Posted on 01/18/2009 3:57:58 PM PST by Brilliant
North Korea raised the volume of its fist-shaking rhetoric over the weekend as the U.S. prepares for a change of leaders and South Korea remains ambivalent to its anger at being cut off from economic aid.
A uniformed military official appeared on North Korean TV to deliver criticism against South Korea, saying the North had been "compelled to enter an all-out confrontation posture to smash it."
The official sharply criticized South Korea's president, Lee Myung-bak, whose insistence on tying economic aid to arms reduction cost North Korea about $300 million last year. North Korea has mounted a steady propaganda campaign against Mr. Lee since last April, but Saturday's announcement gained new attention because of the involvement of the North's military. Such an appearance is rare, and some South Korean analysts called it unprecedented.
Meanwhile, an American scholar who visited Pyongyang last week told reporters in Beijing on Saturday that senior North Korean officials told him they had "weaponized" all the plutonium they previously revealed in diplomatic negotiations. That amount, about 31 kilograms or 68 pounds, is enough to make four to five nuclear weapons, analysts say.
The scholar, Selig Harrison of the Center for International Policy in Washington, said North Korea could be bluffing about the weapons but he added its leaders clearly want the country regarded by others as a nuclear state. Mr. Harrison, a former reporter who has visited the North about a dozen times, is one of a handful of Americans who North Korean officials agree to regularly meet.
The statements conveyed by Mr. Harrison align with several others made in North Korean media in recent weeks that appeared to reset its negotiating posture back to where it was in 2003, when it began aid-for-disarmament negotiations with the U.S., South Korea and three other nations...
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
South Korea and Taiwan can kiss their freedom-loving asses goodbye.
Which side will Hussein go with - north or south?
The question is whether BO can pull our troops out of Korea before the Madman of Pong Yang blows them up.
This is what happens when you are President, and you display weakness.
He has been consistently in favor of appeasement. It is too late for him to show concern. He has blood on his hand in this matter. The feckless lib was one of morons instrumental in Chia Head getting away with it for such a long time.
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