting to overthrow the state and is summarily executed - in a purge seen as the biggest shake-up since the death of Kim Jong-il in 2011.

2014 March - North Korea test-fires two medium-range Rodong ballistic missiles for the first time since 2009, in violation of UN resolutions and just hours after the US, South Korea and Japan met in the Netherlands for talks.

Two drones allegedly from North Korea are found in the south, sparking concerns about the north's intelligence gathering capabilities.

2014 October - Officials pay surprise visit to south, agree to resume formal talks that have been suspended since February.

2014 December - North Korea and US exchange accusations of cyber-attacks over a Sony Pictures film mocking Kim Jong-un, prompting new US sanctions the following month.

2015 August - South Korea halts loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts across the Demilitarised Zone after the North fires on them during annual US/South-Korean military exercises.

Nuclear push

2015 September - North Korea confirms it has put its Yongbyon nuclear plant - mothballed in 2007 - back into operation.

2015 December - US imposes new sanctions on North Korea over weapons proliferation, targeting the army's Strategic Rocket Force, banks and shipping companies.

2016 January - Government announcement of first hydrogen bomb test met with widespread expert skepticism.

2016 May - The ruling Workers Party holds its first congress in almost 40 years, during which Kim Jong-un is elected leader of the party.

2016 November - UN Security Council further tightens sanctions by aiming to cut one of North Korea's main exports, coal, by 60 per cent.

(January 20, 2017 - Donald J. Trump Sworn-in as 45th President of the United States)

2017 January - Kim Jong-un says North Korea is in the final stages of developing long-range guided missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

2017 February - Kim Jong-un's estranged half-brother Kim Jong-nam is killed by a highly toxic nerve agent in Malaysia, with investigators suspecting North Korean involvement.

2017 July - Pyongyang test fires a long-range missile into the Sea of Japan, with some experts stating the missile could potentially reach Alaska.

2017 August - Tension rises in war of words with US over North Korean threat to fire ballistic missiles near US Pacific territory of Guam.

China announces it plans to implement the UN sanctions against North Korea agreed earlier this month, banning imports of coal, minerals and sea food.

2018 January - First talks in two years between North and South Koreas show signs of a thaw after heightened tension. The North says it will send a team to the Winter Olympics in the South.

TRUMP

Seeing the way things had gone for decades, and seeing very clearly where they were heading in 2017, President Trump directed the State Department to craft a list of Economic Sanctions that could be implemented via Diplomatic means and directed the United States Military to come up with kinetic options (use of force) to put an end to North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.

The Diplomatic means required cooperation from both China and Russia, not merely because they hold a UN Security Council VETO, but because both countries physically border North Korea.  Diplomatic efforts with China included a Presidential visit and the direct linking of TRADE between the US and China as a reason that China should support Sanctions.  Diplomatic efforts with Russia included the ongoing debacle in Syria and the linking of US activities in Syria to North Korean Sanctions.  Both China and Russia saw benefit to themselves in agreeing to apply new Sanctions against North Korea.

The military had several options: Air strikes, Invasion, complete nuclear annihiliation via ICBM strikes.

Air Strikes were not viable for several reasons:

1) US Military long-range Bombers can be tracked by both Russian and Chinese military radar who might give North Korea a heads-up.

2) Most US Fighter jets (not all) can be tracked by North Korean anti-missile systems and radar.

3) The physical terrain of North Korea is mountainous and the North uses that to their advantage, positioning military assets in areas not easily hit by air.

4) North Korea has literally buried their missile and nuclear program facilities beneath hundreds of feet of rock, making air strikes likely ineffective.

Invasion was not viable because North Korea has a military of about 7 million, when reserves are called-up.

Nuclear annihilation was not viable because . . . . well . . . . the world would rightly recoil in horror if the US did that.

There had to be a compromise and one WAS found . . . but it required time to be brought to bear.

The Plan

Use aircraft which cannot be tracked, to deliver ground-penetrating nuclear bombs to guaratee destruction of deeply buried nuclear and missile facilities while limiting radiation fallout, and launch them from a vessel which cannot be spied-upon by land-based Intelligence assets so no one could give North Korea any warning of a coming attack. 

Only ONE aircraft and ONE vessel fit this requirement, but the aircraft had glitches to work out, and the vessel was still in port undergoing hardening and refitting.

Meet the F-35B and the USS Wasp

 USS Wasp (LHD-1) is a United States Navy multipurpose amphibious assault ship, and the lead ship of her class. She is the tenth USN vessel to bear the name since 1775, with the last two ships named Wasp being aircraft carriers. She was built by the Ingalls Shipbuilding division of Litton in Pascagoula, Mississippi. 

