South Korea-U.S. Combined Command Forces Raise Attack Warning Level

How Close Are We To A Possible Nuclear War?

According to news sources in Asia, the South Korea-U.S. Combined Command Forces raised the watch level against North Korea by one notch on Thursday. South Korean defense spokesman Won Tae-jae told South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency the Combined Forces raised the WATCHCON system from Level 3 to Level 2. WATCHCON is the process of changing the reconnaissance posture for strategic and tactical warning of attack operated by ROK and US military forces.

The Watch Condition hierarchy is characterized by four stages: WATCHCON 4 (normal peacetime position), WATCHCON 3 (important indications of threat), WATCHCON 2 (vital indications of threat), and WATCHCON 1 (wartime situation). The WATCHCON is normally raised by the agreement of ROK and US military intelligence authorities, according to a GlobalSecurity writeup on OPLAN 5027, the United States and Republic of Korea’s operational plan for defense of South Korea in the event of a North Korean invasion.
The last time WATCHCON was elevated was in October 2006 when North Korea conducted its first nuclear test.

China Daily notes that the DEFCON level remains at four. Standard peacetime protocol is DEFCON 5, descending in increasingly severe situations. DEFCON 1 represents expectation of actual imminent attack. During the Cold War, DEFCON 1 was feared because it would precede all-out nuclear war. It is not known if DEFCON 1 has ever been declared. DEFCON 2 was declared during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, although the declaration was limited to Strategic Air Command.

Earlier today, Infowars posted an article by Jim Rawles theorizing that U.S. forces in South Korea have gone to DEFCON 1. There is currently no evidence DEFCON 1 is in effect. A number of blogs are linking to an article posted on the Macedonia International News Agency website claiming DEFCON 2 was declared in response to North Korean saber-rattling.

General George Casey, the current Chief of Staff, told the Associated Press this evening United States could fight an “old-fashioned war against North Korea if necessary.” Casey said “it would probably take us a little bit longer to shift gears” away from the type of “counterinsurgency fighting that now occupies the Army” (a reference to the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and increasing military provocations in Pakistan’s tribal areas). The “gear up” in response to a North Korean attack on South Korea would take 90 days, said Casey.

North Korea currently has more than 11,000 artillery weapons pointed at over 10 million citizens in Seoul. North Korea’s 1.2 million-man Army is the world’s fourth largest fighting force and two-thirds of those soldiers are stationed within 60 miles of the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ), along with thousands of tanks and armored personnel carriers.

North Korea currently has ballistic missiles capable of hitting Japan and the United States. Earlier this week the Stalinist regime claimed to have successfully tested a nuclear weapon as powerful as the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.

Source:
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars
May 28, 2009