My comment : Excellent news. This is a good visible sign of the Shift away from the Petro dollar system to a turn towards a MultiPolar gold-backed currencies.

There talking about issuing new currencies, revaluating everything, who knows how it will all unfold. Probably one thing at a time, but I wouldn't be surprise that it will be at a steady fast pace. Hopefully a Jubilee type will come. Time will tell.

Anyway this is very good news.

Moscow And Beijing Join Forces To Bypass US Dollar In Global Markets, Shift To Gold Trade

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy...overseas-office

March 18, 2017

by Wendy Wu

If, what I bolded in your post really comes true, there will be a depression in the US that will make the 1930s depression look mild, and if our economy contracts that much so will the economies of the rest of the world. It will end up in a world-wide depression that will bankrupt the entire world.

The reason for this is that currently the entire world holds dollars to do their international business with, and if that changes, look out. Everyone world wide will want to dump their dollars all at the same time, and the dollar will basically go to being worthless overnight. When that happens, inflation will hit so us so hard that it will be like what happened in the Wiemar Republic after WWI. It will take a wheelbarrow load of greenbacks just to buy a loaf of bread.

"Russia’s central bank opened its first overseas office in Beijing on Thursday, marking a small step forward in forging a Beijing-Moscow alliance to bypass the US dollar in the global monetary system.

Russia is preparing to issue its first federal loan bonds denominated in Chinese yuan.

Financial regulators from the two countries agreed last May to issue home currency-denominated bonds in each other’s markets, a move that was widely viewed as intended to “dethrone” the US dollar.

If, what I bolded in your post really comes true, there will be a depression in the US that will make the 1930s depression look mild, and if our economy contracts that much so will the economies of the rest of the world. It will end up in a world-wide depression that will bankrupt the entire world.

The reason for this is that currently the entire world holds dollars to do their international business with, and if that changes, look out. Everyone world wide will want to dump their dollars all at the same time...

and the dollar will basically go to being worthless overnight. When that happens, inflation will hit so us so hard that it will be like what happened in the Wiemar Republic after WWI. It will take a wheelbarrow load of greenbacks just to buy a loaf of bread.

Personally, I believe it's a terrible ordeal to trade currencies the way it's done today. But, globalism forces these risks and dangers on world economies that really don't exist.

For instance; when currencies were tied to the gold standard, gold was not allowed to trade and its price was fixed! Now we speculate on anything globalists can think of.

Each individual country should determine the value of their own currencies. Each sovereign nation should have a strong currency in their own country regardless of what the rest of the world thinks.

I was invited by Mr Steele to rebroadcast this message on our channel to get the word our. There's a lot to be said for Robert Steele's ideas on Open Source EVERYTHING and Electoral Reform. Mr Steele also claims that Chuck Schumer, Lyndsay Graham, Marco Rubio and John McCain are being blackmailed into going along with deep state policies.
C

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley warned U.S. President Donald Trump that he would face the wrath of the northern nation’s many allies if the freshman president begins employing energy trade restrictions with Canada.
Notley is currently in China, negotiating her country’s trade policies with the Asian giant. She told reporters that she did not know what was meant by Trump’s comments about what Canada has done to its American neighbor with the energy, softwood lumber, and dairy industries.
"Canada, what they've done to our dairy farm workers, is a disgrace. It's a disgrace,” Trump said before signing a memorandum about investigation the national security implications of importing foreign steel.
Trump also criticized NAFTA in general, calling it a “disaster”, adding that that “included in there is lumber, timber, and energy. We’re going to have to get to the negotiating table with Canada very, very quickly”
"We're not exactly sure what it is he was referring to,'' Notley said in a conference call Monday, according to The Huffington Post.

"The leadership of the U.S. administration is going to find that they have a lot of their own stakeholders reminding them how much they need Canadian energy,'' she said.
Figures from 2016 show that 41 percent of all American crude imports, or 3.3 million barrels per day, came from Canada.

Trump has suggested ambiguous “very big changes” to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which strings together Mexico, Canada and the U.S. through a uniform tariff policy. Opponents of the trade bloc created by the 1994 deal say it caused the growth of the U.S. trade deficit with its northern and southern neighbors, along with considerable job losses.

