What to do about N. Korea?
Byrnzie
Posts: 21,037
Sounds like they're on the warpath. What's to be done? It doesn't look like they're prepared to settle for anything other than war. Do the joint U.S and South Korean forces along the demilitarized zone have the ability to strike the Norths missile launching sites?
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
N Korea threatens military action
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8069457.stm
'North Korea has warned of a military response after South Korea joined an anti-proliferation exercise which could allow it to search the North's ships.
The North said it is no longer bound by the armistice which ended the Korean War in 1953.
A military spokesman quoted by official media said Pyongyang could no longer guarantee the safety of shipping.
Its latest threat comes after two days of underground nuclear tests and several missile launches.
The United Nations Security Council is working on a strong condemnation of what it says is North Korea's contravention of its conventions.
South Korea announced on Tuesday that it would not delay any longer in joining the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) - a US-led non-proliferation campaign involving searching ships carrying suspicious cargos and aimed at stopping the trafficking of weapons of mass destruction.
North Korea has repeatedly warned that the South's participation in the PSI would be tantamount to a declaration of war.
Joining the PSI "is a natural obligation", South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said, quoted by South Korea's Yonhap news agency. "It will help control North Korea's development of dangerous material."
"Any hostile act against our peaceful vessels including search and seizure will be considered an unpardonable infringement on our sovereignty and we will immediately respond with a powerful military strike," a spokesman for the North's army was quoted as saying by the official KCNA news agency.
North Korea has fired five short-range missiles in two days, despite strong censure from the international community, including China and Russia.
NUCLEAR CRISIS
Oct 2006 - North Korea conducts an underground nuclear test
Feb 2007 - North Korea agrees to close its main nuclear reactor in exchange for fuel aid
June 2007 - North Korea shuts its main Yongbyon reactor
June 2008 - North Korea makes its long-awaited declaration of nuclear assets
Oct 2008 - The US removes North Korea from its list of countries which sponsor terrorism
Dec 2008 - Pyongyang slows work to dismantle its nuclear programme after a US decision to suspend energy aid
Jan 2009 - The North says it is scrapping all military and political deals with the South, accusing it of "hostile intent"
April 2009 - Pyongyang launches a rocket carrying what it says is a communications satellite
25 May 2009 - North Korea conducts a second nuclear test
Meanwhile South Korean media reported that steam was seen coming from North Korea's nuclear plant at Yongbyon, suggesting the fuel reprocessing plant there had been reactivated.
"US spy satellites recently spotted various signs of the once frozen reprocessing facility being reactivated, such as water vapour coming from it," an unidentified official told the Chosun Ilbo newspaper. Similar reports were carried by the Yonhap news agency.
The North announced last month it was quitting a six-nation nuclear disarmament agreement and would reopen the Yongbyon plant, closed in July 2007 as part of a disarmament deal.
That threat last month was prompted, it said, by the UN Security Council's censure of North Korea's 5 April rocket launch.
Washington is calling for a quick and unified response by the international community that will make it clear to North Korea that there are consequences for its actions.
Diplomats from the five permanent Security Council member countries plus Japan and South Korea have been meeting behind closed doors to discuss a new resolution.
"We are thinking through complicated issues that require very careful consideration," said the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice.
US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly also said the door was still open to resume long-running six-party talks and that the US was looking at a "whole range of options".
It is a sign of the delicate balance required to handle the reclusive country, the BBC's State Department correspondent Kim Ghattas reports from Washington.
China shares a border with North Korea and worries about pushing Pyongyang too far, so it is unclear what sort of measures might be taken now and how North Korea would respond, our correspondent adds.
This week's test and missile launches came after North Korea walked away from long-running disarmament talks.
It agreed in February 2007 to abandon its nuclear ambitions in return for aid and diplomatic concessions.
But the negotiations stalled as it accused its negotiating partners - the US, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia - of failing to meet agreed obligations.
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
N Korea threatens military action
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8069457.stm
'North Korea has warned of a military response after South Korea joined an anti-proliferation exercise which could allow it to search the North's ships.
The North said it is no longer bound by the armistice which ended the Korean War in 1953.
A military spokesman quoted by official media said Pyongyang could no longer guarantee the safety of shipping.
Its latest threat comes after two days of underground nuclear tests and several missile launches.
The United Nations Security Council is working on a strong condemnation of what it says is North Korea's contravention of its conventions.
South Korea announced on Tuesday that it would not delay any longer in joining the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) - a US-led non-proliferation campaign involving searching ships carrying suspicious cargos and aimed at stopping the trafficking of weapons of mass destruction.
North Korea has repeatedly warned that the South's participation in the PSI would be tantamount to a declaration of war.
Joining the PSI "is a natural obligation", South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said, quoted by South Korea's Yonhap news agency. "It will help control North Korea's development of dangerous material."
