Nukes in North Korea
Edmund Dantes -- Thursday, October 17, 2002 -- 02:59:48 PMHow should the world respond?
This thread is tagged:(All users will see what tags exist for a thread. Please tag carefully!)
U.S.: North Korea Says Has Nukes
I'm really bothered by this. But what sort of responses are allowed?
I hate to politicize, you know, politics, but this is yet another blow to the Clinton-Daschle-Carter-Albright-Chirac model of negotiating with and trusting belligerent states.
That's assuming it is possible to negotiate about anything with the North Koreans. Seems like most of the time, they simply refuse to talk to anyone outside their tiny strip of land.
NYT editorial from 8 years ago, quoted on NRO:
"Diplomacy with North Korea has scored a resounding triumph. Monday's draft agreement freezing and then dismantling North Korea's nuclear program should bring to an end two years of international anxiety and put to rest widespread fears that an unpredictable nation might provoke nuclear disaster.
[...]
From the start, the hawks' alternative to diplomacy was full of danger. Their solution -- economic sanctions and bombing runs -- might have disarmed North Korea, but only at the risk of war. President Clinton, former President Carter and [U.S. negotiator] Mr. Gallucci deserve warm praise for charting a less costly and more successful course."
I'm so glad we didn't try bombing runs before they had nuclear-tipped missiles capable of hitting Tokyo and possibly even LA.
Guess there's not much we can do now, huh? They can ship weapons-grade uranium anywhere they want... and what can we do to stop them? Nothing at all. They now the bomb.
Thank you President Clinton! Thank you New York Times editorial page!
We're so much safer for your efforts!
But Clinton did negotiate with them--and gave them two free nuclear reactors in return for lying through their teeth.
Another "useful idiot," February this year
Will this moron quit writing such blather now? Will he have learned his lesson and take up film criticism, or something more to his intellectual level like pop music? Of course not.
North Korea cannot be allowed to develop a nuclear bomb. We have to be very firm about it." - Bill Clinton, "Meet the Press," Nov. 7, 1993.
Yes. We have to be "firm." Firm enough to give them two nuclear reactors and billions in food and oil without any effective verification regime to insure they are actually abandoning their nuclear weapons program.
From NRO,
John McCain on Clinton's Korea deal:
"On at least eight previous occasions, North Korea has lied to the Clinton Administration. With this agreement, Administration officials have willingly acquiesced in Pyongyang's almost certain further deception. Yet again, the Administration has mistaken resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis with merely postponing its apogee. ...I suspect that the Administration's willlingness to delay the resolution of this crisis is premised on their presumption that the bankrupt North Korean economy will force the regime's collapse before they violate the agreement. Unfortunately, their economy may be salvaged during the interim period by the hallf a billion tons of oil they will receive annually, the opening of trade relations with the U.S., and greater trade with its Asian neighbors, which the agreement [provides for]. Thus, the Administration has accomplished the remarkable feat of allowing the North Koreans to have their carrot cake and eat it too."
NK played the Clinton administration like a drum, even going to far at one point as to demand a $300 million payment to get a "peak" at a supposed development site. All the while, William Cohen assured that NK was complying with the agreement, even when the NY Times reported it wasn't.
For one, I think we get on the phone to China and say, "Look, this is your problem too. Nuclear tipped missiles in NK are unacceptable, and we're not going to let this slide. You'd better do what you can to bring Kim Jong Il to understand this. There will be no progress on any issue, no food, no nothing, until his regime gets back with the program." We could drop hints to the Chinese that in view of these circumstances it might be necessary to station American missiles in some of our allies for their own "self-defense," similar to what happened in Europe under Reagan. How would they like South Korea to have nukes? Or Taiwan?
We should also bring in the Japanese to be good cop to our bad, because I'm sure they're none too happy about it either.
Of course continuing development of missile defense is obvious.
Of course continuing development of missile defense is obvious.
Giggle. I'm sure Frank Rich will finally get aboard NMD now, right?
I mean, we have a fucking NUTJOB country (remember, Kim il-Jong claims to have completed an 18-hole golf course in THIRTY THREE STROKES -- an impressive FORTY NINE UNDER PAR -- and his press compliantly reported his great achievement) armed with missiles that can reach the continental US and has nuclear warheads.
But jeepers! Why protect ourselves against such a threat!?
NK is the grail as far as missile defense. You think MD is expensive? Try a Kim il-Jong nuke striking Los Angeles.
But the Patriot missile system is only 40% effective, Edmund!!!
What's the point of merley blocking 40% of nuclear attacks, I ask you!
Just think about a country so fucking crazy that its nutjob Maximum Leader claims to have shot a 39-under-par game of golf, and then the press actually prints this fucking CRAZINESS, and the people are forced to pretend to believe it's true and send him post-cards congratulating him on his splendid game.
How big is Kim il-Jong's cock, I wonder, according to the NK press?
I assume it's eight or nine yards long, maybe seven or eight feet around in circumference.
And it sprays penicillin, champagne, and ambrosia when he comes.
Is it too late to award Jimmy Carter another Nobel Peace Prize?
This is what the Prize is actually given for, right? For weakening America and strengthening its enemies?
A recent post from NK's official news site
Kim Jong Il gives field guidance to Taehongdan county
Kim Jong Il gave field guidance to Taehongdan county on Tuesday. He went round the monument to the victorious battle in Musan area newly erected in Sinsadong of Taehongdan. Looking round the statue of President Kim Il Sung and group sculptures of anti-Japanese revolutionary fighters, he noted with great satisfaction that the grand monument of eternal value has been depicted successfully....
Then he visited the Hongam farm of Taehongdan county where he acquainted himself in detail with the potato farming.
If efforts are concentrated on the potato farming and a scientific farming method is introduced as what has been done in the county, it will be possible to increase the potato yield several times at once, he noted....
He went round the seed potato store, the farm implement store, the youth school and a room for disseminating agricultural science and technology of workteam no. 2 of the Changphyong farm of Taehongdan county.
He said that the potato farming should be put on a scientific basis in order to steadily increase the potato yield as is the case with all crops.
Going round various research rooms of the potato institute of the county, he got familiar in detail with the researches into potato cultivation.
He said that what is most important for raising the potato yield is to bring about a radical turn in seed selection.
Going round the newly built kindergarten, he noted with great satisfaction that it has been built qualitatively and equipped with modern educational facilities.
He visited the new houses to which the families of workers Jang Myong Ju and Nam Chun Ho have moved.
He learned about the profession, work and life of the masters of the houses, ages and school years of their children and all other details with paternal care and showed deep solicitude for them.
He gave field guidance to the newly-built Mubong Middle School.
After getting familiar with the construction of the school, he visited the third-year class of the middle course having a lesson in history.
He met with teachers and set forth highly important tasks which would serve as guidelines in teaching and education, saying that the teachers should train all the pupils to be reserves of the Korean revolution with ample knowledge, high morality and strong body with high pride and sense of responsibility that they are revolutionaries in charge of important educational work on which hinge the rise and fall of the country.
All in one day's work for the fearless people's leader. He then relaxed by swimming a four-minute mile.