"Unlikely. But they do have two or three, or maybe four or five by this time, and delivery vehicles to put them in."
Somehow, this just does not strike me as "scary."
Posted on 03/08/2003 10:14:21 AM PST by Enemy Of The State
North Korean Has More Than 100 Nuclear Bombs and Will Make More: Kim Myong Chol, North Korea's Unofficial Spokesman
Korea WebWeekly (March 8, 2003) - North Korea's unofficial spokesman, Kim Myong Chul, disclosed at a professional luncheon at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan yesterday that North Korea has more than one hundred nuclear bombs and will likely declare its nuclear-power status sometime this year unless the Bush Administration agrees to hold bilateral talks with North Korea.
Kim Myong Chol is a Japanese-born Korean whose impoverished parents from Cheju-do immigrated to Japan. Kim received a PhD from Kim Il Sung University for his research on North Korea's military doctrines. He is close to Kim Jong Il's inner circle, and his writings and speeches are required readings for North Korea's elite. A year ago, he correctly predicted that North Korea would withdraw from the IAEA and start up its nuclear facilities.
Kim said that the strategic goal of Kim Jong Il is to neutralize and remove the American influence from the Korean Peninsula. He said, “The dream scenario for the achievement of the goal is to have a peace treaty concluded with the United States. The second best scenario is neutralizing the American nuclear threats by acquiring nuclear capability.”
He also stated that North Korea will soon have the capacity to rain ballistic missiles loaded with weapons of mass destruction down upon most cities in the United States. The US and South Korean armies are currently holding massive war games near the demilitarized zone that divides the two Koreas, and North Korea sees the exercises as the initial phase of the US invasion of North Korea.
Kim warns North Korea will retaliate if Bush mount "surgical strikes" against North Korea's nuclear facility at Yongbyon. North Korea will mount an immediate retaliation against the US homeland, leaving "Washington, New York and Chicago aflame." He states: "North Korean missiles can reach any part of the United States of America. There is no safe place for Bush to hide." But if Bush agrees to talk, Kim Jong Il will accept US-led inspections and the eventual reunification of Korea, which inevitably will lead to a democratic, unified nation. After unification, Kim Jong Il will step down and let the people of Korea elect their national leader. Kim says what Kim Jong Il wants is to unite Korea and kick out US troops from South Korea; Kim Jong Il does not need or want any US economic aids.
Kim predicts that North Korea would continue to threaten Washington with missile tests and production of nuclear weapons until Bush is forced to come to Pyongyang and sue for peace. He said: "As long as Bush refuses to talk to North Korea, North Korea will feel justified acquiring nuclear arms and nuclear weapons." Kim states that once North Korea declares a nuclear-power status by exploding a hydrogen bomb or two, the presence of US troops on the Korean peninsula will become irrelevant. Indeed, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld knows this and plans to remove US troops from South Korea, away from North Korea's nuclear blasts.
Kim states: "Acquiring nuclear weapons is just one means to neutralize the U.S. role. The dream scheme is to secure a peace treaty and diplomatic recognition from Washington." Kim claims that Pyongyang had decided to pursue nuclear weapons programs because neither Clinton nor Bush intended to deliver on the promises the United States made in the 1994 Agreed Framework. The US policy makers erroneously believed that Kim Jong Il's regime would collapse within a decade. It is believed that this believe was based on testimonies of a high-ranking North Korean defector.
Contrary to Bush's claim that he has kept his end of the bargain, the fact of the matter is that Bush has not kept its end of the bargain: the two light-water reactors are light-years away from completion, the US economic embargo is still in place, US military threats have intensified, and the US delivery of heavy oil has stopped.
Without the Koolaid even..
I bet the people on the left coast and in Hawaii disagree with you.
This is an unpopular sentiment around here, but I worry more about NK than I do Iraq. We can contain Iraq quite easily. Hell, the only country that probably feels directly threatened by Iraq at this point is Israel, and if Iraq wants to play with WMDs, Israel will melt Baghdad to the ground, and Hussein knows it and that does keep him in check (Hussein is more evil than crazy - he's crazy no doubt about it, but he's sane enough to want to keep control of his country). I would even through in the spiel about the Saudis killing many times more Americans on 9/11 than the Iraqies have in the past 12 years.
North Korea on the other hand - Kim is just plain ****ing crazy. He is working his butt off (or rather the butts of his engineers and scientists) so that he can hit the US from where he is at, and he is bragging quite openly about it (nevermind that we are feeding half his country). We are sitting here playing with Iraq, and if we don't do something soon about North Korea, folks on out west are going to have to start thinking about bomb shelters again.
We don't have a "shield" to protect us from NK's missiles in a year or two, and while they aren't sophisticated guidance wise, when your playing with nukes, you don't have to be that accurate. Germany did a damn good job of hitting London with conventionals and doing a lot of damage and causing a lot of chaos, with 1930s and 40s technology.
That is exactly what it boils down to.
Surveillance flight deep into North Korea after they use a nuke
North Korea: "Give us free stuff or we'll nuke you."
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