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N Korea threatens to 'destroy world'
Guardian.co.uk ^

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."


TOPICS: Breaking News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
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To: humblegunner
[And if they do destroy the world]

Ahh, c'mon.. are they going to destroy the world after squatting over a ditch or after a nice dinner of dog?

YOU DON'T UNDERSDAND!! Kim has recently formed a partnership with DR. Evil and The Penquin! This is getting series!

201 posted on 12/24/2002 2:28:18 PM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham
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To: Semi_Fusion
Oh yeah... We'll destroy the Solar System if you destroy the world.

Oh yeah! Then we'll...er....uh...Where is the Solar System?

202 posted on 12/24/2002 2:32:10 PM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham
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To: finnman69
Pyongyang could rain 300,000 to 500,000 rounds on this city in the first hours of a conflict.

And we could detonate a 25 megaton hydrogen bomb over Pyongyang in the first minutes of a conflict.

203 posted on 12/24/2002 2:39:43 PM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham
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To: P-Marlowe
I've always thought America needed a Missile Defense System and could never understand why any American would be against it.
204 posted on 12/24/2002 2:42:28 PM PST by maxwellp
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To: Jhoffa_
They can't be trusted with nuclear capability.

Yes. We are now engaging at least two dictators, who are close to fielding nuclear weapons, who are almost insane. The "old rules" may not apply in these cases. In '62, Castro emplored Kruschev to nuke the US. IMO, Kim and Saddam makes Castro look like a diplomat.

205 posted on 12/24/2002 2:45:49 PM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham
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To: Hunble
"America no longer has Clinton as President..". My husband said the same thing you did, while we listened to North Korea threatening us. Specifically he said "These people don't understand we have a guy in the White House who loves America and will do anything to protect America". God Bless President Bush.
206 posted on 12/24/2002 3:08:15 PM PST by maxwellp
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To: Sabertooth; mountaineer; Endeavor; BigWaveBetty

Are we to fear a man who dresses like a member of a landscaping crew?


207 posted on 12/24/2002 3:29:50 PM PST by Hillary's Lovely Legs
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To: Hillary's Lovely Legs
Which one?
208 posted on 12/24/2002 3:31:41 PM PST by Endeavor
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To: MJY1288
"US policymakers should urgently re-examine their assumptions about the 'progress' of Russia and China 'towards democracy'. They should take account of Sino-Russian strategy and should recognise that the long-term strategic, political and economic threat comes from a Sino-Russian axis and associated participants like North Korea, Iran, Iraq and Syria."
209 posted on 12/24/2002 5:10:25 PM PST by Orion78
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To: Dallas
"The failure of US policy makers to comprehend the veiled aggressiveness and hostil-ity towards the United States inherent in Sino-Russian strategy and the belief that the political and economic reforms in Russia and the partial introduction of capitalism in China have foreshadowed these countries' development into real democracies, have eroded the effectiveness of US policies in the foreign affairs, defence, intelligence and counter-intelligence fields. US policymakers have recklessly accepted the premise that Russia and China are no longer their enemies, but are rather potential allies and partners fully deserving of US support. Only countries like Iran, Iraq and North Korea - which (ironically, in this context) work secretly with Russia and China - are still considered potential adversaries."
210 posted on 12/24/2002 5:15:15 PM PST by Orion78
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To: Endeavor
I just noticed that Albright is wearing that life-sized flag pin on her shoulder.
211 posted on 12/24/2002 5:36:22 PM PST by Hillary's Lovely Legs
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To: Hunble
America is the "New Rome" now days, and it is about time we swat a few bugs like Iraq and North Korea, since they have not figured it out yet.

This is exactly what we needed to do - - as soon as North Korea made that threat. Saddam should be toast tomorrow morning.

We should use and further test neutron bombs, they kill everything, including biological agents, but leaves oil wells, airstrips and other strategic infrastructure intact...

212 posted on 12/24/2002 6:09:47 PM PST by Sir Francis Dashwood
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To: Sabertooth
Did Madeline Albright use a fishing trawler rig to get into her girdle on those days?
213 posted on 12/24/2002 6:12:04 PM PST by Sir Francis Dashwood
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To: MatthewViti
They are just as big a threat, and they are truly part of an enemy axis, in that they would sell/give nukes to any troublemakers that would discommodate the US...such as Iraq, Iran or Al-Quaeda.
214 posted on 12/24/2002 6:32:03 PM PST by Paul Ross
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To: Rye
The MX force has been ordered retired by GWB. Along with a whole bunch of Minuteman III's and Trident missile subs. See the Treaty of Moscow, 2002.
215 posted on 12/24/2002 6:34:26 PM PST by Paul Ross
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To: Paul Ross
I know, but I believe they're still operational.
216 posted on 12/24/2002 6:43:19 PM PST by Mr. Mojo
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To: Mad_Tom_Rackham
Kim has recently formed a partnership with DR. Evil and The Penquin

Well, now, that puts rather a different light on things, doesn't it?

217 posted on 12/24/2002 6:46:36 PM PST by humblegunner
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To: Hillary's Lovely Legs
The commie on the right seems to be wearing a Texaco uniform. The one on the left looks like a chambermaid (but we all knew that).
218 posted on 12/24/2002 6:47:17 PM PST by mountaineer
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To: Orion78
Bump for blasts from the Past!
219 posted on 12/24/2002 6:58:29 PM PST by Paul Ross
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To: Dallas
Thank you, Bill and Jimmy
220 posted on 12/24/2002 7:02:16 PM PST by scottinoc
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