[nmh]

Stopped reading after this:

"If the U.S. keeps pestering us and increases pressure, we will regard it as a declaration of war and will take a series of physical corresponding measures," the statement, said without specifying what those measures could be.

The U.S. is NOT "pestering" them about anything. It is RUSSIA and CHINA who should be "pestering" them since their country borders on theirs. Of course Russia and China are against sanctions and want the U.S. to carry the water and be viewed as the evil, heavy handed enemy that dictates punishments.

"President Bush called for stiff sanctions on North Korea and asserted that the United States has "no intentions of attacking" the reclusive regime. "

Sanctions need to go into affect as soon as possible!
Or be labeled a COWARD.

"As Bush spoke, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged Washington to hold one-on-one talks with Pyongyang, something the U.S. has refused to do."

Yeah, Kofi wouldn't defend his mother if she was getting raped in front of him. He's still be holding out to reason with the unreasonable. THe U.N. headed by this murderous thug is a COWARD.

[untrained skeptic]

Well, that's not completely true. The US is pestering the North Korean government over their large scale counterfeiting of US currency.

The North Korean government really has no redeeming qualities, and they keep threatening others and performing criminal actions to get what they want.

It's appalling that we have allowed them to get away with it for decades, and in the case of the Clinton administration actively rewarded them for such actions at the behest of Jimmy Carter.

Sanctions can be useful in containing such rogue governments, but they are ultimately very harmful to the civilian population while their effect on the government is less sure due to widespread breaking of such sanctions by other nations, and an unwillingness of the US to hold those who break them accountable.

There comes a point where the choices are using military force, or ignoring the threat and hoping that the government is overthrown from within and that the new government is an improvement.

We have been doing a lot of hoping, and taking very little action for a long time. The result is a lot of relatively small problems have grown to become large problems for the world as a whole.

Sticking our heads in the sand doesn't make problems go away.