North Korea wants to talk(says they tested NEUTRON BOMB)

Herald Sun ^ | 10/10/06 | Gerard McManus and agencies

[TigerLikesRooster]

North Korea wants to talk

Gerard McManus and agencies

October 10, 2006 12:00am

A NORTH Korean official said Pyongyang is willing to return to international arms talks and abandon its atomic program if the US takes "corresponding measures," reports suggest.

"The nuclear test is an expression of our intention to face the United States across the negotiating table," the unnamed official said, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

"What we want is security of the (North), including guaranteeing our system."

Yonhap didn't say how or where it contacted the official, or why no name was given.

The official didn't elaborate on what the corresponding measures would be.

But one of them is believed to be a long-standing North Korean demand that Washington lift financial restrictions on the communist regime for its alleged counterfeiting and money laundering.

North Korea has cited the financial issue in boycotting nuclear talks with China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the US The talks last convened in November.

The official also dismissed moves at the UN Security Council to sanction the communist nation over its reported nuclear test.

"We have lost enough. Sanctions can never be a solution," the official said.

"We still have a willingness to give up nuclear weapons and return to six-party talks as well. It's possible whenever the US takes corresponding measures."

Pyongyang declared yesterday that it had successfully tested a nuclear bomb.

[TigerLikesRooster]

A source close to the regime said North Korea had exploded a neutron bomb to allay doubts about its strength and deter US threats of regime change.

``It's for self-defence: the United States wants regime change,'' the source, who requested anonymity, said in Beijing, noting that Mr Bush had labelled North Korea part of an ``axis of evil'' along with Iran and Iraq in 2002.

There was no independent confirmation that the device was a neutron bomb, designed to release larger amounts of deadly radiation than other nuclear weapons while leaving infrastructure intact.

I am not an expert, but I suspect that N. Koreans are bent on conning their way out of fizzled nuke at the test.

So they blew this one as well as their last long-range missile launch?

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[Miss Marple]

Well, if they think saying they tested a neutron bomb will make everyone less likely to institute regime change, they are following the Saddam Hussein plan for remaining in power.

Meanwhile, Fox is reporting that the Japanese and others are still ooking for traces of radioation, and so far nothing has shown up.

[AmericaUnited]

What does it really matter that North Korea test detonated a micro size nuke underground? WHOOPY... In other news... Somewhere in the remotest parts of Africa, an elephant also farted. What am I missing here?

[#1CTYankee]

"Meanwhile, Fox is reporting that the Japanese and others are still looking for traces of radiation, and so far nothing has shown up."

Maybe that's because they just lit a big pile of fireworks from China.

[Donna Lee Nardo]

Interesting. Reports yesterday were all over the board as to the significance of this test. This also occurred after NK tested their long-range missile a few months ago.

[Brilliant]

Ingenious. Your nuke test doesn't work, so tell them it was a neutron bomb.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #3

This is turning into a con-game. Not good for Kim Jong-il's ego, but could make talking heads busy with their lips.

Lately, Kim Jong-il has become a dud-maker.:)

[HiTech RedNeck]

ooking for traces of radiation

The time to ook (ok, to look) for them would be when it happened. We have radioastronomers looking at stuff billions of miles away, why wouldn't this show up on their instruments too.

[Miss Marple]

I don't know. The Japanese are no doubt Looking for downwind radiation. I know we were said to have planes flying over the area, but I don't know what they found.

[backhoe]

Just in from the blogs:

North Korea Goes Nuclear: The Largest Roundup With Commentary In The Blogosphere

THE BELMONT CLUB ASKS: "Was North Korea testing a suitcase nuke?"

The W54 warhead used on the Davy Crockett weighed just 51 pounds and was the smallest and lightest fission bomb (implosion type) ever deployed by the United States, with a variable explosive yield of 0.01 kilotons (equivalent to 10 tons of TNT, or two to four times as powerful as the ammonium nitrate bomb which destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995), or 0.02 kilotons-1 kiloton. A 58.6 pound variant the B54 was used in the Special Atomic Demolition Munition (SADM), a nuclear land mine deployed in Europe, South Korea, Guam, and the United States from 1964-1989.
micro nukes & delivery system, forty year old technology.

The XM-388 casing (including the warhead and fin assembly) weighed 76 pounds, was 30 inches long and measured 11 inches in diameter (at its widest point).

[agere_contra]

The theory that the NKers merely set off 500 tonnes of conventional explosive is looking better and better ...

[Moonman62]

I think it's a cry for help. Their missle test was designed to fail, and their nuclear test was fake.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #13

To get help, first they have to surrender unconditionally.:)

[Just mythoughts]

Bill Richardson is still claiming that we should have one on one, face to face talks with Il. Sure makes me wonder if that was not part of the agreement signed by the Clinton administration.

Bill Clinton said that alll Il wanted was respect.

[Junior]

That whole "kills people while leaving buildings intact" line is a load of crap. A neutron weapon is still a nuclear bomb, complete with the attendant fireball and blast effects. It is just a much dirtier version of a standard nuclear weapon.

[dc-zoo]

Yeah well Il is about as close to respectable as Clinton.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #15

The trouble is that he wants the respect as another major power with large nuclear arsenal.

Ready for it, Mr. Richardson?

[Just mythoughts]

They both are attention deficit suffers and Clintons foreign policy was 'equalize all nations', Il may just be demanding what Clinton promised him.

Else why is Richardson still claiming we should give Il a one on one, face to face attention?

[Just mythoughts]

I am not so sure anymore he (Il), was not promised that very thing by the Clintons. "Large nuclear arsenal"

These Clintons and company, can't have both sides of the debate, they were deceived on the one hand, and yet we have to meet with Il face to face. For what another deception???