The U.S. is the largest refining complex in the world, and Canada’s cheap heavy oil pricing relative to other competing crude grades in the West Coast and Gulf Coast has made a lot of profit for U.S. heavy oil refiners. If Canada is planning on exporting 890,000 barrels per day of crude oil to the large refining markets of the Asia Pacific with a preference for heavier crude oils, this will inevitably hurt U.S. heavy oil refiners that benefitted from refining cheap Canadian heavy crude.

After last night's announcement of ~20% tariffs on softwood lumber imported from Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lashed out at the Trump administration saying the U.S. could suffer from a "thickening" border as trade tensions between the two countries escalated, sending the Canadian currency to a 14 month low.
As a reminder, the United States announced it would impose preliminary anti-subsidy duties averaging 20 percent on imports of Canadian softwood lumber, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Monday, escalating a long-running trade dispute between the two neighbors. The move, which affects some $5.66 billion worth of imports of the construction material, sets a tense tone as the two countries and Mexico prepare to renegotiate the 23-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement.
Speaking to a technology company in Ontario, Trudeau said he would defend the national interest: "standing up for Canada's interests is what my job is, whether it's softwood or software," Trudeau said, prompting applause and cheers.
"You cannot thicken this border without hurting people on both sides of it. Any two countries are going to have issues that will be irritants to the relationship and, quite frankly, having a good constructive working relationship allows us to work through those irritants."
Elsewhere, Canada's Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr said the U.S. move to set tariffs on softwood lumber shipments are an “unfair and unwarranted trade action.” Speaking to reproters in Ottawa, Carr said that Canada is looking at an aid package for lumber industry and workers which could up to $300 million, and added that a court challenge of duties is possible, and that Canada has won all of those cases in the past.
Carr also said free trade is in the best interest of both nations: "There are irritants in the trading relationship, they aren’t new."
Canada's Liberal Party leader says the two countries are economically interconnected, but it's not a one-way relationship. He said that millions of U.S. jobs depend on smooth flow of goods, services and people back and forth across the border. The Prime Minister also vowed to stand up for Canadian interests after Trump's decision sent the Canadian dollar to a 14-month low.

Yet while the currency fell, shares in Canadian lumber companies rose as the level of the new tariffs came in at the low end of what investors were expecting. Shares in West Fraser Timber, which would pay the highest duty rate of the affected companies, rose 5.6 percent to C$59.50 and the Canfor stock gained 3.5 percent to C$18.82. The average 20 percent anti-subsidy duties announced late on Monday compared to a 20-30 percent range expected by RBC equity analysts.
As Reuters adds, softwood lumber joins dairy as a key target for U.S. President Donald Trump, who tweeted a new attack on Canada's supply management system for dairy on Tuesday. Last week the president called Canada's dairy protections "unfair." "Canada has made business for our dairy farmers in Wisconsin and other border states very difficult. We will not stand for this. Watch!" Trump tweeted Tuesday morning.
* * *
So what does Trump's announcement mean for the Canadian economy? Here is a summary of the key takeaways from a BofA note on the escalating trade war between the US and Canada.
o Trade uncertainty back to the forefront after US announced preliminary duties on Canadian softwood lumber exports.
o The announcement on tariffs was accompanied by negative comments regarding NAFTA, which may herald NAFTA renegotiation.
o Downside risks to growth intensify as higher tariffs lower exports and higher uncertainty delays investment.
And the details:
Trade uncertainty back to the forefront
US wants to renegotiate NAFTA
The US is likely to open the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) for renegotiation and is willing to use tariffs to contest what it considers unfair trade. This has been our long standing view, but we got clear evidence that the US will be very active on the trade front after Wilbur Ross, US commerce secretary, announced on April 24th the imposition of preliminary duties of almost 20% against Canadian softwood lumber exports. Ross said that the US is using countervailing duties after it was “not able to achieve a fair result” through negotiation with Canada. He said that Canada benefits from a provision in NAFTA that allows Canada to supersede US sovereignty.
Downside risks to Canadian growth
The imposition of countervailing tariffs along with the comments on NAFTA increases uncertainty regarding trade policies for the North America region, which will likely delay investment. Although we believe that Canada is not the main target of US anti-trade policies, it is certainly very exposed to US trade. Higher tariffs will have a negative impact on production in the Canadian lumber industry (Lumber exports are almost 1% of Canadian GDP). Growth in Canada has been surprising to the upside, in line with our more constructive view of the economy. But the likely renegotiation of NAFTA and an active US trade policy put downside risks on our 2.3% GDP growth expectation for 2017.
Renegotiation of NAFTA is positive, but…
We expect the US to send a notification to open NAFTA for renegotiation soon. That will open a 90 day window for countries to prepare. Any renegotiation is likely to be lengthy, going well into 2018. And an institutional renegotiation of NAFTA has a good chance of ending with an updated agreement that benefits the region by incorporating new sectors into the treaty (e.g., energy, ecommerce). Consider the TPP blueprint that the staffs of the three countries involved had already agreed on as a starting point. But in the meantime uncertainty will likely be high as countries take different postures or even actions such as the impositions of tariffs to improve their leverage. The risk is that it all ends in a trade war, although the strength of the value chains in North America makes the latter an unlikely scenario, in our view.
Back to dovish BoC
The increase on trade uncertainty will be highlighted by the BoC, which will support our strategists’ view of a weaker CAD, in our view.

