Tokyo, Washington move to inspect North Korean cargo ships

The Asahi Shimbun (excerpt) ^ | October 17, 2006

[HAL9000]

Excerpt -

Japan and the United States will discuss ways to cooperate on inspecting vessels that enter or leave North Korea as part of the international effort to punish Pyongyang for its nuclear test.

Kenichiro Sasae, head of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, and Christopher Hill, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, met in Tokyo on Monday and confirmed that the two countries will collaborate on cargo inspections and other measures against North Korea.

~ snip ~

[JerseyHighlander]

We'll spend untold millions blocking the waterways while Chinese accept increased bribe rates to pass trains of prohibited goods over the NK border. All the while the US military will monitor the trains on satellite, and US politicians will proclaim the cargo inspection program a success. Meanwhile corrupt Chinese intelligence and military leaders are getting rich, and the people of N. Korea starve. Abd this scenario is if the Republicans DO maintain control of Congress.

I suspect if the Dems take either chamber that after the next NK instigation the Japanese will change their Constitution seeing the US go all soft and stupid under split party control.

[lafroste]

The US and Tokyo could do this more simply. Just sink the danged things. No need to inspect, just sink them if they show their noses out of their hell-frozen ports.

[Joe Boucher]

You know there will be some shooting from these ships being stopped on the high seas. May make for some interesting confrontations.

[EQAndyBuzz]

Every ship that leaves an NK Port needs to be captured.

Collect a bunch of them and then offer to swap them for the Pueblo.

[Joe Boucher]

You should be head of the dept. of state.

[Robe]

IMHO....GWB is playing this really coolheaded.. as Patton said, "give me 30 days and I'll be at war with them bastards and make it look like they started it"...
GWB sent a reminder that SK and Japan are covered by the US umbrella..
Japan stops NK ship, Lil 'IL gets pi$$ed off and attacks a Japanese asset... then we blow the $hit out of 'em

See they started it

[AmericanInTokyo]

DPRK--i.e. North Korean ships (and their captains and entire crew for that matter) DO NOT TAKE KINDLY to being stopped and boarded, particularly by the Japanese and Americans.

This last time this was attempted, in the Sea of Japan, there was a horrendous gun battle between the two sides. Just several years ago.

The Japanese Self Defense forces eventually sank the ship.

It was raised from the bottom of the ocean (the DPRK denied it even had such a ship there and sunk), and all the espionage materials were taken out of it and put in display in Tokyo--along with the hull of the ship, for thousands of Japanese to see. It was more popular than Tokyo Disneyland for a few weeks.

Folks, get ready for fireworks.

If your dad or grandad or uncle can't stand the 'japs', because of the "Big One", they better get used to being comrades in arms with Japan and perhaps even suffering casulties together.

[AmericanInTokyo]

You know there will be some shooting from these ships being stopped on the high seas. May make for some interesting confrontations

See my # 8. And, having said that, 'battlestations!'

[AmericanInTokyo]

This is the plan.

This puts Hewlett Packards 'pretexting' to shame.

[EQAndyBuzz]

Nahh.. I don't play well with others.

[AmericanInTokyo]

A big DPRK Party conference in Pyongyang yesterday. It was the "Crush Imperialism" conference, where the nuke test was heralded with pride as a 'great historic accomplishment'.

I'll say it's historic.

I think DPRK officers caps will be great collectors' items in a very near future.

[ArrogantBustard]

It was raised from the bottom of the ocean (the DPRK denied it even had such a ship there and sunk), and all the espionage materials were taken out of it and put in display in Tokyo--along with the hull of the ship, for thousands of Japanese to see. It was more popular than Tokyo Disneyland for a few weeks.

Love it ... fits very nicely with SK turning NK's infiltration tunnels into tourist attractions. The make a point of showing which direction the tool-marks in the rock point, to prove that the NK's dug the tunnels.

[AmericanInTokyo]

The only problem with the SK presentation of that stuff along the DMZ these days--i.e. in the last five years or so--is that the whole emphasis seems to be on 'can't we all just get along'? The displays have all been toned down. It is the South Korean pro-appeasment unificationist's greatest dream.

They downplay all the terrible starvation and prison camps in the DPRK, and highlight the cultural unity of the Korean people. This is all part of the Kim Dae Jung-Roh Mu Hyon Sunshine policy.

[ArrogantBustard]

is that the whole emphasis seems to be on 'can't we all just get along'?

Absolutely ... I definitely noticed a great deal of that ... that silly train station at the end of the line exemplifies the problem. Didn't stop me getting the "railway line going thru torn barbed wire with fluttering doves" stamp on my passport, though.

[AmericanInTokyo]

You got quite a passport stamp there, I'd say! :-)

[ArrogantBustard]

The place is "Dora Mountain Station" ... it's purely a piece of unificationist propaganda in Paju City. The stamp has not significance to anybody's immigration service ... US Customs has never remarked upon it. A British agent once asked what it was ... turns out she was planning a trip to Korea.