This motherfucker has his hands in everything
[frame]http://www.guardian.co.uk/korea/article/0,2763,952289,00.html[/frame]
[frame]http://www.guardian.co.uk/korea/article/0,2763,952289,00.html[/frame]
North Korea Threatens Nuclear Attack
- Thread starter QueEx
- Start date
Threatening Bush with war is like threatening a kid with ice cream, that bastard lives for throwing working class people into war. He was a cheerleader during viet nam-- literally-- and he's no better now.
In a press conference today, when asked how he can say Clinton's way of dealing with North Korea was failing, all he could offer for reasoning was crap like "it just wasn't working" and not one actual reason why his approach was better. Why the "journalists" couldn't say "But Mr President, you haven't actually said anything. Can you please tell us why you think you can still say your approach is working when it clearly isn't?"
If you look at P.N.A.C.'s stuff about isolating China and how Korea fits into that, it is clear they want a war with Korea. The sad part is that they way they'll go about it will probably just fail, and strengthen China they way they're failing in Iraq and and strengthening Iran and failing in Afghanistan and strengthening Osama, the Taliban and the Warlords and before long I bet they'll be an open civil war in Pakistan.
In a press conference today, when asked how he can say Clinton's way of dealing with North Korea was failing, all he could offer for reasoning was crap like "it just wasn't working" and not one actual reason why his approach was better. Why the "journalists" couldn't say "But Mr President, you haven't actually said anything. Can you please tell us why you think you can still say your approach is working when it clearly isn't?"
If you look at P.N.A.C.'s stuff about isolating China and how Korea fits into that, it is clear they want a war with Korea. The sad part is that they way they'll go about it will probably just fail, and strengthen China they way they're failing in Iraq and and strengthening Iran and failing in Afghanistan and strengthening Osama, the Taliban and the Warlords and before long I bet they'll be an open civil war in Pakistan.
Russia: NKorea test greater than reported
Mon Oct 9, 6:58 AM ET
Russia's defense minister said Monday that North Korea's nuclear test was equivalent to 5,000 tons to 15,000 tons of TNT.
That would be far greater than the force given by South Korea's geological institute, which estimated it at just 550 tons of TNT.
By comparison the bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima during World War II was equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT.
In 1996, France detonated a bomb beneath Fangataufa Atoll about 750 miles southeast of Tahiti that had a yield of about 120,000 tons of TNT.
The U.S. Geological Survey said it recorded a magnitude-4.2 seismic event in northeastern North Korea. Asian neighbors also said they registered a seismic event, but only Russia said its monitoring services had detected a nuclear explosion.
No one has reported detecting any radiation.
"We know the exact site of the test. The ecological situation is normal, including on Russian territory in Primorye," Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said, referring to the Russian Far East province that shares a short border with North Korea.
Interfax, citing an unnamed diplomatic source in Moscow, said that the North Korean Foreign Ministry had informed the Russian ambassador in Pyongyang about the test two hours before it was conducted. The report could not immediately be confirmed.
Mon Oct 9, 6:58 AM ET
Russia's defense minister said Monday that North Korea's nuclear test was equivalent to 5,000 tons to 15,000 tons of TNT.
That would be far greater than the force given by South Korea's geological institute, which estimated it at just 550 tons of TNT.
By comparison the bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima during World War II was equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT.
In 1996, France detonated a bomb beneath Fangataufa Atoll about 750 miles southeast of Tahiti that had a yield of about 120,000 tons of TNT.
The U.S. Geological Survey said it recorded a magnitude-4.2 seismic event in northeastern North Korea. Asian neighbors also said they registered a seismic event, but only Russia said its monitoring services had detected a nuclear explosion.
No one has reported detecting any radiation.
"We know the exact site of the test. The ecological situation is normal, including on Russian territory in Primorye," Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said, referring to the Russian Far East province that shares a short border with North Korea.
Interfax, citing an unnamed diplomatic source in Moscow, said that the North Korean Foreign Ministry had informed the Russian ambassador in Pyongyang about the test two hours before it was conducted. The report could not immediately be confirmed.
<font size="5"><center>Air sample taken after reported nuclear blast
found no radioactive particles, U.S. official says </font size></center>
The Associated Press
Published: October 13, 20
WASHINGTON Results from an initial air sampling after North Korea's announced nuclear test showed no evidence of radioactive particles that would be expected from a successful nuclear detonation, a U.S. government intelligence official said Friday.
The test results do not necessarily mean the North Korean blast was not a nuclear explosion, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the sampling results.
The U.S. government remains uncertain of the nature of the underground explosion, officials said, although the air sampling tends to suggest that the test blast was not entirely successful.
The air sample was taken Tuesday by a specialized aircraft, the WC-135, flying from Kadena air base in Okinawa, Japan. It apparently took the air sample over the Sea of Japan, between the Korean mainland and Japan.
The intelligence official said an initial result from testing of the air sample became available late this week. He said a final result would be available within days but the initial finding is considered conclusive.
It was not immediately clear whether the WC-135 took additional samples after the Tuesday effort.
When President George W. Bush announced Wednesday that he wanted the United Nations and North Korea's neighbors to take steps aimed at pressuring Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program, Bush indicated that he saw little distinction between an actual nuclear test by North Korea and its announcement of one.
"The United States is working to confirm North Korea's claim, but this claim itself constitutes a threat to international peace and stability," Bush said.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/13/america/NA_GEN_US_North_Korea_Test_Sample.php
found no radioactive particles, U.S. official says </font size></center>
The Associated Press
Published: October 13, 20
WASHINGTON Results from an initial air sampling after North Korea's announced nuclear test showed no evidence of radioactive particles that would be expected from a successful nuclear detonation, a U.S. government intelligence official said Friday.
The test results do not necessarily mean the North Korean blast was not a nuclear explosion, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to disclose the sampling results.