The Mexican Peso is tumbling (and Loonie extending yesterday's timber-tariff-driven losses), as Politico reports, the Trump administration is considering an executive order on withdrawing the U.S. from NAFTA, according to two White House officials.

Politico reports that a draft order has been submitted for the final stages of review and could be unveiled late this week or early next week, the officials said. The effort, which still could change in the coming days as more officials weigh in, would indicate the administration’s intent to withdraw from the sweeping pact by triggering the timeline set forth in the deal.

The approach appears designed to extract better terms with Canada and Mexico, and judging bvy the FX market's reaction, they agree...


Trump in recent weeks has stepped up his rhetoric vowing to terminate the agreement all together.
“NAFTA’s been very, very bad for our country,” he said in a speech last week in Kenosha, Wis.

“It’s been very, very bad for our companies and for our workers, and we’re going to make some very big changes or we are going to get rid of NAFTA once and for all.”

Peter Navarro, the head of Trump’s National Trade Council, drafted the executive order in close cooperation with chief White House strategist Steve Bannon. The executive order was submitted this week to the staff secretary for the final stages of review, according to one of the White House officials.

All this rhetoric, however, is sending the dollar surging - something Trump expressed just a few days ago was not great...

Call it Canada's "New Century" moment.
We first introduced readers to the company we said was the "tip of the iceberg in Canada's magnificent housing bubble" nearly two years ago, in July 2015 when we exposed a major problem that we predicted would haunt Home Capital Group, Canada's largest non-bank mortgage lender: liar loans in particular, and a generally overzealous lending business model with little regard for fundamentals. In the interim period, many other voices - most prominently noted short-seller Marc Cohodes - would constantly remind traders and investors about the threat posed by HCG.

Today, all those warnings came true, when the stock of Home Capital Group cratered by over 60%, its biggest drop on record, after the company disclosed that it struck an emergency liquidity arrangement for a C$2 billion ($1.5 billion) credit line to counter evaporating deposits at terms that will leave the alternative mortgage lender unable to meet financial targets, and worse, may leave it insolvent in very short notice.

As part of this inevitable outcome, one which presages the company's eventual disintegration and likely liquidation, Bloomberg reports that the non-binding rescue loan with an unnamed counterparty will be secured by a portfolio of mortgage loans originated by Home Trust, the Toronto-based firm said in a statement Wednesday. Home Capital shares dropped by 61% in Toronto to the lowest since 2003, dragging down other home lenders. Equitable Group Inc. fell 17 percent, Street Capital Group Inc. fell 13 percent, while First National Financial Corp. declined 7.6 percent. In short, the Canadian mortgage bubble has finally burst.

Some more details on HCG's emergency source of funding: Home Capital will pay 10% interest on outstanding balances and a non-refundable commitment fee of C$100 million, while standby fee on undrawn funds is 2.5%. The initial draw must be C$1 billion. The loan has an effective - and very much distressed - interest rate of 22.5% on the first C$1 billion, declining to 15% if fully utilized, according to a note from Jaeme Gloyn, an analyst at National Bank of Canada.
Home Capital said the credit line is intended to “mitigate” a sharp drop in Home Trust’s high-interest savings account balances, which sank by $591 million from March 28 to April 24, at which point the total balance was $1.4 billion. Home Capital warned on Wednesday that further outflows are anticipated.

