NORTH KOREA RE-STARTS THEIR NUKE FACILITY! (How Conveeenent

SEOUL, South Korea, Feb. 5 — North Korea said Wednesday that it had reactivated its nuclear facilities and is going ahead with their operation “on a normal footing.”

THE COMMUNIST COUNTRY will use the facilities to generate electricity “at the present stage,” an unidentified North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said. His remarks were carried by the official KCNA news agency. “The DPRK is now putting the operation of its nuclear facilities for the production of electricity on a normal footing after their restart,” the spokesman said. DPRK stands for Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “The DPRK government has already solemnly declared that its nuclear activity would be limited to the peaceful purposes including the production of electricity at the present stage,” the spokesman said.

Nobody has told them Clinton isn't President any more.

Powell has communicated Bush's policy that the U.S. will tolerate a nuclear North Korea as long as they don't transfer material or technology. My assumption is that U.S. intelligence estimates the regime will collapse this year. However, North Korea is doing everything it can to prompt a pre-emptive U.S. nuclear strike. If I were them, I wouldn't mess with Texas.

North Korea is also aware that so long as we are distracted in Iraq, they can grab the ball and run with it. They realize that they are Next, but until we give them our undivided attention, they're going to get as ready as they can for us. It would be foolish for them not to.

Were it not for Iraq, we'd already have a U.N. sanctioned blockade of North Korea. They won't even agree to absurdly generous terms, so there is little doubt that they will not comply with what resolutions we have in store for them.

I read a fascinating analysis of North Korea on the Strategy Page (run by folks who design simulations for the U.S. & British military) web site. The thesis is that the center has lost effective power to NK army corps commanders (i.e. war lords) (the corps are organized by region). The only sources of foreign exchange are narcotics, counterfeiting, and arms sales. The country is so destitute that the only transportation modes still functioning are the railroads (which run on coal, mined domestically) and ships: there's not enough oil (purchased in China for dollars) to use the roads. Starvation has been endemic for at least a decade. Now there's so little food that even the guards at Panmunjom (once giants) are scrawny. The country's on its last legs. They NEED those nuclear weapons to sell for foreign exchange. While delighted to blackmail the U.S. if they can, they're so desperate they'll sell anything saleable -- nuclear weapons, plutonium, technology -- to any one cash no questions asked. Accordingly, we're a lot closer to a WMD attack in the U.S. than anyone thinks. Kim il Jong may be merely first among equals, or a figurehead.

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