China preparing for potential crisis with North Korea - report

[webfact]

China preparing for potential crisis with North Korea - report

 

FILE PHOTO - A North Korean flag flies on a mast at the Permanent Mission of North Korea in Geneva October 2, 2014. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo

 

(Reuters) - China is preparing for a potential crisis with North Korea by increasing its defences along their shared border, including establishing a new border brigade and building bunkers for civilians, the Wall Street Journal reported.

 

China has been strengthening its defences along the North Korean border since Pyongyang's first nuclear test in 2006, including building a fence along parts of the border and stepping up patrols.

 

China has also realigned military forces in the country's northeast, the report added, citing Chinese military and government websites and Chinese and foreign experts.

 

The Chinese government has repeatedly said there can be no military solution for the North Korea issue.

 

China is in the midst of a broad military reorganisation and modernisation programme.

 

On Monday, Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Wu Qian told reporters he could not answer a "hypothetical" question on what China's military would do in the event of a clash on the Korean peninsula.

 

China has long worried about its porous borders and potential for war or unrest to spill over into China, and had stepped up border defences in other troublesome areas, such as with Myanmar and Central Asian nations.

 

(Writing by Beijing newsroom)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-07-25

[johna]

On Chinas side of the border, there is a very large ethnic Korean population sympathetic towards their compatriots, China fears a massive refugee problem if NK regime collapses. 

[Rancid]

Well I wonder if they are prepping for hostilities with their old ally, or getting to move in and create a border buffer just in case someone else invades? For some inexplicable reason some countries don't like foreign powers setting up bases, armies and missile batteries on their borders, probably just paranoid.

[Grubster]

China has also openly said that they are not happy with the US building its missile defense system in South Korea. When Trump attacks NK how will China respond?

[champers]

If the US was right to feel aggreived when the Russians used Cuba as a missile base, do the Chinese have a right to be similarly aggreived over US activity in the region?

[Grubster]

11 minutes ago, champers said:

If the US was right to feel aggreived when the Russians used Cuba as a missile base, do the Chinese have a right to be similarly aggreived over US activity in the region?

Yes they do have the right, but they have done nothing but complain so far. Russia was sending offensive nuclear missiles to within 90 miles of the US and got sent back to Russia with their tails between their legs. I am only worried about China's response to a possible attack on NK by a US president that could surely use a diversion from his scandals at home.

[Fore Man]

1 hour ago, Grubster said:

China has also openly said that they are not happy with the US building its missile defense system in South Korea. When Trump attacks NK how will China respond?

It is exactly as you described it...a missile defense system...not designed to be employed as an offensive military weapon.  It works by acquiring incoming enemy missiles using a high-order phased-array acquisition radar and then launches its latest-version PAC-3 missile, fitted with a Ka-Band seeker warhead that makes final course corrections to knock down the inbound threat.  Don't shoot ballistic missiles at South Korea in the first place, and nobody will get hurt or feathers ruffled. 

[sgracer]

they are just sending a signal to big don.....not that he would do anything because of the consequences for japan/so korea

[craigt3365]

1 hour ago, champers said:

If the US was right to feel aggreived when the Russians used Cuba as a missile base, do the Chinese have a right to be similarly aggreived over US activity in the region?

A bit different.  Cuba and North Korea.  China has the ability to deal with NK, the US had no control over Cuba.  Russia did.

[midas]

6 hours ago, Grubster said:

Yes they do have the right, but they have done nothing but complain so far. Russia was sending offensive nuclear missiles to within 90 miles of the US and got sent back to Russia with their tails between their legs. I am only worried about China's response to a possible attack on NK by a US president that could surely use a diversion from his scandals at home.

It's all talk and nothing else because everyone realises NK can hit back very seriously. Simple thing is not to provoke in the first place

 

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/06/02/newt-gingrich-north-korean-emp-threat.html

[hawker9000]

12 hours ago, champers said:

If the US was right to feel aggreived when the Russians used Cuba as a missile base, do the Chinese have a right to be similarly aggreived over US activity in the region?