Translated: what until last night was a depositor bank jog just became a sprint.

The loan will provide Home Capital with more than C$3.5 billion in total funding, more than twice the C$1.5 billion in liquid assets it held as at April 24. It also has C$200 million in securities available for sale, and high interest savings account balances fell about 25% to C$1.4 billion over the past month. Home Capital relies on deposits to fund their mortgage loans; following today's announcement the company's liquidity is certain to get even worse as all non-distressed sources of cash are pulled.

Cited by Bloomberg, Andrew Torres, founding partner and chief investment officer at Toronto-based Lawrence Park Asset Management said that "The company is facing a bit of a liquidity crunch and they felt they needed to resolve it quickly." He said the "steep" commitment fee and the interest rate on the loan "are surprising numbers for a company that was ostensibly investment-grade."
Well, it was only investment grade because as usual the rating agencies never did their homework. For a real hint into the company's rating, look at the 22.5% interest rate, suggesting the company's days outside of bankruptcy are numbered.

Home Capital Group's sudden collapse was actually visible from a distance. While in the summer of 2015, the termination of HCG was still debate, in recent months the company’s woes stemmed from allegations by the Ontario Securities Commission that Home Capital misled investors and broke securities laws.

In other words engaged in those "liar loans" which we first warned about back in the summer of 2015.

Meanwhile, founder Gerald Soloway will step down from the board when a replacement is named and Robert Blowes will assume the role of interim chief financial officer, the company said Monday.
"The company anticipates that further declines will occur, and that the credit line would also mitigate the impact of those," Home Capital said.

Amusingly, it was just two months ago when the company set new performance goals after reporting quarterly results, targeting revenue growth of 5% or greater, diluted earnings-per-share of 7% or greater and a return on equity of 15 percent or more over the long term, according to Bloomberg. It should add one more "performance goal" - stay out of bankruptcy for at least 3 months.
"They did what appears to be to us a very expensive deal," said David Baskin, president and founder of Baskin Wealth Management in Toronto, a former investor in Home Capital stock. "Basically they blew up the income statement in order to save the balance sheet, which I guess if you’re facing an existential crisis is what you have to do."

The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) told Canada's BNN it does not comment on specific institutions it supervises, but that it maintains ongoing relationships with those institutions and is monitoring the Home Capital situation "closely."
Canada's entire mortgage lending market is tumbling.

Washington has never made any effort to conceal its contempt for North Korea. In the 64 years since the war ended, the US has done everything in its power to punish, humiliate and inflict pain on the Communist country. Washington has subjected the DPRK to starvation, prevented its government from accessing foreign capital and markets, strangled its economy with crippling economic sanctions, and installed lethal missile systems and military bases on their doorstep.

Negotiations aren't possible because Washington refuses to sit down with a country which it sees as its inferior. Instead, the US has strong-armed China to do its bidding by using their diplomats as interlocutors who are expected to convey Washington's ultimatums as threateningly as possible. The hope, of course, is that Pyongyang will cave in to Uncle Sam's bullying and do what they are told.

But the North has never succumbed to US intimidation and there's no sign that it will. Instead, they have developed a small arsenal of nuclear weapons to defend themselves in the event that the US tries to assert its dominance by launching another war.

There's no country in the world that needs nuclear weapons more than North Korea. Brainwashed Americans, who get their news from FOX or CNN, may differ on this point, but if a hostile nation deployed carrier strike-groups off the coast of California while conducting massive war games on the Mexican border (with the express intention of scaring the [censored] of people) then they might see things differently. They might see the value of having a few nuclear weapons to deter that hostile nation from doing something really stupid.

And let's be honest, the only reason Kim Jong Un hasn't joined Saddam and Gadhafi in the great hereafter, is because (a) - The North does not sit on an ocean of oil, and (b) - The North has the capacity to reduce Seoul, Okinawa and Tokyo into smoldering debris-fields. Absent Kim's WMDs, Pyongyang would have faced a preemptive attack long ago and Kim would have faced a fate similar to Gadhafi's. Nuclear weapons are the only known antidote to US adventurism.

