Tag: Japan

Part I: Sawanobori, or, basically, river climbing, is a very old Japanese pastime. It involves following a river or stream, up a mountain, to its source.  The climber ascends a tributary of a river, negotiates its features (swimming gorges, and climbing walls and waterfalls), and seeks to run that tributary until they have reached the river’s source.  […]

North Korea’s state-run media announced its latest missile launches were conducted to practice hitting US military bases in Japan, according to The Washington Post on Tuesday. “If the United States or South Korea fires even a single flame inside North Korean territory, we will demolish the origin of the invasion and provocation with a nuclear […]

The United States military has begun deploying the THAAD missile defense system in South Korea this week, a long-awaited move for the South Koreans that face an increasingly significant threat of North Korean missile attack. The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system is a defensive weapon platform designed specifically to shoot down short and […]

The initial deployment of a U.S. missile defense system in South Korea has angered both North Korea and China, who views the system as a threat to regional peace. The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system is a new missile defense shield specifically designed to intercept short and medium range missiles, destroying them as […]

TOKYO — North Korea launched four missiles Monday morning, a provocative barrage that coincided both with joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises on the southern half of the peninsula and with the opening of the annual National People’s Congress in China. The launches follow a remarkable month in which Kim Jong Un’s regime tested a solid-fuel […]

China has for years been whittling away at the US military’s asymmetrical advantage in conventional military strength with a naval buildup, building and militarizing artificial islands in the South China Sea, and creating systems and weapons custom built to negate the US’s technological advantage. By all indications, China is building aircraft carriers and getting ready to […]

Senior officials from the United States, South Korea and Japan discussed ways to further restrict funding for North Korea’s weapons programs during talks in Washington on Monday, the countries said in a joint statement.     Read the whole story from Reuters.

Something just wasn’t right. I knew that I was probably overreacting, but I also knew that my instincts had saved my ass more times than I could count, and the times that I didn’t listen were the times that said ass got kicked. I looked around at the people in the room, and it seemed […]

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Two top Navy fleet commanders said Tuesday that the next potential conflict hotspot would likely be in Korea. “If there’s a fight tonight, it’s probably going to happen on the Korean peninsula,” said Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, commander of 7th Fleet, in a panel discussion at the AFCEA West 2017 conference. […]

The South China Sea has been at the center of recent tensions between the United States and its allies and their economic, political, and possibly even military opponent, China.  The waterway sees an estimated $5 trillion in trade on an annual basis, nearly thirty percent of the global economy, and is said to contain large […]

The United States and Russia have a long and illustrious history of competition that is best summed up as “war-adjacent.”  For decades, we competed with one another in battles of influence, economics, and even other nations’ armies, but when we think back to the Cold War, it’s hard not to think of the space race.  […]

North Korea conducted their first ballistic missile test of 2017 on Sunday, firing what experts believe was an IRBM (intermediate-range ballistic missile) into the Sea of Japan. The missile flew just over three hundred miles before crashing into the waterway that bears the name of the nation many believe Kim Jong Un had in mind […]