War With North Korea? US Sending Attack Drone To South Korea

Pyongyang’s provocative gestures, such as firing multiple missiles into the Sea of Japan this month in a rehearsal for a potential “attack” against USA military bases in Japan, have been so strident that Washington has ruled out any thought of direct dialogue with the North Koreans and their mercurial young leader, Kim Jong-Un.

It enjoyed the highest trade surplus of US$ 37. It came as North Korea launched four ballistic missiles that landed in waters near Japan.

Anti-South Korean sentiment has flared up in China, after the USA began shipping the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system to South Korea last week to counter Pyongyang’s missile capabilities. “Now with the impeachment of President Park, with the political process very much in an uncertain period of time, it is more likely that unexpected negative events may happen on the Korean peninsula bringing damage not only to North Korea and South Korea but neighboring countries like China”, he said. The first elements of the missile defense system, including two launchers, arrived recently at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, as reported by yonhapnews, citing a military official. This is not unlike Pakistan’s strategy vis-à-vis India. President Park has pursued a get-tough policy toward Kim Jong-un and agreed to the deployment of Thaad. But the Pentagon has avoided giving specifics on when exactly the installation will be finished or when the THAAD system will go into operation.

China has called on North Korea to suspend its nuclear and missile activities in exchange for the USA and South Korea halting joint military exercises in South Korea.

Even as nuclear tensions rise and attract global concern, Pyongyang’s proliferation activities continue unabated. Wang told reporters, according to the Military Times.

To Hong Kong, South Korea exported US$ 32.

The media and public in South Korea are fomenting sentiment against China as well.

Chinese travelers on group tours to Korea nearly always depend on the travel agencies to take care of their visa applications. Furthermore, it is trying to crush the South’s economy, barring its K-pop groups from performing in China, ending charter flights to the South, and banning the import of South Korean cosmetics. Given the present nuclear imbroglio in North-East Asia involving China and the U.S., both permanent UN Security Council members, the implementation is likely to remain ineffective.

But the termination of the swap line with China in the absence of one with Japan might make Korea’s position look vulnerable as concerns are rising that a string of USA rate hikes could prompt capital flight from Asia’s fourth-largest economy later this year. The relationship between Pyongyang and Beijing (which is North Korea’s biggest trading partner) is key to a resolution.

Perhaps more worryingly, the Chinese authorities have imposed a ban on the sale of tour packages to South Korea from March 15.

The isolated country is carrying out “substantial tunnel excavation” at its nuclear test site, which could support an explosion up to 14 times more powerful than its last test in September past year, said U.S. scientists Frank Pabian and David Coblentz.

China sees Thaad as a threat that would upset “the strategic equilibrium in the region” and has used its economic clout to punish Korean companies. But Japan and South Korea remain locked in a standoff over bitter memories of World War II, especially the treatment of thousands of Korean women who were forced into sexual slavery by Japanese occupation forces. He will travel to Japan, South Korea and China from Wednesday to Sunday.

South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co is monitoring the situation, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. Besides, resolving this crisis requires greater focus than the Trump administration appears capable of even when they are seriously engaged.