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."
They better be wearing their disintigration-proof vest if they keep talking like this!
Ha ha ha! Is that you Baghdad Bob?
Heh-Heh. Live long and Prosper.
John Howard is terrific...thanks Aussies.
BTW...Cougar, I think you better keep that list handy.
no, we have it all backwards. He is wanting us to test a device in his country. Thats what he means when he says a hydrogen bomb is next.
I think a hydrogen bomb test is very unlikely, even if they've bought one from another country. They'd want to keep that very expensive item for the real deal, not waste it on this game of dick flashing.
Most likely they'll just do an upgraded version of the last test. (Dear Leader Nuke 2.0) Their scientists need time to make adjustments and figure out what didn't work so well with the last test, but I doubt the government is going to give them as much time as they need to get it right, so we'll see how it works.
On a side note, there was a thread on here recently about the possibility that the NKs had the help of scientists trained in Russia in designing a tunnel that does a good job of canceling out the P-waves. I'm not sure how much truth there is to that, but it's an interesting possibility.
I refer, of course, to child psychologists.
That might be difficult to do with a 9mm migraine....
Spy photo of suspected 'hydrogen bomb'.
(They supposedly bought it from some guy named 'Eddie'.)
It fries sirentry! You never hear it coming!
It make big KABOOM!!
You pay attention to us now!!
To really get dirty for the little pest, threaten him with Cindy (Peace Mom). She's on par with M. Halfbright.
The GOP needs to really counter the lies being spewed by the Clintonistas about North Korea and the "Agreed Framework" in the 1990's. Sandy Berger is going around making the statement: "Enough plutoneum for 11 bombs under Bush I, ZERO under Clinton, 2-4 bombs under Bush II". They are pretending that Kim Jong-Il did not enrich a single ounce of Plutoneum during Clinton's tenure, which is a bald-faced lie. Once again, as with the lies about Al Queda and the 1990's Sandy Berger is their front man, and the others follow his lead. Albright. Richardson. Hillary. Media Matters. Only John McCain has had the guts (I hate to say it) and called Berger and Hillary's assertions as total nonsense. That Jong-Il lied to the UN and IAEA and had a secrfet program to enrich both plutoneum and uranium, that Hans Blix and later El Barradei turned the other cheek when knowing NK was up to this.
i TOO HAVE BEEN WONDERING WHAT EXACLTY THAT MEANS....oops sorry for caps....
These crazy Bastids just cant get over the fact that when they screwed Clinton by breaking their deal with him the rest of the world discovered that blackmail doesnt work when the blackmailer doesnt keep his word.
They are going to keep farting around until someone get scared, panics , and drops the big one on them.
So this means twice as much TNT for the next "nuke test"?
This is like waving a broken gun at a cop.
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