Too bad, now “we” can’t invade them. And even worst, the UN is involved:
[quote]Nuclear watchdog confirms North Korea has shut reactor
Published: 17 July 2007
UN inspectors have verified that North Korea has shut down its sole functioning nuclear reactor, the chief of the watchdog agency said yesterday, confirming Pyongyang’s first step to halt production of atomic weapons in nearly five years.
“Our inspectors are there. They verified the shutting down of the reactor yesterday,” said Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“The process has been going quite well and we have had good cooperation from North Korea. It’s a good step in the right direction,” ElBaradei said, speaking in Bangkok ahead of an event sponsored by Thailand’s Science Ministry.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called North Korea’s shut down of its nuclear reactor a “welcome” move."
“This is just one step, but I think it is an import ant and encouraging step,” he told a news conference at UN headquarters in New York.
The shutdown over the weekend was the first on-the-ground achievement toward scaling back Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions since the international stand-off began in late 2002.[/quote] Source
I think it is time for Bush to apologies to put North Korea in the so called "axis of evil»!!! :loco:
But maybe Pyongyang did not have the power and technology to build a nuclear weapon, so they show goodwill by “shutting down” their power plant which maybe is in very bad shape instead of loosing face admitting their failure.
In the meantime, the Yankies will have to find an excuse to keep this region in jeopardy so that they can continue to sell weapons to South Korea. Bush may find some evidence that North Korea was involved in the 911 attack? :roflmao: or find a hiden video from Bin Laden talking about his friend Kim :roflmao:
Given that I have NEVER said that an invasion or military attack on North Korea was an option, I would say the following:
North Korea is cooperating for now, but has a long history of non-compliance. Let’s not be too confident that the problem is finally over.
Despite any such cooperation, North Korea’s regime remains one of the worst ever. Its human rights record, political and economic records are horrendous. So despite Vulcan’s ignorant ramblings, it justifiably is an “evil” nation. Those who quibble with the definition of evil as applied to North Korea here make a shambles of any subsequent efforts to speak about morality.
The reason why North Korea has cooperated this time is due to a large extent on Chinese pressure. China remains crucial in getting North Korea to cooperate, NOT the UN.
The other crucial link in all this has been the US ability to choke off funds to North Korea’s regime. In fact, the freeze on the account in Macau coupled with US efforts to reduce its illegal gains from drug running and counterfeiting have also been very helpful. It really pushed the regime up against the wall because it depends very much on buying the loyalty of its top toughs.
I would note with a smirk that this financial pressure helped obviate (for now) the need to take military action. I would then wonder given the success of this effort, why Germany continues to fund the Iranian regime to the extent that it has, while “negotiating” with it to stop its own nuclear programs. Will the German government learn the appropriate lesson from this and help choke off funds to Iran so that the sanctions will actually force it to comply? Or will Germany and the Germans on this forum continue to engage in empty-headed talk about morality while their actions belie their stated beliefs? I merely wonder since currently Germany is the No. 1 financer and trading partner in Europe with the odious mullahocracy, has in the past been an important source of loans to North Korea and, most important, let us not forget, before the first Gulf War, it was the No. 1 source of Saddam’s nuclear, missile, chemical materials, equipment, technology and such. Rather than look toward the UN and praise its actions, perhaps, we should look to Germany and wonder whether after all its many f***ups, it will finally start acting like a responsible world player. I mean it is not like its troops will ever be sent to really fight and die to deal with these messes. Sort of reminds one of the disastrous German foreign policy moves that precipitated the implosion of the former Yugoslavia and led to the massive death toll in Bosnia. Of course, once the action had started, no where was there to be found any German “peacekeeper” or police force to stop the bloodshed. Right?
But no doubt this is all because of Bush and the Patriot Act…
Given that I have NEVER said that an invasion or military attack on North Korea was an option, I would say the following:
North Korea is cooperating for now, but has a long history of non-compliance. Let’s not be too confident that the problem is finally over.
Despite any such cooperation, North Korea’s regime remains one of the worst ever. Its human rights record, political and economic records are horrendous. So despite Vulcan’s ignorant ramblings, it justifiably is an “evil” nation. Those who quibble with the definition of evil as applied to North Korea here make a shambles of any subsequent efforts to speak about morality.
The reason why North Korea has cooperated this time is due to a large extent on Chinese pressure. China remains crucial in getting North Korea to cooperate, NOT the UN.
The other crucial link in all this has been the US ability to choke off funds to North Korea’s regime. In fact, the freeze on the account in Macau coupled with US efforts to reduce its illegal gains from drug running and counterfeiting have also been very helpful. It really pushed the regime up against the wall because it depends very much on buying the loyalty of its top toughs.
I would note with a smirk that this financial pressure helped obviate (for now) the need to take military action. I would then wonder given the success of this effort, why Germany continues to fund the Iranian regime to the extent that it has, while “negotiating” with it to stop its own nuclear programs. Will the German government learn the appropriate lesson from this and help choke off funds to Iran so that the sanctions will actually force it to comply? Or will Germany and the Germans on this forum continue to engage in empty-headed talk about morality while their actions belie their stated beliefs? I merely wonder since currently Germany is the No. 1 financer and trading partner in Europe with the odious mullahocracy, has in the past been an important source of loans to North Korea and, most important, let us not forget, before the first Gulf War, it was the No. 1 source of Saddam’s nuclear, missile, chemical materials, equipment, technology and such. Rather than look toward the UN and praise its actions, perhaps, we should look to Germany and wonder whether after all its many f***ups, it will finally start acting like a responsible world player. I mean it is not like its troops will ever be sent to really fight and die to deal with these messes. Sort of reminds one of the disastrous German foreign policy moves that precipitated the implosion of the former Yugoslavia and led to the massive death toll in Bosnia. Of course, once the action had started, no where was there to be found any German “peacekeeper” or police force to stop the bloodshed. Right?
But no doubt this is all because of Bush and the Patriot Act…[/quote]
Let’s see how long this latest round of highway robbery stands
I actually would agree with some of Fred’s sentiments, though not necessarily his explanations.
Regime change would clearly benefit North Koreans, but destabilizing that region could have disastrous results. A peaceful unification with the south would be the ideal situation of course, but how do you get people in power to give up power voluntarily?
See point one above. I noted that its cooperation was unexpected, may not last. That said, no invasion, no military attack. Wrong place, wrong time, wrong everything. We can contain North Korea. We could not contain Iraq, and I have my doubts about Iran but am willing to look at other options first. I would not mind, however, having Bush deal with it before he leaves office rather than kicking the problem yet down the road for the next administration to equally do nothing about.
[quote=“Jack Burton”][quote=“spook”]North Korean political poster:
[/quote]
That’s cool. They make V2 variants and paint them red? How retro.[/quote]
One proposed delivery method would be retro too – launched from freighters not far offshore in international waters.
Don’t underestimate L’il Kim. He’s not known as the world’s most prolific merchandiser of weapons of mass destruction technology and accoutrements for nothing.