Ready for nuclear war: U.S deploys huge battalion to fight chemical and biological attack in South Korea after North Korean madman’s nuke threat

• N Korea has moved what appears to be a Musudan missile to its east coat
• U.S deploys missile defence system to Pacific island of Guam
• 'The moment of explosion is approaching fast,' warned North Korea
  
• U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel: 'Real and clear danger' from North
  
• Chinese soldiers and weaponry massing on border with Korean Peninsula
• John Kerry warns that North is 'provocative, dangerous and reckless'
• North Korea's Twitter account has been hacked
  
• David Cameron: North Korea is an 'unpredictable and aggressive regime'
  

By Jill Reilly

PUBLISHED: 21:16 EST, 3 April 2013 | UPDATED: 10:48 EST, 4 April 2013

The United States has deployed a battalion equipped to fight chemical and biological attacks in  South Korea following North Korea's declaration that troops have been cleared to use 'smaller, lighter and diversified' nuclear weapons.

The battalion - which left South Korea in 2004 - will provide nuclear, biological and chemical detection, equipment decontamination and consequence management assistance to support the U.S. and South Korean military forces

North Korea today warned ‘the moment of explosion is near' as it declared that troops have been cleared to 'mercilessly' attack the U.S.

The rogue state has moved a missile with a range of 3,000km (1,800m) to its east coast - within range of Japan - and claimed it would be ‘merciless’ against its enemies.

Kim Jong Un’s dramatic deployment came after the U.S. announced it was sending ballistic missile defences to Guam - the tiny Pacific Island that is among a list of possible targets for attack including Hawaii and the U.S. mainland.

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Tense times: The United States has deployed a battalion equipped to fight chemical and biological attacks in South Korea following North Korea's declaration that troops have been cleared to use 'smaller, lighter and diversified' nuclear weapons

Preparations: Soldiers watch a bomb disposal robot during a demonstration of their equipment. North Korea today warned 'the moment of explosion is near' as it declared that troops have been cleared to 'mercilessly' attack the U.S. using 'smaller, lighter and diversified' nuclear weapons

Display: Soldiers of the U.S. Army 23rd chemical battalion try out their equipment as they give a demonstration

Official return: A U.S. Army helicopter approaches to land after a ceremony of the U.S. Army's 23rd chemical battalion, which was held to give notice of its official return to the 2nd Infantry Division based in South Korea, at Camp Stanley in Uijeongbu, north of Seoul

Support: The 23rd chemical battalion left South Korea in 2004 but the battalion with about 250 soldiers returned to the South in January to support South Korean military and the U.S. troops based in the South, according to the infantry division

Return to the region: The 23rd chemical battalion left South Korea in 2004, but have been sent out to support the military after Kim Jong Un declared a 'state of war' with its neighbour

Exercise: Soldiers check mock chemical pollutants on one another during a demonstration

A map showing the movement in the region. The Pentagon has announced it is deploying a missile to the Pacific island of Guam

The Pentagon said the anti-missile shield would be ready within weeks to address the 'real and clear danger' that the communist state presents to the U.S. and its allies.

The strident warning from Pyongyang is the most serious so far from North Korea.

Despite the intense rhetoric, analysts do not expect a nuclear attack by North Korea, which knows the move could trigger a destructive, suicidal war.

Experts believe Pyongyang does not yet have the ability to launch nuclear-tipped missiles, but its other nuclear capabilities aren't fully known.

But the statement from North Korea are the most serious so far and triggered worldwide concern.

The military statement read they are authorised to wage 'cutting-edge smaller, lighter and diversified' nuclear strikes to protect against the United States.

'The moment of explosion is approaching fast. No one can say a war will break out in Korea or not and whether it will break out today or tomorrow,' read the statement of an unnamed military spokesman.

The statement, which was carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), stated that 'the merciless operation of its revolutionary armed forces in this regard has been finally examined and ratified.'