Wasp and her sister ships are the first specifically designed to accommodate new Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) for fast troop movement over the beach, and Harrier II (AV-8B) Vertical/Short Take-Off and Landing (V/STOL) jets which provide close air support for the assault force.

The AV-8B Plus used by the United States Marine Corps (USMC) was last produced in 2003, and USMC expects to operate its Harriers until 2025. She can also accommodate the full range of Navy and Marine Corps helicopters, the tilt-rotor MV-22 Osprey, conventional landing craft, and amphibious vehicles.

On March 6, 2018, the F-35B put to sea for the first time on an operational mission aboard the US Marine amphibious assault carrier USS Wasp.

It’s carrying the F-35B variant.

This is the aircraft many blame for making the whole project so incredibly difficult, and expensive.

It’s a jump jet. (i.e. Vertical/Short Take-Off and Landing (V/STOL) jet)

One day after the jets put to sea for the first time, Vice Adm. Mathias Winter, Program Executive Officer of the F-35 Lightning II program, testified before the Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee on F-35 Program Review.  Here's the relevant portion of that testimony:

"In accordance with the 2018 National Defense Strategy, nuclear capabilities are essential to our nation’s long-term defense. F-35 Dual Capable Aircraft remains aligned with the initial increment of the Block 4 effort. Detailed Risk Reduction activities have been completed, ensuring the F-35 is fully compatible with the B61-12 weapon. The F-35 program remains fully engaged with the U.S. Air Force, Department of Energy, and strategic partners, and is confident that this capability will be fielded and certified in time to meet specified need dates."

Rear Admiral Brad Cooper made clear exactly how much of a game-changer this was for the United States: 

“Pairing F-35B Lightning II’s with the Wasp represents one of the most significant leaps in warfighting capability for the Navy-Marine Corps team in our lifetime . . This 5th generation stealth jet is extremely versatile and will greatly enhance and expand our operational capabilities.”

Why?  "Radar Cross-Section (RCS)"

The radar cross section (RCS) of a target is defined as the effective area intercepting an amount of incident power which, when scattered isotropically, produces a level of reflected power at the radar equal to that from the target.

RCS calculations require broad and extensive technical knowledge, thus many scientists and scholars find the subject challenging and intellectually motivating. This is a very complex field that defies simple explanation, and any short treatment is only a very rough approximation.

 The units of radar cross section are square meters; however, the radar cross section is NOT the same as the area of the target. Because of the wide range of amplitudes typically encountered on a target, RCS is frequently expressed in dBsm, or decibels relative to one square meter.

The RCS is the projected area of a metal sphere that is large compared with the wavelength and that, if substituted for the object, would scatter identically the same power back to the radar. However, the RCS of all but the simplest scatterers fluctuates greatly with the orientation of the object, so the notion of an equivalent sphere is not very useful.

 To keep this simple and keep it from being boring, here is a chart of the radar cross section of various aircraft:

 

In order for you to grasp how important this is, lets convert this technical speak into real-life comparisons:

The RCS of a stealth aircraft is typically multiple orders of magnitude lower than a conventional plane and is often comparable to that of a small bird or large insect.

"From the front, the F/A-22's signature is -40dBm2 (the size of a marble) while the F-35's is -30 dBm2 (the size of a golf ball -- *** WITH Luneberg Reflectors).

The F-35 stealthiness is a bit better than the B-2 bomber, which, in turn, was twice as good as that on the even older F-117. B-2 stealth bomber has a very small cross section.

Luneberg Reflectors

When the F-35 flies over friendly countries for overseas deployments, you may notice some strange tags on the body of the otherwise sleek jet.

Every angle and surface of the F-35 has been precisely machined to baffle radar waves, so little notches like the ones on the picture above would defeat the purpose of the weapons system that has cost about $400 billion so far.

The notches are called Luneberg reflectors, and they serve a purpose. The reflectors increase the F-35's radar signature several hundred times over so that a plane that would normally be nearly impossible for civilian air traffic controllers to spot would give off a big, safe blip.

No country on earth has __ever__ encountered a US F-35 without Luneberg Reflectors.  Even in Syria, where the F-35 got its first combat operations, the Luneberg Reflectors WERE attached.

In October 2015, days after Russia began its air campaign to bolster Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces, national security writer Dave Majumdar wrote in War Is Boring that Russia may have been using its anti-air systems to gather intelligence on the F-22, another US stealth aircraft operating in Syria.

"While it appears the Russians are following their standard doctrine with regard to the deployment/employment of their ground and air assets, it's certainly not out of the question to use their newer air-to-air assets as a form of 'operational testing' in the real-world environment," one senior US Air Force intelligence official told Majumdar at the time. "In a sense, we're doing the same thing with our F-22s."

