North Korean military officers have been trained to trigger a devastating counterstrike if their country is attacked by the United States, according to a high-profile defector.
Former North Korean diplomat Thae Yong Ho's comments to U.S. lawmakers suggest that military action on the Korean peninsula — a course of action repeatedly raised by President Donald Trump — would almost certainly result in a catastrophic number of civilian casualties.
"North Korean officers are trained to press the button without any further instructions from the general command if something happens on their side," Thae said Wednesday. "So if there is any sound of fire or bombs or strikes from Americans, the [North Korean] artillery and short-range missiles will fire against South Korea."
A key U.S. ally, South Korea is home to more than 50 million people. Some 28,000 American troops are stationed in the country. Seoul, its capital, is just 30 miles from the North Korean border and in range of thousands of artillery pieces that are trained on the city.
Thae fled his post as deputy North Korean ambassador in London last year and has spent his time since publicly criticizing the regime from his new home in the South.
In an exclusive interview to NBC News in April, Thae warned that Kim Jong Un was prepared to use nuclear weapons against the U.S. The North Korean dictator has not yet displayed such a capability.
However, North Korea has conducted several ballistic missile tests this year in defiance of U.N. resolutions, including two intercontinental ballistic missile tests that experts said suggest that a missile could reach parts of the United States.
The U.S. and South Korea are technically still at war with North Korea because the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a truce and not a peace treaty.
On Wednesday, Thae told House Foreign Affairs Committee that the human rights abuses committed by his homeland, which is governed by one of the most repressive states on the planet, were "tantamount to the crimes committed by the Nazis."
Tensions have risen between Kim and the Trump administration, with Washington matching the warlike language of Pyongyang and Kim continuing to ramp up his burgeoning nuclear and missile programs.
Trump has threatened to "totally destroy" North Korea and rain "fire" and "fury"on the country of 25 million if its regime continued to threaten the U.S.
While Thae said that the U.S. should always preserve the threat of war as a last resort, he questioned whether the White House had done enough to solve the crisis by other means.
"Is the United States really doing enough in this regard?" Thae said of these subversive tactics. "The U.S. is spending billions of dollars to cope with the military threat. Yet how much does the U.S. spend each year on information activities involving North Korea in a year? Unfortunately, it may be tiny fraction."
He said these tactics were already having an effect, helping foment a "flourishing" black market economy and greater knowledge of Western culture.
"The domestic system of control is weakening as the days go by," he said. "These changes ... make it increasingly possible to think about civilian uprising in North Korea."
The pro-ISIS media group behind a recent string of threats against the 2018 World Cup lauded the Manhattan truck attack and warned of more bloodshed to come in posters distributed to online supporters today.
The propaganda wave comes as official ISIS channels, including the affiliated Amaq news agency, have not yet taken credit for the attack -- even as terror suspect Sayfullo Saipov reportedly asked for an ISIS flag to be hung above his hospital bed.
One of the posters from the Wafa' Media Foundation, labeled "Manhattan" with a backdrop of burning, crumbling skyscrapers and a semi-truck -- significantly more truck than the flatbed pickup Saipov rented from Home Depot -- shows a masked, armed jihadist standing before the scene. Whereas this jihadist wields a rifle, Saipov brandished a paintball gun and a pellet gun -- and had a stun gun in his truck -- before he was shot in the abdomen by a real bullet from an NYPD officer.
"O worshippers of the cross in USA," the poster states. "Our lone wolves will come to you from where you do not know and we will terrorize you wherever you are and we will show you multitudes of terror and pain that you showed to the Muslims, and what is coming is more bitter and greater."
In May 2016, Wafa' warned in a message to the citizens of Spain and all Spanish-speaking countries that lone jihadists existing in those areas would kill the "disbelievers" as "previously planned." In August 2016, the media foundation said that jihadists had to step up their game to make attacks in Spain worse than terrorist operations in France. Wafa' pressed jihadists to kidnap or kill Spanish nationals.
After 15 people were killed and at least 130 injured in August when terrorists belonging to a local cell plowed a rented van through crowds on Las Ramblas, a long pedestrian mall in Barcelona, Wafa' issued a fresh warning over the weekend that jihad there "has not been fought and gone" and cells remain in Barcelona and beyond. The message was addressed "from the Islamic Republic of Spain to the Government of Spain."
Over the past week and a half, Wafa' has released several gory posters threatening the World Cup, scheduled next summer in Russia. The images showed FC Barcelona star Lionel Messi dead, French national team manager Didier Deschamps as an orange-jumpsuit-clad prisoner of ISIS being held at gunpoint, and Brazilian national team star Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior about to be executed. "You will not enjoy security until we live it in Muslim countries," one poster vowed.
