Russia Ready for a War in the Far East

Pyongyang has declared a war on the USA, a psychological one so far with a view to resist American propaganda
The North Korean population will be taught to hate America with the help of propagandists and Korean War veterans. Meanwhile, the Russian government doesn't rule out that the situation on the Korean peninsula may develop according to the worst scenario. Testing of the civil defense resources has been already started in Russia's Far East, in the districts bordering North Korea. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov overseeing the Korean problem says the measure is taken because of the aggravating situation on the peninsula.

Russia's newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta reports that joint exercises of Russia's Defense Ministry, Interior Ministry, EMERCOM, the Pacific and North-eastern frontier divisions are being prepared now. The exercises are scheduled for August 18-28.

The official objective of the exercises is to polish plans for fighting with terrorism on the territory of Russia's Far Eastern federal district. Details of the plan have not been published; however, as is seen from statements made by high-ranking officials the objectives of the exercises are wider if the whole of the region is involved. It is not ruled out that the exercises will be particularly focused on improvement of cooperation of the above mentioned authorities that will be of special importance in case if military operations start on the Korean peninsula. In addition, large-scale exercises of the Pacific Fleet are scheduled for August. In fact, the exercises were scheduled long before the present-day crisis became aggravated.

However, the crisis can be settled peacefully. In any case, now Washington doesn't aim to increase tensions concerning North Korea's nuclear weapons program. The American press informs that the USA is ready to provide formal guarantees of security to North Korea in exchange for Pyongyang's disavowal of its nuclear program. US President George W. Bush said yesterday that the crisis might be settled with combined efforts of North Korea, China, the USA, South Korea and Japan. He didn't mention Russia. It seems that Washington wants to remove Russia from settlement of the crisis on the Korean peninsula. And this is at the time when US Ambassador to Russia Alexander Vershbow said while visiting the city of Vladivostok last week that Washington hoped for Russia's assistance in solution of the problem. So, it is not quite clear what assistance the USA means. It is unlikely that American officials and diplomats are ignorant of geography and how a conflict on the Korean peninsula would impact Russia's Far Eastern region.