[MadIvan]

North Korea may have done the geopolitical equivalent of stuffing a rolled up sock in their underpants.

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Ping!

[Joe Boucher]

I have no more confidence in france then I do in North Korea.
Both lead by dirtbags without a clue. Both antiAmerican.

[truth_seeker]

France, experts on small failed explosions.

[NonValueAdded]

France positioning to cast their veto if the UNSC actions have any hope of working. Damn them!

[dfwgator]

And trust me, if there's anyone who knows about military failures, it's the French.

[rfp1234]

Gosh darn it, at first glance the headline looked like
'France questions failed KORAN nuclear test'...

[kingu]

Leaders in Seoul appeared to have accepted that they will have to live with a nuclear North Korea — at least until Washington can be persuaded to engage in direct talks with the isolated Stalinist state.

Yeah, umm, what the heck does Washington have to do with anything? Everybody make nice with each other so we can go home, please?

The real translation is: We long for the day when the United States will again go back to bribing North Korea into acting like civilized people.

[Paloma_55]

North Korea may have done the geopolitical equivalent of stuffing a rolled up sock in their underpants.

---

And worse yet, putting it in the back...

[Buck W.]

France is now asking NK for permission to retract the surrender they issued immediately after the explosion.

[backtothestreets]

Everyone has to get on the same page. There was an explosion. North Korea claimed it was nuclear. Regardless of size, the North Korean claim should be accepted and North Korea dealt with harshly and quickly.

[Lekker 1]

The more I hear about the NK nuke, the more I am convinced that all they did was surround a quantity of fissionable material with several tons of conventional explosives in hopes that it would work like the real thing. Maybe that's how their schools over there teach it.

[RightWhale]

compress the plutonium and fire a neutron into the mass

Aha! So that's how they do it!

[river rat]

I wish we were half the bastard the world believes us to be....

Then perhaps we would blow the little North Korean prick to hell, assassinate Chavez, Castro, Assad, al Sadr and the current Iranian chief prick --- then sit back in wonder, denying everything.

Semper Fi

[OPS4]

And maybe they lit the bomb and it went off. I will always error on the side of assuming where there is smoke there is fire.

Frogs, do not like to admit to one of thier allies are caught misbehaving, as in North Korea.
Ops4

[Tolik]

OK. Saddam behaved like he also had nukes. Its still not clear if he knowingly bluffed, or indeed suffered a grandeur delusion, or his WMDs are well hidden away. But it really does not matter. We can't afford to make a rogue state to use a nuke threat or nuke bluff as a deterrent. NK is long overdue for a regime change.

Even in the height of the USSR power soviets were passing around NK magazines (in Russian) for a good laugh. Surreal, isn't it?

[Tai_Chung]

it produced an explosion so small that if indeed it was nuclear, it had been a failure

Unless it is intended for use with the "no-dong" missile

[spinestein]

["What’s important is to determine is whether this was chemical or nuclear. It’s possible that we never will."]


Since the seismic activity allows us to pinpoint the exact location of the explosion, why don't we just send in a military blitzkrieg to take over that one spot and have our experts determine which it was? If it WAS nuclear, then there is justification to declare them a hostile state and deal with them appropriately and other nations have no credibility to complain. If it wasn't nuclear, then we will have exposed them as frauds and the squawking little dictator will forever be a laughingstock.

What am I thinking? That would be a PRACTICAL solution to the problem.

[2harddrive]

"To ensure THE neutron is fired"? How 'bout them physics! LOL.

[Irish_Thatcherite]

Well, the French are experts in nuclear tests! :-P

[fso301]

China balked at the idea of giving any UN resolution teeth, a sign that it would not tolerate anything that would destabilise the region by toppling the North Korean Government, causing chaos on its doorstep and a likely refugee exodus.

Why aren't South Korea and Russia also worried about a refugee exodus?