The report also came amid concerns that President George Bush will take a tougher stance with North Korea during his second term.
I hope they do take a tougher, or at least much firmer, stance with N.K. IMO we have coddled them for too long. Whether it's Kim Jong il or whoever follows him they are a dangerous situation almost to the boiling point. It seems that the N.K. people have been so isolated and brainwashed that there is not really any hope of civility once their "leader" is gone.
"I hope they do take a tougher, or at least much firmer, stance with N.K. IMO we have coddled them for too long."
I agree with the need for a tougher approach, but that should have happened in 1994 when this first came to a boil. We inherited a mess.
A second Korean War, though it would only last a few weeks or months, could potentially produce more American casualties than any conflict since WWII. Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War I, and the current Iraq War. There is almost no way it does not go nuclear.
And that assumes they are incapable of successfuly delivering nuclear payloads via ICBM to multiple targets here (launching 5-10 and hoping 2-3 get through any primitive missile defense). Or that they do not smuggle something in directly or in conjunction with Iran and al Qaeda. Civilian casualties would then be far higher.
But we cannot let them keep running their nuclear program churning out nukes like Christmas cookies. Clinton was probably afraid of presiding over mankind's first nuclear war in 1994 as they had at least one or two warheads back then. That is why he sent Jimmy to sue for peace.
Since they unfroze their public activities in 2002, they probably have at least a dozen if not more by now(2 existing, 8 from the unfrozen plutonium, an unknown number from the covert uranium program, an unknown number from any underground plutonium program, and any manufactured from black market purchases over the past 15 years.)
If we hold off, the materials and weapons will proliferate further.
I do not disagree with the need to bring this to a final resolution. But the cost may be horrendous. It could cost us cities. But the longer we wait the higher the cost.
Unless the process towards war is derailed, we could face mankind's first nuclear exchange. Believe it or not, a single 10-15 Kt device going off in an American city is *not* the worst case scenario.