N Korea 'Planning New Nuclear Test'

[tekisui]

Source: Al Jazeera

North Korea may be preparing a third nuclear test in a show of defiance as the UN gets ready to vote on fresh sanctions for the test it conducted in May, according to US media.

A US government official, speaking on condition of anonymity on Thursday, revealed that assessment to the Associated Press but did not provide details.

The White House would not comment specifically on the report, but
Mike Hammer, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said the US had "come to expect North Korea to act recklessly and dangerously".

Last month's nuclear test defied a UN Security Council resolution adopted after the North's first underground nuclear test in October 2006.

UN resolution vote

Reports of another possible test come as the council looks set to vote on Friday on a draft resolution that imposes tough sanctions on North Korea's weapons exports and financial dealings and allows sea and port inspections of cargo.

more: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2009/06/20096121330558260.html

[AndyA]

1. North Korea is just begging to get obliterated, is it not?

Instead of trying to be a part of the international community, they are aggressively and defiantly daring the rest of the world to try to stop them.

I fear the response will be very severe, and will immediately put an end to their "testing" of anything. :(

[NNN0LHI]

2. We need to buy them off

It would be a whole hell of a lot cheaper than starting a war with them in the long run.

Use Iraq as an example.

Saddam would have "surrendered" and left the country for a few billion dollars. Now it is costing us trillions.

Don

[Just-plain-Kathy]

3. I'm guess North Korea is testing Obama...Bush use to just buy them off in order to keep them quiet.

Wednesday, 3 April, 2002, 12:06 GMT 13:06 UK
US grants N Korea nuclear funds


The US Government has announced that it will release $95m to North Korea as part of an agreement to replace the Stalinist country's own nuclear programme, which the US suspected was being misused.

Under the 1994 Agreed Framework an international consortium is building two proliferation-proof nuclear reactors and providing fuel oil for North Korea while the reactors are being built.

In releasing the funding, President George W Bush waived the Framework's requirement that North Korea allow inspectors to ensure it has not hidden away any weapons-grade plutonium from the original reactors. ....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1908571.stm

[NNN0LHI]

4. The US never did build the two proliferation-proof nuclear reactors we owed them

Bush tried to buy them off on the cheap soon after he called their leader a midget and labeling them part of the axis of evil.

Don

[KharmaTrain]

5. That's What They're Hoping...

The North Koreans have had a history of shaking down anyone and everyone for money and other goods. The more noise they make, the more attention they get and there's usually a pay-off. It worked in the past as there's no real will for the US or China or Japan or even South Korea to get into any military action against Pyongyang. They've been like pechulant children...throwing a tantrum here and there to get attention and then bought off in the end.

Also, what isn't really being reported is what's happening within the power structure of North Korea. The replacement of Kim Il Sung by his son due to a stroke (probably a result of his own wild lifestyle...paid for by extortion) and we may be witnessing a power play from inside...someone looking to move into leadership by creating these incidents...take the focus away from internal troubles.

[NNN0LHI]

6. Where is the pay-off for them when we never make good on our side of the bargain?

I don't get it?

We did the same thing to the Native Americans.

I don't think we ever made good on any deal, of which there were many, that we made with them either.

Cheers ...

Don

[KharmaTrain]

7. Consider It What It Is...Extortion

Don...I think there's a difference here. In the 90's, the Clinton Administration along with the South Koreans tried to buy off Pyongyang...that non-breeder reactor along with opening up of an "enterprise zone" that is adjacent to Panmujom and even family money...for a while South Koreans were "buying" the freedom of the loved ones in the North. And this was stuff that was on the surface, who knows what was underneath.

The payoff was to keep that part of the world quiet...shut 'em up and hope they'd go away. The hope was to lull them out of their isolation and repression but instead it was used by Pyongyang to play games with not just the US but China and Russia as well.

The sticky situation here is that other than going away, there's nothing the North Koreans have to offer anyone. China doesn't want to stir things up for fear of thousands of Koreans pouring over their border...each country was their own reason for keeping Pyongyang "happy" or at least "controlled".

With the Native Americans we ended up with everything, they ended up with casinos.

Cheers...

:hi:

[NNN0LHI]

8. I don't understand how someone could look at it as extortion?

We want North Korea to unilaterally denuclearize. We are asking them to do something we would never do ourselves. There is no international law that prevents them from doing what they are doing. To get them to comply with our wishes we offered to build them two light water reactors under the Clinton administration. We never held up to our end of that bargain.

Doesn't sound like extortion to me.

Sounds like they took notice as the US weakened Iraq for more than a decade with bombs and embargoes and then finally invaded, occupied and turned that country into a scene from Mad Max. Including torturing and murdering their people. After witnessing that happen who would not want to possess a credible nuclear deterrent to discourage the same thing from happening to them?

We are the ones who built this mousetrap. And we caught our own finger in it.

But regardless we need to buy them off. They have technology that is worth a lot of money on the world market. To prevent them from selling that technology to others we are going to need to give them what that technology is worth on the world market.

Sounds a lot better than another war. And much cheaper too.

:hi: Cheers ...

Don

[KharmaTrain]

10. Maybe It's More Like Playing All Ends...

You are spot on about all the events that have occured with North Korea over the past 16 plus years...and you can see a shell game at play here. It was booooosh who blew up the original deal for the reactors and all but baited them to build weapons. boooshie's "war on terror" made North Korean arms and "know-how" big money. They're like the new East Germany. Except their technical abilities are limited. Their missile technology has far more value than their nuclear....I'm more concerned with what's leaked out of Russia than any threat from a North Korean nuke. But it has both cosmetic and bargaining value.

I firmly believe that no country...even those that have "sworn off" nukes ever completely come clean. It's too much of a status symbol and attention getter. Not to defend the past regime (shudder the thought), but the North Koreans have played all the powers in the region and their nukes are what gets the attention and ultimately a payoff in foods or technology...a Catch 22 very much at play. Honestly, how could this country bargain away this card...especially in light of how well it works.

The best hopes is some kind of internal upheaval or "enlightened" ruler.

Cheers...

[Phoonzang]

9. Really....the only ones who can stop this are China and Russia.

Are they going to ever do something? I'm not talking about war. Since those two countries are N. Korea's "patrons" and they all share a border, only hard sanctions from them will make a difference.