North Korea Booms: Today's News for September 4th

Happy Labor Day!

Fox News:

South Korea holds live-fire drill simulating attack on nuclear site 

to 'strongly warn' North Korea

South Korea’s military conducted a live-fire exercise simulating an attack on a nuclear site, to "strongly warn" North Korea in response to the rogue nation's apparent nuclear test, South Korean officials said early Monday.

A surface-to-surface missile and long-range air-to-ground missile "accurately struck" targets in the Sea of Japan, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

Officials added that the target was set considering the distance to where the North's test site was, and the exercise was aimed at practicing precision strikes, as well as cutting off reinforcements.

North Korea claimed on Sunday that it successfully detonated a hydrogen bomb, which possibly triggered an artificial earthquake, which the U.S. Geological Survey reported as having a 6.3 magnitude.

In related news:

CNN:

Mattis warns of 'massive military response' to NK nuclear threat

US Defense Secretary James Mattis warned of "a massive military response" to any threat from North Korea against the United States or its allies in a statement outside the White House after a meeting with President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and top national security advisers Sunday.

Mattis said Trump wanted to be briefed on each of the "many military options" for dealing with the North Korean nuclear threat.

"Our commitment among the allies are ironclad," Mattis said. "Any threat to the United States or its territories, including Guam, or our allies will be met with a massive military response, a response both effective and overwhelming."

However, the U.S. is unlikely to do anything without China's blessing, which is unlikely to be forthcoming.

And how does China view this situation? It has mixed feelings:

New York Times:

North Korea Nuclear Test Puts Pressure on China and Undercuts Xi 

It was supposed to be Xi Jinping’s moment to bask in global prestige, as the Chinese president hosted the leaders of some of the world’s most dynamic economies at a summit meeting just weeks before a Communist Party leadership conference.

But just hours before Mr. Xi was set to address the carefully choreographed meeting on Sunday, North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, detonated his sixth nuclear bomb.

Mr. Kim has timed his nuclear tests and missile launches with exquisite precision, apparently trying to create maximum embarrassment for China. And on Sunday, a gathering in southeast China of leaders from Russia, Brazil, India and South Africa, members of the so-called BRICS group, was immediately overshadowed by news of the test, which shook dwellings in China and revived fears of nuclear contamination in the country’s northeast region.

This is not the first time Mr. Kim has chosen a provocative moment to flaunt his country’s weapons. In May, he launched a ballistic missile hours before Mr. Xi spoke at a gathering of world leaders in Beijing assembled to discuss China’s signature trillion dollar One Belt, One Road project.

The image of a spoiled brat causing trouble to get attention from his parents is hard to shake here.

But back to China's view:

While some Chinese analysts say North Korea should be made to pay a price for its contempt of China, the North’s ally and major trading partner, they were not optimistic that Sunday’s test would change Mr. Xi’s determination to remain above the fray and not get his hands sullied trying to force Mr. Kim to change his ways.

... China’s Foreign Ministry did express “strong condemnation” of the test. But despite the North’s repeated incitements, the Chinese leadership is likely to stick to its position that a nuclear-armed North Korea is less dangerous to China than the possibility of a political collapse in the North, Mr. Cheng said. That could result in a unified Korean Peninsula under the control of the United States and its ally, South Korea.

China fears such an outcome if it uses its greatest economic leverage: cutting off the crude oil supplies that keep the North’s rudimentary economy running.

However, there is another aspect to the Chinese view:

Another major concern for the Chinese government is the fears of residents in the northeast of the country about nuclear contamination from North Korea’s test site at Punggye-ri, not far from the Chinese border.

Many residents in Yanji in Jilin Province, which borders the North, said they felt their apartments shake after the test. Some posted photos of stocks of food and drinks shattered on the floors of a grocery store. At first residents believed the cause was an earthquake, they said, and only later in the day heard the news from state-run media that North Korea had detonated a nuclear bomb.

“I was in my study when the earthquake began,” said Sun Xingjie, an assistant professor at Jilin University in Changchun about 350 miles from the North Korean test site. Mr. Sun said he checked with friends on social media, and they determined from the location and the depth of the explosion that it was a nuclear test.

Even though there is no evidence of any contamination from the test reaching China, it is a worry of residents, Mr. Sun said.

“We are at the border region, so we have a sense of fear about leakage from the nuclear test,” he said.

If enough Chinese citizens get upset about the earthquakes, Chinese leadership may face a worse consideration than a unified Korean peninsula: An uprising within their China's borders. In a battle between Chinese citizens and Kim Jong-un, who wins the Chinese government's favor? Only time will tell, but the Chinese political calculus just became more interesting.