The American people - whose grasp of history does not extend beyond the events of 9-11 — have no idea of the way the US fights its wars or the horrific carnage and destruction it unleashed on the North. Here's a short refresher that helps clarify why the North is still wary of the US more than 60 years after the armistice was signed. The excerpt is from an article titled "Americans have forgotten what we did to North Korea", at Vox World:

The United States killed over 2 million people in a country that posed no threat to US national security. Like Vietnam, the Korean War was just another muscle-flexing exercise the US periodically engages in whenever it gets bored or needs some far-flung location to try out its new weapons systems. The US had nothing to gain in its aggression on the Korean peninsula, it was mix of imperial overreach and pure unalloyed viciousness the likes of which we've seen many times in the past. According to the Asia-Pacific Journal:

Repeat: "Reservoirs, irrigation dams, rice crops, hydroelectric dams, population centers" all napalmed, all carpet bombed, all razed to the ground. Nothing was spared. If it moved it was shot, if it didn't move, it was bombed. The US couldn't win, so they turned the country into an uninhabitable wastelands. "Let them starve. Let them freeze.. Let them eat weeds and roots and rodents to survive. Let them sleep in the ditches and find shelter in the rubble. What do we care? We're the greatest country on earth. God bless America."

This is how Washington does business, and it hasn't changed since the Seventh Cavalry wiped out 150 men, women and children at Wounded Knee more than century ago. The Lakota Sioux at Pine Ridge got the same basic treatment as the North Koreans, or the Vietnamese, or the Nicaraguans, or the Iraqis and on and on and on and on. Anyone else who gets in Uncle Sam's way, winds up in a world of hurt. End of story.

The savagery of America's war against the North left an indelible mark on the psyche of the people. Whatever the cost, the North cannot allow a similar scenario to take place in the future. Whatever the cost, they must be prepared to defend themselves. If that means nukes, then so be it. Self preservation is the top priority.

Is there a way to end this pointless standoff between Pyongyang and Washington, a way to mend fences and build trust?

Of course there is. The US just needs to start treating the DPRK with respect and follow through on their promises. What promises?

The promise to build the North two light-water reactors to provide heat and light to their people in exchange for an end to its nuclear weapons program. You won't read about this deal in the media because the media is just the propaganda wing of the Pentagon. They have no interest in promoting peaceful solutions. Their stock-in-trade is war, war and more war.

The North wants the US to honor its obligations under the 1994 Agreed Framework. That's it. Just keep up your end of the goddamn deal. How hard can that be? Here's how Jimmy Carter summed it up in a Washington Post op-ed (November 24, 2010):


("North Korea's consistent message to the U.S.", President Jimmy Carter, Washington Post)
Most people think the problem lies with North Korea, but it doesn't. The problem lies with the United States; it's unwillingness to negotiate an end to the war, its unwillingness to provide basic security guarantees to the North, its unwillingness to even sit down with the people who - through Washington's own stubborn ignorance - are now developing long-range ballistic missiles that will be capable of hitting American cities.

How dumb is that?

The Trump team is sticking with a policy that has failed for 63 years and which clearly undermines US national security by putting American citizens directly at risk. AND FOR WHAT?

To preserve the image of "tough guy", to convince people that the US doesn't negotiate with weaker countries, to prove to the world that "whatever the US says, goes"? Is that it? Is image more important than a potential nuclear disaster?

Relations with the North can be normalized, economic ties can be strengthened, trust can be restored, and the nuclear threat can be defused. The situation with the North does not have to be a crisis, it can be fixed. It just takes a change in policy, a bit of give-and-take, and leaders that genuinely want peace more than war.

Why North Korea Needs Nukes - And How To End That

Now consider what the U.S. media don't tell you about Korea:

FM Wang, 'the lips', undoubtedly transmitted an authorized message from North Korea: "The offer is (still) on the table and China supports it."

North Korea has made the very same offer in January 2015. The Obama administration rejected it. North Korea repeated the offer in April 2016 and the Obama administration rejected it again. This March the Chinese government conveyed and supported the long-standing North Korean offer. The U.S. government, now under the Trump administration, immediately rejected it again. The offer, made and rejected three years in a row, is sensible. Its rejection only led to a bigger nuclear arsenal and to more missiles with longer reach that will eventually be able to reach the United States.

North Korea is understandably nervous each and every time the U.S. and South Korea launch their very large yearly maneuvers and openly train for invading North Korea and for killing its government and people. The maneuvers have large negative impacts on North Korea's economy.

North Korea justifies its nuclear program as the economically optimal way to respond to these maneuvers.

