Oh, oh. It looks like
the US has done upset
Mr. Bigglesworth!
Posted on 12/23/2002 7:20:11 PM PST by Dallas
Desperate efforts began yesterday to head off the growing Korean crisis as Pyongyang and Washington continued to talk up the tension.
The UN has confirmed that North Korea has carried out its threat to remove UN seals and dismantle monitoring cameras at a laboratory used to produce weapons-grade plutonium.
Senator Joseph Biden, the outgoing chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, warned that North Korea's plan to restart a programme for plutonium extraction could allow it to produce bombs "within months".
A spokesman for the Vienna - based International Atomic Energy Agency said: "There isn't any legitimate purpose for the facility other than separating plutonium from spent fuel."
Pyongyang has issued a series of threats, including one to "destroy the earth" if the US resorted to nuclear war against it. South Korea's president, Kim Dae-jung, and the president-elect, Roh Moo-hyun, sought to calm the mood by saying they wanted a peaceful resolution.
While Russia expressed concern at the North's weekend announcement, the deputy foreign minister warned the US not to aggravate the crisis.
But the US state department yesterday rejected Pyongyang's insistence that the crisis can be solved if the US signs a treaty of non-aggression. "We will not bargain or offer inducements for North Korea to live up to the treaties and agreements it has signed," a spokesman said.
US intelligence sources were quoted by the BBC as saying they believe "North Korea may already have a small number of nuclear bombs and the material to make a few more".
Mr Biden said the crisis was "a greater danger immediately to US interests ... than Saddam Hussein."
Yesterday, the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, dismissed such concerns. "We are capable of fighting two major regional conflicts," he said.
"We're capable of winning decisively in one and swiftly defeating in the case of the other, and let there be no doubt about it."
He said Washington chose to pursue a diplomatic strategy against North Korea for the moment, as that crisis was still at a relatively early stage.
The North Korean media, which is never short of a fiery turn of phrase, has given Bush administration hardliners all the material they may want.
The communist party's newspaper Workers' Daily declared that "the army and people of the DPRK are fully ready to mercilessly strike the bulwark of US imperialist aggressors" - implying that they could hit targets in the US.
"There can be no earth without Korea," it said. "The army and people of the DPRK will destroy the earth if the enemies dare make a nuclear strike at it. This is their do-or-die spirit."
Critics of a muscular ultimatum say that the same constraints that eventually swayed the Clinton administration against attacking North Korean sites are still in place. Seoul and more than 30,000 American troops are within easy range of North Korean artillery, military experts say. Pyongyang could rain 300,000 to 500,000 rounds on this city in the first hours of a conflict.
Now, whether NK would do this is another question. Does Bush want to take that chance? I heard that last time Semenstain was considering this they left SK out of the decision making process and it incensed the South Koreans. I don't see SK wanting us to take out the site, but you never know.
Now, under normal circumstances I make fun of the FReepers who's first reaction to any type of foreign relations problem is to "nuke 'em"
It's ridiculous and juvenile..
But, in this instance I would support such a move. You don't threaten to bring us into a nuclear winter over some petty dispute on fuel oil shipments, that's not acceptable.
Further, it's a very clear indicator of the direction they will take once they enhance their nuclear capability.
I was all for letting them stamp their feet, but threats of global destruction are where the line should be drawn.. imho. Something to ENSURE that they won't ever be in a situation to make good on this threat is clearly in order.
They can't be trusted with nuclear capability.
You realize, if Sharon passes gas in Gaza they would be all over him in ten seconds, but you're got NK threatening to behave like a comic book super villan and nothing from them?
Then what good are they?
We're busy Wednesday.
We can kill 'em on Thursday.
It's the empty can that makes the most noise.
Oh, oh. It looks like
the US has done upset
Mr. Bigglesworth!
Stupid is as stupid does...
Looks like he combs his hair with the drapery attachment of a vacuum cleaner.
OMG, your're right! If NK, Iraq, and Iran joined forces, it might take up to a whole month to defeat them. LOL.
Arrogance. The common bond between commies, islamists, and democrats.
First, the UN will have to send a team of inspectors to see if the Earth is really destroyed. After that, they will study the matter.
He believes in a very clean palace. Cleanliness is next to Godliness.
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