After nuclear test, North Korea set to test-fire missiles

AFP via The Times of India ^ | 26 May 2009 | AFP

[MyTwoCopperCoins]

SEOUL: North Korea was reportedly on the verge on Tuesday of test-firing more missiles, a move set to heighten tensions after its second nuclear weapons test drew condemnation around the globe.

The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting to consider the options after Pyongyang's test of a nuclear device on Monday, which some estimates said was almost as powerful as the atom bombs that flattened Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The council called the test a "clear violation" of international law and immediately began working on a resolution that could impose new sanctions on the secretive North, which has now tested two nuclear bombs in three years.

"This resolution should include new sanctions in addition to those already adopted because such behaviour should have a cost and a price to pay," said Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the deputy French ambassador to the United Nations.

Russia estimated the force of Monday's underground explosion at up to 20 kilotons, far more powerful than the October 2006 test that announced the impoverished communist state had joined the club of world nuclear powers.

The North said the latest test would "contribute to defending the sovereignty of the country and the nation and socialism, and ensuring peace and security on the Korean peninsula and the region."

North Korea has repeatedly said it needs a deterrent to ward off an attack by the United States, which it believes wants to topple Kim Jong-Il's regime. Almost six years of disarmament talks have not stopped its nuclear drive.

In April it test-fired a long-range rocket that critics say was in fact a ballistic missile, and on Monday it test-fired three short-range missiles after the nuclear blast.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the North was preparing to fire more short-range missiles on Tuesday or Wednesday. It cited a Seoul government source who said Pyongyang had declared part of the Yellow Sea off-limits to ships.

Some analysts have suggested that Kim is using the nuclear test to strengthen his hand at home, and so could be even less swayed than usual by more sanctions or international criticism.

The 67-year-old was widely reported to have suffered a stroke last August, prompting speculation overseas about the succession. The North's position has noticeably hardened since then. "This is part of Kim shoring up support for his regime among the inner circle and the public," Peter Beck, a Korea expert at the American University in Washington, said.

"The internal domestic dynamic is taking precedence over external factors."

Even China, a permanent member of the Security Council and the North's sole main ally, was strongly critical of the latest test -- which North Korea had pledged to carry out because of previous censure from the council.

"Disregarding the common objections of the international community, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has again tested a nuclear device," China's foreign ministry said in a statement.

"The Chinese government expresses its resolute opposition to this," it said.

US President Barack Obama, whose initial overtures to the North since taking office in January have been met with official hostility from Pyongyang, condemned what he called its "reckless" atomic test.

"North Korea's nuclear ballistic missile programmes pose a great threat to the peace and security of the world," he said.

The North on Tuesday reiterated complaints that Obama is no better than his predecessor.

"The present US administration is talking about what it called a 'change' and 'bilateral dialogue' but it is, in actuality, pursuing the same reckless policy as followed by the former Bush administration to stifle the DPRK (North Korea) by force of arms," said the ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun.

Foreign ministers from Asia and Europe meeting in Hanoi were set to condemn the test as "a clear violation" of six-party agreements and UN resolutions, according to a draft text.

South Korea announced it was joining the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative, an international effort to curb trade in weapons of mass destruction that involves some 90 nations and includes military exercises.

North Korea had previously said that it would see the South's participation as a declaration of war.

[Hanna548]

They fired them..........what Obama gonna do now?

[tina07]

He and the UN will send a strong, STRONG, resolution this time? LOL

[Nahanni]

If you live in between San Francisco and Seattle or in Honolulu or Anchorage best try to get out now while the getting is good. Thanks to the Obamamessiah and the Corruptocrats there won’t be a missile defense shield to shoot their missiles down.

[Hanna548]

I live near enough to Seattle its worriesome........

[AmericanInTokyo]

Correct. They fired more just now according to Yonhap News. Two more (short ranged) into the Sea of Japan. Happened recently. Over and above the underground nuke test and three launched missiles yesterday (our time) here in Asia.

Obama will probably do as much as W. Bush did; i.e. try to negotiate with North Korea in Beijing at a big round fancy table with lots of flowers and bottled water and pretty, long-legged Chinese attendants in slit skirts hovering in the background.

Really, the American Response here crosses both parties--it is disgusting to the core. The Bush Appeasement will soon be outdone by the Obama Appeasement. There is really no other place for this to end up than capitulation and a victory for Kim Jong il.

Japanese I know say to me private "how in the world can the largest nation on earth continue to get jacked around by that short little squirt who runs a Third World Nation?" What response can/should I give them?

[Hanna548]

What do you think he is going to do at this point? Its kind of funny really. Yesterday, well, now that would be Sunday evening, when he came back, he was walking toward the White House from the helicopter and he looked like to that White Hosue was the LAST place he wanted to go. His body language screamed it.....I bet he is really feeling that way now.

