North Korea officially in a ‘state of war’ with South Korea

By LUIS MIRANDA | THE REAL AGENDA | MARCH 30, 2013

North Korea announced Friday that relations with South Korea are in a “state of war”, following the surge in tensions between the two countries and sanctions by the United Nations Security Council.

“From now, North-South relations will enter a state of war and matters arising between North and South will be treated accordingly,” communicated the regime at Pyongyang, during a special announcement issued through he state news agency.

In his usual bellicose tone North Korean media published what it said to be a statement from Kim Jong-un, who ordered to set up missiles to strike at “any time” U.S. interests in the region as well as South Korea itself.

In this new announcement, North Korea said that “the situation in which there is neither war nor peace of the Korean peninsula is over.”

The two Koreas have remained technically at war since the end of the conflict that faced them between 1950-1953 and ended with a ceasefire, after which an armistice was signed to avoid further conflict.

The statement published by North Korea also warned of “major combat” beyond the region if South Korea and the U.S. continued their military operations in the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas. According to KCNA, the special announcement was issued today by the Workers’ Party, ministers and other institutions.

These ads are part of the campaign of threats directed by Pyongyang that directly threaten South Korea and the U.S.. The announcements began last March 7 after the UN approved sanctions against the communist country for running nuclear test in February.

In such sanctions, China, the main ally of North Korea, backed and supported the penalties against Pyongyang, a move that analysts say has deepened the isolation and inability to anticipate North Korea’s unexpected response. This week North Korea announced the suspension of the only line of military communication it had with South Korea and managed access to the Kaesong industrial complex amid escalating tension between the two countries.

The White House licks its fingers and responds

As it was expected, the White House in Washington did not take long to respond to North Korea’s declaration of war. In a statement published Friday, the US government says that the threats are taken ”seriously”. The White House “is serious about these threats and remains in close contact with the South Korean allies,” said the National Security Council’s spokeswoman  Caitlin Hayden.

The White House has made it clear in other opportunities that it has the will and the ability to protect the so-called interests of the United States in the region against threats from North Korea. The United States has military bases in the South Pacific region. U.S. President Barack Obama showed his intention to attack North Korea as he responded to questions from the press this week. In fact, the US is now conducting military exercises with South Korea. “This should be proof enough clear to the international community and the North Koreans that we have the ability and willingness to protect our interests in the region.”

The new Secretary of Defense of the United States, Chuck Hagel, has said that “the very provocative and belligerent actions and tone from North Korea increase the danger of more conflict.” Hagel also defended the decision earlier this month to increase defenses against missile threats from the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. He insisted that the Pentagon had not  exaggerated in its reaction. “You just need to go wrong once,” said the Secretary of Defense.

The White House reiterated that the “war rhetoric” from North Korea “only deepens the isolation” of that country and that its aim is to resolve current tensions “in a peaceful manner.” “The road to peace is clear to the North Koreans.” The White House has said that Pyongyang must stop its nuclear program, comply with its international obligations and stop its “war rhetoric”.

Russia to the rescue

Today Russia has called both the Koreas as the U.S. to exercise ”maximum restraint and responsibility” in the escalation launched by the Pyongyang regime in recent weeks and that has culminated with the statement that North Korea had entered into a “state of war” with its southern neighbor.

The latest threat of the communist regime of Kim Jong-un follows a series of measures taken in recent weeks, as the placement of missiles in the direction of U.S. bases in the Pacific and cutting military communications with Seoul.

“We hope the two sides exercise maximum restraint and responsibility and that no one exceeds the point of no return,” said Grigory Logvinov, the Russian Foreign senior official in charge of Korean peninsula.

The last movement of Pyongyang does not awaken too many alarms in South Korea, which estimates that “there is not a new threat.”

Not surprisingly, the two Koreas are still technically at war since the end of the Korean conflict in 1953. The South Korean Defense Ministry has merely said his country will repress ”any provocation.”

