Day: February 18, 2023

‘Surprise ICBM Drill’ Involved Hwasong-15, North Korea Says

Chin@Strategy

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA —  North Korea has confirmed that the intercontinental ballistic missile it fired Saturday was the Hwasong-15, which it said was part of a “surprise” exercise to test its war readiness with a “mobile and mighty counterattack.” According to a Sunday morning report by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, a mock “emergency firepower combat standby order” was issued at dawn Saturday. Guided by North Korea’s Missile General Bureau, the “high angle” ICBM launch was conducted at Pyongyang International Airport by afternoon, it said. Authorities in South Korea…

Spy Balloon Lifts Veil on China’s ‘Near Space’ Military Program

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WASHINGTON —  The little-noticed program that led to a Chinese spy balloon drifting across the United States this month has been discussed in China’s state-controlled media for more than a decade in articles extolling its potential military applications. The reports, dating back to at least 2011, focus on how best to exploit what is known as “near space” – that portion of the atmosphere that is too high for traditional aircraft to fly but too low for a satellite to remain in orbit. Those early articles may offer clues to…

Russian Attack on Ukraine Emboldened North Korea, Says South Korean Minister

Chin@Strategy

BERLIN, GERMANY —  South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin said Saturday that Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the global attention on that war had emboldened North Korea, which launched a long-range ballistic missile into the sea off Japan’s west coast earlier in the day. The missile launch — North Korea’s first since January 1 — clearly signaled “its intent to conduct additional provocations,” Park said at a panel during a global security conference in Munich, Germany. “Going further, if North Korea conducts the seventh nuclear test, which could happen at…

Kamala Harris Says Russia Committed ‘Crimes Against Humanity’ in Ukraine

Chin@Strategy

MUNICH — Vice President Kamala Harris declared on Saturday that the United States had formally concluded that Russia has committed “crimes against humanity” in its invasion of Ukraine, and warned China against providing any kind of support to Moscow’s war effort. Her comments at the Munich Security Conference came just three days before President Biden was scheduled to commemorate the anniversary of the war with a speech in Warsaw, and just as Russia is stepping up a new offensive to break through what has devolved into a war of attrition,…

Blinken meets with China’s top diplomat after US shoots down balloon

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Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, met with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, on Saturday in Munich in the first senior-level contact between the two countries since the American military shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina on 4 February. In a tweet on Saturday, Blinken said, “Just met with the PRC’s top diplomat, Wang Yi. I condemned the incursion of the PRC surveillance balloon and stressed it must never happen again.” Blinken continued: “I warned China against providing material support to Russia.…

US, China Diplomats Meet in Munich to Cool Rising Tensions

Chin@Strategy

Munich, Germany —  U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi in Munich on Saturday and told him the violation of U.S. airspace by China’s high-altitude surveillance balloon must never occur again. “The Secretary made clear the United States will not stand for any violation of our sovereignty, and that the PRC’s high altitude surveillance balloon program — which has intruded into the air space of over 40 countries across 5 continents — has been exposed to the world,” Ned Price, State Department spokesperson said…

The protesters who’ve gone missing as China deepens crackdown

Chin@Strategy

At least five of them have been released on bail. Among those still in custody, four women – Cao Zhixin, Li Siqi, Li Yuanjing and Zhai Dengrui – have been formally arrested for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”. This is a notoriously vague charge that carries a maximum sentence of five years, and one which critics say is often used to stifle dissent. BBC

At Munich meeting, Antony Blinken tells Wang Yi balloon incident ‘must never again occur’

Chin@Strategy

“The Secretary made clear the United States will not stand for any violation of our sovereignty, and that the PRC’s high-altitude surveillance balloon programme — which has intruded into the air space of over 40 countries across 5 continents —has been exposed to the world,” the statement said. Analysts said the fact that the two met relatively soon after the Chinese balloon was shot down by a US fighter jet – the meeting reportedly lasted about an hour at an undisclosed location – was a good sign, suggesting both sides…

China military: PLA sends H-6K bomber on long-range joint drill over South China Sea

Chin@Strategy

In the same drill, the bomber was tested in coordination with early warning and fighter jets for long-range raids, rapid manoeuvres and systematic strikes, the report said. Timothy Heath, a senior international defence researcher at the US think tank Rand Corporation, said the report revealed how China was using the artificial islands it built in the South China Sea to perform combat duties. Advertisement “This mission shows how Chinese aviation units could carry out missile strikes on targets within the first island chain,” said Heath, referring to the network of…

Blinken Meets With Chinese Official Amid Spy Balloon Furor, U.S. Says

Chin@Strategy

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with China’s top foreign policy official on Saturday night in Munich, a State Department official said, a resumption of diplomacy between Washington and Beijing after a breakdown that followed the Biden administration’s downing of a Chinese spy balloon over U.S. territory. The impromptu meeting, on the margins of a security conference, happened while the two nations were still very much at odds. Hours earlier, the Chinese official, Wang Yi, had doubled down on China’s claim that the balloon was a “civilian” research craft…