Posted on 10/13/2006 1:48:48 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Citizens want nuclear weapons: poll
October 12, 2006 02:28pm
A MAJORITY of South Koreans believe Seoul should respond to North Korea's nuclear test announcement by starting its own nuclear weapons program, a survey has found.
North Korea said on Monday it had detonated a nuclear device, causing great anxiety in the South, which is still technically at war with its neighbour and directly in the firing line of the North's 1.2 million-strong army.
According to today's poll by the major daily JoongAng Ilbo, 65 per cent of respondents have said South Korea should pursue a path to making itself a nuclear weapons power.
About as many said the Government's policies of engaging their reclusive communist neighbour have failed.
"South Koreans have become much more critical of the Government because of the test," said a pollster, who helped conduct the survey but who asked not to be named.
South Korean Government officials have said in the wake of the test that Seoul has no plans to start a nuclear weapons program and has reminded its citizens that it is protected by the US nuclear umbrella.
More than 75 per cent of respondents also felt the Government should revise the way it engages the North in economic and humanitarian cooperation because of the nuclear test, the survey has said.
For almost a decade, South Korea has tried to ease tensions and pave the way to eventual reunification by sending aid while backing projects such as an industrial complex in a North Korean border city where South Korean firms make goods using cheap North Korean land and labour.
The survey was conducted on Tuesday among 760 adults contacted by telephone with a 3.6 per cent margin or error.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
Ping!
And unlike the NK one, we can be pretty sure that an ROK nuke will work.
Such a prospect could do more than anything else to force China to cut its support of N. Korea.
I also have to wonder, China must be motivated to stabelize the situation. I'm thinking about the upcoming Olympics. How good can it be for tourism when you've got an unstable madman threatening a nuclear holocaust right on your border?
I'm inclined to believe that China is compelled to do something, but they are far more interested in how it plays out in the short term for the US elections. We'll probably see them take more action following the vote. At least that's what I think...in my pathetically caffeine deprived mind.
I tend to agree that China is going to be forced to do something soon. It is Japan they fear deciding it needs nukes.
Yup, and Japan has long since been thought of as a "six week nuclear power" - i.e., starting with only their civilian nuclear power program, they could have a working nuclear bomb in six weeks. With their space program, they already have a working delivery system, so they need waste no time on that.
Since the Japanese are no idiots, I'm pretty sure that the six-week clock started ticking about ten seconds after North Korea annouced their test.
Yup. A remilitarized Japan is China's worst nightmare, but they could make it happen.
And away we go. The people are, as usual, ahead of the politicians. Expect similar poll results in the coming weeks out of Japan and maybe South Korea -- and for each country's next elections to be heavily influenced by this grave security threat. China better do something about NK...or else...
"A remilitarized Japan is China's worst nightmare"
china will reap what is sows!!!! by not making a stand against the dope "dear leader"..it will foster the nuclear proliferation of the region and equip japan to defend itself...yea..china is quite ready to be the 21st century superpower!!!!
This is not a new problem. It's been there for well over a decade. But Clinton and the SK leadership papered it over for about a decade so that reality would not intrude on the important stuff they were doing. I often wonder if folks like Clinton and the SK leadership actually believe their own bs or it's just a cynical ploy.
In view of the sham "assistance" of the Chinese with respect to their sock-puppet North Korea, we need to be threatening their free ride on trade exports to the West, plus squeezing them in the direction of nuclearizing the non-communist Asian countries. Or at the very least restore our tactical nuclear deterrent that GHWB so imprudently dismantled back in '92.
If Kim Il-Jung really was off the Chi-Comm ranch...he would have been having a dirt nap within two seconds of his announcing it. He is loyal and slavish Sock Puppet.
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