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Nuclear test by North Korea will be 'provocative act:' White House
Yahoo News ^ | 05/06/05 | AFP

Posted on 05/06/2005 4:54:22 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster

Nuclear test by North Korea will be 'provocative act:' White House

Fri May 6, 3:19 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House warned any nuclear weapons test by North Korea will be a provocative act, as reports suggested an underground nuclear experiment could take place in the Stalinist state.

The New York Times said that US officials familiar with satellite and intelligence data believed North Korea was building a reviewing stand and filling in a tunnel, signs of a potential underground nuclear test.

"I don't want to get into discussing intelligence matters, but what I would say is that if North Korea did take such a step, that would just be another provocative act that would further isolate it from the international community," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

He said all countries in the region were committed to seeing a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.

The United States, together with North Korea's neighbours, had been working through multilateral talks to meet the objective, he added.

"And so we want to see North Korea come back to the six-party talks and discuss, in a serious way, how to move forward on the proposal we've outlined," McClellan said.

Six-party negotiations designed to end Pyongyang's nuclear arms programs -- which group the two Koreas, Russia, China, Japan and the United States -- have been stalled for nearly a year since a third round of talks last June.

The North has boycotted the talks, citing "hostile" US policy, and has publicly announced it has nuclear weapons and it could manufacture more of them.

Media reports have said that the North has been preparing an underground nuclear test since March and might conduct one as early as June.

A senior US intelligence official, who has seen recent satellite images taken of Kilchu, in northeastern North Korea, told the New York Times that tunnels for underground nuclear tests differed from those dug in mines in that they need to be plugged up again to contain the powerful blast.

"You see them stemming the tunnel, taking material back into the mine to plug it up," said the unnamed official, a specialist in nuclear analysis. "There's a lot of activity," he added, "taking stuff in as opposed to taking it out."

Commenting on the report, acting State Department spokesman Tom Casey said "we certainly don't have any new assessment of North Korea's nuclear program."

A senior department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, rejected the idea that the United States had come up with "any new or startling assessment of what they may or may not be trying to do."

According to the Times report, the images also showed the construction of a reviewing stand, which officials said appeared luxurious by North Korean standards, several miles from the suspected test site.

A reviewing stand for visiting dignitaries is considered a significant clue to a possible nuclear test after the Western intelligence community overlooked one the North Koreans had built before they launched a missile in 1998.

North Korea is believed to have one or two crude nuclear bombs, according to US intelligence reports.

International jitters were heightened last Sunday when North Korea test-fired a short-range missile, although US, South Korean and Japanese officials refused to link the incident to Pyongyang's drive for nuclear arms.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 6partytalk; nknukes; nkorea; northkorea; nuclearfree; nucleartest; proliferation; tunnel; undergroundtest; whitehouse
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So Bush Administration gave its official reaction. Tensions are rising.
1 posted on 05/06/2005 4:54:24 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
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To: TigerLikesRooster; AmericanInTokyo; OahuBreeze; yonif; risk; Steel Wolf; nuconvert; MizSterious; ...

Ping!


2 posted on 05/06/2005 4:54:52 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
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To: TigerLikesRooster

And the rest of the world, and the left in this country, will blame Bush.


3 posted on 05/06/2005 4:55:57 PM PDT by Guillermo (Vote for Pedro)
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To: TigerLikesRooster

A reviewing stand for visiting dignitaries



And just how close is this to the blast site? If it is close enough for melted fillings, I have a list of Rats that I would like to invite.


4 posted on 05/06/2005 4:59:12 PM PDT by crazyhorse691 (We won. We don't need to be forgiving. Let the heads roll!!!!!!!!!)
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To: TigerLikesRooster
"North Korea is believed to have one or two crude nuclear bombs, according to US intelligence reports."

Yeah, according to intelligence reports in the early 90s. The latest ones put it somewhere around 10, roughly. Good job, AFP; way to stay on top of things.
5 posted on 05/06/2005 5:00:50 PM PDT by NJ_gent (Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.)
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To: TigerLikesRooster

I also thought of this, but I didn't expect the administration to be so gutsy. I guess I might have been misunderestimating them, ya think? We can hope.


6 posted on 05/06/2005 5:02:07 PM PDT by risk
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To: Guillermo

Check out Yahoo and you will find the liberals in this country already do.


7 posted on 05/06/2005 5:04:17 PM PDT by U S Army EOD (My US Army daughter out shot everybody in her basic training company.)
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To: TigerLikesRooster
I hope not! I don't think we can handle another conflict right now. But, that's my opinion though.
8 posted on 05/06/2005 5:04:24 PM PDT by RoseofTexas
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To: crazyhorse691

I hope the first invitees will be the Rats who are blocking Bolton's nomination. Of course, John Francois and Hillary should get the front row seats next to Kim Il Goofy.


9 posted on 05/06/2005 5:07:04 PM PDT by MaryInSacto
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To: crazyhorse691
Re #4

Several miles away.

10 posted on 05/06/2005 5:07:23 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
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To: TigerLikesRooster
"I would say is that if North Korea did take such a step, that would just be another provocative act that would further isolate it from the international community," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan."

LOL - How much further isolated could North Korea get?

An American Expat in Southeast Asia

11 posted on 05/06/2005 5:07:54 PM PDT by expatguy (http://laotze.blogspot.com/)
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To: expatguy
Re #11

Like Hitler during the last days of his life.

12 posted on 05/06/2005 5:09:53 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
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To: TigerLikesRooster
"So Bush Administration gave its official reaction."

Probably moved them up a notch on the axis of evil scale. NK is probably betting this will give them attack immunity as befits a nuclear power.

13 posted on 05/06/2005 5:19:03 PM PDT by ex-snook (Exporting jobs and the money to buy America is lose-lose..)
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To: TigerLikesRooster
North Korea was building a reviewing stand

I did not know nuclear tests were spectator sports! On the plus side, one can have some fun. Bring a bag of unpopped popcorn, hold it up during the 'event'; bingo it's ready! Oh yah, and don't forget the sun-block.

14 posted on 05/06/2005 5:47:20 PM PDT by 6SJ7
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To: crazyhorse691

I hope Kim Jong-Il gets the idea to proclaim that he is immortal and to prove it he will stand right on top of the bomb.


15 posted on 05/06/2005 5:47:33 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (No wonder the Southern Baptist Church threw Greer out: Only one god per church! [Ann Coulter])
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To: 6SJ7

Many soldiers viewed the first Atomic tests in the desert in the 1940's most of them had some sort of problems caused by the radiation in their later years.


16 posted on 05/06/2005 5:56:30 PM PDT by sgtbono2002
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To: TigerLikesRooster

Figure that North Korea will blast the device they are testing near the South Korean border on a night when the wind is blowing toward South Korea as well.

Want to talk about a time and provocation to invade North Korea, if I were the south, that would be the sign to kick some North Korean @ss.

We'll see what happens.


17 posted on 05/06/2005 5:59:33 PM PDT by A CA Guy (God Bless America, God bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.)
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To: sgtbono2002; 6SJ7

This is probably what they will see.

Not a mushroom cloud and a full blast, but the ground surface changing colors and puffs of dust(or smoke.)


18 posted on 05/06/2005 6:00:51 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
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To: TigerLikesRooster
This sounds Immanent if I read this statement correctly.
19 posted on 05/06/2005 6:08:21 PM PDT by cmsgop ( Proud Member of The Western and Zionist Capitalists Club.)
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To: TigerLikesRooster
I say we kick-start that sucker with a boost from SLBM in the Pacific.
20 posted on 05/06/2005 6:10:38 PM PDT by GoDuke
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