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How Psychiatric Drugs Can Kill Your Child

THE REAL AGENDA | MARCH 27, 2013

Psychiatric disorders are not medical diseases. There are no lab tests, brain scans, X-rays or chemical imbalance tests that can verify any mental disorder is a physical condition.

The Untold Story of Psychotropic Drugging and The Marketing of Madness: Are We All Insane? comes this searing new documentary, exposing how devastating—and deadly—psychiatric drugs can be for children and families.

Behind the grim statistics of deaths, suicides, birth defects and serious adverse reactions is the human face of this global drugging epidemic—the personal stories of loss and courage of those who paid the real price.

Psychiatrists claim their drugs are safe for children?

Once you hear what eight brave mothers, their families, health experts, drug counselors and doctors have to say instead, you will come away convinced of one thing…

Psychiatrists are DEAD WRONG.

Russia and China secure their energy future without the United States

By LUIS MIRANDA | THE REAL AGENDA | MARCH 26, 2013

Russian President Vladimir Putin urged his colleague, the President of China, Xi Jinping to concentrate on the development of trade and economic relations between the two countries.

On Friday, in the Kremlin, both leaders signed a joint declaration to deepen bilateral ties and attended the signing of more than thirty agreements and documents that particularly affect the energy sector.

For Xi Jinping, the trip to Moscow was the first international travel since his appointment as president and also the first leg of a tour that will take him to Tanzania, South Africa and the Republic of Congo.

In the South African city of Durban on 26 and 27 March, China will bring together the leaders of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, and South Africa) and there the two leaders will meet again to continue discussing their current and future alliance, especially the details of agreements that have to do with energy resources.

The trade volume between Russia and China was of 88,000 million dollars in 2012, which is well below the volume of trade between Russia and the EU (over 400,000 million), but it is characterized by a more dynamic growth. Putin estimated that trade relations between China and Russia may reach a volume of 100,000 million dollars by 2015.

The agreements signed between Russian energy companies and Chinese companies set more or less advanced stages in the development of joint projects with a history of long and arduous negotiations.

For example, Gazprom intends to begin supplying Russian gas to China in 2018 at the rate of a volume of 38,000 cubic meters per year, which can be increased to 60,000 million cubic meters, for a pipeline that is yet to be built. The head of the Board of Directors of Gazprom, Alexei Miller, said China could make an advance payment against future gas supplies.

The contract, scheduled for a period of 30 years, still has some details that need to be touched up. For example, the fuel price formula. The Chinese do not accept linking gas prices to oil made by the Russians and propose another model of calculation which results in lower prices.

Miller estimated the contract to supply gas to China will be signed later this year, after concluding a legal document in the summer. China is the world’s largest consumer of energy and Russia one of the world leaders in production. As one of the largest producers, Russia has been  affected by the crisis in the European Union, its biggest customer.

The lack of a developed transport infrastructure in the eastern part of the country does not allow the Kremlin to quickly diversify its energy market. The president of Rosneft, Igor Sechin, who just closed in London the international oil absorption TNK-BP, proposed to increase the supply of crude oil to China from 800,000 tonnes to 31 million tonnes. The China Development Bank will give Rosneft a credit line of $ 2000 million for the period of 25 years.

Psychiatry’s Reign of Terror in an Age of Fear

THE REAL AGENDA | MARCH 25, 2013

We live in the very picture of a modern society.

Seemingly secure. Seemingly safe. Seemingly happy.

But life isn’t always as it appears.

Psychiatry’s history of atrocities can be found everywhere.

But nowhere can we see them more clearly than in psychiatry’s very birthplace—Germany.

Drawing from extensive research and interviews with psychiatric experts and victims, this shocking documentary reveals the sordid story of psychiatry from its earliest beginnings to present day.

It is a seldom-told tale of false claims, damaging treatments, and the ultimate in human cruelty.