Training: South Korean soldiers place a camouflage net over their military vehicle during a military exercise near the border village of Panmunjom in Paju

Kitted out: A soldier of a South Korean artillery unit looks at his fellow soldiers and military vehicles moving to conduct military training near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Paju

Duties: South Korean soldiers man cannons at a military training field after North Korea dramatically escalated its warlike rhetoric today

South Korean marines work on their K-55 self-propelled howitzers during an exercise against possible attacks by North Korea near the border village of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea, on Wednesday

Ready: A South Korean artillery unit drive a self-propelled artillery vehicle for training

Drills: South Korean soldiers ride the tanks through the streets on their way to take part in military drills

Training: South Korean soldiers place a camouflage net over their vehicle as they take part in training

Watchful eye: A North Korean soldier looks through binoculars at the truce village of Panmunjom in the demilitarized zone dividing the two Koreas

NUKE THREAT: COULD THE MISSILE REALLY HIT THE U.S?

Is North Korea's missile system a threat?

Today South Korea's defence minister said that North Korea has moved a missile with 'considerable range' to its east coast. Officials said there were no signs the North Koreans planned to test fire their new longer-range KN-08 road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile. The range he described could refer to a mobile North Korean missile known as the Musudan.

What is the Musudan?

The Musudan, also known as the Nodong-B or the Taepodong-X, is an intermediate-range ballistic missile. It has a range of 3,000 kilometres (1,800 miles) - that would make Japan and South Korea potential targets, but little is known about the missile's accuracy.

What is the KN-08?
Adm. James Winnefeld, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted this missile could probably hit the U.S - it is thought he means Alaska.

Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel cited the KN-08 as a reason for the administration’s decision to deploy 14 additional missile interceptors in Alaska.

The North Korean military claims it has a range of 10,000 kilometres, but military experts believe that the 18-metre-long KN-08 has a range of 6,000 kilometres. It is a concern as it is road-mobile and easy to hide.

Is the U.S. strong enough?
North Korea isn't thought to have nuclear-armed missiles that can hit the United States and is extremely unlikely to launch a direct attack on Seoul or its U.S. ally, knowing that military retaliation would threaten the leadership's survival.

This week the Pentagon deployed two Aegis-equipped missile defense ships to operate off the Korean peninsula.

It is readying long-range ground-based interceptors in Alaska and California. It is also deploying one of its newest ground-based missile defences to the Pacific.

What about the nuclear power station?

North Korea's vow to restart its mothballed nuclear facilities raises fears about assembly lines churning out fuel for a fearsome arsenal of nuclear missiles. But it may actually be a sign that Pyongyang needs a lot more bomb fuel to back up its nuclear threats.

Despite the bluster, it could be years before North Korea completes the laborious process of creating more weaponized fuel. Its announcement, experts say, is also likely an effort to boost fears meant to keep its leadership safe while trying to extract concessions from the U.S. and its allies.

North Korea is reacting against joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises taking place in South Korea and has expressed anger over tightened sanctions for its February nuclear test.

Today South Korea's defence minister said that North Korea has moved a missile with 'considerable range' to its east coast, but he added that there are no signs that Pyongyang is preparing for a full-scale conflict.

South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin dismissed reports in Japanese media that the missile could be a KN-08, which is believed to be a long-range missile that if operable could hit the United States.

Kim told lawmakers at a parliamentary committee meeting that the missile has 'considerable range' but not enough to hit the U.S. mainland.

The range he described could refer to a mobile North Korean missile known as the Musudan, which has a range of 3,000 kilometers (1,800 miles).

That would make Japan and South Korea potential targets, but little is known about the missile's accuracy.

The defence minister said he did not know the reasons behind the missile movement, saying it 'could be for testing or drills.'

Experts say North Korea has not demonstrated that it has missiles capable of long range or accuracy.

Some suspect that long-range missiles unveiled by Pyongyang at a parade last year were actually mockups.

Kim Kwan-jin said that if North Korea were preparing for a full-scale conflict, there would be signs including the mobilization of a number of units, including supply and rear troops, but South Korean military officials have found no such preparations.