It is without a doubt, our news cycle – in the age of 24/7 constant-connectedness – moves at a breakneck pace. With so much information and news reaching us, it’s easy to become overburdened and burned out on the world around us and the things taking place. It is true, too, that the mainstream media dictates what stays center in the mind of the public and what is allowed to fade away and be forgotten. It is of the utmost importance we remain aware – however exhaustive it may be – of stories that just don’t add up.
Enter the Las Vegas shooting; the worst mass-shooting in U.S. history...
On October 1, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock opened fire on a country music festival from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel, which overlooked the festival venue. Paddock’s onslaught left 58 dead and 546 injured.
A full month later, and we are still without any answers. Even more worryingly, the Vegas shooting has disappeared from any cable news channel. Even online, discussion over the shooting has all but vanished, save from the more conspiratorial corners of the web.
Here are the facts:
The official timeline of the Vegas shooting has changed three times. A week before the attack, Paddock wired $100,000 to an account in the Philippines. Paddock also took cruises to ports in the Middle East. Paddock’s laptop was also missing its hard drive when recovered in his hotel room.
Despite a month of being told otherwise, it’s now been revealed that police did discharge fire in Paddock’s hotel room upon entry… but why, if Paddock had already killed himself before police breached the room?
Jesus Campos is the security guard who first reportedly found Paddock as he started his killing spree, and was shot in the leg in the process. However, he not only disappeared after scheduling several television interviews, but it’s now been revealed Campos reportedly left the country just days after the Vegas shooting.
Why did authorities let Campos leave the country in the middle of an investigation? How did Campos travel unhindered with a gunshot wound in his leg?
Not only that, but Campos was said to have been last heard from when he went to a walk-in health clinic… but a spokesperson for UMC Quick Care – the facility Campos supposedly went to – said they had “heard nothing” about Campos visiting them.
On top of all of that, Campos only re-emerged to do a fluff, softball interview on Ellen. DeGeneres guides Campos along the interview, essentially framing and explaining the timeline of events so Campos didn’t have to. At times, the interview even seems scripted. Don’t take my word for that, I implore you to watch and see if you agree
Plainly, things aren’t adding up with the Vegas shooting. Paddock was in an area with extremely heavy surveillance, yet no stills or video of him have been released to the public. No potential motive has been released. Really, no answers to any of the questions that arose in result of the story not adding up have been addressed… instead, the Vegas massacre has vanished from cable news channels and the public mind.
Another note to add, in just the span of a month, 4 survivors of the Vegas shooting have died. Notably, both Kymberley Suchomel and Danny Contreras both publicly claimed there were multiple gunmen the night of the mass shooting. Dennis and Lorraine Carver died after their Mercedes smashed into a metal gate and exploded into flames. Per CNN:
By the time their daughter heard the crash (which only happened about a half mile from the Carver’s home) and ran down the road to see what had happened, the car was engulfed in flames… Much like everything else pertaining to the Vegas shooting, the story just doesn’t make sense.
Here we are, a month later – with exactly what we had immediately in the aftermath of the shooting: nothing. No answers, no coverage, no questions… nothing.
All of us should be asking many questions – if only to ourselves – about why the narrative behind Vegas isn’t adding up…
Compare the massacre in Vegas to the terrorist attack that happened yesterday in New York. Within hours, we knew the name of the terrorist, had a picture of him, had his history as a refugee in the U.S. under a “diversity visa”, and had a note declaring allegiance to ISIS. We have timelines and what the terrorist was doing in the hours, days before the attack…The couple’s youngest daughter, 16-year-old Madison Carver, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that she heard the crash from her bedroom. When she ran outside and down the street to find out what had happened, she recognized her family’s vehicle in flames.
We owe it to the victims to not let this simply fade away. We owe it to their memory to ask why the narrative behind the shooting stinks. We owe it to their legacy to question and demand answers from our public representatives when discussion and coverage is being obviously stone-walled. Nary a peep has come from any legacy media concerning Vegas in the past month, and that alone should make you question what’s really going on. You don’t have to delve into conspiracy theories or hack-witted ideas of a hoax. Merely ask yourself…
Where did the investigative coverage on the Vegas shooting go? Why did the story drop out of the news cycle with so many unanswered questions?
The worst mass-shooting in America yet and seemingly everyone has shrugged their shoulders, thrown up their hands, and declared indifference until the next one.
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