Posted on 03/02/2003 6:24:53 AM PST by Indy Pendance
North Korea has accused US intelligence of staging a secret drill for a surprise attack on its nuclear facility and warned that an attack would trigger "horrifying nuclear disasters".
The North's ruling Workers Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun, argued the United States was pushing ahead with "actual military actions that came in accordance with the second Korean war scenario of aggression".
"What merits a serious attention is that a special operation group of the CIA staged a secret drill to make a surprise attack on the nuclear facility of the DPRK (North Korea) and destroy it," it said.
"The US projected attack on the nuclear facility of the DPRK presupposes a nuclear war."
Tensions along the world's last remaining Cold War frontier escalated last week after Washington's announcement that North Korea had restarted a five-megawatt reactor capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium.
The newspaper said its armed forces were ready to "mercilessly wipe out" a war of aggression.
"If the US imperialists ignite a war on the Korean peninsula, the war will turn into a nuclear war," it said.
"As a consequence, the Koreans in the North and South and the people in Asia and the rest of the world will suffer horrifying nuclear disasters."
US
US Joint Chief of Staff Chairman Richard Myers told NBC last week that if President George W Bush decides to use military force to resolve special issues, US troops are ready to operate in a flexible and effective manner.
Mr Myers reportedly said the United States maintains and updates all military options, including pre-emptive nuclear attacks, against North Korea.
However, Yonhap news agency said the Seoul government dismissed talk of a US plan to attack North Korea as "not true".
"The US side told us that the talk of launching a preemptive strike against the North is not true," an unnamed government official here was quoted as saying.
"We've heard from the US Government that Myers was referring to the general principle that the military has always had contingency plans when he talked about attacking the North," he said.
In a speech on Saturday local time, new South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun warned of "horrible consequences" unless the nuclear stand-off was resolved peacefully.
"We would be unable to cope with the horrible consequences should peace on the Korean Peninsula be broken for whatever reasons," he said.
Eight years ago, the Korean Peninsula was on the brink of war over a possible US attack on North Korea's nuclear facility at Yongbyon, some 90 kilometres north of Pyongyang.
North Korea resolved the 1994 crisis by agreeing to freeze the Yongbyon complex under a deal, known as the Agreed Framework.
The deal collapsed amid a new crisis sparked last October when Washington said North Korea had admitted running a separate nuclear programme based on enriched uranium.
Fears are now centred on the 8,000 spent fuel rods stored at Yongbyon as reprocessing them could yield enough plutonium for half a dozen bombs.
US newspaper The New York Times reported experts and intelligence officials had told US President George W Bush they expected the North would reactivate its reprocessing plant in the next few weeks.
The B61 and B83 have what is called "dial-a-yield." The B61-11 (yield range approx. .3kt to 340 kt) is a B61 model designed for earth penetration.
So were up to "horrifying" now, eh? Seems the CIA needs its North Korean Adjective Watchers, the way they had the Soviet Red Square Parade Stand Watchers in the Cold War. They used to prognosticate on the state of who's in who's out in the USSR, by who was sitting next to whom on the parade review stand on Red Square.
Now, they can judge the lexicon coming out of the NK propaganda organs to judge the military posture of Kim Jong Il.
May I remind you of what you declared on post 17: "Besides if we lost, oh, say San Francisco in the exchange, I think we come out way ahead."
And then on post 26: "Unlike a lot of the communist residents of San Francisco who were out cheering our enemies in the streets about three weeks ago."
I believe I understand what you meant. But what you said you said is not what you said, although it may have been what you meant. I myself have a penchant for hyperbole that is probably well known on FR. What is more important is that government makes the right decisions in matters of national security and defense. On that point I am sure we agree.
BTW, I am FAR from being a moderate, let alone an overly sensitive moderate. Whatever gave you that impression? For the record, I am a libertarian constructivist conservative (as in narrow interpretation of the Constitution) and (unfortunately, for lack of a better alternative) a Republican. FRegards, Tom.
But then again, you have the Florida Supreme Court to contend with. Any chance you can recall those folks? They certainly deserve it.
In the same way that Hussein seems always so poor at reading Western intentions, and discerning when we are serious vs. blustering. Some of it is because he (like Michael Jackson)is a meglomaniac with no reality checks from his underlings (who are afraid to be anything but sycophants). But I'm sure some of it arises because of a culture gap between Arab and Western culture.
The same has to be true with regard to NK.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.