I just wish we had some adults in the White House, before they get us all killed;/

[Hanna548]

Why do we put up with hit? China?

[AmericanInTokyo]

Part Global Overstretch. Part “our pockets are empty”. Part China. Part inability to learn from past mistakes with North Korea and committing the same errors over and over again, with the North Korean leadership knowing that we are a) not ones to learn and retain knowledge; and b) running around in a panic on the DEFENSIVE.

[Hanna548]

What should be done? Blow them off the map?

[AmericanInTokyo]

If handled correctly, that would not be necessary, i.e. to that extent. But the more this drags on, the more that becomes the only horrid possibility, other than that, WE get it ourselves (or our allies).

What was working with the Bush Administration was slow economic strangulation, which they abandoned from 2005 or so, in favor of State Department-led appeasement. It is a pipe dream to think Obama will go back to that policy, the best of all options, which means I am afraid this thing will fester and then really blow up in everyone's face.

[Hanna548]

Why did they stop the strangulation? Seems like that is what the UN is talking about now isn’t it?

[AmericanInTokyo]

Iraq War and Afghanistan theatre both simultaneously could not be waged successfully unless a major effort and concentration were centered there first and foremost. Bush was also delivered a nasty sting, almost a figuratively speaking closed [electoral]Gfist strike to the face, in the US General Elections in November 2006 by the American People, who strongly empowered the Democratic Party with major victories across the board (just as the American People were again to go on two years later to place Obama in the White House). In the meantime, with fears of having to open a second front in Northeast Asia (and Kim Jong il knowing it full well and this soft, US underbelly of vulnerability), things were kept at bay--and even relaxed--Chris Hill of State Dept. slobbered like a hurried, two-bit whore to run to Macao to unfreeze the DPRK's blood money stashed there in Banco Delta Asia--we agreed to all kinds of unverifiable crap the North was to do, but/so this was also akin to letting a peanut sized brain tumor develop into the size of a grapefruit rather than start with the treatment when it was manageable. This is all the 2004-2006 time frame, and then it REALLY got bad between 2007 and when Bush left office in early 2009. Now it will get even WORSE.

[Hanna548]

Wow.......i love when I run into you on here:) You are a great teacher:) You make it simple and easy to understand. Thank you for that.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Ping! My take. (replete with spelling errors)

PS Norkies launched two more, a few hours ago...guess you heard that in Korea. 130 kilometers, off Northeast Coast into East Sea (Sea of Japan as they say here). They still have the threat on to launch into the West Sea (Yellow Sea) off their west coast between now and tomorrow as well. It is one thing after another.....

[AmericanInTokyo]

You teach me, too, by the way.

Thanks.

[PhilDragoo]

Hussein wishes Rat Boy and Lil' Kim to have their nukes--for he is an Islmo-Communist.

Hussein does not wish Israel and America to have nukes--he's an Israel-hater and an America-hater.

Douglas MacArthur wanted to use nuclear weapons but Harry Truman fired him.

While George W. Bush wanted to stop Kim, the Clintons and Madeleine didn't want America to be the sole superpower--translation, they wanted to give China our missile and warhead advantage.

Hussein wants America to be blackmailed by both Iran and North Korea.

To ask how can Obama stop North Korea (and/or Iran) is to accept a premise I posit is false, namely, that Obama wishes to stop North Korea and Iran.

First we will enact a political reversal--many exuberant FReepers tout Palin-Bolton--or Petraeus-Bolton.

Obama hates America and will hold North Korea and Iran harmless in their headlong pursuit of nuclear capability.

In this he will pretend to be the Thugo de Thugs.

It's a terribly dangerous train running down a hell-bound track.

Let's see a defiant Israel stomp Iran and then see how Kim expects to market his toys.

[AmericanInTokyo]

The very least we can encourage Amb. Bolton to hook up with the Governor up in Juneau, and offer to be a foreign policy brain trust for her over the next 3 years, until she announces for the Presidency. I could see him as Secretary of State or Secretary of Defense or CIA Director (Vice President would be a step down). I like your thinking.....

[Hanna548]

We are in such deep do do............

[AmericanInTokyo]

A rather senior diplomat from an unnamed Asian nation, stationed in Asia, who had been stationed there all his career (and even stationed in Pyongyang briefly) took me aside once and intimated in a very low voice something to the effect that "Kim Jong il is just like his father, Kim il Sung. Only WORSE. He is CRAZY. We could at least handle the father. The son is going to cause all kind of trouble."

This prediction was seven or eight years ago.

In my next post, I will show just what a problem it is, but oddly enough the answer is not an exercise in crystal ball reading or sifting through stacks of intelligence reports. It is simply based in two things a) knowledge of the Kim Dynasty and mindset; and 2) knowledge of history. Please stand by, I will post it soon.