EOUL, South Korea, Dec. 24 ? North Korea warned today of an "uncontrollable catastrophe" unless the United States agrees to a negotiated solution to a tense standoff over its nuclear energy and weapons programs. Posted on 12/25/2002 8:19:45 AM PST by JohnHuang2
EOUL, South Korea, Dec. 24 ? North Korea warned today of an "uncontrollable catastrophe" unless the United States agrees to a negotiated solution to a tense standoff over its nuclear energy and weapons programs.
The statement, made amid mounting tensions with the United States, came as a stiff pre-emptive rebuff to a conciliation-minded newly elected president in South Korea, and a warning to other countries that their efforts to mediate the crisis will be futile.
"There is no need for any third party to meddle in the nuclear issue on the peninsula," said North Korea's ruling-party newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun. Referring to the North Korean government by its Korean initials, the paper said: "The issue should be settled between the DPRK and the U.S., the parties responsible for it. If the U.S. persistently tries to internationalize the pending issue between the DPRK and the U.S. in a bid to flee from its responsibility, it will push the situation to an uncontrollable catastrophe."
The North Korean defense minister, Kim Il Chol, went further, warning of "merciless punishment" to the United States if it pursued a confrontational approach to the emerging nuclear crisis.
"The U.S. hawks are arrogant enough to groundlessly claim that North Korea has pushed ahead with a `nuclear program,' bringing its hostile policy toward the DPRK to an extremely dangerous phase," the state-run Korean Central News Agency quoted Mr. Kim as saying.
Some analysts here saw the defense minister's statement as a defiant response to comments by his American counterpart, Donald H. Rumsfeld, who said on Monday that the United States had enough military power to prevail over North Korea even if such a conflict occurred during a war with Iraq.
The North's incendiary comments came as Pyongyang accelerated its takeover of nuclear fuel and reactors placed under international surveillance under a 1994 agreement with the United States. That pact, known as the Agreed Framework, was forged after a standoff remarkably similar to the current one.
Today, South Korean officials said North Korea had begun taking steps to reactivate a five-megawatt nuclear reactor that had been mothballed under the agreement. North Korea completed the removal of the last International Atomic Energy Agency seals and disabling surveillance cameras at a fuel fabrication plant in Yongbyon, South Korean officials said on Tuesday.
The facility is known technically as a "research reactor," but Western arms control experts say its true purpose is to produce plutonium for nuclear weapons.
"There are varying estimates on how long it would take them to reprocess the spent fuel, but they probably have plans to do it a lot faster than outsiders imagine ? and will do so if their equipment works," said an American official who has studied North Korea's nuclear programs for years.
"Here are a few of the ugly signposts we might whiz past: asking the inspectors to leave, starting up the reprocessing line, finalizing their withdrawal from the Nonproliferation Treaty and declaring themselves a nuclear power with a `Korean bomb' intended to protect the whole of the Korean people by keeping the Americans from starting a war."
Reflecting the sharp increase in distrust between the United States and South Korea amid a series of major demonstrations against the presence of 37,000 American troops in the country, the official added, "This will cause some secret shivers of pride amongst some in the South."
Both South Korea's outgoing president, Kim Dae Jung, and the man who will succeed him in February, Roh Moo Hyun, spent most of the day struggling to contain the crisis, which threatens to nullify the engagement policies they embrace.
"South Korea, the United States, Japan, China, Russia and the European Union are all strongly calling on North Korea to abandon the nuclear program, but the North is not listening now," Mr. Kim said during a cabinet meeting.
Amid concerns over tensions between Washington and Seoul, Mr. Kim appeared to draw closer to the American position on the North, saying there could be no major cooperation between the two countries unless Pyongyang agreed to international controls on its weapons of mass destruction. "We can never join hands in the development of nuclear weapons, missiles and other weapons," Mr. Kim said.
The new president, Mr. Roh, meanwhile, spent much of the day meeting with ambassadors of countries that have been involved in the region's crisis. "The president-elect requested cooperation from those concerned countries to help resolve the North's nuclear issue peacefully," said Mr. Roh's spokesman, Lee Nak Hyun.
Mr. Roh also spoke by telephone to the Japanese prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi. The two leaders "agreed to continue close cooperation among Japan, the United States and South Korea to bring about a peaceful solution to nuclear and other security issues regarding North Korea," a ministry statement said.
In Washington, the State Department said it was following developments closely. "Again, we urge North Korea not to restart any of its frozen nuclear facilities," said Tara Rigler, a department spokeswoman. Ms. Rigler said the State Department's stance was unchanged since Monday, when the department's spokesman, Philip Reeker, said that there could be no negotiations while North Korea is pursuing its nuclear program, and that the United States "will not give in to blackmail."
