In Washington, the State Department's spokesman, Sean McCormack, said last week that a North Korean nuclear test would be "a deeply provocative act".
Yeah? And what actions will follow? Sorry, color me underwhelmed at the likely reactions that will result. A couple "harshly worded" statements by Bush and the State Dept and a useless UN resolution. Yawn.
It would raise the stakes, but exploding a nuclear device (it could be as crude as the Trinity test bomb) is a long way from being able to make a nuclear warhead for a missile.
I think he is more than irritated, he is scared. Blocking those accounts makes it more difficult for him to get cash to dispense the goodies that keep him in power.
When the Russians and the ChiComs agree privately that Comrade Chia Pet has become more of a liability than an asset, you can be assured that North Korea's liddle dynasty will be squelched with all of the finese of stomping a cockroach. Russia and Communist China both want to maintain good diplomatic and economic ties with South Korea and Japan, and that is what Pyongyang's nuclear sabre rattling is threatening.
Moscow and Beijing both know full well that if Kim were to launch any punitive attack on U.S. interests that North Korea would be leveled from one end to the other of that godforsaken land, and the refugees would be fleeing in the direction of the ChiComs and the South Koreans. Communist China does NOT want to have to adopt the entire North Korean people post-Kim Jong Il.
So I would look for a military coup against Kim in the very near future with covert Russian/ChiCom support, because they also know that with Kim's health failing, he may want to "go out with a bang", and he isn't thinking about his latest mistress.
Hmmm... so he made his intention clear. Many tend to say that Kim lately lost his sensibility. I am not so sure. He has a master plan he is determined to carry out no matter what. For quite a while, international situation has been favorable to him. Now, it is not.
This is the only plan he has. In his situation, he cannot contemplate Plan B, which is to open his country for international weapon's inspectors and pursue economic open door policy. That would be the direct threat to his hereditary totalitarian regime maintained by mind-numbing propaganda and oppression.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1696765/posts?page=11#11
Kim's discussions with China's leaders may determine the location and date of the first joint NK/Iranian nuclear test. A small army of technicians from one of the two countries will attend the first few tests in the other country - IMO their nuclear weaopons programs have been de facto merged.
NK and Iran need only a brief time - perhaps 100 days +/- 30 days - from the first test to convert their existing plutonium implosion-type warheads from ones suitable only for delivery by aircraft or cruise missile to ones sturdy enough for delivery by their relatively primitive ballistic missiles. They got the designs for a missile-ready plutonium implosion warhead from China 20 or so years ago. They only need a small number of test shots to make certain their weapons engineering is adequate.
We may have the world's first nuclear war within six months.