The U.S. government remains uncertain of the nature of the underground explosion, officials said, although the air sampling tends to suggest that the test blast was not entirely successful.
The air sample was taken Tuesday by a specialized aircraft, the WC-135, flying from Kadena air base in Okinawa, Japan. It apparently took the air sample over the Sea of Japan, between the Korean mainland and Japan.
The intelligence official said an initial result from testing of the air sample became available late this week. He said a final result would be available within days but the initial finding is considered conclusive.
It was not immediately clear whether the WC-135 took additional samples after the Tuesday effort.
When President George W. Bush announced Wednesday that he wanted the United Nations and North Korea's neighbors to take steps aimed at pressuring Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program, Bush indicated that he saw little distinction between an actual nuclear test by North Korea and its announcement of one.
"The United States is working to confirm North Korea's claim, but this claim itself constitutes a threat to international peace and stability," Bush said.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/10/13/america/NA_GEN_US_North_Korea_Test_Sample.php
One headline read Nuclear Standoff with North Korea 
, i see it as a game of chicken...
____________________________________________________________
The Price of a Nuclear North Korea
Jim Clonts | October 10, 2006
This past weekend North Korea allegedly exploded its first atomic bomb. This atomic test represents the culmination of fifty years of failed foreign policy with this renegade Communist dictatorship by the United Nations and the United States. If it weren't for the UN and particularly the U.S., North Korea would have fallen a long time ago, either from within or from without. We have sustained the regime, fed its military and given its despot leaders credibility with their people.
North Korea is a textbook Communist police state complete with gulags, torture chambers, and human rights atrocities. It is one of the last pure Communist systems in the world and has been an unmitigated disaster for its people. Given the demands of its vast military forces, the North Koreans cannot produce the food or fuel required to sustain themselves. This is widely known among nations and contributes to the instability of the whole Korean Peninsula. South Korea, Japan and the United States have worried for years that if things got bad enough in the DPRK the people could be easily driven to war with the South. These fears are the basis of Kim's strategy. He actively promotes the idea that he has a vast, aggressive military force, and a restless population on the verge starvation, willing to answer the call to duty if it means food for their families.
For years North Korea has been the recipient of millions of tons of grain, fuel oil, and medicine from the United States. We thought we were running a carrot and stick strategy, but in reality it was Kim's strategy. It was simple and effective. They'd throttle up the rhetoric, threaten the South, threaten Japan or threaten to re-activate their nuclear weapons program. We'd step in and negotiate. Negotiation is what we call “writing them a check.” We'd give them billions of dollars worth of fuel oil and grain to ensure the peace would be maintained. Most countries could not hope to get away with a strategy like this, but it helps that Kim Jong Il is viewed in the West as just a little bit insane.
Kim is the perfect extortionist. He understands that his cooperation is worth food, fuel and hard cash. He might be insane, but he is not crazy. With a near-perfect understanding of the limits of the resolve of the United States and United Nations, he has embarked in the pursuit of the great equalizer, nuclear weapons. If the mere threat of armed invasion is worth billions in fuel and food, what will a nuclear threat buy?
The first American administration to deal with a true nuclear crisis in Korea was the Clinton Administration. President Clinton sent ex-President Jimmy Carter to negotiate with the North Koreans in 1994. In exchange for dropping their nuclear program, we would provide food, fuel and peaceful nuclear technology, including light water nuclear reactors. This type of “payoff” has been the lynchpin of our strategy with the North. It reminds me of a statistic I heard during my USAF officer training. Rather than fight the war, it would have been cheaper to pay every man, woman and child in Viet Nam, North and South, $50,000 each if they would cease fighting and live in peace. That is what we tried to do with North Korea during the Clinton Administration and did it get us? Essentially, we gave the bully on the block our lunch money so he wouldn't beat up our friend. The bully took the money, the fuel, the grain, and the nuclear technology and continued with his nuclear program anyway.
Kim Jong Il loves both attention and sticking it to America. Is it any wonder that on the eve of the Iraq War, North Korea announced they were resuming their nuclear program? He saw an opening, a chance to score big. He assumed President Bush would “buy him off” so we could focus our attention on Al Qaeda. For a Communist, it seems Kim has a good business sense. He underestimated President Bush's resolve. Bush said no and insisted on six-way, multi-national negotiations. I would have liked to have seen the look on Kim's face when he heard this. He must have thought, Doesn't Bush get it? Just send me Condi Rice and her checkbook and I'll go away for awhile. My God, even Clinton understood that.
What does the Beloved Leader want with nukes? Does he want to incinerate South Korea? No. He wants to occupy South Korea. Does he want to turn Tokyo into a charcoal briquette? Maybe. There is no love lost between the Koreans and the Japanese. Does he want to nuke Seattle? No. He is smart enough to know we would turn his toxic waste dump of a country into glass. He has no ambitions of attacking America, only extorting us. He doesn't want to nuke Seattle. He wants to threaten to nuke Seattle. It's the ultimate trump card. We cannot threaten military action against him if he holds the West Coast at risk. We will have to pay him off, again and again. At some point he will extort the South. Surrender or else. This time the United States will sit on the sidelines. We will not risk the West Coast for Seoul.
This evil dictator has been called insane, but all indications I've seen is that he has a working strategy that keeps his failing economy afloat, his military fed and fueled, and his nuclear ambitions alive. This strategy may deliver the rest of the Korean Peninsula to his control. We gave him carrots when he deserved the stick, and now he's addicted to the carrots and may wield a pretty big stick himself.
President Bush's instincts not to continue to support this dictator with food, fuel and nuclear technology are correct, but will the political realities of a nuclear missile aimed at Los Angeles dictate another pay-off? We have to ask ourselves, “Have we really bought peace or just mortgaged a more deadly war for future generations?
The sun rises in the East...