'(North Korea's recent threats) are rhetorical threats. I believe the odds of a full-scale provocation are small,' he said.

But he added that there is still the possibility of North Korea mounting a localized, small-scale provocation against South Korea.

He cited the 2010 shelling of a South Korean island, an attack that killed four people, as a possible example of such a provocation.

The movement of the missile is thought to be in response to the U.S. deploying an anti-missile shield to Pacific to strengthen regional protection against a possible attack.

The Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system is expected to arrive at the U.S. territory in the Pacific within two weeks.

The $800m (£529m) battery was not due for deployment until 2015, but a Pentagon statement said the deployment was 'a precautionary move to strengthen our regional defence posture against the North Korean regional ballistic missile threat.'

The deployment of the battery is a firm demonstration that Washington regards the confrontation with North Korea as more worrying than similar crises in the past and that they are preparing for a long standoff.

U.S. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said Washington is doing all it can to defuse the situation, echoing comments a day earlier by Secretary of State John Kerry.

'Some of the actions they've taken over the last few weeks present a real and clear danger and threat to the interests, certainly of our allies, starting with South Korea and Japan, and also the threats that the North Koreans have leveled directly at the United States regarding our base in Guam, threatened Hawaii, threatened the West Coast of the United States,' Hagel said yesterday.

'They have a nuclear capacity now,' he told the National Defense University in Washington. 'They have a missile delivery capacity now. And so, as they have ratcheted up their bellicose, dangerous rhetoric, and some of the actions they have taken over the last few weeks, present a real and clear danger.'

Yesterday a Chinese diplomat met ambassadors from the United States and both Koreas to express 'serious concern' over the situation on the Korean peninsula, China's Foreign Ministry said.

'Yesterday afternoon, Deputy Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui met the ambassadors of North and South Korea and the United States and expressed serious concern about the present situation on the peninsula,' Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters at a daily briefing.

'In the present situation, China believes all sides must remain calm and exercise restraint and not take actions which are mutually provocative and must certainly not take actions which will worsen the situation,' he said.

VIDEO: U.S. army demonstrates decontamination exercise in South Korea

 

U.S. army demonstrates decontamination exercise in South Korea

This photo of Kim Jong Un and his military advisors was released last week as North Korea announced it was preparing strikes against mainland U.S.

This map, built from an EPA photo and a map made by University of Alabama is oriented making the assumption that the leftmost target is Los Angeles and the rightmost target is New York City

THE MAN BEHIND THE THREATS 

Kim Jong Un, was unveiled in September 2010 as his father's choice as successor, and is the third-generation Kim to rule the nation of 24 million.

In April 2012 he formally took over ruling party leadership, becoming First Secretary of the Workers Party.

He is believed to be in his late 20s but even his exact age is unknown outside the North.

The nation is notoriously secretive - no official announcement was made that Kim Jong Un even had a wife until state media eventually revealed it.

According to South Korean media, citing intelligence reports, the couple were married in 2009.

It was claimed last month that North Korea has a new communist heir after his wife secretly gave birth late last year.

The newborn, whose gender is not known, could become the fourth-generation to lead the communist dictatorship, but Pyongyang watchers believe the baby is most likely a girl.

'If it was a boy, [the North Koreans] would have made an announcement,' Michael Madden, editor of the online newsletter North Korea Leadership Watch, told the Washington Free Beacon.

Analysts say the threats are probably efforts to provoke softer policies from South Korea, to win diplomatic talks with Washington and to solidify the image of young North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Hackers have apparently disrupted North Korea's government-run Twitter account.

The disruption comes at a time of rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

The North's Uriminzokkiri's Twitter account on Thursday displayed four tweets saying 'hacked.'

A fifth tweet said 'Tango Down' and was followed by a link to Uriminzokkiri's Flickr page.

Both sites were running today, but carrying content that differed sharply from content typically posted by the regime in Pyongyang, leading viewers to assume the accounts had been hacked.

North Korea opened its Uriminzokkiri Twitter account in 2010 to use the social media to praise its system and leaders.

