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."
If a bunch of Bluejackets around the lunch table can see the pattern, why is it so difficult for those with all those degrees and titles?
However, unless you are willing to use nukes, then they no longer have the ability to prevent war. And if you will not use nukes, then a huge standing army is the only option left.
So, are you suggesting that America spend the money to outfit a strong 5 million person military (with tanks, artillery, aircraft, ships, subs, etc) instead?
Are YOU willing to pay for this huge military?
I suggest all Freepers listen to that audio link sooner rather than later :-\
Uh oh. What if he decides to use NK to execute his Judgment on SF? Hmmm. My Advice.... Pray and Fast and Repent. It worked for the Ninevites. It could work for SF. BTW Where is Jonah when you need him?
As I have said many times, History will be the worst enemy of the legacy of Bill Clinton and the miserable failures he chose to serve in his cabinet. Facts are facts and the failed policies of Bill Clinton and Al Gore will haunt us for many years
Low tech.
I just type a dozen or so then copy and paste.
They're the pivot on the axis of evil....
I suggest all Freepers listen to that audio link sooner rather than later :-\
It doesn't appear the new regime is interested any longer in U.S. military support.
Are YOU willing to pay for this huge military?
I fail to see how you surmise all of this from my one word reply.
We sleep soundly in our beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf.
Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality that guarantees all the others.
If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.
Never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.
We cannot guarantee victory, but only deserve it.
Winston Churchill
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