, i see it as a game of chicken...____________________________________________________________
The Price of a Nuclear North Korea
Jim Clonts | October 10, 2006
This past weekend North Korea allegedly exploded its first atomic bomb. This atomic test represents the culmination of fifty years of failed foreign policy with this renegade Communist dictatorship by the United Nations and the United States. If it weren't for the UN and particularly the U.S., North Korea would have fallen a long time ago, either from within or from without. We have sustained the regime, fed its military and given its despot leaders credibility with their people.
North Korea is a textbook Communist police state complete with gulags, torture chambers, and human rights atrocities. It is one of the last pure Communist systems in the world and has been an unmitigated disaster for its people. Given the demands of its vast military forces, the North Koreans cannot produce the food or fuel required to sustain themselves. This is widely known among nations and contributes to the instability of the whole Korean Peninsula. South Korea, Japan and the United States have worried for years that if things got bad enough in the DPRK the people could be easily driven to war with the South. These fears are the basis of Kim's strategy. He actively promotes the idea that he has a vast, aggressive military force, and a restless population on the verge starvation, willing to answer the call to duty if it means food for their families.
For years North Korea has been the recipient of millions of tons of grain, fuel oil, and medicine from the United States. We thought we were running a carrot and stick strategy, but in reality it was Kim's strategy. It was simple and effective. They'd throttle up the rhetoric, threaten the South, threaten Japan or threaten to re-activate their nuclear weapons program. We'd step in and negotiate. Negotiation is what we call “writing them a check.” We'd give them billions of dollars worth of fuel oil and grain to ensure the peace would be maintained. Most countries could not hope to get away with a strategy like this, but it helps that Kim Jong Il is viewed in the West as just a little bit insane.
Kim is the perfect extortionist. He understands that his cooperation is worth food, fuel and hard cash. He might be insane, but he is not crazy. With a near-perfect understanding of the limits of the resolve of the United States and United Nations, he has embarked in the pursuit of the great equalizer, nuclear weapons. If the mere threat of armed invasion is worth billions in fuel and food, what will a nuclear threat buy?
The first American administration to deal with a true nuclear crisis in Korea was the Clinton Administration. President Clinton sent ex-President Jimmy Carter to negotiate with the North Koreans in 1994. In exchange for dropping their nuclear program, we would provide food, fuel and peaceful nuclear technology, including light water nuclear reactors. This type of “payoff” has been the lynchpin of our strategy with the North. It reminds me of a statistic I heard during my USAF officer training. Rather than fight the war, it would have been cheaper to pay every man, woman and child in Viet Nam, North and South, $50,000 each if they would cease fighting and live in peace. That is what we tried to do with North Korea during the Clinton Administration and did it get us? Essentially, we gave the bully on the block our lunch money so he wouldn't beat up our friend. The bully took the money, the fuel, the grain, and the nuclear technology and continued with his nuclear program anyway.
Kim Jong Il loves both attention and sticking it to America. Is it any wonder that on the eve of the Iraq War, North Korea announced they were resuming their nuclear program? He saw an opening, a chance to score big. He assumed President Bush would “buy him off” so we could focus our attention on Al Qaeda. For a Communist, it seems Kim has a good business sense. He underestimated President Bush's resolve. Bush said no and insisted on six-way, multi-national negotiations. I would have liked to have seen the look on Kim's face when he heard this. He must have thought, Doesn't Bush get it? Just send me Condi Rice and her checkbook and I'll go away for awhile. My God, even Clinton understood that.
What does the Beloved Leader want with nukes? Does he want to incinerate South Korea? No. He wants to occupy South Korea. Does he want to turn Tokyo into a charcoal briquette? Maybe. There is no love lost between the Koreans and the Japanese. Does he want to nuke Seattle? No. He is smart enough to know we would turn his toxic waste dump of a country into glass. He has no ambitions of attacking America, only extorting us. He doesn't want to nuke Seattle. He wants to threaten to nuke Seattle. It's the ultimate trump card. We cannot threaten military action against him if he holds the West Coast at risk. We will have to pay him off, again and again. At some point he will extort the South. Surrender or else. This time the United States will sit on the sidelines. We will not risk the West Coast for Seoul.
This evil dictator has been called insane, but all indications I've seen is that he has a working strategy that keeps his failing economy afloat, his military fed and fueled, and his nuclear ambitions alive. This strategy may deliver the rest of the Korean Peninsula to his control. We gave him carrots when he deserved the stick, and now he's addicted to the carrots and may wield a pretty big stick himself.
President Bush's instincts not to continue to support this dictator with food, fuel and nuclear technology are correct, but will the political realities of a nuclear missile aimed at Los Angeles dictate another pay-off? We have to ask ourselves, “Have we really bought peace or just mortgaged a more deadly war for future generations?
The sun rises in the East...
[FRAME]http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=2581152&page=1[/FRAME]
props.
I wanted to read this.
North Koreas logic is correct. Everyone around them has nukes and tests them, why can't they.
I also felt when the lady said, we don't care about your money, we love our country.
I can't hate, cuz I don't know shit about them other than what the US media says. So really you can't form an opinion.
I wanted to read this.
North Koreas logic is correct. Everyone around them has nukes and tests them, why can't they.
I also felt when the lady said, we don't care about your money, we love our country.
I can't hate, cuz I don't know shit about them other than what the US media says. So really you can't form an opinion.
Brief, but informative insight to how the North Korean populous' view America. Still think a fistfull of greenbacks can buy anything, collectively self distructive as viewed by the nonmatericalistic, nationally impowered, armed with...NUKES 
I agree with the Ambassador, they are a dangerous country...
I agree with the Ambassador, they are a dangerous country...
The perception is that actual radioactive elements are used in the tests, that is not the case!!! They are replaced, in tests with materials that are similar in chemical make up, so the results would not show any radioactivity...our govenment knows the real answer very well....