At times Pyongyang has gone beyond rhetoric.

For a second day Thursday, North Korean border authorities denied entry to South Koreans who manage jointly run factories in the North Korean city of Kaesong. South Koreans already at the plant were being allowed to return home.

South Korea has prepared a military contingency plan should North Korea hold South Korean workers hostage in Kaesong, Defense Minister Kim said. He wouldn't elaborate.

Outraged over comments in the South about possible hostage-taking and a military response from Seoul, a North Korean government-run committee threatened to pull North Korean workers out of Kaesong as well.

On Tuesday, Pyongyang announced it would restart a plutonium reactor it had shut down in 2007.

A U.S. research institute said yesterday that satellite imagery shows that construction needed for the restart has already begun.

North Korea's military statement today said its troops had been authorized to counter U.S. 'aggression' with 'powerful practical military counteractions,' including nuclear weapons.

Truce village: South Korean soldiers stand guard as a North Korean soldier is seen at the truce village of Panmunjom

Threats: South Korean wait for clearance at the border check point in Paju. North Korea threatened to pull its 53,000 workers from the Kaesong joint industrial zone with South Korea and close the complex, a day after it blocked access for South Korean personnel

'We formally inform the White House and Pentagon that the ever-escalating U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK and its reckless nuclear threat will be smashed by the strong will of all the united service personnel and people and cutting-edge smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike means,' an unnamed spokesman from the General Bureau of the Korean People's Army said in a statement carried by state media, referring to North Korea by its formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

'The U.S. had better ponder over the prevailing grave situation.'

South Korea's Defense Ministry said its military is ready to deal with any provocation by North Korea.

'I can say we have no problem in crisis management,' deputy ministry spokesman Wee Yong-sub told reporters.

Worst-case scenario: North Korea's best hope to score a strike on a U.S. territory would be to fire the Taepodong-2 rocket, which could possibly make it to Alaska

Nascent technology: A map from the Federation of American Scientists and the Center for Non-proliferation Studies shows that North Korea's missiles cannot even reach India about 3,100 miles away

Deployed: USS John McCain a guided-missile destroyer used for ballistic missile defence, has been put into position to operate off the Korean peninsula

This spring's annual U.S.-South Korea drills have incorporated fighter jets and nuclear-capable stealth bombers, though the allies insist they are routine exercises. Pyongyang calls them rehearsals for a northward invasion.

The foes fought on opposite sides of the Korean War, which ended in a truce in 1953.

The divided Korean Peninsula remains in a technical state of war six decades later, and Washington keeps 28,500 troops in South Korea to protect its ally.

North Korea's nuclear strike capabilities remain unclear.

North Koreans gather for a rally to show their support for a potential nuclear war against the United States. This picture was released by North Korea's official news agency and was not verified by a third party

North Koreans hold posters of their previous leaders, Kim Il-sung, left, Kim Jong-Il

The poster here reads 'safeguard to the death' as the North Korean army said it had approval to attack the United States with its nuclear weapons

Pyongyang is believed to be working toward building an atomic bomb small enough to mount on a long-range missile.

Long-range rocket launches designed to send satellites into space in 2009 and 2012 were widely considered covert tests of missile technology, and North Korea has conducted three underground nuclear tests, most recently in February.

'I don't believe North Korea has the capacity to attack the United States with nuclear weapons mounted on missiles, and won't for many years.

Its ability to target and strike South Korea is also very limited,' nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker, a senior fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University, said this week.

Tumble: South Koren dealers work in front of monitors at the Exchange Bank in Seoul. A torrent of threats from North Korea saw the key stock index tumble 1.2 percent and the local currency sinking against the U.S. dollar

Danger: U.S. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel has admitted that North Korea is a 'real and clear danger'to the U.S. and its allies

North Korea poses 'clear and present danger' says Defense...

'And even if Pyongyang had the technical means, why would the regime want to launch a nuclear attack when it fully knows that any use of nuclear weapons would result in a devastating military response and would spell the end of the regime?' he said in answers posted to CISAC's website.