"Any hostile act against our peaceful vessels including search and seizure will be considered an unpardonable infringement on our sovereignty and we will immediately respond with a powerful military strike," a spokesman for the North's army was quoted as saying by the official KCNA news agency.
North Korea has fired five short-range missiles in two days, despite strong censure from the international community, including China and Russia.
NUCLEAR CRISIS
Oct 2006 - North Korea conducts an underground nuclear test
Feb 2007 - North Korea agrees to close its main nuclear reactor in exchange for fuel aid
June 2007 - North Korea shuts its main Yongbyon reactor
June 2008 - North Korea makes its long-awaited declaration of nuclear assets
Oct 2008 - The US removes North Korea from its list of countries which sponsor terrorism
Dec 2008 - Pyongyang slows work to dismantle its nuclear programme after a US decision to suspend energy aid
Jan 2009 - The North says it is scrapping all military and political deals with the South, accusing it of "hostile intent"
April 2009 - Pyongyang launches a rocket carrying what it says is a communications satellite
25 May 2009 - North Korea conducts a second nuclear test
Meanwhile South Korean media reported that steam was seen coming from North Korea's nuclear plant at Yongbyon, suggesting the fuel reprocessing plant there had been reactivated.
"US spy satellites recently spotted various signs of the once frozen reprocessing facility being reactivated, such as water vapour coming from it," an unidentified official told the Chosun Ilbo newspaper. Similar reports were carried by the Yonhap news agency.
The North announced last month it was quitting a six-nation nuclear disarmament agreement and would reopen the Yongbyon plant, closed in July 2007 as part of a disarmament deal.
That threat last month was prompted, it said, by the UN Security Council's censure of North Korea's 5 April rocket launch.
Washington is calling for a quick and unified response by the international community that will make it clear to North Korea that there are consequences for its actions.
Diplomats from the five permanent Security Council member countries plus Japan and South Korea have been meeting behind closed doors to discuss a new resolution.
"We are thinking through complicated issues that require very careful consideration," said the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice.
US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly also said the door was still open to resume long-running six-party talks and that the US was looking at a "whole range of options".
It is a sign of the delicate balance required to handle the reclusive country, the BBC's State Department correspondent Kim Ghattas reports from Washington.
China shares a border with North Korea and worries about pushing Pyongyang too far, so it is unclear what sort of measures might be taken now and how North Korea would respond, our correspondent adds.
This week's test and missile launches came after North Korea walked away from long-running disarmament talks.
It agreed in February 2007 to abandon its nuclear ambitions in return for aid and diplomatic concessions.
But the negotiations stalled as it accused its negotiating partners - the US, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia - of failing to meet agreed obligations.
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
How was this latest nuclear test provoked? I wouldn't consider the South's joining a non-proliferation treaty to constitute a provocation.
They have a right only because they have opted out of the Non-proliferation treaty. The nuclear tests they're carrying out are a direct provocation to Japan and South Korea. Their supposed right to test nuclear weapons doesn't bode well for any prospects for peace in the region.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_No ... ion_Treaty
'The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT or NNPT) is a treaty to limit the spread of nuclear weapons, opened for signature on July 1, 1968. There are currently 189 countries party to the treaty, five of which have nuclear weapons: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and the People's Republic of China (the permanent members of the UN Security Council).
Only four recognized sovereign states are not parties to the treaty: India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea. India, Pakistan and North Korea have openly tested and declared that they possess nuclear weapons. Israel has had a policy of opacity regarding its own nuclear weapons program. North Korea acceded to the treaty but later withdrew...
North Korea
North Korea ratified the treaty on December 12, 1985, but gave notice of withdrawal from the treaty on January 10, 2003 following U.S. allegations that it had started an illegal enriched uranium weapons program, and the U.S. subsequently stopping fuel oil shipments under the Agreed Framework[31] which had resolved plutonium weapons issues in 1994 [32]. The withdrawal became effective April 10, 2003 making North Korea the first state ever to withdraw from the treaty.[33] North Korea had once before announced withdrawal, on March 12, 1993, but suspended that notice before it came into effect.[34]
On February 10, 2005, North Korea publicly declared that it possessed nuclear weapons and pulled out of the six-party talks hosted by China to find a diplomatic solution to the issue. "We had already taken the resolute action of pulling out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and have manufactured nuclear arms for self-defence to cope with the Bush administration's evermore undisguised policy to isolate and stifle the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea]," a North Korean Foreign Ministry statement said regarding the issue[35]. Six-party talks resumed in July 2005.
