Posted on 10/12/2006 12:10:32 PM PDT by UnsinkableMollyBrown
NORTH Korea has again raised the stakes in its game of nuclear poker by threatening to test a hydrogen bomb that would be even more powerful than a nuclear device. The new high card has been played by North Korea's unofficial spokesman in Tokyo, Kim Myong-chol, who, aside from threatening an even bigger bomb as a "countermeasure", said that another nuclear test was the thing that "first comes to mind".
It is news bound to rattle regional leaders who are rapidly running out of aces. The leaders of South Korea and China will meet today in Beijing about North Korea, their first face-to-face meeting since Monday's nuclear test. Mr Kim's choice of words was in line with the comments of a senior North Korean diplomat who also spoke darkly of "countermeasures" particularly aimed at Japan. "The specific contents will become clear if you keep watching. We never speak empty words," said North Korea's ambassador for diplomatic normalisation with Japan, Song Il-ho, in an interview yesterday with Japan's Kyodo News Agency in Pyongyang.
North Korea was angered by a new round of economic sanctions imposed by Japan that amount to a virtual trade blockade. The measures ban North Korean ships, imports and travel visas and come on top of earlier sanctions on commercial ties and financial transactions. It will have the effect of cutting North Korea's access to its third biggest market, according to government officials in Tokyo.
Mr Song said that Tokyo's sanctions hurt more than others because Japan had never atoned for its colonisation of the Korean Peninsula between 1920 and 1945 and that was a factor that would be "calculated in" as Pyongyang planned its retribution, he said. The reference to "colonisation" would be read like a code by left-wing nationalists in South Korea, according to Robert Dujarric, a Tokyo-based senior associate with the National Institute of Public Policy in Virginia.
"One of the goals of North Korea is to convince South Korea that they are standing up to the ugly Japanese colonialists and so North Korean nationalism is always covered with a Japanese face," Dr Dujarric said. By undermining support in Seoul, North Korea would lower the risk of severe sanctions from South Korea, which is its biggest source of aid and trade.
Japan's Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, ordered a special meeting on the consequences of the economic sanctions on Japanese businesses, including on fish and vegetable importers who buy unusual crab, mushroom and ginseng varieties from North Korean suppliers.
US President George Bush, speaking after Japan announced plans for extra sanctions, said: "In response to North Korea's actions we're working with our partners … to ensure there are serious repercussions for the regime in Pyongyang." China, the nearest North Korea has to an ally, has condemned its communist neighbour and backs limited sanctions, but diplomats said it sees the US approach as too stringent. "One can say that punishment isn't the goal," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said yesterday, saying any sanctions would be to coax North Korea back to talks.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister John Howard warned that using military force against North Korea's "seriously crazy regime" could not be ruled out. Mr Howard said the North Korea situation was very bad and a huge problem for the whole world and the options for dealing with it were very limited. "Nobody wants to look at military options," he told Sydney radio. "You can't take them off the table, you never do that, that's foolish, but nobody really wants to look at that as an option."
The first test may have been of an intended thermonuclear device of 400 kT equivalent. It failed if it was. It also appears to have failed as an atom bomb. If N Kor threatens to test a hydrogen bomb--another term for a thermonuclear bomb--it would be a second attempt, not an escalation.
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His next test should be his last.
More firecrackers!
"So, after the Hydrogen bomb, will they test their death ray?"
And after that, reveal their fully operational battle star? LOL
"No frigging way these guys could make the jump from a fission device to a fusion one this quick... way to overplay your hand Eraserhead."
Especially when their fission device is widely seen as a fizzle
Of course not. They are full of Shiite.
It might be if it works. N Kor isn't that big a place.
bump
And if you still don't come to the table... We will detonate our matter/anti-matter bomb. HAHAHAHAHA! We will not be outdone in our dreams!!
I'll see your cobalt bomb and raise you one antimatter bomb.
We have said many times that we "won't tolerate" nuclear weapons in North Korea. But do we mean it?
It's harsh and crazy (and one of the many reasons I'm not actually President) but it seems to me that Bush should announce to the world: "They test again, I vaporize their capital. I will not consult with the Joint Chiefs. I'll just give the order. Don't test your bomb. Don't test me."
A few ounces of Anti-Matter is more powerful that a thousand Cobalt Bombs. If the North Koreans were to get there hands on that, the results could be devastating.
lol
Might have been a fizzle of a plutonium core for an H bomb. Just didn't add the deuterium. Anyone know what form the deuterium takes? D20, D2 gas????
I would love to hear those words.
Maybe ronery is planning to test a hydrogen (peroxide blonde) bomb (shell)?
Not so fast NK. I'm still trying to figure our what you meant by this:
~ In a related development, Kim Myong-chol, who is called the (unofficial) spokesman of Kim Jong-il, said in his interview with (S. Korea's) KBS Radio, "Everything will be settled in a week. That is, whether we, Korean people, will remain as we are now, or lose, or New York will lose, or Washington D.C. will lose, it will be settled once and for all." ~
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1718089/posts
Egad - has anyone been keeping an eye on this guy's Dilithium mines?
Right. And then the NEXT step is the Antimatter Bomb.
And if that doesn't work they will HOLD THEIR BREATH UNTIL THEY TURN BLUE.
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