 |
| |
|
|
SlowwHand
|
 |
of The Cooler
Sep 1999
time: 23:30
|
|
7 minutes ago
By GEORGE GEDDA, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - North Korea (news - web sites) startled a six-nation conference on East Asian security by announcing its intentions to formally declare its possession of nuclear weapons and to carry out a nuclear test, a Bush administration official said Thursday.
North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Yong Il also told the gathering in Beijing that his country has the means to deliver nuclear weapons, an apparent reference to the North's highly developed missile program, the official said.
The comments cast a pall over Thursday's plenary session, which included representatives of the United States, South Korea (news - web sites), China, Japan and Russia, in addition to North Korea, raising questions about the success of negotiations scheduled to conclude Friday morning.
Nevertheless, the diplomats agreed on the need to hold more such talks and probably will, a South Korean official said.
James Kelly, the chief U.S. delegate, demanded at the talks that North Korea engage in the verifiable and permanent dismantling of its nuclear weapons programs, in return for which the United States would provide security guarantees and economic benefits to the impoverished nation, said the U.S. administration official, asking not to be identified.
The U.S. official said that when Russia and Japan attempted to point out some positive elements of the U.S. presentation, the North Korean delegate attacked them by name and said they were lying at the instruction of the United States. According to the administration official, China's delegate appeared visibly angry over Kim's statement but responded in a moderate tone.
Kim said his country was taking its position because the United States clearly had no intention of abandoning its hostile policy toward North Korea, the U.S. official said.
U.S. intelligence has not detected overt signs that North Korea is preparing to conduct a nuclear weapons test, said one U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. But such a test would presumably be underground, so preparatory work would be difficult to detect, the official said.
The United States has long believed that North Korea has at least one or two nuclear weapons and could have five or six within a matter of months.
The United States, North and South Korea, Russia, Japan and China are trying to balance U.S. demands for an end to North Korea's nuclear program and the communist nation's insistence on a nonaggression treaty with Washington and humanitarian aid.
"There is a consensus that the process of six-party talks should continue and is useful," said Wie Sung-rak, director-general of the South Korean Foreign Ministry's North American Affairs Bureau. Like other delegates from the talks, he chose his words carefully to avoid suggesting a formal agreement had been made.
Asked to verify a Russian media report that all six would meet again within two months, he said, "It's possible, but you have to wait until tomorrow morning."
Russian Alexander Losyukov, the deputy foreign minister and the head of Russia's delegation, earlier had said the six reached a "common understanding" to meet again within the next two months, probably in Beijing, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
In the past, U.S. officials have noted that if North Korea conducted a nuclear weapons test, it would sacrifice a substantial part of its stockpile of weapons-grade plutonium, possibly halving its inventory from two weapons to one. However, Pyongyang had appeared to make moves aimed at restarting its plutonium-production line.
Nuclear weapons can be made from either plutonium or uranium.
The U.S. administration official said Kim denied Thursday that the North has been developing a uranium-based nuclear weapon. The Bush administration has said that North Korea acknowledged such a program during talks in Pyongyang in October 2002.
Chief among the Bush administration's concerns is that a nuclear-armed North Korea would be able to export nuclear weapons or technology or would touch off an arms race in Northeast Asia.
In the face of U.S. demands that North Korea permit the verification of any commitment to disarm, Kim rejected inspections of any kind, the U.S. official said.
The official added that North Korea's presentation at Thursday's session essentially reaffirmed what a Pyongyang delegate had told Kelly privately during a three-way meeting last April in Beijing. At the time, Kelly was told that North Korea not only possessed nuclear weapons — a first-time disclosure — but also was prepared to test or to transfer them.
In a separate meeting after Thursday's talks adjourned, Japan urged North Korea to let the children of five Japanese citizens kidnapped and spirited to North Korea years ago join their parents, who were permitted last year to return to their homeland. North Korea, however, reiterated its assertion that Japan had broken a promise by not returning the five abductees to Pyongyang, according to a statement by the Japanese government.
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
Comrade Tassadar
|
|
quote:
Originally posted by PLATO
Eventual war looks fairly likely now. This one will be a bad one. |
What? I highly doubt were EVER going to war with North Korea, not unless we want a major economic collapse. I mean, the mere mention of a nuclear weapon being used is enough to make the economy PLUNGE....
It's too late to deal with North Korea. We cannot afford a nuclear war in Southeast Asia. ESPECIALLY considering they are testing missiles that may be able to hit the US with a nuclear payload.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Comrade Tassadar
|
|
quote:
Originally posted by PLATO
Comrade, I wasn't refering to us starting it. |
Do you really think North Korea would start it? If they were to start a nuclear war, they do know they would probably be nuked back to hell?
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Comrade Tassadar
|
|
quote:
Originally posted by PLATO
Che, I'm not so sure you are correct about them being on their own. China historically attacks anybody when an attacking army approaches their boarder. Additionally, do you think that the Chinese want the ROK army right across the Yalu? I believe that it is impossible to predict what the Chinese would do in the event of war. |
However, China would not risk the economic collapse that would ensue if they were to help the DPRK after a nuclear attack. Let's face it: Here in America there would probably be HUGE public pressure to destroy the DPRK and anyone who helped them.
China is on the road to superpowerness and they know it. They won't screw that over for the DPRK.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Gatekeeper
|
 |
United States of America
Feb 2000
time: 23:30
|
|
Y'know, as much as I don't always agree with Bush, you can't pin this exclusively on him or his cronies. You can't pin it on Clinton. In fact, you can't blame the U.S. period for this development.
North Korea has shown for years and years that they were hellbent on acquiring nuclear weapons and, worse, perhaps proliferating them via missile technology trades to the likes of Iran and Pakistan. All those damnable agreements they signed — including the 1994 Framework Agreement — and then abrogated were just "tonics" to ease the rest of the world's fears about what they were attempting to do. All the flowery words were just that, flowery words.
Have fun with a new nuclear neighbor, South Korea, Japan and China. Have fun putting up with its blackmail. In the meantime, the U.S. needs to conduct a crash-course Manhattan Project style effort to research a missile defense system that will actually work, not this questionable "quasi-shield" we have now. If that means taxes go up, then, dammit, so be it.
You gotta be alive to pursue the American dream, after all.
Gatekeeper
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Comrade Tassadar
|
|
No, I (of course) blame the US for this situation. North Korea only recently got these. In November, the CIA said it thinks NK will be a nuclear power by the beginning of the new year. But Bush did nothing. He woudl rather go after Iraq which had no nukes AT ALL and posted very little threat.
And now it is too late. Because of his inaction, and because he did not care, North Korea is in this position of power. And we can do nothing to stop it.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Imran Siddiqui
|
 |
The Potterverse
Jan 1970
time: 00:30
|
|
quote:
Look, the lesson of Iraq is, you need a deterent. |
No, that isn't. Every state knows the need for deterrance, and knows that nukes are the ultimate deterrent. Why do you think India and Pakistan made them? Not just to show they were 'powerful'.
quote:
And now it is too late. Because of his inaction, and because he did not care, North Korea is in this position of power. And we can do nothing to stop it. |
 I'd LOVE to see what the left would say if we declared war on North Korea, and they used nukes against us. Or, better yet, start WW3 when China comes in against us!
I guess it is damned if you do, damned if you don't  .
|
|
| |
All times are GMT. The time now is 05:30.
Apolyton Time is 00:30. |
top of page
|
| archivepost |
|
Forum Rules:
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
|
HTML code is ON
vB code is ON
Smilies are ON
[IMG] code is ON
|
|
|
|
|
|
29-08-2003 02:20
|