N Korea threatens to 'destroy world'

Guardian.co.uk ^

[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."

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Great toon!

[concerned about politics]

"There can be no earth without Korea," it said.

Arrogant commies, aren't they? As a matter of fact, the world would be better off without them. I suppose no one at the UN has mentioned that to them yet.

[Publius6961]

"There can be no earth without Korea," it said.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

I guess not just the Middle East has delusional megalomaniacs.

I would be amusing to see them push the issue and admire the new "Lake PRNK"

[Mixer]

North Korea has some ego doesn't it. The thing is, if they unite with other like minded nations, with nukes, we could have a bit of a problem.

...and if the Axis of Evil were actaully formed as one fighting force it might be one that could cause a very big problem indeed.

[Navy Patriot]

As long as they hit San Francisco and New York City first, then I suppose it won't matter.

Hey Marlowe, kindly give me a couple weeks notice before N.K. does this so I get the H--- out. I promise I won't tell any liberals.

[F.J. Mitchell]

"You mean all the Democrats?"

Absolutely.

[MatthewViti]

I've been saying for months that NK is a bigger threat that Iraq, and many people here have said I was foolish for thinking that.

Odd..

[MJY1288]

You know! as well as me, that all the thirld world dictators often communicate with each other and plot against those who want to free their people. If there is one thing in common with every single one of these barbaric dictators around the world! It's this: Power and control of their people is their primaru concern and they understand the weakness in the liberals in this country and around the world, and they play them like a cheap guitar.

I wonder how many Hollywood Liberals got urgent messages from Saddam claiming all they want is to be left alone. I heard Alan Colmes say that tonight

[Semper Paratus]

Forget sending them food, they need 100 million doses of Prozac.

[Dallas]

A freeper (fission?????) said on an earlier thread that if we bomb this facility, the repercussions would be much worse than Chernobyl.

I believe him....

[Gritty]

Pyongyang has issued a series of threats, including one to "destroy the earth"

I really don't see this as a nuclear threat. It could be their usual paranoid bluster or it could be something a lot worse.

North Korea has been reputed to have a robust bioweapons program, possibly including smallpox. My guess is they are threatening to use this capability. Even if they have three nucs, they are smart enough to know they can't "destroy the earth". But, with a virulent killer such as an engineered smallpox, they could make a darn good stab at it.

Why should they care if see themselves going down? They are one of the most brutal, psychotic regimes on the entire planet and it would fit right in with their thinking.

[MatthewViti]

ooh my, isn't that pretty :-P

[dogbyte12]

We have two problems here. The South Koreans resent us. The North Koreans are a problem.

The dogbyte12 solution is as follows. Knock the tar out of North Korea, make them capitulate, then tell the South Koreans to deal with it, remove our troops.

Both sides will win. The North Koreans will be out of communist persecution, the South Koreans will have cheap labor for building their electronics and automobiles, we will be able to direct our military resources elsewhere.

[Revolting cat!]

Joking aside (as much as the cat hates to do it!) we've got a real, real problem: the West won't strike first. This is evident on the micro level, where the cops no longer walk the street beat to prevent crime (and, gasp, abuse someone's Constitutional Rights, as we all on the Left and Right agree,) and on the macro level, as in this lovely scenario. So let's just wait patiently for the North Korean friends of our Nobel Prize winner to obliterate Seoul. Our delicate stomachs couldn't take a first strike. It would be like eating dog food!

[Dallas]

These particular little rice-burners worry me....

[Tax-chick]

It would be amusing to see them push the issue and admire the new "Lake PRNK"

Very funny!

Did you type all those "ha's" one at a time, or do you have a program for it?

[Dallas]

LOL...

[Publius6961]

Does anyone out there think we don't need a missle defense system now?

Of course, war-mongering capitalist imperialist!!!!

If it isn't 100% effective the socialists and progressives will hold their breath until they turn blue...

[B-Chan]

"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.

Bring it on, you dog-eating communist freaks. It's about time to finish the job the Democrats stopped Gen. Douglas MacArthur from finishing fifty years ago. Remember the Pueblo.

[Brad’s Gramma]

OK, I really don't mean to open a whole new can of worms here.....years and years ago, when I first became a Christian, I read one of Hal Lindsey's books. China (if my memory serves me right, which is REALLY debatable....) is to be a HUGE threat. That and the Islamic faith.

At the time, I couldn't comprehend it. I'd grown up thinking the USSR would be our greatest threat.

Imagine that. (They're gonna play a role in this, too, I'm afraid)