The Russians were moving offensive nuclear missiles into Cuba, a hostile state to begin with.  The U.S. is emplacing defensive  missiles, not ICBMs, in S. Korea, an ally.   HUGE difference!   And then there's the fact that those defensive missiles are only necessary because of N. Korea's building & testing of nuclear weapons in defiance of international sanctions in the first  place!!  The defensive missiles only serve to devalue fatboy's huge investment, and THAT'S why he's got his panties in a bunch.   China is sitting there watching fatboy lose it, and is simply worried about being overrun with his refugees.

 

As for the Chinese, they can feel as "aggrieved" as they want.  They're claiming the entire South and East China seas as their own, and totally dismissing anyone else's "aggrievement" over it.  So boohoo.  Did the U.S. ever lay claim to the entire Caribbean?   (Clue for the clueless:  The U.S. doesn't even claim the Gulf of Mexico!!)

[Grubster]

10 hours ago, midas said:

It's all talk and nothing else because everyone realises NK can hit back very seriously. Simple thing is not to provoke in the first place

 

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/06/02/newt-gingrich-north-korean-emp-threat.html

I would hope you are right about that and yes NK could do some damage to SK, not to anywhere else but that would be enough as Seoul is a very big and modern city.  I do not trust the US war machine though, and I think Trump would love a big diversion about now. Lets remember that Vietnam and Iraq were both started on very false pretenses. I wouldn't put it past the war machine to somehow fire a missile into SK and blame it on NK and then open the war.

[craigt3365]

Right.  Why should the US, Japan or South Korea be worried about a nuclear North Korea?

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/25/politics/north-korea-threatens-nuclear-strike-us/index.html

Quote

North Korea promises nuclear strike on US if regime is threatened

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2017/apr/19/north-korean-tv-broadcasts-music-and-missiles-attacking-us-in-video-mock-up

 

Quote

 

North Korean TV broadcasts music and missiles attacking US in video mock-up

North Korea’s state television has aired footage of a musical show marking the birth anniversary of founding father Kim Il-sung, which ended with a mock-up video of missiles engulfing the United States in flames

 

What a sick man.  Who would do a video like that for their nations TV stations.  Sick.

[Stargeezr]

Yes Lets all not worry about North Korea and its on going attempt to become a nuclear power.  With Fat Boy Nut Job in power, what could go wrong?  I guess everything is just peachy.    I agree that China should behave in the south at those disputed islands, and quit pushing its expansion in the Sea.  We all know its about the oil and gas fields in that area, and of course fishing rights etc.

Geezer

[retarius]

I think the Chinese are also preparing an invasion in the event that the US tries to invade NK. China will not accept US bases in NK and would invade rather than see this. What is interesting in this whole saga is that the US is not listening at all to its ally, South Korea. SK has the most to lose if this thing blows up.

[craigt3365]

25 minutes ago, retarius said:

I think the Chinese are also preparing an invasion in the event that the US tries to invade NK. China will not accept US bases in NK and would invade rather than see this. What is interesting in this whole saga is that the US is not listening at all to its ally, South Korea. SK has the most to lose if this thing blows up.

If NK merged with SK, like East and West Germany did years ago, there'd be less of a reason for a base there.  Get rid of the belligerent, the threat goes away.

 

I'd pretty much guarantee a majority of citizens would be much better off with a unified country and the NK leader deposed.

[Scott]

Nonsensical post removed.  

[Beats56]

22 hours ago, craigt3365 said:

A bit different.  Cuba and North Korea.  China has the ability to deal with NK, the US had no control over Cuba.  Russia did.

Russia did untill the break up of USSR and stopped supplying funds to Cuba. At that point Cuba went to Venezuela for support. 

[Beats56]

I think the dwarf in NK days are numbered. Any country that threatens another country will not end well.