GET YOU HOT said:
^^^Agreed
<font size="5"><center>N. Korea Nuclear Accord Advances</font size></center>
Feb 13, 12:42 AM (ET)
Associated Press
By BURT HERMAN
BEIJING (AP) - Six countries reached a tentative agreement Tuesday on initial steps toward North Korea's nuclear disarmament that could usher in the first concrete progress after more than three years of talks marked by delays, deadlock and the communist country's first nuclear test explosion.
The U.S. envoy to the talks, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, emerged in the early morning hours of Tuesday looking weary after a marathon 16-hour negotiating session and announced that a tentative deal had been struck at the latest round of six-party talks on the North's nuclear program.
The draft agreement contained commitments on disarmament and energy assistance along with "initial actions" to be taken by certain deadlines, Hill said. Working groups will be set up, hopefully in a month, laying out a framework for dealing with regional tensions, he added.
Later Tuesday, after a break of several hours, Hill said that the pact had U.S. government support. "Yes, we've approved it. To the best of my knowledge we've approved it," he told reporters.
Hill added that the North Koreans had seen the same text. The Chinese said the North Koreans "went over every word of it," he said.
North Korean delegates were speaking Tuesday to superiors in Pyongyang about the proposal and had not yet made their position known, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing talks.
The New York Times reported that the draft called for North Korea to complete the "permanent disablement" of its main nuclear facilities at Yongbyon within 60 days.
The newspaper said the U.S., South Korea and China would provide aid under the deal. South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the North would receive 500,000 tons of heavy oil and other energy and humanitarian assistance equivalent to that amount.
Left for later discussion would be what to do with the atomic weapons the North now is believed to possess - a half-dozen or more by expert estimates. The deal also reportedly fails to address the uranium enrichment program that Washington accuses North Korea of having.
All six heads of delegations met again Tuesday morning, where they made some "suggestions of technical changes, but the draft was virtually concluded," a South Korean official said on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing process. A full session of negotiators was expected later Tuesday.
The agreement could herald the first step toward disarmament since the talks began in 2003. The process reached its lowest point in October when North Korea conducted its first nuclear test explosion, alarming the world and triggering U.N. sanctions.
In the last few days, the talks had appeared to be on the verge of foundering and envoys made clear that their frustration was increasing and their patience growing thin. The current round was to conclude on Monday but as they progressed toward a deal, negotiators extended it late into the night and then into the early hours of Tuesday.
Hill said the draft agreement still must be reviewed by the home governments of the six countries at the talks, but he was upbeat about it. He said he had consulted "many times" with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
"We feel it's an excellent draft, I don't think we're the problem," he said.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe welcomed the progress but urged North Korea to make further efforts toward denuclearization.
"We are closely watching the development to make sure North Korea makes the right decision toward nuclear abandonment," Abe told a Parliamentary committee session Tuesday morning.
South Korea's envoy Chun Yung-woo said he believed the proposal would be acceptable to Pyongyang.
"I am looking forward to hearing good news today. I hope it will be a good day for all of us," he told reporters before the start of Tuesday's meeting. He added that "no country had raised an objection to the principle" that the costs of the energy aid should be evenly shared.
Russia was more noncommittal. Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov said there were "many questions regarding details," Russia's Itar-Tass news agency reported.
In September 2005, North Korea was promised energy aid and security guarantees in exchange for a pledge to abandon its nuclear programs. But talks on implementing that agreement snarled on other issues and that plan went nowhere.
Hill has repeatedly said he hoped a resolution would help improve stability in a region filled with bitter historical disputes. The two Koreas remain technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a cease-fire that has never been replaced by a peace treaty.
"We're trying to do more than just do denuclearization for energy," Hill said. "We're trying to address some of the underlying problems."
Though he did not provide specifics, North Korea has demanded improved relations with the United States. Japan and North Korea remain fiercely antagonistic in part because of North Korea's acknowledged but unresolved abductions of Japanese citizens.
John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., harshly criticized the deal and urged President Bush to reject it, saying it made the U.S. look weak.
"I am very disturbed by this deal," he told CNN. "It sends exactly the wrong signal to would-be proliferators around the world: 'If we hold out long enough, wear down the State Department negotiators, eventually you get rewarded,' in this case with massive shipments of heavy fuel oil for doing only partially what needs to be done" to dismantle the nuclear program.
"I think this deal with North Korea undercuts the sanctions resolution with respect to them, and I think the Iranians have only to follow the same example."
The current talks began Thursday on a promising note after the United States and North Korea held an unusual meeting last month in Germany and signaled a willingness to compromise.
But negotiations quickly became mired on the issue of how much energy aid the impoverished and isolated communist country would get as an inducement for initial steps toward disarmament.
"It's always 3 yards, 3 yards, 3 yards, and it's always fourth and one. Then you make a first down and do 3 more yards," Hill said early Tuesday, using a football metaphor. "It's painful."
During the days of arduous negotiations, he said "everybody has had to make some changes to narrow the differences."
Some delegates at the talks - which also include China, Russia and South Korea - had called North Korea's demands for energy excessive.
South Korean and Japanese media reports gave varying accounts of how much energy North Korea was demanding, including up to 2 million kilowatts of electricity or 2 million tons of heavy fuel oil.
Under a 1994 U.S.-North Korea disarmament agreement, the North was to receive 500,000 tons of fuel oil a year before construction was completed of two nuclear reactors that would be able to generate 2 million kilowatts of electricity.
That deal fell apart in late 2002 when the U.S. accused the North of conducting a secret uranium enrichment program, sparking the latest nuclear crisis.