Russia operates the same ground and air assets in Syria as it does in eastern Europe, near Estonia, where the F-35 recently appeared wearing the Luneberg reflectors.

With the reflectors throwing off and exaggerating the radar cross section of the F-35, the US could be preventing Russia from testing its defenses against the US's newest weapons system.

 Terrifying Reality

When the F-35B's arrived on the USS Wasp on March 5, they were missing a little something.  Here's a photo from aboard the USS Wasp as the F-35B's deployed on it this week --- WITHOUT the Luneberg Reflectors!!!!

No country on earth has __ E V E R __ encountered the F-35 without the Luneberg Reflectors.  So no country on earth has any idea AT ALL, what the F-35 looks like on radar.

From the chart above, the RCS of an F-35 is .005  but since we know that the Luneberg Reflectors exaggerate a radar reflection by "several hundred times" the F-35 may actually have a smaller RCS than either the F-22 or the B-2, both of which have an RCS of .0001  ( a marble).

Put simply, if the F-35 has a radar signature AT ALL, it would be about the size of a . . . . . . . Mosquito.

What this means is that neither China nor Russia can detect this aircraft on radar.  North Korea not only cannot detect it, their anti-aircraft missiles CANNOT LOCK ONTO IT.

These aircraft could fly directly over Pyongyang, the Capital of North Korea, and their government would have no idea AT ALL the planes were even there!

Before the USS Wasp put to sea, it received a very interesting delivery.  A small convoy of trucks, under incredibly heavy, and very noticeable guard, arrived at the ship.  

Inside the trucks were racks of B-61-12 nuclear bombs.  Four bombs per rack.  Five racks in total.  20 Bombs.

In May 2010 the National Nuclear Security Administration asked Congress for $40 million to redesign the bomb to enable the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II to carry the weapon internally by 2017. This version is designated Mod 12. 

The four hundred B61-12 bombs will be used by both tactical aircraft (such as the F-35) and strategic aircraft (such as the B-2) and the Tail Subassembly (TSA) will give them Joint Direct Attack Munition levels of accuracy, allowing the fifty kiloton warhead to have strategic effects from all carrying aircraft.  The bomb has four selectable yields: 0.3; 5; 10; and 50 kilotons. On 1 July 2015, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) conducted the first of three flight tests of the B61-12 tail kit assembly.

The B61-12 is a "Penetrator" bomb; it does not detonate upon impact with the ground but instead can smash through 100-170 METERS of solid rock, before detonating.  This makes the weapon perfect for destroying underground facilities.  Because the bomb detonates some 300 feet or more underground, the amount of radioactive fallout shot into the air is minimal; far less than a ground-burst detonation.

The USS Wasp is NOT nuclear-powered.  Its steam turbines are fueled like ships of old, and the vessel has a range of about 9500 Nautical miles.  Thus, the ship does not have a Radiation signature as it proceeds at-sea.

HOWEVER, Russian and Chinese aircraft flew very near the USS Wasp as it put to sea and US Intelligence is "confident" those aircraft "detected a diffuse energy signature" which would have confirmed to both China and Russia, the ship was carrying nuclear bombs. 

When the F-35B aircraft put to sea aboard the USS Wasp, and the vessel showed a diffuse energy signature showing it was carrying nukes, it established an absolute "End-Game" for North Korea.

China knew it.  Russia Knew it, and when North Korea found out what was actually taking place (presumably from both China and Russia), they knew it too.

48 hours after the USS Wasp put to sea with the F-35's and the nukes, North Korea asked for a meeting with President Trump.  It was a very wise decision.

A "New Moon" will take place over North Korea on March 16, 2018, at 9:41 PM North Korean Time . . . which is 8:11 AM Eastern US time.  A "New Moon" is when skies are darkest because the moon is not reflecting the sun in the night sky.  The U.S. often strikes enemies during a New Moon.

If that date and time sounds familiar to my readers, it's because I told them on recent radio shows to write it down as "Hal Turner Prediction."  I knew that if we were going to attack, it would be with the USS Wasp, the F-35 and on a New Moon.

As this coming Friday comes and goes peacefully, know that had North Korea not made its overture for a US Meeting, it is almost 100% certain, the US would have nuked ten sites of missile and nuclear weapons development inside North Korea, using twenty ground-penetrating nuclear bombs, starting on this very date.

That is what brought North Korea suddenly to the bargaining table.

But we're not out of the woods yet.  If North Korea jerks us around when Trump and Kim Jung Un meet,  expect the worst very quickly.