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Kim Jong Il just wants to be loved. Is that so bad? It was a cry for attention; a cry for help.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told a visiting Chinese delegation that the communist nation was not planning a second nuclear weapons test, a South Korean news agency reported Friday.
The news agency, Yonhap, attributed the information to a diplomatic source in Beijing.
Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan led a delegation that met Kim on Thursday in Pyongyang to deliver a message from Chinese President Hu Jintao.
I'm guessing that China had his balls in a vice. They are plenty pissed off. Maybe this is what China meant by not needing any military actions as penalties in the new sanctions.
I have this image of Kim Jong Il tied to a chair in a smokey, dim-lit room. Two juiced goons are next to him with sleeves rolled up and holding baseball bats. All the while a slim, reedy looking Chinese diplomat with reptilian eyes is staring hard at him saying, "Now about those nuclear tests..."
You know, the Al Capone School of Negotiation.
PS - That title is a blantant steal from the cover of a Red Eye issue(a tabloid format put out by the Chicago Tribune). It's a freaking brilliant title and I couldn't resist.
It appears that the UN has passed a somewhat toothy resolution in response to North Korea's alleged nuclear testing.
The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Saturday to impose financial and weapons sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear test in a resolution that Pyongyang called a "gangster-like" action.
The U.S.-drafted resolution, which said the reclusive Communist state's action was a "clear threat to international peace and security," allows nations to stop cargo going to and from North Korea to check for weapons of mass destruction or related supplies.
It's worth noting that while China did not approve of the searching of vessels, they still passed the resolution. I think this reflects just how much China recognizes Kim Jong Il as a madman. China does raise a valid point, we should act on intelligence, but not exercise this power willy-nilly. In stopping a bully, we should take care not to be a bully ourselves.
It does stop short of military intervention, and I think that may be a mistake. North Korea is no danger to privation and the regime has shown its willingness to let its people starve. I still feel military retaliation should be called for if they violate these sanctions, but I'll take what I can get. At least this is an actual sanction instead of a statement of condemnations.
The UN has taken the first step to regaining a spine. Now we just need to see if it takes.
This is a little disturbing.
The United States has evidence of radioactivity from a site where North Korea was suspected of conducting a nuclear weapons test, a U.S. official said Friday.
The official said the evidence is preliminary, but if it is confirmed, the United States will be in a position to confirm North Korea's claim on Monday that it successfully set off a nuclear blast for the first time.
Well, crap.
Officials emphasize the data collected are preliminary and provide no conclusive evidence about the North Korean event.
It is possible there was no radiological data. That could be the case if: the North Koreans successfully sealed the site; it was such a small detonation and so deep underground there was no escape of nuclear debris; or the test was actually conventional explosives
I'd say that's just whistling in the dark, there. We need to go forward with the assumption that not only does North Korea have the technology to create a nuclear weapon, they also have the means to create more.
Unfortunately, the situation is more complex than it appears. China will most definitely block any resolution that includes military intervention. They will also not accept any resolution that would cut off aid and food. At first I thought it had more to do with the with the balance of military might, but I think there's a simpler explanation.
Refugees.
It seems North Korea has threatened to relax border security in the past, and China is absolutely terrified of this. Hundreds of thousands if not millions of refugees seeking to escape DPRK would flood across the Chinese border. This is one of the reasons China has substantially upped the number of forces on their shared border. There have been relatively tiny waves of people crossing before. And usually it was followed by outbreaks of theft and occasionally murder. And China does not want to deal with that.
Japan has already imposed unilateral sanctions on its own, refusing to deal with North Korea (imports and exports) and denying its ports to DPRK vessels. The UN will need to enact something similar at the very least. Demanding search rights for all vessels would be a good addition as well to deny North Korea the ability to sell these things to other countries or groups.
Unfortunately, given the UN's track record and weak-willed resolutions, I'm not going to hold my breath.
Ok, I am completely confused* now. Michael Yon claims that "well placed government source" has claimed the explosion in North Korea was non-nuclear in nature.* - Of course, I can think of one or two (so-called) friends who will say my state of confusion is nothing new.
via Rueters.
China, North Korea's most important ally, on Tuesday joined other world powers in calling for a tough response to the reclusive communist state's announcement of a nuclear weapons test.
China and Russia, which both border North Korea, met with other veto-holding members of the U.N. Security Council to discuss a range of sanctions proposed by the United States and Japan to pressure Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program.
China's U.N. Ambassador, Wang Guangya, told reporters: "I think that there has to be some punitive actions." He added: "We need to have a firm, constructive, appropriate but prudent response to North Korea's nuclear threat."
But these "punitive actions" do not include actually doing anything. Instead, we'll all stand around with somber faces and pass resolutions about how bad this is. Kim Jong Il will not stop until someone has a boot on his neck. Similar to how you deal with a dangerous snake. And I don't care who does this. The US, China... In fact I'd be tickled if China could take care of this.