---_
Associated Press reporters Jae-soon Chang, Charles Hutzler, Alexa Olesen and Hiroko Tabuchi contributed to this report.
http://apnews1.iwon.com//article/20070213/D8N8KVU80.html
Feb 13, 12:42 AM (ET)
Associated Press
By BURT HERMAN
BEIJING (AP) - Six countries reached a tentative agreement Tuesday on initial steps toward North Korea's nuclear disarmament that could usher in the first concrete progress after more than three years of talks marked by delays, deadlock and the communist country's first nuclear test explosion.
The U.S. envoy to the talks, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, emerged in the early morning hours of Tuesday looking weary after a marathon 16-hour negotiating session and announced that a tentative deal had been struck at the latest round of six-party talks on the North's nuclear program.
The draft agreement contained commitments on disarmament and energy assistance along with "initial actions" to be taken by certain deadlines, Hill said. Working groups will be set up, hopefully in a month, laying out a framework for dealing with regional tensions, he added.
Later Tuesday, after a break of several hours, Hill said that the pact had U.S. government support. "Yes, we've approved it. To the best of my knowledge we've approved it," he told reporters.
Hill added that the North Koreans had seen the same text. The Chinese said the North Koreans "went over every word of it," he said.
North Korean delegates were speaking Tuesday to superiors in Pyongyang about the proposal and had not yet made their position known, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing talks.
The New York Times reported that the draft called for North Korea to complete the "permanent disablement" of its main nuclear facilities at Yongbyon within 60 days.
The newspaper said the U.S., South Korea and China would provide aid under the deal. South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the North would receive 500,000 tons of heavy oil and other energy and humanitarian assistance equivalent to that amount.
Left for later discussion would be what to do with the atomic weapons the North now is believed to possess - a half-dozen or more by expert estimates. The deal also reportedly fails to address the uranium enrichment program that Washington accuses North Korea of having.
All six heads of delegations met again Tuesday morning, where they made some "suggestions of technical changes, but the draft was virtually concluded," a South Korean official said on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing process. A full session of negotiators was expected later Tuesday.
The agreement could herald the first step toward disarmament since the talks began in 2003. The process reached its lowest point in October when North Korea conducted its first nuclear test explosion, alarming the world and triggering U.N. sanctions.
In the last few days, the talks had appeared to be on the verge of foundering and envoys made clear that their frustration was increasing and their patience growing thin. The current round was to conclude on Monday but as they progressed toward a deal, negotiators extended it late into the night and then into the early hours of Tuesday.
Hill said the draft agreement still must be reviewed by the home governments of the six countries at the talks, but he was upbeat about it. He said he had consulted "many times" with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
"We feel it's an excellent draft, I don't think we're the problem," he said.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe welcomed the progress but urged North Korea to make further efforts toward denuclearization.
"We are closely watching the development to make sure North Korea makes the right decision toward nuclear abandonment," Abe told a Parliamentary committee session Tuesday morning.
South Korea's envoy Chun Yung-woo said he believed the proposal would be acceptable to Pyongyang.
"I am looking forward to hearing good news today. I hope it will be a good day for all of us," he told reporters before the start of Tuesday's meeting. He added that "no country had raised an objection to the principle" that the costs of the energy aid should be evenly shared.
Russia was more noncommittal. Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov said there were "many questions regarding details," Russia's Itar-Tass news agency reported.
In September 2005, North Korea was promised energy aid and security guarantees in exchange for a pledge to abandon its nuclear programs. But talks on implementing that agreement snarled on other issues and that plan went nowhere.
Hill has repeatedly said he hoped a resolution would help improve stability in a region filled with bitter historical disputes. The two Koreas remain technically at war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a cease-fire that has never been replaced by a peace treaty.
"We're trying to do more than just do denuclearization for energy," Hill said. "We're trying to address some of the underlying problems."
Though he did not provide specifics, North Korea has demanded improved relations with the United States. Japan and North Korea remain fiercely antagonistic in part because of North Korea's acknowledged but unresolved abductions of Japanese citizens.
John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., harshly criticized the deal and urged President Bush to reject it, saying it made the U.S. look weak.
"I am very disturbed by this deal," he told CNN. "It sends exactly the wrong signal to would-be proliferators around the world: 'If we hold out long enough, wear down the State Department negotiators, eventually you get rewarded,' in this case with massive shipments of heavy fuel oil for doing only partially what needs to be done" to dismantle the nuclear program.
"I think this deal with North Korea undercuts the sanctions resolution with respect to them, and I think the Iranians have only to follow the same example."
The current talks began Thursday on a promising note after the United States and North Korea held an unusual meeting last month in Germany and signaled a willingness to compromise.
But negotiations quickly became mired on the issue of how much energy aid the impoverished and isolated communist country would get as an inducement for initial steps toward disarmament.
"It's always 3 yards, 3 yards, 3 yards, and it's always fourth and one. Then you make a first down and do 3 more yards," Hill said early Tuesday, using a football metaphor. "It's painful."
During the days of arduous negotiations, he said "everybody has had to make some changes to narrow the differences."
Some delegates at the talks - which also include China, Russia and South Korea - had called North Korea's demands for energy excessive.
South Korean and Japanese media reports gave varying accounts of how much energy North Korea was demanding, including up to 2 million kilowatts of electricity or 2 million tons of heavy fuel oil.
Under a 1994 U.S.-North Korea disarmament agreement, the North was to receive 500,000 tons of fuel oil a year before construction was completed of two nuclear reactors that would be able to generate 2 million kilowatts of electricity.
That deal fell apart in late 2002 when the U.S. accused the North of conducting a secret uranium enrichment program, sparking the latest nuclear crisis.
---_
Associated Press reporters Jae-soon Chang, Charles Hutzler, Alexa Olesen and Hiroko Tabuchi contributed to this report.
http://apnews1.iwon.com//article/20070213/D8N8KVU80.html
History of North Korea - Documentary
[FLASH]http://www.liveleak.com/player.swf?token=8c1_1190902587[/FLASH]An excellent documentary I found.. Thank you Discovery Times for giving it to the public on the internet...