Each time the U.S. and South Korea launch their very large maneuvers, the North Korean conscription army (1.2 million strong) has to go into a high state of defense readiness. Large maneuvers are a classic starting point for military attacks. The U.S.-South Korean maneuvers are (intentionally) held during the planting (April/May) or harvesting (August) season for rice when North Korea needs each and every hand in its few arable areas. Only 17% of the northern landmass is usable for agriculture and the climate in not favorable. The cropping season is short. Seeding and harvesting days require peak labor.

The southern maneuvers directly threaten the nutritional self-sufficiency of North Korea. In the later 1990s they were one of the reasons behind a severe famine. (Lack of hydrocarbons and fertilizer due to sanctions as well as a too rigid economic system were other main reasons.)

North Korean soldiers on agricultural duty - bigger

Its nuclear deterrent allows North Korea to reduce its conventional military readiness especially during the all important agricultural seasons. Labor withheld from the fields and elsewhere out of military necessity can go back to work. This is now the official North Korean policy known as 'byungjin'. (Byungjin started informally in the mid 2000nds after U.S. President Bush tuned up his hostile policy towards North Korea - Chronology of U.S.-North Korean Nuclear and Missile Diplomacy)

A guaranteed end of the yearly U.S. maneuvers would allow North Korea to lower its conventional defenses without relying on nukes. The link between the U.S. maneuvers and the nuclear deterrent North Korea is making in its repeated offer is a direct and logical connection.

The North Korean head of state Kim Jong-un has officially announced a no-first-use policy for its nuclear capabilities:

During the congress, as elsewhere, Kim Jong Un also emphasized (transcript, pdf, v. slow) the above described connection between nuclear armament and economic development. Summarized:

The byongjin strategy, despised by the Obama administration, has been successful:

To understand why North Korea fears U.S. aggressiveness consider the utter devastation caused mostly by the U.S. during the Korea War:

via Jeffrey Kaye - bigger

Imperial Japan occupied Korea from 1905 to 1945 and tried to assimilate it. A nominal communist resistance under Kim Il-sung and others fought against the Japanese occupation. After the Japanese WWII surrender in 1945 the U.S. controlled and occupied the mostly agricultural parts of Korea below the arbitrarily chosen 38th parallel line. The allied Soviet Union controlled the industrialized part above the line. They had agreed on a short trusteeship of a united and independent country. In the upcoming cold war the U.S. retracted on the agreement and in 1948 installed a South Korean proxy dictatorship under Syngman Rhee. This manifested an artificial border the Koreans had not asked for and did not want. The communists still commanded a strong and seasoned resistance movement in the south and hoped to reunite the country. The Korea War ensued. It utterly destroyed the country. All of Korea was severely effected but especially the industrialized north which lost about a third of its population and all of its reasonably well developed infrastructure - roads, factories and nearly all of its cities.

Every Korean family was effected. Ancestor worship is deeply embedded in the Korean psyche and its collectivist culture. No one has forgotten the near genocide and no one in Korea, north or south, wants to repeat the experience.

The country would reunite if China and the U.S. (and Russia) could agree upon its neutrality. That will not happen anytime soon. But the continued danger of an "accidental" war in Korea would be much diminished if the U.S. would accept the North Korean offer - an end to aggressive behavior like threatening maneuvers against the north, in exchange for a verified stop of the northern nuclear and missile programs. North Korea has to insist on this condition out of sheer economic necessity.

The U.S. government and the "western" media hide the rationality of the northern offer behind the propaganda phantasm of "the volatile and unpredictable regime".

But it is not Korea, neither north nor south, that is the "volatile and unpredictable" entity here.

Update:

Yesterday's Day of the Sun / Juche 105 (the 105th birth anniversary of Kim Il-sung) parade in Pyongyang went along without a hitch and without interference from the U.S. side.

Several new types of missile carrying Transporter-Erector-Launcher vehicles (TELs) were shown. The three hour TV transmission is available here. The military equipment display starts around 2h14m; the nuclear capable carriers are seen from 2h20m onward.

An early-impression remark from The Diplomat: North Korea's 2017 Military Parade Was a Big Deal. Here Are the Major Takeaways

...
The "absolute guarantee against coercive removal" would, in consequence, allow for much smaller conventional forces and less resources spend on the military. This again will enable faster economic development for the people in North Korea. The byongjin strategy will have reached its aim.

