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Posted on 01/18/2003 2:28:50 AM PST by AntiGuv
BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Kyodo) _ North Korea says it is prepared to go to war with the United States if it cannot achieve a peaceful solution to diplomatic standoff over its nuclear ambitions, a special United Nations envoy to Pyongyang warned Saturday.
North Korea's leadership, however, assured Maurice Strong, special envoy of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, that although it fears a U.S. military attack, North Korea has no nuclear weapons nor a plan to develop them, Strong told reporters following four days of talks in Pyongyang.
"They believe they are threatened by the world's main nuclear power and they themselves are quite prepared, as part of a settlement, to renounce any desire or intention to acquire nuclear weapons and subject themselves to inspections," Strong said.
"There is no question that what the North Koreans are saying is that they want to resolve it peacefully but, as you know, they are also saying they are determined to go to war if that is required for their security and the integrity of the nation," he said.
Strong said that while North Korean and U.S. stated intentions are close to the other's demands, a breakdown of mutual trust and communication has led them to "talk past each other, rather than to each other."
"So there is a serious and ominous risk that this crisis could escalate," he said.
Complaining that North Korea is a victim of unfair treatment, its leaders insisted to Strong that the United States was the first to break a 1994 agreement under which Pyongyang promised to give up any ambition to build nuclear weapons.
Under the Agreed Framework agreement, which Pyongyang says it is no longer obliged to comply with, an international framework was charged to build light-water nuclear reactors, while providing a supply of heavy fuel oil in the interim.
The U.S. halted oil shipments to North Korea in December, following Pyongyang's shock admission to a visiting U.S. envoy in October that it had been maintaining a secret program to enrich uranium for nuclear arms.
Strong called on the U.S. and other countries not to link political and humanitarian issues, while lamenting diminishing contributions to the U.N. World Food Program, which he said is helping to feed 6 million to 8 million North Koreans.
"We cannon make the children, the ill people, the old people victims of our political crisis (which) they have had nothing to do (with)," he said.
North Korea's deactivation of monitoring equipment at its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon and its expulsion of International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors last month has prompted a steady stream of diplomats to Pyongyang.
A tight-lipped Australian delegation flew into Beijing's international airport on the same flight as Strong only about an hour before Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov boarded a Pyongyang-bound plane.
Meanwhile, a Beijing-based diplomat following North Korean issues told Kyodo News that Pyongyang cannily timed the restarting of its nuclear program at a time when it believes Washington is preoccupied with preparations to wage war against Iraq.
"North Korean leaders also realize the U.S. would find it difficult to win the support of South Korea and Japan in any military action against North Korea since these countries would be the fat in the fire," he said.
"North Korea's leaders are smart, not crazy. They know how to exploit opportunities," he said.
The U.S. halted oil shipments to North Korea in December, following Pyongyang's shock admission to a visiting U.S. envoy in October that it had been maintaining a secret program to enrich uranium for nuclear arms.
Well which is it, no plan to develop, or maintaining a secret program to enrich uranium?
Complaining that North Korea is a victim of unfair treatment, its leaders insisted to Strong that the United States was the first to break a 1994 agreement under which Pyongyang promised to give up any ambition to build nuclear weapons.
Wait what about that secret program to enrich uranium?
Nuke Them............................ Nuke Them Now!
Dear member of the Left.............Don’t think of it as a pre-emptive nuclear strike, think of it as a partial birth abortion, before North Korea can be born!
See now looking at it like this, don’t you feel better?
And they're going to come over here HOW, exactly? They've got one missile that can hit Anchorage, maybe. After that, their entire nation is glass.
Please, bring it on.
The old stand-by line(s) used by the former USSR no longer work.
Maybe you boys should just quit now...before ya really piss W off.
Did you see that satellite photo of the light produced by nations at night? There isn't a light to be found in North Korea. those clowns can't even light their own country. It is in stark contrast to that of South Korea. South of the DMZ, there are near solid lights. North of the DMZ, there is a black hole all the way to the sparsley lit chinese boarder. There people would be extremely happy for their leaders to go to war with us, because their standard of living would immediately go up. It is no wonder that their silly leaders support Saddam. They all are just a bunch of "Mother's - of all big mouth fools."
However, those two foolish countries prove that we still should be in an arms race, because we can't really stop the world's fools from trying to kill us. Therefore, we better be in a position to insure that we can kill them first, if necessary.
Well there it is in a nutshell; they're playing Bush like a violin. I've always considered North Korea more of a threat than Iraq, yet this administration continues to play footsie with them just like the klintoon administration did. I guess the lesson to the rest of the world is that if you acquire nukes then the U.S. will be reluctant to mess with you. Not a very good message to be sending.
Another problem is that it is the UN who hold the Line (DMZ) and is the actual flag under which the US Forces are stationed in South Korea. The communists, including Russia and China, in the past have been only held at bay because of the UN and US presence.
My suggestion to the the Bush Diplomatic Team is to have the South Korean's foot the bill for any economic concession we make from this point on in support of the Sunshine Policy of dialogue with the Chicoms up North. Once they truly have a vested economic interest, then the South Korean Government can "afford" to be critical of US Foreign Policy.
poodle is mostly dark meat.
Tell that to him:
Why do we pay attention to people promising to do things they are incapable of?
IMHO, Richardson told NK to turn up the heat on Bush for the political advantage of the Dems. Bush should ignore them. "Yeah, fine, go to war, whatever."
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