Manoj Ambat's Blog dealing with Defence, Foreign Affairs, Strategic Affairs and Politics

Are We Prepared for a North Korean Nuclear Attack  

Image credits- KCNA North Korea is at it again. Today they again they test fired another missile, this time speculated to be their  ICBM Hwasong-15 .  The said missile flew above Japan and fell into the Japanese exclusive economic zone. What is different about this test is the fact that the missile seems to have a range of more than 13,000/- kilometres which is enough to cover most of continental United States.  North Korea seems to to be improving on it's missile and nuclear weapon technology. The above test comes soon after a nuclear test by North Korea of a weapon that is seen to be by far their largest to date. What the world especially the USA should worry is the unpredictable nature of the North Korean regime. The North Korean regime has a declared policy of seeing the USA as their principal enemy. That is imprinted in their psyche. North Korea has sene what has happened to Libya and Iraq and how their rulers were disposed by the USA and see nuclear weapons as the o

Image credits- VOA As North Korea tests a thermonuclear weapon and make rapid advances in Missile technology, it is time to analyse what can be done about this country that has become a head ache for the rest of the world.  North Korea has always has been an enigma and a security nightmare for the International Community.  It all began with the demise of the USSR which was North Korea's biggest benefactor and one of it's only ally. After 1991 when the Soviet Union seized to exist, North Korea was in one sweep left with out a guardian. It's economy which was hugely reliant on the Soviet Union was in the verge of crashing. It was also the time when Kim II Sung passed away and his son Kim Jong-il took over the reins of power of this reclusive country. In his regime, North Korea suffered it's worst famine that North Korea has ever faced. His military first doctrine also isolated North Korea from the rest of the world. The economy was also on the verge of collapse

Credits- VOA A missile fired by North Korea has yet again failed. The Diplomat in it's latest article delve deep into what will be North Korea's next move. ( To read the entire article, click here .........)

Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Author- J. DeRoo) Source- Eurasia Review Author- N. S. Venkataraman In recent times, North Korea has been in the international news for all wrong reasons. The recent launching of the missiles by North Korea and the suspicion that North Korea could be developing nuclear capabilities have created huge anxiety amongst the governments, particularly in western Europe and U S A. As U S government appears to be thinking that it is the policeman of the world and imagining that it has the responsibility and perhaps even assuming that it has the authority to control North Korea from indulging in any nuclear adventure, whether real or imaginary, it has imposed sanctions on North Korea, over and above the various types of restriction already placed on North Korea. During the recent Nuclear Security summit meet , U S President Obama particularly focused his criticism on North Korea and painted the country as the real threat to world peace.

Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Roman Harak) Source- The National Interest Author-  Sungtae Jacky Park On February 7, North Korea conducted another long-range missile test, disguised as a satellite launch. The test comes after a nuclear test on January 6 and a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) test in December of last year, indicating that the Kim Jong-un regime is intent on developing a secure and deliverable nuclear deterrent. If the regime achieves its objective, North Korea could become the most dangerous nuclear-weapons state in the world, not because the Kim regime is irrational, but because North Korea is the only existing nuclear-weapons state that could conceivably collapse at any moment. Then, U.S. policy makers will have to ask a very, very uncomfortable question: Should the United States come to terms with North Korea as a nuclear-weapons state and seek détente? The conventional logic with regard to nuclear deterrence rests on the principle t

North Korea announcing that it has carried out a thermonuclear test ( Credits- AP) Source- Eurasia Review Author- South Asian Monitor / Aniket Bhavthankar On January 6, 2016 seismometers across the world had measured a 5.1 Richter scale seismic event. Immediately after that North Korea claimed that it has successfully conducted its first Hydrogen Bomb test. Arch rival and its immediate neighbor South Korea, reacted very strongly to the North Korean assertion; the United States (US) sent a stern warning to Pyongyang. Japan is equally alarmed and asked for a firm global response. China and Russia, long time supporters of North Korea have also expressed their dissatisfaction about recent developments. Unlike earlier instances, North Korea didn’t give advance notices to China, Russia or the US. North Korea is likely to face more sanctions; it has been under the UN Security Council sanctions since it first carried out a nuclear test in 2006. If claims made by North Korea are t

Credits- You Tube Source- The Diplomat Author- Robert E. Kelly In July, world powers and Iran finally struck a deal over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. This set off speculation that perhaps the Iran deal might be a template for a deal with North Korea. Although the Iran agreement remains contentious in the United States, much of the world finds it a broadly acceptable compromise. Maximalist demands on Iran were never going to work unless the U.S. was prepared for major military action and a potential regional meltdown. Some of kind of diplomacy was ultimately necessary. North Korea is similar. At this point, almost any kind of deal seems preferably to the status quo: a spiraling nuclear and missile program with no oversight. As I have argued elsewhere, it is increasingly hard to see how North Korean nuclearization ends well. In March, when it became clear just how many nuclear weapons North Korea might build in the next decade, I argued in this space that Sou

Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / Source- TSGT Renee Sitler Source- The Strategic Culture Author- Alexander Vorontsov Is there a hope for restarting the stalled six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program? This question is more frequently asked by experts at international conferences, including the Northeast Asia Peace and Security Mechanism event held this May in northwestern city of Yanji, the seat of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in eastern Jilin province, People's Republic of China.  The majority of participants, especially the representatives of China, spoke in favor of restarting the negotiation process. The event showed it is widely believed that the policy of sanctions and pressure adopted by Washington and its allies against North Korea does not bring expected results. For instance, Japanese scholars emphasized that North Korea is not isolated and is free to do what it pleases, including the continuation of nuclear program. The partic

Source- You Tube / Credits- Author Source- The National Interest Author- Jamie Metzl As a member of the U.S. National Security Council staff in the later 1990s, I worked with colleagues on plans for responding to the potential collapse of the North Korean government. As a self-induced famine ravaged the country, we considered what we might do when the regime finally succumbed to the inevitable consequence of its own insanity. Almost twenty years later, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is still there and those predicting its imminent collapse have continually been proven wrong. But today, the North Korean madness may well be nearing its endgame. I predict it will be gone within a decade. The continued survival of North Korea’s government is based on its ability to harness absolute terror against its population, its possession of nuclear weapons, and its access to economic resources. Although North Korea requires all three of these to survive, contradictions be