North Korea to Declare It Has Nuclear Arms

[Selznak]

A bluff, maybe?




http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A59136-2003Aug28?language=printer

N. Korea to Declare It Has Nuclear Arms

By GEORGE GEDDA
The Associated Press
Thursday, August 28, 2003; 1:18 PM


WASHINGTON - North Korea startled a six-nation conference in China on East Asian security by announcing its intentions to formally declare its possession of nuclear weapons and to carry out a nuclear test, an administration official said Thursday.

North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Yong Il also told the gathering that his country has the means to deliver nuclear weapons, an apparent reference to the North's highly developed missile program.

The comments cast a pall over Thursday's plenary session, which included representatives of the United States, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia, in addition to North Korea.

James Kelly, the chief U.S. delegate, demanded that North Korea engage in the verifiable and permanent dismantling of its nuclear weapons programs, in return for which the United States would provide security guarantees and economic benefits.

The administration official, asking not to be identified, said that when Russia and Japan attempted to point out some positive elements of the U.S. presentation, the North Korean delegate attacked them by name and said they were lying at the instruction of the United States.

According to the administration official, China's delegate appeared visibly angry over Kim's statement but responded in a moderate tone.

Kim said his country was maintaining this position because the United States clearly had no intention of abandoning its hostile policy toward North Korea, the U.S. official said.

 

[xtxArchxAngelxtx]

Well heck, this is bad news for me.....

Looks like I am going to korea as soon as I get out of Basic training in Feb....

 

[Susan]

I think this is bad news for a lot of people. I live in California, and we're in range of their new missile. I guess if it's meant to be, it will happen: but I hope and pray that it doesn't.

 

[Jet Black]

NK won't do anything, don't worry.

 

[Knight]

Jet Black,
For once you and I agree.
There is no serious threat of N. Korea launching missiles at the US. There is a greater threat of them supplying terrorists. However, with the scrutiny they're under I think that possibility is fairly remote too.

 

[ThePhoenix]

NK won't do anything, don't worry.

I always figured it was more about China anyway. I see this as NK's bid to declare it's independence from China. Without nukes China would probably just overwhelm them if they ever tried to do anything anti-China. Now Kim Jong Il can institute any policies he wants, without worrying about China. Sure he's trying to milk the United States, but that's just pragmatism, if we're going to take everything as a related to us then he might as well get as much out of us as possible. But we'll NEVER get him to give up his nukes, because that's all that stands between him and an angry dragon.

ArchAngel - We'll NEVER invade North Korea. China would NOT allow US troops that close to their borders.

 

[ACougar]

What North Korea really wants is respect. They have always seen nuclear weapons and the means to deliver those weapons as a means toward achieving that respect.

Who knows, once they are a full fleged Nuclear power they may be able to get away with human rights abuses the same way China does...

 

[xtxArchxAngelxtx]

I always figured it was more about China anyway. I see this as NK's bid to declare it's independence from China. Without nukes China would probably just overwhelm them if they ever tried to do anything anti-China. Now Kim Jong Il can institute any policies he wants, without worrying about China. Sure he's trying to milk the United States, but that's just pragmatism, if we're going to take everything as a related to us then he might as well get as much out of us as possible. But we'll NEVER get him to give up his nukes, because that's all that stands between him and an angry dragon.

ArchAngel - We'll NEVER invade North Korea. China would NOT allow US troops that close to their borders.

i know we won't invade korea, unless it's special forces.

We have had forces in South korea since the korean war. We are there protecting their borders from North Korea.

 

[datan]

no not really. the US forces are not there to protect the borders, but more to act as a tripwire ie. if the North does invade the South, the US will inevitably be dragged in as the North will overrun the DMZ and the US/South Korean troops. They are lots of anti-tank traps on the highways leading south ready to be blown up to try to slow down a North Korean offensive. Then of course there's the thousands of artillery pieces within range of the capital Seoul.

 

[datan]

anyway an interesting point to consider is:

-> US has been making lots of veiled treats to invade North Korea (with the publication of their top 3 enemy list and with the North looking at what happened to public enemy #1 it does not take much paranoia for the North Korean government to imagine that the US does pose a strategic and real military threat to North Korea
-> North Korea can claim that under Bush's doctrine of pre-emptive strikes (ie. we strike first before our enemy can hit us), it has every legitimate right to attack the United States since the US has all-but-declared itself a strategic enemy of the North. Plus of course we remember that the Korean peninsula is still technically at war.

Thus, not only does North Korea have every right to persue nuclear weapons to defend its soverignty, it has every right to use them against the United States under Bush's doctrine of "pre-emptive strikes"

 

[ACougar]

Your absolutely correct, however no one in the United States is capable of grasping this. Many South Koreans however do grasp this and it's the primary reason we have become so unpopular in South Korea. American tanks and trucks running over school children as well as murders and rapes commited by U.S. troops is in reality a distant second.

anyway an interesting point to consider is:

-> US has been making lots of veiled treats to invade North Korea (with the publication of their top 3 enemy list and with the North looking at what happened to public enemy #1 it does not take much paranoia for the North Korean government to imagine that the US does pose a strategic and real military threat to North Korea
-> North Korea can claim that under Bush's doctrine of pre-emptive strikes (ie. we strike first before our enemy can hit us), it has every legitimate right to attack the United States since the US has all-but-declared itself a strategic enemy of the North. Plus of course we remember that the Korean peninsula is still technically at war.

Thus, not only does North Korea have every right to persue nuclear weapons to defend its soverignty, it has every right to use them against the United States under Bush's doctrine of "pre-emptive strikes"