Filmed in Germany and Austria, The Age of Fear: Psychiatry’s Reign of Terror, draws from over 80 interviews of psychiatric experts, historians and survivors. Containing shocking personal testimonies and stark inside footage, the documentary tells the true story of psychiatry’s sordid history and current practices, revealing how its reliance on brutality and coercion has not changed since the moment it was born.

“If some doctors harm—torture rather than treat, murder the soul rather than minster the body—that is, in part, because society, through the state, asks them, and pays them, to do so.

“We saw it happen in Nazi Germany, and we hanged many of the doctors. We see it happen in the Soviet Union, and we denounce the doctors with righteous indignation. But when will we see that the same things are happening in the so-called free societies? When will we recognize—and publicly identify—the medical criminals among us?”

—Dr. Thomas Szasz, M.D.
Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus

North Korea threatens to attack U.S. bases in Japan and Guam

BY JACK KIM | REUTERS | MARCH 21, 2013

North Korea said it would attack U.S. military bases on Japan and the Pacific island of Guam if provoked, a day after leader Kim Jong-un oversaw a mock drone strike on South Korea.

The North also held an air raid drill on Thursday after accusing the United States of preparing a military strike using bombers that have overflown the Korean peninsula as part of drills between South Korean and U.S. forces.

North Korea has stepped up its rhetoric in response to what it calls “hostile” drills between South Korea and the United States. It has also been angered by the imposition of fresh U.N. sanctions that followed its February 12 nuclear test.

Separately, South Korea said a hacking attack on the servers of local broadcasters and banks on Wednesday originated from an IP address in China, raising suspicions the intrusion came from North Korea.

“The United States is advised not to forget that our precision target tools have within their range the Anderson Air Force base on Guam where the B-52 takes off, as well as the Japanese mainland where nuclear powered submarines are deployed and the navy bases on Okinawa,” the North’s supreme military command spokesman was quoted as saying by the KCNA news agency.

Japan and U.S. Pacific bases are in range of Pyongyang’s medium-range missiles.

It is not known if North Korea possesses drones, although a report on South Korea’s Yonhap news agency last year said it had obtained 1970s-era U.S. target drones from Syria to develop into attack drones.

“The (drone) planes were assigned the flight route and time with the targets in South Korea in mind, Kim Jong-un said, adding with great satisfaction that they were proved to be able to mount (a) super-precision attack on any enemy targets,” KCNA reported.

It is extremely rare for KCNA to specify the day on which Kim attended a drill. It also said a rocket defense unit had successfully shot down a target that mimicked an “enemy” Tomahawk cruise missile.

North Korea has said it has abrogated an armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War and threatened a nuclear attack on the United States.

Although North Korea lacks the technology to carry out such an attack, Washington said it would deploy more anti-missile batteries in Alaska to counter any threat.

PYONGYANG HAS HACKED SOUTH KOREA BEFORE

The hacking attack brought down the servers of South Korean broadcasters YTN, MBC and KBS as well as two major commercial banks, Shinhan Bank and NongHyup Bank.

South Korean communications regulators said the attack originated from an IP address based in China.

An unnamed official from South Korea’s presidential office was quoted by the Yonhap news agency as saying the discovery of the Chinese IP address indicated Pyongyang was responsible.

Investigations of past hacking incidents on South Korean organizations have been traced to Pyongyang’s large army of computer engineers trained to infiltrate the South’s computer networks.

At least one previous attack was traced to a Chinese IP address.

South Korea’s defense ministry said it was too early to blame the North but said such a cyber capability was a key part of its arsenal. Experts say thousands of North Korean engineers may have been recruited for the purpose.

“Throughout the world, states that create cyber warfare and engage in those types of activities are precisely the same countries that develop nuclear weapons,” Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said.

“North Korea has strongly stepped up development of asymmetrical strategy with nuclear development and many types of ballistic missiles as well as a special forces of 200,000 strong.”