In Seoul, a senior government official said Tuesday it wasn't clear how advanced North Korea's nuclear weapons capabilities are.

But he also noted fallout from any nuclear strike on Seoul or beyond would threaten Pyongyang as well, making a strike unlikely.

He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly to the media.

David Cameron  issued a stark warning against any move to abandon Britain’s Trident deterrent in the face of the growing nuclear threat from North Korea and Iran.

'We will defend ourselves and our allies' US Secretary of State

Blocked: South Korean vehicles and workers have been banned from entering North Korea today

Turning back: Vans which have been refused entry to the Kaesong industrial complex return to South Korea

COUNTDOWN TO 'MERCILESS STRIKES'

December 2011: Kim Jong Il died and his son Kim Jong Un was named his successor.

April 2012: To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the country's founder Kim Il Sung, Pyongyang launched a long-range rocket which fell into the sea.

August 2012: Ahead of the annual US-South Korean drills, Kim Jong Un announced that the North Korean army was ready to deal 'deadly blows

December 2012: North Korea successfully launched a rocket, boosting the credentials of its new leader and stepping up the threat the isolated and impoverished state poses to opponents. The rocket was labelled by the United States, South Korea and Japan as a test of technology that could one day deliver a nuclear warhead.

January 2013: North Korea announced it was planning a new nuclear test, raising the confrontation with the US to a whole new level.

February 12: North Korea conducted its third nuclear test and warned that further measures would follow if the US continued its “hostility” against the North. The UN subsequently imposed more sanctions on the county.

March 29: Following a mock bombing of North Korea by a US B-2 stealth bomber during a joint military drills, Pyongyang ordered rocket units be put on standby to fire on US bases in the South Pacific.

March 30: North Korea declared it was entering a 'state of war' against its Southern neighbor.

April 3: North Korea announces it had approval to use its nuclear weapons against the United States in a 'merciless' attack

The Prime Minister said it would be 'foolish' to leave the country defenceless at a time when the 'highly unpredictable and aggressive' regime in North Korea was developing ballistic missiles which could eventually threaten Europe.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mr Cameron said such 'evolving threats' underlined the need for the UK to maintain the ultimate deterrent.

'We need our nuclear deterrent as much today as we did when a previous British government embarked on it over six decades ago. Of course, the world has changed dramatically. The Soviet Union no longer exists. But the nuclear threat has not gone away,' he said.

'In terms of uncertainty and potential risk it has, if anything, increased.'

'The highly unpredictable and aggressive regime in North Korea recently conducted its third nuclear test and could already have enough fissile material to produce more than a dozen nuclear weapons,' he said.

'Last year North Korea unveiled a long-range ballistic missile which it claims can reach the whole of the United States. If this became a reality it would also affect the whole of Europe, including the UK.'

North Korea maintains that it needs to build nuclear weapons to defend itself against the United States.

On Monday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un led a high-level meeting of party officials who declared building the economy and 'nuclear armed forces' as the nation's two top priorities.

Hecker has estimated that North Korea has enough plutonium to make several crude nuclear bombs.

Its announcement Tuesday that it would restart a plutonium reactor indicated that it intends to produce more nuclear weapons material.

The U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies has analyzed recent commercial satellite imagery of the Nyongbyon nuclear facility, where the reactor was shut down in 2007 under the terms of a disarmament agreement.

A cooling tower for the reactor was destroyed in 2008.

The analysis published yesterday on the institute's website, 38 North, says that rebuilding the tower would take six months, but a March 27 photo shows building work may have started for an alternative cooling system that could take just weeks.

Experts estimate it could take three months to a year to restart the plant.

North Korea today announced that it would kick-start its nuclear programme once again by re-opening a complex which was closed as part of disarmament talks six years ago. A file handout satellite image shows the Yongbyon complex nuclear facility

Threat: Kim Jong Un, pictured centre at a meeting of North Korea's parliament this week, has vowed to re-open the country's nuclear facilities