When one knows the hidden history about the massive targeting of North Korean civilians with so-called strategic bombing, it’s easier to understand the hate from that country and see that it’s not manufactured. It’s rooted in a fact-based narrative. By the time the Korean War ended on July 27, 1953, B-29s alone had flown over 21,000 sorties, dropping nearly 600,000 tons of bombs. Fighter aircraft flew thousands of additional sorties over North Korea.

After China entered the war in late 1950, the United States switched to targeting civilians in much the same manner as conducted over Germany and Japan during WWII. Gen. Douglas MacArthur designated cities and villages in North Korea as “main bombing targets” and permitted the use of incendiary bombs.

The bombing of Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, was conducted as part of a sustained U.S. Air Force aerial bombardment campaign. By the time of the armistice, 75 percent of Pyongyang was destroyed as part of a broader U.S. bombing effort throughout the country. It cost the lives of nearly 3 million North Koreans (mostly civilians) by the time the war ended.



The campaign was conducted by the blood thirsty Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay, head of the Strategic Air Command, who also has the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians on his hands from WWII.

LeMay bragged, “Over a period of three years or so, we killed off — what — 20 percent of the population during the Korean War”.

Dean Rusk, a supporter of the war and later secretary of state, said the United States bombed “everything that moved in North Korea, every brick standing on top of another.”

After running low on urban targets, U.S. bombers destroyed hydroelectric and irrigation dams in the latter stages of the war, flooding farmland and destroying crops.

This means that virtually every person living in North Korea today has siblings, parents, grandparents or great grandparents that perished in this total war. It is a real stretch to gaslight Koreans as “crazy” or “irrational” given this reality. It is also the height of ignorance to not understand North Korea’s need for powerful retaliatory weapons.

In particular, listen to professor Bruce Cummings discuss the ineffectiveness of murderous strategic bombing both in Korea and Germany [at 6:30 in the video below]. In fact, it hardened morale and stiffened resistance, resulting in a “last-stand” mentality that extends to this day.



As with today, western war reporters of that era rarely mentioned civilian casualties from U.S. carpet bombing.

Even before the 1950 war, about 100,000 people were murdered in South Korea under U.S. occupation, including 30,000 to 40,000 killed during the suppression of a peasant revolt in one small region, Cheju Island. Part of the hidden history is that the U.S. utilized former Japanese occupiers and operatives for this. The Korean War itself was set off by a series of false flags and provocations.


Mass execution of North Koreans
In addition, Koreans were subjected to mass killings via death squads and goons. Immediately after the war started, potential collaborators with North Korea were summarily executed by army intelligence agencies and police. Finally, collaborators, or suspects, with the North Korean People’s Army were vengefully punished after United Nations forces recovered Seoul. Also, the U.S. military and ROK were engaged in killing innumerable refugees and civilians in enemy territory throughout the war. [See “Mass Civilian Killings by South Korean and U.S. Forces“]

Fratricidal executions of North Koreans:



A large and murderous partisan army was inserted into North Korea that was ruthless and indiscriminate in their targeting, resulting in the deaths of large numbers of North Korean civilians as well as military.

The New Nationalist’s takeaway: There is zero chance that North Korea is going to respond favorably to bombing threats from clueless Donald “The Red Queen” Trump. And for the U.S., to start murdering civilians again by air would just asking for severe retribution. Given the hidden history, we have little doubt that North Korea would deliver it in spades. The country has been dug in underground for 65 years.

In the short run, there is a proposal on the table that should be accepted to defuse the situation. China proposed a “double suspension” on the Korean Peninsula:

“As a first step, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) may suspend its nuclear and missile activities in exchange for the suspension of large-scale U.S.-Republic of Korea (ROK) military exercises.” Wang told a press conference on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People’s Congress.


In fact, to reverse this reap-what-you-sow failed policy in the long run would require serious reconciliation and apologies from the U.S., in particular for 1950-1953 war crimes. This could culminate with a visit by future U.S. President Tulsi Gabbard to lay wreaths at the Pyongyang holocaust memorial. In the photo to the right, Russian President Vladimir Putin shows how it is done. Given the unlikelihood of this, look instead for hundreds of thousands of Americans in body bags as the Trumpians fumble their way into war.