[FLASH]http://www.liveleak.com/player.swf?token=8c1_1190902587[/FLASH]An excellent documentary I found.. Thank you Discovery Times for giving it to the public on the internet...
D
DANGEROUSBLACKMAN
Guest
Re: History of North Korea - Documentary
Interesting.
Interesting.
North Korea Removed From U.S. List of Terror Sponsors
<font size="5"><center>
North Korea Removed
From U.S. List of Terror Sponsors </font size></center>
Bloomberg
By Viola Gienger
and James Rowley
October 11, 2008
(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. removed North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism after the communist state agreed to allow wider scrutiny of its nuclear-weapons program.
North Korea agreed that inspectors could examine facilities that it has revealed as well as other locations suspected of being used for any part of its nuclear program. It also agreed to immediately resume disabling its Yongbyon reactor, the source of weapons-grade plutonium, U.S. envoy Sung Kim told reporters in Washington today.
The agreement breaks a two-month deadlock in six-nation talks aimed at ultimately ridding North Korea of atomic weapons and its ability to export nuclear technology. The U.S. had refused to remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism until the government in Pyongyang had agreed to a credible nuclear inspection plan.
``Every element of verification that we sought is included in this package,'' said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. ``Every single thing we sought going in, is part of this package.''
The agreement resulted from a visit by U.S. negotiators to Pyongyang Oct. 1-3, officials said. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed a declaration this morning immediately taking North Korea off the terror list after President George W. Bush made the decision to proceed last night, McCormack said.
The U.S. reached the agreement with North Korea and notified the other four nations involved in the talks -- South Korea, Japan, China and Russia, McCormack said. A full verification protocol will be completed and adopted by the six countries ``in the near future,'' the department said.
Japanese Objections
Japan urged the U.S. as recently as yesterday to hold off on removing North Korea from the list and renewed its own sanctions against the regime for six months. It was the fourth extension of Japan's sanctions, imposed after the North Koreans tested a nuclear weapon two years ago.
``We have notified the U.S. that there may be further points to confirm,'' Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said at a briefing in Tokyo yesterday.
The administration has been trying to salvage the six-party talks that stalled in mid-August when U.S. President George W. Bush delayed a plan announced in June to remove North Korea from the terrorism list. He said the government in Pyongyang hadn't agreed to a credible verification plan.
Kim Jong Il's regime then began reversing steps it had taken to disable its Yongbyon nuclear reactor. North Korea tested its first nuclear weapon in October 2006.
`Baseline'
The agreement announced today will provide a ``baseline for a formalized verification protocol that will be discussed in the coming weeks'' with the six nations participating in the nuclear talks, said Patricia McNerney, acting assistant secretary for international security and nonproliferation.
U.S. officials cautioned that the agreement does not guarantee steady progress toward full inspection of nuclear facilities in North Korea, particularly those that have not been declared by Pyongyang.
``There should be no anticipation by anybody that there will be no bumps in the road'' said Paula DeSutter, the assistant secretary for verification, compliance and implementation of arms treaties. ``This is going to be a bumpy road, it really has never been traveled before.''
Level of Cooperation
``How long it will take will depend largely on North Korea and its level of cooperation'' with inspectors' attempts to visit nuclear sites that Pyongyang hasn't formally identified, DeSutter said.
Under the agreement announced today, visits to such sites would be by mutual consent of North Korea and other nations.
Florida Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement that, by rescinding the designation of North Korea as a sponsor of terrorism, ``the administration has given up a critical instrument of leverage'' over the communist regime.
She noted that North Korea had provided ``crucial assistance to Syria's illicit nuclear program'' even after assuring the U.S. and other nations it had stopped such proliferation.
Both U.S. presidential candidates issued statements on the agreement. Democratic candidate Barack Obama said ``North Korea's agreement to these verification measures is a modest step forward in dismantling its nuclear weapons programs.''
`Appropriate Response'
Obama called the decision by President George W. Bush to remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism ``an appropriate response, as long as there is a clear understanding that if North Korea fails to follow through there will be immediate consequences.''
Republican candidate John McCain said he wouldn't support removing North Korea from the terrorism-sponsors list unless the U.S. ``is able to fully verify the nuclear declaration Pyongyang submitted on June 26.''
McCain's statement said ``it is not clear that the latest verification arrangement will enable us to do so.'' McCain said the administration must ``explain exactly how this new verification agreement advances American interests.''
Other sanctions still apply to North Korea, including licensing requirements for all exports from the U.S., McNerney said.
The list of state sponsors of terrorism also includes Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria. The Bush administration removed Libya from the list in 2006 after leader Colonel Muammar Qaddafi renounced terrorism and agreed to give up all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
To contact the reporters on this story: Viola Gienger in Washington at vgienger@bloomberg.net; James Rowley at jarowley@bloomberg.net
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ao3FjKHi2p8s&refer=home
<font size="5"><center>
North Korea Removed
From U.S. List of Terror Sponsors </font size></center>
Bloomberg
By Viola Gienger
and James Rowley
October 11, 2008
(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. removed North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism after the communist state agreed to allow wider scrutiny of its nuclear-weapons program.
North Korea agreed that inspectors could examine facilities that it has revealed as well as other locations suspected of being used for any part of its nuclear program. It also agreed to immediately resume disabling its Yongbyon reactor, the source of weapons-grade plutonium, U.S. envoy Sung Kim told reporters in Washington today.
The agreement breaks a two-month deadlock in six-nation talks aimed at ultimately ridding North Korea of atomic weapons and its ability to export nuclear technology. The U.S. had refused to remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism until the government in Pyongyang had agreed to a credible nuclear inspection plan.
