The hypothetical note to Kim sounds like the perfect solution that would allow NK to save face. It doesn't seem to be such a wild idea to me, but the fact that it makes so much sense would alienate the U.N. from any involvement. Impending action in Iran must happen sooner rather than later.
British Diplomat to Visit North Korea Explosion Scene
By Jamie Lyons, Political Correspondent, PA News, in Korea
A top British diplomat is to be taken to the scene of a massive blast in North Korea to verify the regime’s denial of nuclear tests.
The North Korean government has told Britain’s ambassador, David Slinn, he can visit the site as soon as tomorrow to check its claims that the explosion was caused deliberately as part of a major construction project.
A two-and-a-half mile wide mushroom cloud was seen close to the Chinese border on Thursday, sparking fears the ultra-secretive Communist regime may have carried out nuclear tests.
But the regime today dismissed those claims as “lies from hostile forces”.
Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun told British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell – in Pyongyang for three days of talks on North Korea’s nuclear programme – the explosion was a controlled demolition of a mountain.
He said it was part of the construction of a hydro-electric power plant...
North Korea is threatening to pull out of the six-country talks on its nuclear capability in the face of perceived hostility from the USA. One of the main aims of Mr Rammell’s visit is to increase pressure on the regime to continue those talks. Australian and Chinese delegations have pushed the same message recently...
He has dangled the comparison of Libya in front of the North Koreans as an example of a state that renounced its nuclear ambitions and secured major benefits from doing so.
North Korea desperately needs help with energy and food supplies. The US said it could get aid with energy if it freezes its nuclear activities for three months and commits to dismantling them... (snipped)
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3490740
per your post 3083 from the last thread . . .
"Could this be related to the latest video?"
Central Asia
Osama adds weight to Afghan resistance
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
CHAMAN, near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border - Since the disintegration of the Taliban regime at the end of 2001, the Afghan resistance has endured, managing, if nothing else, to keep US-led occupying forces and the Afghan National Army engaged in small pockets.
But much bigger things are planned.
The Taliban are commanded from within Afghanistan by the likes of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, Jalaluddin Haqqani, Mullah Dadullah and Saifullah Mansoor. And significantly, according to Asia Times Online research, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, along with other senior al-Qaeda figures, are no longer in Pakistan but orchestrating the Afghan resistance from within Afghanistan, remote from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.
(snip)
the answer is "yes", and it has begun . . .
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040912/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_military_exercise_1
Iran Holds Military Exercises Near Border
Sun Sep 12, 2:28 PM ET
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer
TEHRAN, Iran - Hundreds of thousands of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards began military maneuvers Sunday near the border with Iraq, with a top commander saying the exercise was designed to reinforce Iran's resolve to defend itself against "big powers."
Mohammed Bagher Zolqadr, a senior officer of the Revolutionary Guards, did not mention the United States by name but was clearly referring to America, which leads the multinational force in neighboring Iraq.
"Our country has constantly been threatened directly or indirectly by extra-regional forces and big powers ... . We are holding the exercises to show our resolve and (our) will to defend ourselves," he told state television.
Iran, which views the United States as an arch foe, is concerned about the U.S. military presence in Iraq, to the west of Iran, and in Afghanistan, to the east of Iran.
President Bush has described Iran as part of an "axis of evil," along with North Korean and Iraq under the ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.
Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, the chief of the Revolutionary Guards, told state radio that "hundreds of thousands" of troops were taking part in the nine-day maneuvers in western Iran.
The exercises would involve missiles, fighter aircraft and helicopters, Zolqadr said.
Since the end of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war in 1988, Iran has held a number of maneuvers each year to improve its military stamina and to test locally made equipment such as tanks, armored personnel carriers and missiles. The maneuvers are usually held near either the Iraqi border or the Afghan border.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/13/international/middleeast/13iraq.html
Scores Are Dead After Violence Spreads in Iraq
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
[]AGHDAD, Iraq, Sept. 12 - In a series of tightly sequenced attacks, at least 25 Iraqis were killed by suicide car bombings and a barrage of missile and mortar fire in several neighborhoods across Baghdad on Sunday.
The attacks were the most widespread in months, seeming to demonstrate the growing power of the insurgency and heightening the sense of uncertainty and chaos in the capital at a time when American forces have already ceded control to insurgents in a number of cities outside of Baghdad.
(snip)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/13/international/asia/13herat.html
September 13, 2004
Afghan Crowds Loot and Burn Over Governor's Dismissal
By CARLOTTA GALL
[]ERAT, Afghanistan, Sept. 12 - Violent demonstrators ransacked and burned at least four United Nations office compounds and a human rights office here on Sunday as they clashed with the national police and army in an angry protest at the removal of Gov. Ismail Khan by the central government.
Four people were killed and up to 50 wounded, most of them civilian demonstrators suffering from gunshot wounds, doctors at the provincial hospital said. Fifteen American soldiers and two national army soldiers were injured, mostly from stones and bricks hurled at them, said Anne Bodine, an American State Department official based in Herat.
The violence and extensive damage was a major blow to the central government of President Hamid Karzai, which had sent 1,000 soldiers and hundreds of national police officers to secure the area for the arrival of the new governor from Kabul. Now, with the Oct. 9 elections nearing, the United Nations' activities will be severely hampered in the whole western part of the country. . . .
The destruction in the protests on Sunday was the worst to occur in Afghanistan since Mr. Karzai took power as head of an interim administration more than two and a half years ago. The national police and army were unable to contain the demonstration or stop the looting.
About 60 United Nations and other foreign staff members took to their bunkers, and then had to be evacuated by United States soldiers to the American reconstruction teams' base in town, and then by helicopter to the airport where the Afghan Army units are based. Most foreigners will be evacuated Monday to Kabul, Ms. Bodine said.
Clashes with American soldiers near the Mowafaq Hotel were reported to be continuing at dusk. A witness said he saw protesters throwing Molotov cocktails at American troops, and one passer-by was shot.
(snip)