Well Rumsfeld said that US can wage 2 simultaneous wars. He made it pretty clear to the NK and world at large. I would think NK got that message. Now the ball is in US court, they should not be precoccupied with Iraq who doesnt have any WMD and rather should go after the madman in Pyongyang. Nk is on "axix of evil" too.
As far as the blackmail is concerned, its the US that has blackmailed the world by withdrawing from ABM treaty with Russia so it can pursue Star Wars - Episode World Domination program.
Malik, its funny how this article suggests that NK is not America's problem but international problem. On the other hand, Iraq is solely Amreica's problem. It also suggests that the US troops stationed in South Korea are being held hostage because of the nuclear threat.
On the other hand some 160,000 plus troops are being amassed in Gulf to intimidate a weaker nation.
[quote]
Churchill is credited with the saying that the genius of great nations lies not in their choice of friends but in their choice of enemies. He surely was right
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US has wisely chosen Iraq to be the enemy in this case and downplaying the NK threat :D
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by 5Abi: *
Malik, its funny how this article suggests that NK is not America's problem but international problem. On the other hand, Iraq is solely Amreica's problem. It also suggests that the US troops stationed in South Korea are being held hostage because of the nuclear threat.
On the other hand some 160,000 plus troops are being amassed in Gulf to intimidate a weaker nation.
US has wisely chosen Iraq to be the enemy in this case and downplaying the NK threat :D
[/QUOTE]
Simple. Iraq does NOT have WMD, hence there has been no proof uncovered to date, and thats why they feel it is easy to attack it.
But North Korea HAS WMD, and is freely admitting it, and the US dare not make any moves against it...cause its scared of the reaction.
And this is what the UN says.
UN inspector terms North Korea greater threat than Iraq](Daily Jang: Urdu News - Latest Breaking News update Pakistan - jang.com.pk)
Yesterday, I heard South Korean envoy declared talks with North Korea 'Failed'
United States has played a good card to avoid encounterin' with North Korean leaders by backin' her 'so called' allies Russians, Chinese, Japs and South Koreans to hold talks with North Korea. But I don't think this gonna last for a long time. Sooner or later America has to send her envoy to NK.
yeah right...US is afraid of N.Korea!!! indeed!....someone getting david goliath visions of grandeour! here is the scenario if Saudi doesn't control the irraq situation and China doesn't control the N.K situation:
US in iraq: 1 kaboom + 100 trut tru trut
US in Afgan: 10 kabooms
US in NK: no kabooms necessary ... just a few rounds of trut tru trut
I hardly think so…NK has it’s day coming.
Need to be patient…these things take time.
And the US is always accused of rushing to war to solve problems?
According to the head of the IAEA (everyone’s favourite source to quote when he talks about Iraq’s non-compliance): “Korea is more advanced in the nuclear field. We need to deal with North Korea urgently, decisively.”
You have a country that you know is more advanced than Iraq vis-a-vis nuclear arsenals - so why the careful tiptoeing around the N. Korean govt.? Why will Iraqis get treated to ‘precision-guided’ weaponry within weeks possibly, but N. Korea - possessed with far more advanced nuclear weapons than Iraq, according to IAEA - will not? In rational terms, what can possibly be the logic behind this? The only purpose served is to send, yet again, mixed signals by selectively choosing to diplomatically ignore genuine, nuclear threats posed by stronger countries, but punish the weaker ones for weapons they don’t even possess. Real smart move.
Nadia, the U.S. has spent a heavy amount of money and time preparing for Iraq, walking away from Iraq now without assuring that they have disarmed (by way of military means or diplomatic) is no longer feasible. It's taken months (years in a sense) to get the world to focus on Iraq, there has to be a follow through. Unfortunately if North Korea continues to take actions as they have been, such as today where they moved 8000 nuclear rods to a different location, the U.S. will be forced to act and could very well find themselves in two military conflicts at the same time as well as continuing the war on terrorism, In the end the U.S. will be up to that challenge and those who think otherwise are foolish.
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*Originally posted by underthedome: *
Unfortunately if North Korea continues to take actions as they have been, such as today where they moved 8000 nuclear rods to a different location, the U.S. will be forced to act and could very well find themselves in two military conflicts at the same time as well as continuing the war on terrorism, In the end the U.S. will be up to that challenge and those who think otherwise are foolish.
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Who is the biggest danger in terms of WMD? Iraq or North Korea?
i appreciate your trying to answer my questions, UTD. Thank you.
>>It's taken months (years in a sense) to get the world to focus on Iraq, there has to be a follow through.<<
Please, for just two minutes, reconsider what you have stated in the first two sentences of your reply. What it sounds to me is that - just because the US has spent years in demonizing one country, and now that the admin. has finally arrived at a point where the 'international community' has been forced to contemplate Iraq - that is reason enough to go to war? Because now we have reached a point where we believe we cannot turn back? Do you see what i am trying to get at - each of us compels our own mind to believe that war is inevitable, or that to 'back down' would be akin to 'losing face'. What is less important, UTD - that diplomatic efforts be continued vis-a-vis UNMOVIC, or that hundreds, possibly thousands, of civilians die in a war in which they will lose their lives for the crime of a man they never even elected in the first place?
Thank you anyways for trying to address my queries. Unfortunately i have to jet now; i'll try to respond, if i am able to, later this evening/night.
