North Korea Blinks-N Korea won't retaliate over live-fire drill

North Korea raises alert for artillery units along its west coast

Reuters:

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The U.N. Security Council met in emergency session on Sunday to try to cool tensions on the Korean Peninsula, but the five big powers were split on whether to publicly blame North Korea for the crisis.

Pyongyang raised an alert for artillery units along its west coast in what appeared to be its latest move in a growing crisis between the two Koreas, Yonhap news agency said, quoting a South Korean government source. The report was issued ahead of a planned live-fire drill by South Korea.... More here

UPDATE: South Korea Holds Off On Exercise In Light of Threats

One gets the feeling here that U.S. envoy has found that the situation is as dire as China and Russia have been warning. That far from empty threats, North Korea fully intends to retaliate should the ROK go forward with its military exercise. Halting an exercise because of  "an adverse weather forecast", i.e. "cloudy with a chance of rain" is obviously not a real reason. Something else is going on. I just wonder what the payoff is/was.

US envoy visiting North Korea has warned that the situation on the peninsula is a "tinderbox". more from BBC

From Business Week...China said it’s “deeply concerned” about the “extremely precarious” situation on the peninsula, Xinhua News Agency reported today, citing Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun.

Igor Morgulov, a director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Asian department, expressed “extreme concern” over North Korea’s readiness to use military force in a phone call yesterday with North Korean Ambassador Kim Yong-Jae.... More

N. Korea-" it is not about war or peace ... but when the war will break out,"

Reuters Africa

North says to hit South harder if firing drill proceeds

* Seoul says firing drill on disputed island to go ahead

* China urges U.S. cooperation over North Korea

Daily Mail

An unnamed senior North Korean military official told the Korean Central News Agency that if the south carried out more drills 'despite our military's prior warnings, second and third unpredictable self-defensive strikes will be made'.

A notice sent to the South Korean military today added that the retaliation would be made 'to safeguard our republic's sacred territorial waters' and that the 'intensity and scope of the strike will be more serious than the November 23 shelling'.

Read more: 

"the brink of war"

NORTH Korea is believed to have fired more artillery shells near Yeonpyeong Island last night in a training drill after warning that the Korean peninsula is on "the brink of war".

The move came as South Korea appointed a new Defence Minister, Kim Kwan-jin, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to toughen its response after Tuesday's fatal shelling of Yeonpyeong.

President Lee Myung-bak also moved to beef up weapons systems in the Yellow Sea islands and restore confidence in his government's ability to deal with North Korean threats. more from the Australian

U.S. Sends Aircraft Carrier for Joint Exercises

A U.S. aircraft carrier strike group set off for Korean waters Wednesday after President Obama
pledged America would stand "shoulder to shoulder" with South Korea and stage joint military
exercises in response to what the White House branded a provocative, outrageous attack by
North Korea on its neighbor.

Read more: here

North Korean dictator-in-waiting linked to deadly artillery attack

Consider this an update to the previous post. The most disturbing aspect of this article is the statement,quoted in an Australian paper that:
A North Korea expert at Beijing's Central Party School, Zhang Liangui, told the Herald that Kim Jong-un was deliberately destabilising the environment in order to mobilise the military and consolidate his power.

Artillery Fire Exchanged- UPDATED with STRATFOR Input

The timing of the North’s firing at Yeonpyeongdo, then, seems to contradict the other actions currently under way in inter-Korean relations. With the ongoing leadership transition in North Korea, there have been rumors of discontent within the military, and the current actions may reflect miscommunications or worse within the North’s command-and-control structure, or disagreements within the North Korean leadership.

Read more: North Korean Artillery Attack on a Southern Island | STRATFOR 

from   NY Times  :
SEOUL, South Korea — North and South Korea exchanged artillery fire on Tuesday after dozens of shells fired from the North struck a South Korean island near the countries’ disputed maritime border, South Korean military officials said. Two South Korean soldiers were killed, 15 were wounded and three civilians were injured, said Kiyheon Kwon, an official at the Defense Ministry....


This of course after the weeks startling revelation of  2,000 centrifuges producing uranium for a new reactor. More here

The Los Angeles Times proclaims:

North Korea's newly revealed nuclear facility should surprise no one, and Washington must no longer be played for a fool.

I say, "too late."

How Many Nuclear Bombs Can N.Korea Produce?

Is North Korea Bluffing?

We are about to find out...

U.S. Military Set to Intercept North Korean Ship Suspected of Proliferating Missiles, Nukes
The USS John McCain, a navy destroyer, will intercept the ship Kang Nam as soon as it leaves the vicinity off the coast of China, according to a senior U.S. defense official.