Posted on 02/09/2005 11:15:30 PM PST by sonsofliberty2000
Edited on 02/09/2005 11:33:13 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea (news - web sites) publicly admitted Thursday for the first time that it has nuclear weapons, and said it wouldn't return to six-nation talks aimed at getting it to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
Diplomats have said that North Korea has acknowledged having nuclear arms in private talks, but this is the first time the communist government has said so directly to the public.
"We had already taken the resolute action of pulling out of the (Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty) and have manufactured nukes for self-defense to cope with the Bush administration's ever-more undisguised policy to isolate and stifle the DPRK," the North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
DPRK refers to the country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
North Korea's "nuclear weapons will remain (a) nuclear deterrent for self-defense under any circumstances," the ministry said. "The present reality proves that only powerful strength can protect justice and truth."
Since 2003, the United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia have held three rounds of talks in Beijing aimed at persuading the North to abandon nuclear weapons development in return for economic and diplomatic rewards. But no significant progress has been made.
A fourth round scheduled for September was canceled when North Korea refused to attend, citing what it called a "hostile" U.S. policy.
Thursday's statement came after President Bush (news - web sites) started his second term last month by refraining from direct criticism of North Korea — raising hopes that the North would return to the stalled nuclear talks. But North Korea said it had little hope for improved ties during Bush's second term office.
"We have wanted the six-party talks but we are compelled to suspend our participation in the talks for an indefinite period till we have recognized that there is justification for us to attend the talks," the North said Thursday.
North Korea said it came to its decision because "the U.S. disclosed its attempt to topple the political system in the DPRK at any cost, threatening it with a nuclear stick."
Still, North Korea said it retained its "principled stand to solve the issue through dialogue and negotiations and its ultimate goal to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula remain unchanged."
Kim Jong - Lets his alligator mouth override is butterfly A$$ again.
Whateva!! Whateva!! I do what I want!
Respect My Authoritah!
%crew you guys, I'm going home!
Another page in the Clinton and Carter legacies.
"Mr.Carter, what is your legacy"
"Well, in North Korea it's pretty good"
How can anyone, ever believe anything the bastards say.
How can we afford to be complacent... didn't 8 years of Clinton teach us enough?
Oh look how diplomatic we are with a country that actually has WMD.
I think we should call their bluff...carpet bomb Pyongyang for 24 hours and see what happens.
It's not the WMD, it's the thousands of artillery tubes the North has - and they're all pointed at and can hit Seoul. They don't *need* a nuke to trash much of the Asian economy (as well as seriously affecting ours).
From the Sep 10 issue of Asia Times:
South Korea is a small country of only 98,000 square kilometers. North Korean jets can reach the capital in six minutes from their forward bases. North Korea's 12,000 artillery tubes and 2,300 MLR (multiple-launch rockets/ medium-long range) hidden in caves and underground are all within striking distance [of] Seoul, while its medium range Nodong ballistic missiles can reach US assets throughout the South and in Japan. In the mid 80's North Korea managed to import 87 American-made Hughes MD500 helicopters, the same type South Korea uses as gun ships. The area between Seoul and the DMZ is heavily wooded and mountainous, perfect for guerrilla warfare.
****
Personally, I can't think of *any* system that can stop 16,000+ simultaneous incoming rounds with 100% accuracy, can you? It is also an open secret that some of those shells will be carrying bio and chemical payloads, so that's even worse.
This is a very touchy situation, and the adminstration is right to handle it with a great deal of care. That said, I'm also of the mind that covert ops would be a great idea - say, perhaps, a large "accident" with their new reactor site along the lines of Chernobyl.....
Bush will call on the UN to either act or be considered impotent and irrelevant. I feel it's been a plan to let the NK's to paint themselves into a corner. It worked. Bush will have the UN and the "world community" to challenge America's (and Asia's) enemy. No clamoring from the Left that he "acted alone" and the fact the UN can do nothing about NK's ambitions, gives GWB credibility.
Thank You for your service.
Air Power!
I don't klnow where the N KOreans got the helos, but they probably got old, commercial ones (they started making the intital OH-6's in 1963) from some foreign user that was unloading them, and then converted them to military use. The ones they have are most likely not up to S> Korean standards.
In the gunship variety, here's a pic of the later MD530MG Defender and another of the MD530F variant (they were made in the 1980's):
Beyond that, everything you say about the vast quantities of N Korean ordinance pointed south is true and it is a very dicey situation. N Koreans are hungry and there's lost to eat just south of the border. My own personal opinion is that N Korea always has been and still is a puppet on a string for the ChiComms. All of the talk otherwise by both parties, IMHO, is just an extension of Sun Ztu's philosophy that all warfare is deception. But tha's just my opinion.
Kim Jong-il wants to have nukes. He may give up some in exchange for economic aids and non-aggression pact, to make things look nice and pretty. However, he would hold onto the remaining nukes as the most important leverage used to battle economic and political hardships. Besides, there are signs of cracks in N. Korean system. To keep the house in order, he may need to ratchet up the tension on the international stage. It is also to be noted that America and Iran are locked on a nuclear dispute which is escalating.
Considering that China has lately friction with America, regarding nukes of Iran, and Yuan-Dollar peg, and America has at least outwardly softened its stance in an attempt to lure N. Korea back to 6-way talks, it is likely that Kim Jong-il saw it as American weakness and made this move.
That is, this move put America deal with Iran and N. Korea simultaneously.
On the bright side, this would reduce the range of excuse China, Russia, and S. Korea can come up with to stall American goal. In that sense, it will help Bush, even though dealing with both Iran and N. Korea could be a burden for a short term.
I really think this may in fact just be North Korea trying to get back onto the front pages of world newspapers.
Nuclear bomb to there !
"Previously, North Korea reportedly told U.S. negotiators in private talks that it had nuclear weapons and might test one of them."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6944560/
I guess we will have to see if N. Korea is "just bluffing"..
If they actually test a bomb, I would then say we are justified in taking them out.. with prejucice..
Mark Steyn (click below for entire article):
Take a look at a satellite picture of the peninsula by night: South Korea ablaze in electric light, the North in darkness. In Far East Asia, North Korea’s the hole in the doughnut.
North Korea at Night
We better hope and pray that economic stagnation/starvation brings that system down like in the old U.S.S.R. Cause otherwise we're done. No military solution. But I'm thinking their economy will bring them down in time. Or am I only hoping that they exist in the same universe Adam Smith wrote about?
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