I think Korea is more likely to use their WMD program to blackmail the U.S. in order to gain Aid, end sanctions and 'get back in' with the 'world community'. Saddam is nuts, he took on the world 12 years ago, has a history of using chemicals on his own people as well as others, lit up Kuwait before retreating, let's Iraqi's starve while he builds palaces...the man is capable of anything. North Korea and Iraq are dangerous and will have to be dealt with one way or the other.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by underthedome: *
I think Korea is more likely to use their WMD program to blackmail the U.S. in order to gain Aid, end sanctions and 'get back in' with the 'world community'. Saddam is nuts, he took on the world 12 years ago, has a history of using chemicals on his own people as well as others, lit up Kuwait before retreating, let's Iraqi's starve while he builds palaces...the man is capable of anything. North Korea and Iraq are dangerous and will have to be dealt with one way or the other.
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Did you forget the Korean war?
Nadia,
By follow through I don't mean war, I mean the world must know once and for all that Saddam's regime is no longer a threat, which means disarmament. This can be done by way of diplomacy or by force. If it's going to happen by way of diplomacy Saddam must comply fully, that means coming clean which he has not done. On paper I believe war is not inevitable, but when I look up and see Saddam and see his past actions as well as his defying actions at present time it does looks bleak.
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*Originally posted by Malik73: *
Did you forget the Korean war?
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The U.S. has tweaked a few things since then...just a few.
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*Originally posted by underthedome: *
The U.S. has tweaked a few things since then...just a few.
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So has little Kim....
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*Originally posted by Abdali: *
So has little Kim....
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Yes, WMD, and they are flaunting it to the rest of the world, really showing up American hypocrisy and double standards. Come on...when will the US dare to take any punitive measure against NK...whats stopping them? :)
did you not read my post Malik or are you in one of your "screw logic" moods?
This is gettin’ worst…
(http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/world/5075283.htm)
WASHINGTON - Heightened activity detected by spy satellites around a North Korean nuclear plant has American intelligence analysts in disagreement: Is the reclusive communist government rushing to produce nuclear weapons or just bluffing?
Throughout January, American spy satellites have detected covered trucks apparently taking on cargo at the nuclear storage facility at Yongbyon, where spent nuclear fuel rods are stored, U.S. officials said Friday on condition of anonymity. When processed, enough plutonium could be extracted from the rods to make four or five nuclear weapons. The U.N. nuclear watchdog has said there are 8,000 rods.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer would not comment on the intelligence, but warned Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, against taking “another provocative step” that “further isolates North Korea from the international community.”
Immersed in planning for a possible war against Iraq, the Bush administration has played down Korean developments of recent months even as North Korea continued to ratchet up the tension.
There is a broadening consensus in the administration that the reclusive communist regime is moving quickly down the path toward developing nuclear weapons, one senior defense official said. At the same time, another said that because North Koreans know they’re being watched, Pyongyang is also suspected of maneuvering to force Americans to the bargaining table.
“The fact that they’ve done this in broad daylight, as it were, suggests to me that this is part of the brinksmanship with the United States,” said Kurt Campbell, an Asia specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a policy adviser at the Pentagon during the Clinton administration.
“I think they’re playing with fire,” he said. “Even though the administration has feigned nonchalance, the reality is that tampering with plutonium that could be shipped or smuggled is extraordinarily serious, and, I would argue, crosses a very clear and bright red line.”
Officials say they don’t really know what North Korea is up to at the long-shuttered plant, which is north of Pyongyang.
It is possible that the trucks moving there over recent weeks are loading spent fuel rods, either to be stored elsewhere or in preparation for processing, one official said.
More people have been working at the complex, including grading roads, signs that the regime in Pyongyang is resuming operations.
The activity is not particularly unexpected, since the Koreans withdrew from a global anti-nuclear pact and said they would restart the reactor at Yongbyon to generate electricity.
But restarting it would be another ominous step in a crisis that has been escalating since October.
**Under President Clinton, the United States drew up plans to bomb Yongbyon in 1994 over possible North Korean weapons activities. That crisis was defused with an energy deal under which Pyongyang agreed to mothball the facility in return for oil shipments and construction of less threatening nuclear power plants by a consortium of the United States, Japan and South Korea.
The agreement collapsed in October when the United States said North Korea had acknowledged developing nuclear weapons in violation of the 1994 agreement. Washington suspended the fuel shipments. And North Korea, in turn, expelled U.N. inspectors in December, got rid of surveillance cameras and began moving out from storage new fuel rods needed to restart a 5-kilowatt reactor, the smaller of two reactors at the complex.**
While there is agreement in the intelligence community that North Korea is gearing up at Yongbyon, there is disagreement not only about the ultimate goal but on how far along they’ve moved, officials said.
Some intelligence officials believe the North could restart a reactor by the end of February.
On the stored spent rods, analysts say, it could take a couple of months to remove the plutonium and weeks or months to turn the plutonium into bombs.
**Analysts say North Koreans may want the weapons for two reasons: to export for much-needed revenue and to keep for their own use. Also, Pyongyang has been incensed by President Bush’s description of the country as part of an “axis of evil” with Iraq and Iran and has demanded assurances it will not be attacked.
“I think they are trying to signal the United States and go to the edge,”** Campbell said. “And the Bush administration is trying to pretend they don’t care, but they’re desperately caring.”
Some U.S. officials believe North Korea already has one or two nuclear weapons, as well as extensive chemical and biological weapons capabilities.
Come on...when will the US dare to take any punitive measure against NK...whats stopping them?
The death and destruction of Seoul.