 

[Fore Man]

9 hours ago, Grubster said:

I would hope you are right about that and yes NK could do some damage to SK, not to anywhere else but that would be enough as Seoul is a very big and modern city.  I do not trust the US war machine though, and I think Trump would love a big diversion about now. Lets remember that Vietnam and Iraq were both started on very false pretenses. I wouldn't put it past the war machine to somehow fire a missile into SK and blame it on NK and then open the war.

My opinion is that Trump et al seriously will do anything necessary to avert a shooting war.  As you surmise, the impacts on ROK would be horrendous and unconscionable...with tens of thousands of Koreans killed during nK's massive volleys of ballistic missile and free rocket strikes.  I spent two years assigned to US Forces Korea in the middle of Seoul, and not a day went by where I wasn't fully aware that the FBGs could strike my very office as we were easily in range of nK weaponry. So not only would there be huge ROK casualties but we'd lose the majority of our own forces garrisoned throughout the area in and and around Seoul and within close proximity to the DMZ. Ergo, POTUS and the NSC would not wantonly precipitate an outbreak of our own design, but once the nKs start something, you'd better believe we will devastate their homeland and leave it in smoking ruins. With its far greater mix of lethal forces and sustainment capability, the coalition will trounce nK ultimately but the cost to do so is just too much to contemplate as a favored course of action. 

 

I hasten to add that that if we observe signs of an imminent nK attack, I am quite certain that our side has its own preemptive measures ready to take down as much of the enemy as possible before it can unleash the brunt of its offensive power against us. 

Edited July 26, 2017 by Fore Man
Completeness

[Grubster]

3 hours ago, Fore Man said:

My opinion is that Trump et al seriously will do anything necessary to avert a shooting war.  As you surmise, the impacts on ROK would be horrendous and unconscionable...with tens of thousands of Koreans killed during nK's massive volleys of ballistic missile and free rocket strikes.  I spent two years assigned to US Forces Korea in the middle of Seoul, and not a day went by where I wasn't fully aware that the FBGs could strike my very office as we were easily in range of nK weaponry. So not only would there be huge ROK casualties but we'd lose the majority of our own forces garrisoned throughout the area in and and around Seoul and within close proximity to the DMZ. Ergo, POTUS and the NSC would not wantonly precipitate an outbreak of our own design, but once the nKs start something, you'd better believe we will devastate their homeland and leave it in smoking ruins. With its far greater mix of lethal forces and sustainment capability, the coalition will trounce nK ultimately but the cost to do so is just too much to contemplate as a favored course of action. 

 

I hasten to add that that if we observe signs of an imminent nK attack, I am quite certain that our side has its own preemptive measures ready to take down as much of the enemy as possible before it can unleash the brunt of its offensive power against us. 

Again I hope your right but I just can't get GW Bush's war in Iraq out of my mind, they had to know that taking the Sunni's out of power and handing the power to the majority Shia's would end in the Sunni's turning hard towards terrorism. How many have died since due to this? Iraq was a very stable country up until then. Saddam was a bad man but look at the alternative. I don't really think the war machine cares what happens as long as its war.

[balo]

Good, let the Chinese handle Kim , he is going to wet his pants if they start an invasion of N-Korea. . 

 

[Grubster]

15 minutes ago, balo said:

Good, let the Chinese handle Kim , he is going to wet his pants if they start an invasion of N-Korea. . 

 

China and NK are friends and have been for many years.

[Fore Man]

18 hours ago, Grubster said:

Again I hope your right but I just can't get GW Bush's war in Iraq out of my mind, they had to know that taking the Sunni's out of power and handing the power to the majority Shia's would end in the Sunni's turning hard towards terrorism. How many have died since due to this? Iraq was a very stable country up until then. Saddam was a bad man but look at the alternative. I don't really think the war machine cares what happens as long as its war.

Unfortunately, your thoughts have merit...our defense industrial complex fares very well during wartimes.