Posted on 10/06/2006 10:24:04 AM PDT by AmericanInTokyo
TOKYO - Japan is ready for North Korea to carry out its threatened nuclear test as soon as this weekend, officials said yesterday. Japanese Vice-Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi, on a visit to Washington, said Pyongyang's resolve to test its first atom bomb should not be underestimated.
"We discussed the possibility that the test would occur this weekend," Mr Yachi said after talks with US Deputy National Security Adviser Jack Crouch. North Korea issued a statement on Tuesday saying it would test a nuclear bomb, dramatically raising the stakes in its standoff with the US on its quest for atomic weapons. "They will probably go ahead and do it as they had that tone in their declaration," Mr Yachi said.
"It possibly means they are already very prepared." North Korean leader Kim Jong Il reportedly gathered top military commanders for a rally yesterday, urging them to bolster defences.
Attendees responded with cheers of hurrah and chanted slogans such as, "Let's fight at the cost of our lives for the respected Supreme Commander comrade Kim Jong Il". Tomorrow is the anniversary of Kim Jong Il's appointment as head of the Korean Workers' Party in 1997. In Tokyo, the Government said it was ready for a test by the arch-rival communist state. "We are making preparations keeping any possible scenario in mind," chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said. Japan would know immediately if there was a test, he said. Japan's new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he would try to find common ground with his counterparts from China and South Korea when he saw them on his first foreign trip, which starts tomorrow. "We need to send messages together to stop the north before they make such a reckless action," Mr Abe said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
Wake up folks! Let's FOCUS.
We are being invaded by illegal aliens!!!!!
Didn't you know Karl Rove got N. Korea to do a Nuc. Test to ge t the Foley Scandal off the paper!!
/s
North Korea has their own October suprise coming.
This might determine a lot of elections this november.
This ought to "blow Foleygate" off the front pages.........
The East Asian area (throughout the region), i.e. TV, Radio, Press, internet, blogs... all of it consumed with this as the TOP STORY with immense worldwide implications, including for hundreds of thousands of Americans, both civilian and military or otherwise, in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, etc.
I check FNS, CNN, and some others, and what do you think the stop story is?
Perverted instant messaging and 'who knew what, when?'
Figure Sunday at the earliest.
Yes, agreed. It should elevate national security and terrorist states with nukes as the supreme issues in the final days of the mid term elections. One would imagine.
What then? Do you believe there would then be the political will in Japan to develop nuclear weapons?
"Wake up folks"
Bears repeating.
I'm so ronery, sad and ronery . . .
North Korea announced on Tuesday it planned its first underground nuclear test, saying its hand had been forced by a U.S. "threat of nuclear war and sanctions." "We think the main point is that North Korea should understand how strongly the United States and other council members feel that they should not test this nuclear device," U.S. Ambassador John Bolton told reporters. "And if they do test it, it will be a very different world a day after the test," Bolton said. Diplomats said the Security Council was expected to adopt a formal statement on Friday telling North Korea to abandon the planned nuclear test and warning it of unspecified consequences if it went ahead. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, making his first reported public appearance since the Tuesday announcement on the planned nuclear test, held a meeting to rally army commanders on Friday. But North Korea's official KCNA news agency did not mention preparations for a nuclear test in its report, which said Kim was welcomed "with stormy cheers of hurrah." The soldiers shouted: "Let's fight at the cost of our lives for the respected supreme commander comrade Kim Jong-il."
Yeah, after the US incinerates Pyongang, the world would be very different...
ping
Can I ask you a stupid (but honestly stupid) question? Given that the world has known for some time that N. Korea has nukes, why is a "test" so much more urgent a crisis than the fact that they already had them in the first place? The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. tested nukes often, but in hindsight, history has found that neither one of us seriously wanted to use them when the chips were down. Does N. Korea's testing imply imminent use?
"And if they do test it, it will be a very different world a day after the test," Bolton said.
It's time people paid attention.
Words matter and THOSE words are astounding.
It's akin to the difference between concealed carry and brandishing.
The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. tested nukes often, but in hindsight, history has found that neither one of us seriously wanted to use them when the chips were down.
The US and the USSR were feeling their way along in developing a nuclear ettiquette during that time. In the wake of the Cold War, Miss Manners would NOT approve of nuclear testing. It annoys the neighbors.
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