朝鲜下令火炮部队进入战斗警戒状态

North Korean state media said Tuesday that the country's military command had ordered its rocket and artillery units to be on 'highest alert' to strike bases on the U.S. mainland, Guam, Hawaii, and other targets in the Pacific and South Korea.

朝鲜官方媒体周二说，该国军事指挥部已经下令其火箭和炮兵部队进入“最高警戒状态”，以做好准备打击美国本土、关岛、夏威夷以及其它位于太平洋和韩国的目标。

The threat came after the U.S. and South Korea signed a military contingency plan to respond to possible attacks from North Korea, Washington's latest step to reassure its Asian ally as Pyongyang's increasing provocations and China's growing territorial ambitions fuel anxieties among its neighbors.

就在朝鲜发出这一威胁之前，美国和韩国签署了一项军事应急计划，以应对可能来自朝鲜的攻击。华盛顿的这一最新举措是为了让其亚洲盟国放心。眼下朝鲜的挑衅力度不断加大，中国在领土问题上的主张越来越强硬，这令其邻国感到焦虑。

The announcement of the new agreement was timed to the anniversary of the sinking of a South Korean warship, the Cheonan, on March 26, 2010, according to a U.S. defense official. South Korean officials have been anxious to signal to the public that they would not let similar future attack go without a swift response.

美国国防部一位官员说，上述新协议故意选在3月26日对外宣布。当天是韩国军舰天安号被击沉三周年纪念日。韩国官员急于向公众释放信号，表示今后如果再发生类似攻击事件，韩国一定会迅速做出反应。

Seoul said on it hadn't detected any unusual military activity in the North that might precede an attack. The Pentagon condemned North Korea's threats to target U.S. military bases Tuesday, saying it was ready to respond to 'any contingency.'

首尔方面表示，此前没有发现朝鲜方面存在任何可能预示其将发起攻击的不寻常军事活动。周二，美国五角大楼谴责朝鲜威胁将美军基地列入打击目标的做法，称美军已准备好应对“任何紧急情况”。

The frequency of threats from Pyongyang since its Feb. 12 nuclear test has shown that North Korea is simply running out of places and things to threaten, analysts say, undermining its own intentions.

分析人士称，自朝鲜2月12日进行核试验以来，从朝鲜方面发出威胁的频率看，朝鲜已经黔驴技穷。这种做法反而破坏了其意图。

Stephan Haggard, a North Korea watcher at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, calls the problem of Pyongyang's routine belligerence the phenomenon of a low signal-to-noise ratio.

彼得森国际经济研究所(Peterson Institute for International Economics)朝鲜问题观察人士哈格德(Stephan Haggard)将朝鲜定期威胁有关国家的问题比作低信噪比现象。

As well as being a problem for North Korea, the recycling of old threats complicates assessing whether North Korea is actually signaling anything in all its tough talk.

除了对朝鲜来说是一个问题外，反复使用一套威胁话语也加大了外界评估问题实质的难度，让人很难弄清楚朝鲜在所有这些语气强硬的威胁中是否真在释放什么信号。

The concern remains that North Korea has staged deadly attacks before. But these have usually not come with a warning. Besides the attack on the warship, it shelled a South Korean island in November 2010 that it has been threatening again in recent weeks.

但外界的担忧依然存在，因为朝鲜此前曾经发起过导致伤亡的攻击。但朝鲜在进行此类攻击前通常不会提前警告。除了击沉天安舰，朝鲜还在2010年11月炮击韩国的一个岛屿。近几周来朝鲜再次威胁将炮击同一岛屿。

The threats against the U.S. are also hard to take seriously because hitting long-range targets is still widely believed to be beyond the current limits of North Korea's missile technology. Putting a satellite into orbit on a long-range rocket as it did in December is a lot different from delivering a warhead to a desired location on such a rocket.

针对美国的威胁也难以当真，因为外界普遍认为打击远程目标在目前仍然超出朝鲜导弹技术的能力范围。朝鲜在去年12月份用远程火箭将卫星送入轨道，但这与用火箭装载弹头打击特定目标存在很大不同。

'North Korea has short and medium range missiles that could complicate a situation on the Korean peninsula (and perhaps reach Japan), but we have not seen any evidence that it has long-range missiles that could strike the continental U.S., Guam or Hawaii,' wrote James Hardy, Asia-Pacific editor at IHS Jane's Defense Weekly, in a note to clients on Tuesday.

信息公司IHS旗下《简氏防务周刊》(Jane's Defense Weekly)的亚太编辑哈迪(James Hardy)周二在发给客户的一份报告中说，朝鲜拥有的短程和中程导弹可能会令朝鲜半岛（可能还包括日本）的局势复杂化。但我们还没有看到有任何证据表明，它拥有可以打击美国本土、关岛或夏威夷的远程导弹。

That is unlikely to stop North Korea making fresh threats against such locations, just not new ones.

这不可能阻止朝鲜对上述地点进行新的威胁，不过威胁的内容也是老生常谈。