Australia steps towards stopping North Korean ships

[Nottingham]

Australia steps towards stopping North Korean ships

By Tom Allard, Foreign Affairs Writer and Cynthia Banham
July 11 2003

Willing and able . . . US ambassador Thomas Schieffer called the situation 'very dangerous'.
Australia, the United States and nine other countries are moving at "light speed" to set up a force to stop North Korean ships and planes transporting nuclear materials and missiles, agreeing yesterday to begin military exercises as early as September.

The move towards involvement in interceptions comes as South Korean intelligence officials revealed more about North Korea's nuclear weapons programs.

North Korean officials warned of the "black clouds of nuclear war", repeating warnings yesterday that the country was prepared for war if the US and its allies threatened them militarily.

The dramatic development was announced after the Proliferation Security Initiative's Brisbane meeting. Other countries in the initiative are Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and Poland.


http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/10/1057783288319.html

Scary stuff! :bounce:

[Nottingham]

1. Where is NKorea sending these ships with Missiles tooo!

:bounce:

[ex_jew]

2. What a great time for a new war !

Actually my 15 year-old son suggested this. I'm so frightened he's got it right.

[jayfish]

3. Can Anyone Say Tripwire?...

I thought you could.

Jay

[indictrichardperle]

4. interesting

They really need a war, but they need the EU/UN cooperation for the Iraq mess, that kind of puts Iran on the back burner. Plus, Russia would really get in the fight or flight mode if we invaded Iran. We dont have any credibility with our accusations of WMDs.

NK avoids all of these problems, they do have WMDs, the EU/Russia wouldnt be offended too much, we might actually get some support.

NK might make a more logical target for the neo-cons. It would silence all the building calls for investigations, and the public would forget about Iraq and the economy.

[jayfish]

5. All It Will Take Is The Sinking Of One Australian Warship...

and America will have its' game on. Watch this closely.

Jay

[AbbPoacher]

6. Stopping the international trade of weapons is a good idea.

France and Germany are in.What about South korea? Can GW get a real international effort and not appear too aggressive to the desperate N Koreans?...............I don't think so.

[ze_dscherman]

7. International trade of weapons

While everyone focuses on the so called WMD's, actual wars are fought with conventional weapons. No need for the scary stuff if some bombs, MGs and artillery will do it as well.

NK is just a minor competitor in this game. Russia, U.S., Germany, France, U.K. are all in big time.

[Nottingham]

8. Hey isn't this a Blockade. Isn't that a act of war

or is this business aas usual!

Australia stepped in this quagmire with Bush!

Howard was stoopid

[teryang]

9. This build up to war is bogus too

The whole situation is described in detail in: The Nuclear Frame-up of North Korea
by Gregory Elich at


http://globalresearch.ca/articles/ELI307A.html


Read the above article to gain an idea at what is going on. The snippets from so called journalists and foreign affairs experts are entirely devoid of historical context or reliable factual information. Media accounts are based upon unfounded assumptions and government pronoucements. Of course this article is lengthy because it is based upon an honest effort to take a comprehensive look at what has happened in N.Korea recently, and how it relates to American Korean interaction. I'm not claiming that this article is infallible but it will provide the basis for a better informed position.

On this thread specifically:

What nation has authority to seize or interfere with missile shipments by N.Korea. What is the international law that permits this?

As of yet, N. Korea probably doesn't have "weapons of mass destruction." It is trying to develop its nuclear program. It does have IRBMs. It restarted its nuclear program which may also be directed toward weapons production after the American breaches of the agreed framework. Our administration apparently had no intention of complying with the the agreed framework preferring to anticipate a collapse of N. Korea.

According to the Russians, N.Korea is incapable of producing deliverable nuclear warheads in the near future. If the N. Korean nuclear weapons program is producing plutonium which it may be, it would be unlikely to be exported at this point; it would be needed for weapon production at home. It is the export of unregulated N.Korean missile technology to Islamic nations which is freaking out the neo cons and is not subject to international control. These nations have alternative sources of plutonium and nuclear weapon technology.

We could easily negotiate an agreement with N.Korea to eliminate these problems at a small cost in comparison to the security efforts undertaken in response including, NMD and war readiness. The N. Koreans have demonstrated a willingness to end these programs in exchange for something akin to normalization of relations. The humanitarian crisis is something that the administration prefers to use as a weapon. The refusal of our regime to negotiate is dead wrong.

[It was not a pretzel]

10. Doesn't NK have lots of unmined

diamonds and gold? Was watching a non-political documentary last night that mentioned this in passing.