North Korea

[CybrMike]

TALK ABOUT SCARY!!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061017/ap_on_re_as/nkorea_nuclear

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea said Tuesday the United Nations effectively declared war on the country when it imposed sanctions for the North's nuclear test.

North Korea wants "peace but is not afraid of war," the North's Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

The U.N. Security Council "resolution cannot be construed otherwise than a declaration of a war," the ministry said, calling the sanctions "a product of the U.S. hostile policy toward" North Korea.

The ministry warned that if anyone used the U.N. resolution to infringe on the country's sovereignty, North Korea "will deal merciless blows at him through strong actions."

The U.N. sanctions, approved Saturday, bans the sale of major arms to the North and orders the inspection of cargo to and from the country. It also calls for the freezing of assets of business supplying the North's nuclear and ballistic weapons programs.

The North "will closely follow the future U.S. attitude and take corresponding measures," the statement said, without specifying what those measures would be.

 

[wabmester]

You have to ask yourself what their endgame is.

Paradoxical as it may seem, Pyongyang staged the test as a last-ditch effort to jump-start a bilateral dialogue on the normalization of relations that the United States has so far spurned.

Article

 

[bpp]

I think they have to conduct a second test anyway to save face, because their first one was just shy of being a dud. So they need some excuse, like calling sanctions an act of war.

I actually have very little fear of them ever doing anything to anyone outside their borders, because they know they would lose anything they started.

 

[retire@40]

I'm no nuclear expert, but isn't every test = one less nuclear weapon they possess? The question then would be, how many weapons do they have and how many more can they make?

Also, I think the US is in a situation with NK in that we know we can't attack first and even if we did, we can't go in alone. So, through and with the help of other nations, we are doing everything we can to make NK make the first move so the blame for all the war casualties can be put squarely on NK.

Unless a NK general can put a bullet in Il's head, I think this could get very bloody before there is a real resolution.

 

[frayne]

NK is a festering boil on the arse of mother earth. At some point in time a lancing will be needed. The day they ever use a nuke, will be their last best day.

 

[Zathras]

True, more tests means less available material for bombs. However, NK is still producing material so it is a temporary improvement at best.

I have been hearing on the news that the last thing China wants is to have tens of millions of North Koreans fleeing into China if NK collapses.
I wonder if the US made a deal with China that we would give them financial and or disaster relief (we can send them Micheal Brown ) if such events occurred.
Perhaps then China would take a stronger stance with better results than the US trying to play hardball.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Some people believe that North Korea is pursueing tha bomb for their domestic political reasons. If you have a big Boogie man like the US then you only have to keep everyone whipped up against the enemy. If you can keep that up then you don't ever have to deliver on food and other domestic goods.

The scary part is that North Korea having no exports other than counterfit dollars and missile technology may sell A-bombs to the highest bidder. I'm sure that Al Kaida would pay quite a bit for a couple of those bombs.

Per the number of bombs they may have. I have read reports that suggest that they had enough fissile material for about eight bombs. However they could reprocess the nuclear power plant fuel to get enough material for around 1 extra bomb per year.

 

[bosco]

Some people believe that North Korea is pursueing tha bomb for their domestic political reasons. If you have a big Boogie man like the US then you only have to keep everyone whipped up against the enemy. If you can keep that up then you don't ever have to deliver on food and other domestic goods.

sounds like the "Bush/Goebbels/Julius Caeser" school of political science. Whip-em into a frenzy by trumping up a war, then demand that they follow you anywhere, no matter how bellicose or stupid through appeals to "patriotism".

shame on North Korea for sinking so low! if they're REALLY bad, they might use their nuke. If they are UNBELIEVABLY bad, they might use it on a civilian population! But nobody's that bad....are they?

 

[FinanceDude]

The US is I'm sure telling China this is "your mess in your backyard, clean it up"..............the last thing China needs is for the US to think they can't control NK...........we're too valuable to them.

When China steps in, and threatens NK, Kim will be silent yet again.................

 

[HFWR]

I believe the more significant problem is a massive attack on SK with conventional weapons...

Obviously, the USA, Russia, or China could blast them back to the stone age. But then, a cherry bomb could do that...

 

[d]

NK is a festering boil on the arse of mother earth.

well said.

 

[Zoocat]

.

I have been hearing on the news that the last thing China wants is to have tens of millions of North Koreans fleeing into China if NK collapses.
I wonder if the US made a deal with China that we would give them financial and or disaster relief (we can send them Micheal Brown ) if such events occurred.
Perhaps then China would take a stronger stance with better results than the US trying to play hardball.

You mean that the US would make a deal that China would lend us even more so that we could give them disaster relief? We are already up to our eyeballs in debt to China. If the fed has to raise interest rates and we have to borrow more at higher rates, we will be not only in debt to China, but probably willing to make whatever deal they want.

 

[Nords]

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea said Tuesday the United Nations effectively declared war on the country when it imposed sanctions for the North's nuclear test.

AFAIK neither side has signed a peace treaty in the last 50 years, so technically nothing's changed.

Talk is a lot cheaper than war.

 

[Gone4Good]

You have to ask yourself what their endgame is.

Paradoxical as it may seem, Pyongyang staged the test as a last-ditch effort to jump-start a bilateral dialogue on the normalization of relations that the United States has so far spurned.

Article

That Pyongyang wants "normalization" with the US on anything other than NK's terms seems highly suspect.

As far as Dear Leader's "end game", it seems pretty obvious . . . Nuclear weapons coupled with long-range ballistic missiles creates a very effective deterrent against the U.S. rendering the U.S.'s security agreement with South Korea basically moot. Will any future administration really sacrifice Seattle for Seoul? And once NK can credibly threaten the US homeland, will an aging Kim Jung Il really be deterred by the threat of US retaliation? With the U.S. put in its box, Dear Leader has a free hand to "unify" the Korean peninsula under the flag of Pyongyang - which is, of course, Dear Leaders end game.

Meanwhile, the never-ending "dialogue" at the U.N. gives Dear Leader all the time he needs to perfect the technology required to bring this end game to fruition.

 

[Nords]

Looks like the scientific community's assessment of their weapons test is getting some press:

"Kim's Big Fizzle"

 

[FinanceDude]

Arm's race? Gotta have a nuke that actually works first............

 

[linkerbink]

To quote the article, "Whatever happened near P'unggye on October 9, probably only Kim Jong Il's scientists know."

I wonder how many of those scientists are still alive Or has the Dear Leader decided to save face by cleaning house?