Thursday, August 21, 2014

Has North Korea fallen out with China?

(Pyongyang) It appears that when you become leader for life like your father and grandfather and you are surrounded by sycophants, then of course you are going to think that you are untouchable, no matter how much of a prat you look to the rest of the world. To be honest, it actually helps if you have the Chinese Dragon in your corner in which to keep the rest of the world off your back, in which to allow you to continue to be a prat, and that, people, sums up 'Kim-Who ate all the pies-Jong-Un', the leader for life of North Korea.


Well, it appears that the little shit who runs North Korea may have fallen out of favour with the Chinese, its only close ally. In April, China is believed to have conducted military exercises along the North Korean border, although Chinese officials denied these claims. Still, in a sign of the rising tensions, Chinese President Xi Jinping said, likely alluding to North Korea, that no one state "should be allowed to throw a region and even the whole world into chaos for selfish gains."

In reply, the hermit kingdom hung signs in May that said that China is a "turncoat and our enemy". An internal North Korean memo in April derided China as "being in the bed with the imperialists" for having criticized the North's nuclear ambitions.

This turn of events with the only people who actually support North Korea may explain why NK has deployed 80 of its finest tanks to Ryanggang Province, directly across the border from China. It has now sent 80 armoured personal carriers that way, too.

To be honest, there is no such thing as a modern North Korean tank. The youngest tank they have is the Pokpung-ho based on the T-62 tank, it utilises technology from the T-72, T-80 and T-90 (which at the end of the day is a T-72). In fact, the tank is simply the latest iteration of the Chonma-ho tank which is basically the T-62 with a few local improvements (thinner armour, laser rangefinder, different smoke generators). In fact, so concerned were the NK after the two Gulf wars where Western armour ate Russian armour, they emulated the Russians with their Dolly Parton (and super Dolly Parton) armour upgrades on the T-72.

Pokpung-ho with additional armour
Let's be honest here, these North Korean tanks may have looked good during the 70s and 80s, but they are outclassed today on the modern battlefield, even Hamas could make their mark against them. China should have no problem combating them. But the real battle won't be won on the battlefield, seeing as China supplies North Korea with virtually everything, which includes 500,000 tons of oil a year. The thing is, China hasn't officially supplied a drop of the stuff at all this year. What good are tanks when they can't move? The only problem is, the bloke running NK is a certified nutter and has a nuclear chemistry set.

Ch'onma-ho with additional armour