``Every element of verification that we sought is included in this package,'' said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. ``Every single thing we sought going in, is part of this package.''
The agreement resulted from a visit by U.S. negotiators to Pyongyang Oct. 1-3, officials said. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice signed a declaration this morning immediately taking North Korea off the terror list after President George W. Bush made the decision to proceed last night, McCormack said.
The U.S. reached the agreement with North Korea and notified the other four nations involved in the talks -- South Korea, Japan, China and Russia, McCormack said. A full verification protocol will be completed and adopted by the six countries ``in the near future,'' the department said.
Japanese Objections
Japan urged the U.S. as recently as yesterday to hold off on removing North Korea from the list and renewed its own sanctions against the regime for six months. It was the fourth extension of Japan's sanctions, imposed after the North Koreans tested a nuclear weapon two years ago.
``We have notified the U.S. that there may be further points to confirm,'' Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said at a briefing in Tokyo yesterday.
The administration has been trying to salvage the six-party talks that stalled in mid-August when U.S. President George W. Bush delayed a plan announced in June to remove North Korea from the terrorism list. He said the government in Pyongyang hadn't agreed to a credible verification plan.
Kim Jong Il's regime then began reversing steps it had taken to disable its Yongbyon nuclear reactor. North Korea tested its first nuclear weapon in October 2006.
`Baseline'
The agreement announced today will provide a ``baseline for a formalized verification protocol that will be discussed in the coming weeks'' with the six nations participating in the nuclear talks, said Patricia McNerney, acting assistant secretary for international security and nonproliferation.
U.S. officials cautioned that the agreement does not guarantee steady progress toward full inspection of nuclear facilities in North Korea, particularly those that have not been declared by Pyongyang.
``There should be no anticipation by anybody that there will be no bumps in the road'' said Paula DeSutter, the assistant secretary for verification, compliance and implementation of arms treaties. ``This is going to be a bumpy road, it really has never been traveled before.''
Level of Cooperation
``How long it will take will depend largely on North Korea and its level of cooperation'' with inspectors' attempts to visit nuclear sites that Pyongyang hasn't formally identified, DeSutter said.
Under the agreement announced today, visits to such sites would be by mutual consent of North Korea and other nations.
Florida Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement that, by rescinding the designation of North Korea as a sponsor of terrorism, ``the administration has given up a critical instrument of leverage'' over the communist regime.
She noted that North Korea had provided ``crucial assistance to Syria's illicit nuclear program'' even after assuring the U.S. and other nations it had stopped such proliferation.
Both U.S. presidential candidates issued statements on the agreement. Democratic candidate Barack Obama said ``North Korea's agreement to these verification measures is a modest step forward in dismantling its nuclear weapons programs.''
`Appropriate Response'
Obama called the decision by President George W. Bush to remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism ``an appropriate response, as long as there is a clear understanding that if North Korea fails to follow through there will be immediate consequences.''
Republican candidate John McCain said he wouldn't support removing North Korea from the terrorism-sponsors list unless the U.S. ``is able to fully verify the nuclear declaration Pyongyang submitted on June 26.''
McCain's statement said ``it is not clear that the latest verification arrangement will enable us to do so.'' McCain said the administration must ``explain exactly how this new verification agreement advances American interests.''
Other sanctions still apply to North Korea, including licensing requirements for all exports from the U.S., McNerney said.
The list of state sponsors of terrorism also includes Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria. The Bush administration removed Libya from the list in 2006 after leader Colonel Muammar Qaddafi renounced terrorism and agreed to give up all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
To contact the reporters on this story: Viola Gienger in Washington at vgienger@bloomberg.net; James Rowley at jarowley@bloomberg.net
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ao3FjKHi2p8s&refer=home
Re: North Korea Removed From U.S. List of Terror Sponsors
<font size="5"><center>
North Korea scraps its
non-aggression pact with the south</font size></center>
McClatchy Newspapers
By Tim Johnson
Friday, January 30, 2009
BEIJING — The potential for a naval clash off the Korean Peninsula grew Friday after North Korea scrapped a nonaggression pact with South Korea and declared as void a western sea border, warning in shrill language that the region has "reached the brink of war."
South Korea expressed regret that Pyongyang cancelled all political and military accords and pledged "firm counteraction" should North Korean vessels cross a U.N.-set demarcation line on the Yellow Sea.
"We will uphold the maritime border just as we maintain the military demarcation line on land," Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae told reporters in Seoul, according to South Korea's semi-official Yonhap news agency.
"The agreement reached between the two sides cannot be scrapped just because one side decides to scrap it," Won said.
North Korea is prone to strident outbursts to gain attention, and its actions Friday may be aimed not only at Seoul but at Washington, where it fears it won't be a diplomatic priority for the new Barack Obama administration in its early days as the Middle East seizes attention. North Korea may also seek to intimidate the South into offering more financial support.
Early on Friday, North Korea issued a statement through its official news agency that lambasted South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, a conservative who took office 11 months ago with a tough stance toward the North, and canceled two reconciliation accords with Seoul.
"The group of traitors has already reduced all the agreements reached between the north and the south in the past to dead documents," the agency said.
It declared void a 1992 agreement that recognizes a U.N.-set boundary line in the Yellow Sea as the maritime border between the two nations. The North has objected to the boundary, saying it should be set further to the south. Disputes on the Yellow Sea led North and South Korean vessels to square off in bloody battles in 1999 and 2002. Shots were also fired in 2004.
"The confrontation between the North and the South in the political and military fields has been put to such extremes that inter-Korean relations have reached the brink of a war," the North's statement added.
Crabs also may have something to do with the heightened tensions.
The boundary line in the Yellow Sea gives control of offshore islands, rich in blue crabs, to the South. With the spring crabbing season around the corner, a source of foreign exchange is at stake.