On September 19, 2005, North Korea announced that it would agree to a preliminary accord. Under the accord, North Korea would scrap all of its existing nuclear weapons and nuclear production facilities, rejoin the NPT, and readmit IAEA inspectors. The difficult issue of the supply of light water reactors to replace North Korea's indigenous nuclear power plant program, as per the 1994 Agreed Framework, was left to be resolved in future discussions[36]. On the next day North Korea reiterated its known view that until it is supplied with a light water reactor it will not dismantle its nuclear arsenal or rejoin the NPT [37].
On October 2, 2006, the North Korean foreign minister announced that his country was planning to conduct a nuclear test "in the future", although it did not state when.[38] On Monday, October 9, 2006 at 01:35:27 (UTC) the United States Geological Survey detected a magnitude 4.2 seismic event 70 km (45 miles) north of Kimchaek, North Korea indicating a nuclear test. The North Korean government announced shortly afterward that they had completed a successful underground test of a nuclear fission device.
In 2007, reports from Washington suggested that the 2002 CIA reports stating that North Korea was developing an enriched uranium weapons program, which led to North Korea leaving the NPT, had overstated or misread the intelligence.[39][40][41][42] On the other hand, even apart from these press allegations -- which some critics worry could have been planted in order to justify the United States giving up trying to verify the dismantlement of Pyongyang's uranium program in the face of North Korean intransigence -- there remains some information in the public record indicating the existence of a uranium effort. Quite apart from the fact that North Korean First Vice Minister Kang Sok Ju at one point admitted the existence of a uranium enrichment program, Pakistan's then-President Musharraf revealed that the A.Q. Khan proliferation network had provided North Korea with a number of gas centrifuges designed for uranium enrichment. Additionally, press reports have cited U.S. officials to the effect that evidence obtained in dismantling Libya’s WMD programs points toward North Korea as the source for Libya's uranium hexafluoride (UF6) -- which, if true, would mean that North Korea has a uranium conversion facility for producing feedstock for centrifuge enrichment...'
eh, I dont know about that. they have never been linked and seem more concerned about being the tough guy in town.....and not give that capability to someone else.
Yeah I get what you're saying but you never know what that psycho path might do
I vote for this...let China deal with them...
It makes you wonder about the state of mind of the N Korean leaders though. Are they rational people, or they a bunch of megalomaniacal nutters?
Good point but a megalomaniac's delusions of self-importance will make him/her fear for his/her safety. I think accepting them as they are (an idiotic nuclear state) and trying to resume a normal relationship with them will go a long way in diffusing the tensions. They've shown time and time again the more they are pressured the more they will pursue and act out.
I am generally "hands off" when it comes to this kind (and almost ANY-KIND) of thing, but NK in my opinion is not going to stop...
You should read "The aquariums of Pyongyang".
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
is that a serious question?
BOS-9/28/04,9/29/04,6/28/08,6/30/08, 9/5/16, 9/7/16, 9/2/18
MTL-9/15/05, OTT-9/16/05
PHL-5/27/06,5/28/06,10/30/09,10/31/09
CHI-8/2/07,8/5/07,8/23/09,8/24/09
HTFD-6/27/08
ATX-10/4/09, 10/12/14
KC-5/3/2010,STL-5/4/2010
Bridge School-10/23/2010,10/24/2010
PJ20-9/3/2011,9/4/2011
OKC-11/16/13
SEA-12/6/13
TUL-10/8/14
The irony of course, is that N.Korea is probably the single state in the world most vulnerable to international sanctions;it produces no energy of it's own. If China chose to bring it's country to it's knees ,it could do so in a heart beat
The most important Is Obama. It is really he who is being tested. If he simply settles for ineffectual sanctions or a round or international condemnation, he will be showing a weakness that virtually invites exploitation by the rest of the world. If he only pursues diplomatic negotiations without economic or military clout behind them,the other aggressors-the latter day Hitlers and Tojo's will draw their own conclusions
Military action is off the table since it already has nukes, But if the United States stiffen Japanese and Chinese resolve and takes the lead,there is no doubt that economic sanctions-real sanctions which include economic would put a stop to N.Korea.
TheHill.com
you are joking right? with the possibility of a nuclear powered country invading another one, you are worried about a few trees and shrubs getting trampled?
thats nice. but that should be the last thing on anyone list of what to worry about.
this is actually getting dangerous, IMO.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090528/ap_ ... as_nuclear
SEOUL, South Korea – The U.S. and South Korea put their military forces on high alert Thursday after North Korea renounced the truce keeping the peace between the two Koreas since 1953.
But seriously, its not worth going to war with just yet. They do this every couple of years so the US, South Korea, and Japan will give them a shit load of money to shut them up for a while. Eventually, their government will fall, because no communist government has been sucessfull in the long run. (China is not a truely communist goverment anymore)
NK is far more the a communist government. they are a totalitarianism dictatorship. that will last as long as Kim is alive or overthrown.