SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea has ordered its citizens to be ready for a protracted war against the United States, issuing guidelines on evacuating to underground bunkers with weapons, food and portraits of leader Kim Jong Il.
The 33-page "Detailed Wartime Guidelines," published in South Korea's Kyunghyang newspaper on Wednesday and verified by Seoul, was issued April 7, 2004, at a time when the communist regime was claiming it was Washington's next target following the Iraq war.
The manual -- the first such North Korean document made public in the outside world -- was signed by Kim Jong Il in his capacity as chairman of the Central Military Committee of the ruling Workers' Party. That ended speculation over whether Kim has assumed the top military post following the 1994 death of his father, President Kim Il Sung.
Analysts said the guidelines reflected Pyongyang's fear over a possible U.S. military strike amid stalled talks on its nuclear weapons programs. They said the guidelines were also meant to whip up a sense of crisis among its 22 million people, reportedly growing discontent amid economic hardship.
"The United States has cooked up suspicion over our nuclear programs and is escalating an offensive of international pressure to strangle and destroy our republic," the booklet said. "If this tactic doesn't work, it plots to use this (nuclear) problem as an excuse for armed invasion."
Kyunghyang did not clarify where it acquired the document classified as "top secret."
Seoul's National Intelligence Service said in a one-sentence statement: "We believe the document reflects North Korea's wartime preparations."
The manual urged the military to build restaurants, wells, restrooms and air purifiers in underground bunkers, which government offices and military units will move into if war breaks out.
When North Koreans evacuate to underground facilities, they should make sure that they take the portraits, plaster busts and bronze statues of Kim and his parents so that they can "protect" them in a special room, the guidelines say.
The Kim family has ruled North Korea for more than a half century, creating a powerful personality cult. Portraits of Kim and his father hang side-by-side on the walls of every house.
Since the Korean War ended in 1953, North Korea has built a 1.1 million-member military, the world's fifth largest, although most of its weapons are outdated. It already keeps vital military facilities in an estimated 10,000 underground tunnels and bunkers, South Korean officials say.
The Pyongyang subway is hundreds of yards below the surface to double as an air raid shelter, and the North's military has dug "invasion tunnels" across the border with the South.
North Korea is locked in a dispute with Washington and its allies over its nuclear weapons programs.
Pyongyang escalated its threats after the United States invaded Iraq, which President Bush termed as an "axis of evil," together with Iran and North Korea. North Korean villages are festooned with slogans exhorting the people to prepare for a war with "our sworn enemy, the U.S. imperialists."
"The North has real fear that it may become the next Iraq under the Bush administration," said Kim Tae-woo, a senior fellow at Seoul's Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. "The guidelines also appear aimed at tightening domestic control on the people as the economic difficulties erode the regime's grip on power."
Kim said Washington is building more powerful missiles that could destroy underground military targets in countries like North Korea.
On Tuesday, North Korea accused the United States of planning to deploy those missiles in South Korea for a "preemptive attack" on the North. Washington says it wants to end the nuclear dispute peacefully. (AP)
Manic Progressive: A liberal who violently swings from anger at politicos to despondency over them.
Out Of Context theatre: Ron Paul has repeatedly said he's not a racist. - Destructinator XIII on why Ron Paul isn't racist.
Reminds me of the New Years address of 99. S Korea encouraged it citizens to support the governments 'sunshine' policy toward the North. N Korea encouraged it's subjects to "Love your rifles and make our nation an impentable fortess."
This article seems to being making the rather absurd suggestion that North Korea doesn't constantly act like it's at war (which it is, ceasefires don't end anything)
"This cult of special forces is as sensible as to form a Royal Corps of Tree Climbers and say that no soldier who does not wear its green hat with a bunch of oak leaves stuck in it should be expected to climb a tree"
— Field Marshal William Slim 1956
... evacuating to underground bunkers with weapons, food and portraits of leader Kim Jong Il.
Well, give 'em points for practicality ... at least they'll have some good kindling and fuel in those bunkers.
[img=right]http://www.tallguyz.com/imagelib/chmeesig.jpg[/img]My guess might be excellent or it might be crummy, but
Mrs. Spade didn't raise any children dippy enough to
make guesses in front of a district attorney,
an assistant district attorney, and a stenographer.
