Posted on 02/14/2009 11:48:25 AM PST by Sub-Driver
NKorea would only use nukes if survival at stake: US by Jitendra Joshi Jitendra Joshi Thu Feb 12, 10:48 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – North Korea is unlikely to use its nuclear weapons unless Kim Jong-Il's regime feels mortally threatened, but the Stalinist nation remains a wide-ranging menace, a top official said.
Dennis Blair, President Barack Obama's director of national intelligence, accused North Korea of exporting missiles to Iran while observing that Kim himself remains very much in charge despite an apparent stroke last year.
"Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions and proliferation behavior threaten to destabilize East Asia," Blair told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, presenting the US intelligence community's annual "threat assessment."
Before its shock nuclear detonation of October 2006, North Korea was believed to have enough plutonium for at least six atomic weapons and there are "increasing concerns" that it is still enriching uranium, Blair said.
But the retired admiral added: "Pyongyang probably views its nuclear weapons as being more for deterrence, international prestige and coercive diplomacy than for war-fighting, and would consider using nuclear weapons only under certain narrow circumstances.
"We also assess Pyongyang probably would not attempt to use nuclear weapons against US forces or territory unless it perceived the regime to be on the verge of military defeat and risked an irretrievable loss of control."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I can see his mind retired long ago! He fits in well with the "destroy America yes we can" theme in this communist sewer flowing currently in the White-house.
That’s what all brutally oppressive dictators want, security. They are just scared. If we give him want he wants he will be happy and peaceful.We are awaiting a reply from albrights Valentine’s day present and hope he will show up at chuck e cheese for our great big tyrannical murderer hug fest.
Is this a joke?
Well, if they’re only going to use them if they feel threatened, then there’s no problem, right?
Yeah, he knows their intentions. [/sarc]
Capabilities are more important then intentions, as the latter is unpredictable.
I watched some of his hearing. I became truly frightened. He seemed so detached, so uninterested, and so poorly informed.
Thank you Oncle Obama! I feel so much better now!
In addition to tax avoidance, extreme naivete also seems to be in great demand in staffing the Obamanation Admin.
I’m starting to believe in reincarnation (/s). Neville Chamberlain keeps popping back up.
They'd probably share a Nobel for it until the mushroom cloud formed over what used to be Seoul and ruined the liberals' fun.
remains very much in charge despite an apparent stroke last year
They can not give a direct factual answer to did the man have a stroke yet they presume to be able to tell if he or his Government would use nukes and under what circumstances..........
My God the ignorance of these people.
We have no idea how closely tied to terrorists North Korea is, but there’s no reason to think they couldn’t network with a grand design in mind.
Even China and Russia are wild cards. We have cut our military to the absolute bone, and now we have people who can’t fathom complex international dynamics.
We are waltzing into an ambush at some point. It’s my take that China is a lot more prepared for hostilities than our government is admitting to.
You give China less than ten years, and we’re looking at some serious s—t coming our way.
Mark my post.
We will see at least a nuke detonated in anger with Obama in power. Hopefully it will not escalate too much (and hopefully we’ll have some around in case we need them). And hopefully after the first nuke goes off that kills many Americans, our Pentagon will clean things up a bit.
It ALWAYS happens this way, we have to live Obama’s learning curve, no different than with Carter.
Who’s stupid enough to fall for that?
The Carter Administration, The Clinton Administration, The Obama Administration -- basically, any Democrat Administration.
“North Korea is unlikely to use its nuclear weapons unless Kim Jong-Il’s regime feels mortally threatened”
Fine, but the question is, what makes these nut jobs feel mortally threatened? I’d rather not risk our security to the mental instability of these whackos.
The dictators of North Korea have nothing to worry about except their own people eating them.
The Chinese don’t want a unified democratic Korea on their border. South Korea doesn’t want to pick up the tab for bringing North Korea’s standard of living up to something approaching its own. They also don’t want to share a border with an expansionist PRC.
Essentially the same crowd that think the muslims would not have sacked europe the last time if we’d just told them up front we really liked them and meant them no harm.
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