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."
Well, blow me over! Dem Sheila Jackson Lee just stated on Fox that she does not favor bilateral talks with NK. What a HAWK! (not)
LOL! A thermonuclear bomb is many magnitudes more difficult than a fission bomb. It too the US eight years to go from the first fission bombs to the first H-bomb. On that schedule, NK will have one by the time Star Fleet is a reality.
If China is not willing to help out on sanctions then we need to stop imports from China.I hope a missle from N Korea goes awry and lands in China.
It's the Milly Vanilly nuke.
FOX NEWS: UNITED NATIONS CONSIDERS WATERED DOWN SANCTIONS
I'll definately keep the list on hand. This little punk is not going to be satisfied until this whole thing goes hot.
Lithium Hydride or borohydride.
Hydrogen bomb? Now I know they're full of crap. Personally, I'm beginning to think the first one wasn't even a real atomic bomb either. Not that it'd matter if it was since it obviously didn't work worth a crap.
"Interesting play on how NK is trying to play up to standing up to Japan."
Bullies always pick on the smaller guy.
"He can bomb his own country all he wants for all I care."
DITTO.
You're my kind of scum, fearless and inventive.
That said, your thermal detonator is no match for the power of the force.
""We never speak empty words," "
Demo-Marxist for "We always speak empty words."
Wow! Clinton gave them more than we thought!
http://www.cafenetamerica.com
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.
Unless they got help from someone who already has one.
Heh... y'all should go search YouTube for video clips taken from Comedy Central's roast of William Shatner. Clint Howard reprises the "Balok" character.
Well, that's bizarre. I did not see that before. I think if Ahmadinejad had said that, people might have taken it seriously. For some reason, it's hard to take Kim seriously, but I know we should.
"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.
Interesting indeed. They would spend that much time and money on hiding the telltale signs of a nuke warhead test, and yet tell the whole world they were doing a test of a nuke.
Or spent the money gambling we would believe it was a dud because of their expensive P-wave canceller.
Must have been corbomite. Everyone knows the P-wave canceller only works on corbomite.
P.S. BOSE, Inc. wants to talk to NK about it's P-wave canceller for their next ACOUSTI-MASS AMP.
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