We should just send Chuck Norris over there. He'd round-house kick everyone into submission, smack Kim Jong Il across the snout with a rolled-up newspaper, point at the nuclear test-site, and say in a firm tone, "No! Bad Dictator!"
Speculation on the suspiciously low-magnitude explosion in North Korea.
North Korea’s provocative weapons test Monday was either an unusually small nuclear bomb, only partially successful, or possibly even a faked test done with conventional explosives, say seismologists studying the latest freely available seismic data from South Korea and China.
Of the three, I'd probably lean more toward the first option. While the other two are entirely possible, I think it best to assume the worst. One of the best deceptions is to make an enemy think you're incompetent. Of course, I may be crediting Kim Jong Il with entirely too much Machiavellian skill on that count. He doesn't actually present himself as that shrewd of an operator --but of course that may be his point (cue dramatic bad-guy music)
One of the reasons I think option one is most likely, is I believe that they probably have a very limited amount of fissile material. They most likely used just enough mass to create the supercritical reaction necessary for an explosion.
Well, the idiots went ahead and did it.
North Korea said Monday it has performed its first-ever nuclear weapons test and the blast had been successfully set off underground with no radioactive leakage from the site.
An official at South Korea's seismic monitoring center confirmed a magnitude-3.6 tremor felt at the time North Korea said it conducted the test was not a natural occurrence. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition his name not be used, because he was not authorized to talk about the sensitive information to the media.
They seem to think this will intimidate the US into concessions (since they seem to be ignoring the UN). This is actually more of a threat to China and Japan. Chinese policy makers have been quickly loosing patience with North Korea, and this may be the last straw. There have already been troop build-ups on the Chinese/North Korean border. At one point China cut back on deliveries of aid via rail --North Korea was keeping the trains.
But really has China concerned is the current balance of military power in the region. Currently, China is the military power in the Asian sphere. This may change, depending on Japan's reaction in the next few days. It is likely Japan, which has voiced concerns about North Korea's nuclear ambitions before, to use this as an excuse to rebuild it's military and arsenal. Including nuclear weapons. China most definitely does not want a militarized Japan; something not seen since the end of World War II.
Secondly, and perhaps not as obvious (and perhaps less likely than the Japan scenario).. well, I'll just say one word sure to strike terror in China's heart: Taiwan.
A US military buildup in the region is the last thing China want to see happen. Now, China considers Taiwan to still be part of the mainland. In their eyes, the current government is illegitimate. China would love nothing more than to take Taiwan back into the fold. But they don't want to get into a shooting war with the US over it. We consider ourselves allies of Taiwan and would most likely intervene at an invasion by China.
Plus, perhaps even more importantly, the Chinese regulars are becoming disgusted with North Korea.
The North Korean refugee had one request for her captors before the young Chinese soldiers led her back across the steel-girdered bridge on the Yalu River that divides two “socialist allies”.
“She asked for a comb and some water because she said that if she was going to die she could not face going to heaven looking as dirty and dishevelled as this,” recounted a relative of one soldier who was there.
What happened next is testimony to the rising disgust in Chinese military ranks as Beijing posts more troops to the border amid a crisis with North Korea over its regime’s plan to stage a nuclear test.
The soldiers, who later told family members of the incident, marched the woman, who was about 30, to the mid-point of the bridge. North Korean guards were waiting. They signed papers for receipt of the woman, who kept her dignity until that moment. Then, in front of the Chinese troops, one seized her and another speared her hand — the soft part between thumb and forefinger — with the point of a sharpened steel cable, which he twisted into a leash.
“She screamed just like a pig when we kill it at home in the village,” the soldier later told his relative. “Then they dragged her away.”
The one country they cannot afford to alienate is poised to turn against them.
North Korea is going to find it is all alone in world if it keeps on the course it currently takes.
Thank God for the UN.
The U.N. Security Council on Friday urged North Korea not to carry out a planned nuclear-weapon test and warned Pyongyang of unspecified consequences if it did.
...
It warned North Korea that a nuclear test would lead to further unspecified Security Council action "consistent with its responsibility under the Charter of the United Nations."
Unspecified Consequences. How... vague. In international-diplomacy-speak I think that means "nothing".
North Korea is once again engaging in empty sabre rattling. Seriously, do they truly think their nuclear capabilities would stop anyone pounding them in the dust? Percision bomb them from high altitude, and take over the country by actually feeding it's people. I don't think there would be much insurgent action. I have yet to meet anyone who is violently opposed to eating real food.
Even China is starting to edge away from North Korea like a friend who has discovered exactly where that strange smell is coming from.
It seems everytime the world is ignoring them they make the threat of Nuclear Anihilation. Kinda of like the worlds' biggest "Look at me! Look at me! I'm relevant!" Unfortunately for the largely innocent and oppressed people of North Korea, it will be North Korea that gets anhiliated. By their own devices if their track record with technology is any indication. Their last message to the world will probably be "Whoops!"
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