Tensions between North and South Korea have escalated sharply since Lee took office. Lee has placed conditions on multimillion-dollar humanitarian aid to the cash-starved North, and has permitted private groups to launch balloons over North Korea to drop leaflets criticizing its leader, Kim Jong-il.
Significantly, Pyongyang hasn't shut down the joint industrial park in the North Korean city of Kaesong where 90 or so South Korean factories employ 33,000 low-wage North Koreans. The Kaesong complex is an important source of scarce foreign exchange for Pyongyang.
Just a few days ago, Kim offered a positive signal on six-nation talks designed to dismantle the North's nuclear weapons program. Kim told a visiting Chinese envoy that he did not "want to see tension emerge on the Korean Peninsula" and renewed a commitment to work toward a nuclear-free peninsula.
North Korea tested its first nuclear device in 2006, demonstrating a nuclear capability.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/61075.html
<font size="5"><center>
North Korea scraps its
non-aggression pact with the south</font size></center>
McClatchy Newspapers
By Tim Johnson
Friday, January 30, 2009
BEIJING — The potential for a naval clash off the Korean Peninsula grew Friday after North Korea scrapped a nonaggression pact with South Korea and declared as void a western sea border, warning in shrill language that the region has "reached the brink of war."
South Korea expressed regret that Pyongyang cancelled all political and military accords and pledged "firm counteraction" should North Korean vessels cross a U.N.-set demarcation line on the Yellow Sea.
"We will uphold the maritime border just as we maintain the military demarcation line on land," Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae told reporters in Seoul, according to South Korea's semi-official Yonhap news agency.
"The agreement reached between the two sides cannot be scrapped just because one side decides to scrap it," Won said.
North Korea is prone to strident outbursts to gain attention, and its actions Friday may be aimed not only at Seoul but at Washington, where it fears it won't be a diplomatic priority for the new Barack Obama administration in its early days as the Middle East seizes attention. North Korea may also seek to intimidate the South into offering more financial support.
Early on Friday, North Korea issued a statement through its official news agency that lambasted South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, a conservative who took office 11 months ago with a tough stance toward the North, and canceled two reconciliation accords with Seoul.
"The group of traitors has already reduced all the agreements reached between the north and the south in the past to dead documents," the agency said.
It declared void a 1992 agreement that recognizes a U.N.-set boundary line in the Yellow Sea as the maritime border between the two nations. The North has objected to the boundary, saying it should be set further to the south. Disputes on the Yellow Sea led North and South Korean vessels to square off in bloody battles in 1999 and 2002. Shots were also fired in 2004.
"The confrontation between the North and the South in the political and military fields has been put to such extremes that inter-Korean relations have reached the brink of a war," the North's statement added.
Crabs also may have something to do with the heightened tensions.
The boundary line in the Yellow Sea gives control of offshore islands, rich in blue crabs, to the South. With the spring crabbing season around the corner, a source of foreign exchange is at stake.
Tensions between North and South Korea have escalated sharply since Lee took office. Lee has placed conditions on multimillion-dollar humanitarian aid to the cash-starved North, and has permitted private groups to launch balloons over North Korea to drop leaflets criticizing its leader, Kim Jong-il.
Significantly, Pyongyang hasn't shut down the joint industrial park in the North Korean city of Kaesong where 90 or so South Korean factories employ 33,000 low-wage North Koreans. The Kaesong complex is an important source of scarce foreign exchange for Pyongyang.
Just a few days ago, Kim offered a positive signal on six-nation talks designed to dismantle the North's nuclear weapons program. Kim told a visiting Chinese envoy that he did not "want to see tension emerge on the Korean Peninsula" and renewed a commitment to work toward a nuclear-free peninsula.
North Korea tested its first nuclear device in 2006, demonstrating a nuclear capability.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/61075.html
Re: North Korea Warns of Nuclear War
It would be nice if you posted the actual article. Links die a lot quicker than threads do, on this board. I know that there is an affinity to posting articles on the so-called "man-board", but that Colin thing is not in effect on this board. If the link dies, we lose the reference for the comments in the thread.
QueEx
It would be nice if you posted the actual article. Links die a lot quicker than threads do, on this board. I know that there is an affinity to posting articles on the so-called "man-board", but that Colin thing is not in effect on this board. If the link dies, we lose the reference for the comments in the thread.
QueEx
Re: North Korea Warns of Nuclear War
Re: North Korea Warns of Nuclear War
LOL. But, thats why you "volunteered", right?
QueEx
LOL. But, thats why you "volunteered", right?
QueEx
Re: North Korea Warns of Nuclear War
I volunteered to defend America not South Korea though.
I volunteered to defend America not South Korea though.
Re: North Korea Warns of Nuclear War
+1, I'm not in the military but we really need a policy of non-interventionism. North Korea poses no threat to the US. Neither does Iran or Pakistan.
Seriously, What gives the US authority to "Police the World"? It's certainly not constitutional and our economy is severly strained due to the excessive spending from these escapades.
+1, I'm not in the military but we really need a policy of non-interventionism. North Korea poses no threat to the US. Neither does Iran or Pakistan.
Seriously, What gives the US authority to "Police the World"? It's certainly not constitutional and our economy is severly strained due to the excessive spending from these escapades.
Re: North Korea Warns of Nuclear War
QueEx
No. YOU volunteered to defend and pursue "American Interests" as the President and Congress defines those interests.
QueEx
Re: North Korea Warns of Nuclear War
Yeah man it's getting on my nerves...you know the military is in a bad position when they are assigning Airmen and Seamen to Army and Marine Units because their recruiting levels are low.
Do not comment on things you know nothing about please.
I, Deuterion, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.
Yeah man it's getting on my nerves...you know the military is in a bad position when they are assigning Airmen and Seamen to Army and Marine Units because their recruiting levels are low.
Do not comment on things you know nothing about please.
I, Deuterion, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.
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