Sam Spade, "The Maltese Falcon" Operation Freedom Fry
[quote="Cquote]Well, give 'em points for practicality ... at least they'll have some good kindling and fuel in those bunkers.[/quote]
Actually, no, Chmee. You continue to exhibit more stupidity. Even dropping a portrait of THE GREAT LEADER is punishable by long prison terms or even
death in North Korea.
Using them for Firewood?
"If scientists and inventors who develop disease cures and useful technologies don't get lifetime royalties, I'd like to know what fucking rationale you have for some guy getting lifetime royalties for writing an episode of Full House." - Mike Wong
"The present air situation in the Pacific is entirely the result of fighting a fifth rate air power." - U.S. Navy Memo - 24 July 1944
Chmee wrote:Well, give 'em points for practicality ... at least they'll have some good kindling and fuel in those bunkers.
Actually, no, Chmee. You continue to exhibit more stupidity. Even dropping a portrait of THE GREAT LEADER is punishable by long prison terms or even
death in North Korea.
j1j2j3 wrote:For crying out loud... he was trying to be funny.
Funny, like on how a SLBM can be targeted on a CVBG, to which he hasn't
given any reply to on my rebuttals?
"If scientists and inventors who develop disease cures and useful technologies don't get lifetime royalties, I'd like to know what fucking rationale you have for some guy getting lifetime royalties for writing an episode of Full House." - Mike Wong
"The present air situation in the Pacific is entirely the result of fighting a fifth rate air power." - U.S. Navy Memo - 24 July 1944
Shep...lighten the hell up. So you don't like the guy. Fine. If, upon seeing humor, you still have the urge to say something rediculous, do the rest of us the favor of not bloody posting it.
Chronological Incontinence: Time warps around the poster. The thread topic winks out of existence and reappears in 1d10 posts.
Out of Context Theatre, this week starring Darth Nostril.
-'If you really want to fuck with these idiots tell them that there is a vaccine for chemtrails.'
Damnit shep, it was funny, laugh ha ha ha firewood, don't duel him from thread to thread
And yes thats an offical Don't do that
Back to the topic at hand, Heh Firewood
"A cult is a religion with no political power." -Tom Wolfe Pardon me for sounding like a dick, but I'm playing the tiniest violin in the world right now-Dalton
Shinova wrote:A portrait of Kim Jong Il on a fire. What do South Koreans call that?
Kimchii!!!
*prepares to get maimed*
*Slaps back*
There there, it wasn't so bad...
Many thanks! These darned computers always screw me up. I calculated my first death-toll using a hand-cranked adding machine (we actually calculated the average mortality in each city block individually). Ah, those were the days.
-Stuart
"Mix'em up. I'm tired of States' Rights."
-Gen. George Thomas, Union Army of the Cumberland
Shinova wrote:A portrait of Kim Jong Il on a fire. What do South Koreans call that?
Kimchii!!!
*prepares to get maimed*
::groan:: That joke was bad enough to make me Kim Jong Ill.
[img=right]http://www.tallguyz.com/imagelib/chmeesig.jpg[/img]My guess might be excellent or it might be crummy, but
Mrs. Spade didn't raise any children dippy enough to
make guesses in front of a district attorney,
an assistant district attorney, and a stenographer.
Sam Spade, "The Maltese Falcon" Operation Freedom Fry
Bah, those pictures are probably too weak to be good firewood. Toilet paper, on the other hand . . .
And none of this is surprising, for all the good it would do them in a war. Maybe, if war did break out, it would prevent some of them from getting killed by air bombing.
“It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life.” -Jean-Luc Picard
"Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them." -Margaret Atwood
The manual urged the military to build restaurants, wells, restrooms and air purifiers in underground bunkers, which government offices and military units will move into if war breaks out.
Note that the restaurants, wells, restrooms and air purifiers are for bureaucrats and military units. The Great Leader and Dear Leader's busts and portraits will protect the people from starvation, thirst and Evil America's bombs!
Articles, opinions and rants from an astrophysicist: Cosmic Journeys