President Bush was said to be monitoring developments from the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md., where he is spending the Christmas holiday with his family.
Ms. Rigler reiterated the administration's position that the spent fuel rods are "of particular concern because they could be processed to recover plutonium for nuclear weapons."
"They have no relevance for the generation of electricity," she said.
Recently, China, which has been North Korea's closest ally since the two countries fought the United States during the Korean War from 1950 to 1953, also expressed concern over the reported pursuit of nuclear weapons. Today, Beijing urged Washington and Pyongyang to negotiate a solution of the crisis that would leave the Korean peninsula free from nuclear weapons.
"We hope relevant sides can proceed in the overall interest of safeguarding peace and stability on the peninsula and reach a resolution to the issue through dialogue," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Someone set us up the bomb.
Fact is, if they nuked the DMZ and the capital of South Korea, what the heck would we do? Kinda hard to nuke back anything of value in North Korea. Plus their whole army would be in South Korea by the time we decided how to respond - so we wouldn't be able to nuke anything of military value in North Korea by then.
Maybe under the circumstance we should treat them like Pakistan. The South Koreans have kind of been jerks toward us recently anyway, so who the heck are we protecting? Maybe we should just move our current DMZ troops out of the Korean DMZ and park them on the Southern border of the US. That would stop our illegal immigration problem!
Two words...
"Neutron F***in' Bomb"! (nod to Dennis Leary).
No more pussy-footin with these cheap dictators! If it brings on calamity, then it does so.
These dictators have been building towards this day for FAR too long, and we have had too many Socialist/Liberals running the State Department and hand-wringing over "US Imperialism".
No longer. The Giant has been awakened, and heaven help the ones who awakened it, because WE won't!
Remember...
"The Avalanche has already started. It is too late for the PEBBLES to vote!"
I don't know if that is a good assumption or not. The whole South Korean situation really complicates matters for us. We really can't do anything militarily against NK without getting approval from South Korea. It is their country which is most vulnerable to NK retaliation, of course. And given their pacifist tendencies, it seems unlikely that they would approve of military action.
We could do it unilaterally, but do we really want to gamble the lives of all the citizens in Seoul? There is at least some possibility of destroying South Korea in an effort to protect it.
We might simply choose to do nothing. After all, NK is not an imminent threat to the US. Their missile program is advanced, but it's not ICBM quality, and we will have deployed missile defense before they deploy ICBMs.
But that leaves open the risks we've already discussed.
The only feasible military operation that would minimize risk to South Korea is an overwhelming surprise attack by us, probably using nuclear weapons to obliterate these weapon sites and nuclear facilities. We'd also have to decapitate NK leadership, essentially destroying the country in a few minutes.
We have the firepower to do it, but I don't know if we're prepared to accept the geopolitical consequences of that. I suspect we aren't.
This isn't the case anymore. The Yen is pretty strong with the Won and most Korean cities cater more the the Japanese then any other people. They speak good Japanese and know the power of money. The younger generation doesn't have the distrust of the Japanese that the older generations do.
Who do these people think they are? Their little no-dong (aptly named) missles won't even reach the continental United States.
I say we take "merciless punishment" for $200
I would think all bet's are off when those putz's start threatening to "blow up the earth"
Sure, they can destroy their neighbors.. But someone needs to remind them that once they let this genie out of the bottle, and the damage is either imminent or already done, there's nothing that will save them. And I wonder what Pootie-poot's going to do about this? After all, they are in his backyard.
The Chinese aren't communists anymore, despite the name of their "party." North Korea, though, remains more Stalinist than even Stalin was, so they're not seeing eye to eye on many matters. And, the leadership of NK is seriously wacko and unpredictable.
It might be the case that China can do precious little to defuse the situation even if they would be so inclined.
Nevertheless, it's important to stress to China that they need to step up here and take a role, and even some risk, in containing North Korea. So far, I haven't heard any Chinese comment on this matter at all.
Well since the miniaturization of Nuclear weapons was traded for campaign funds to China, suddenly Korea has gone ballistic. Funny that the Islamic trade partners of NKorea are also doing the same. I suspect that Clinton had made a legacy after all.
World War III and the incineration of a large percentage of the worlds population. Sometimes I wonder if Clintons real name adds up to 666.
Of course they are for non-proliferation. It doubles the ammount of cash they can get under the table reselling the M86 warhead designs to every tinpot dictator in the world. N Korea is a sock puppet on Chinas hand and they have their middle finger raised to operate this dictators mouth. China is getting filthy rich selling nukes and their delivery systems using the N Koreans as their screen. The buyers are Lybia, Syria, Yemen and through them, to Sadam.
The forces of Sauruman are collecting...
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