SEOUL, South Korea (March 2) - North Korea warned Sunday of "nuclear disasters'' around the world if Washington attacks the communist state, while its civilian leaders urged greater cooperation between Pyongyang and Seoul to ease the crisis on the Korean Peninsula. The North's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper accused the Central Intelligence Agency of preparing a surprise attack on the nation's nuclear facilities that are suspected of being used to make atomic bombs. "If the U.S. imperialists ignite a war on the Korean Peninsula, the war will turn into a nuclear war,'' Rodong said. "As a consequence, the Koreans in the north and south and the people in Asia and the rest of the world will suffer horrifying nuclear disasters.'' The report, carried by the North's state-run KCNA news agency, claimed that Washington put its forces around the peninsula on "semi-war footing'' and "is pushing ahead with nuclear war preparations in full swing.'' Pyongyang accuses Washington of inciting the nuclear standoff as a pretext for an invasion. Washington has repeatedly said it has no plans to attack North Korea, but stresses that "all options are on the table.'' In Seoul on Sunday, North Korea's religious and civic leaders took part in inter-Korean religious masses and urged greater cooperation between the two Koreas. "Preventing war through national cooperation is the most urgent task of the nation,'' said Ri Mun Hwan, a senior North Korean delegate. "If war breaks out, the South cannot be safe and the entire nation will face disaster.'' Another delegate, Oh Kyung Woo, said the "United States is threatening a nuclear war, but if war breaks out both South and North will incur damages,'' according to South Korea's national Yonhap news agency. "Foreign forces will never give us reunification. We must cooperate with each other,'' Oh was quoted as saying. The comments were made during religious masses at a cathedral, a church, a Buddhist temple and other religious locations, which were attended by thousands of South Koreans. The ceremonies were a part of an inter-Korean festival to mark the anniversary of a major independence uprising against Japanese colonial rule on March 1, 1919. Pyongyang sent 105 delegates to Seoul on Saturday for the three-day festival. Both Koreas mark the uprising as a major holiday. Japan ruled the peninsula from 1910 to 1945. Rodong, monitored by South Korea's national Yonhap news agency, reiterated that the North's nuclear activities were "strictly for peaceful purposes and poses no threat to anyone.'' "Crushing the U.S. plot to attack North Korea is a very important issue related to peace and safety of Asia and the world, the existence and future of mankind,'' Rodong said. Raising tensions last week, North Korea test-fired a missile into the sea off its east coast. Pyongyang also reactivated a 5-megawatt reactor that could produce plutonium for nuclear weapons, U.S. and South Korean officials said. On Saturday, North Korea said nuclear war could break out on the peninsula at "any moment,'' after South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun warned of a "calamity'' unless the standoff is resolved peacefully and quickly. The dispute flared in October when Washington said North Korea had admitted pursuing a nuclear program, which violated a 1994 pact. Washington and its allies cut off oil shipments to the impoverished communist state. The North responded by saying it would reactivate its frozen facilities. It also expelled U.N. monitors and withdrew from the global Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Ok now im worried.........
We and the international community should stop giving any aid to north korea at all. I can't believe those little commie idiots would rather spend money building nukes when they could use that money to help their starving people. They say they're doing this for their people...
A disturbing article indeed. But I want to say this, In my government class in high school, my teacher taught us that the U.S is the only superpower, and its quantity of military weapons far, and I mean extremely far exceeds that of any other country. Now if N. Korea opts to start a nuclear war, wouldn't the U.S. just blow them out of the water, I mean convincingly?? Seems like North Korea is more of a threat than Iraq, I mean they have no fear. They sure are throwing out the threats. Does the U.S have as many soldiers as the North Koreans? Or would the draft come into play? Finally, does it matter as much being a superpower when a nuclear war is happening? I do not know much about the military, if these questions are dumb, my bad.
They have way more soldiers than we do, but I can't imagine that the majority of them are as well trained or equiped as our soldiers. I can't understand why any nation would openly threaten us or want to attack us period. Iraq and N. Korea have everything to lose and nothing to gain. I am worried more about Korea because they have the ability to hit the West Coast, but niether country keeps me from sleeping at night. There's just no stratigic logic to launching an attack on the US or it's allies with WMD. That's why terrorists bug me more, they don't fit into the equation. They can hide anywhere and everywhere and they're goals are religious.
they may have more soldiers but you don't need lots of soldiers to fire tons of precision missiles. everything we have (navy, air force, army) would be so qualitatively better that numbers wouldn't matter. we would destroy everything valuable of theirs with our weapons, not our manpower, and then they could use their numbers and fight us with sticks and rocks. as far as a nuclear war goes, i don't know what to think of that event. i mean if they got one off on the west coast, that would be horrible, but obviously we could fire so many their way that the entire country would be levelled to the point virtually nothing would be left. obviously, we don't fear nk in terms of beating them, we just wouldn't want to lose an entire city in the process which i guess would happen if they got a nuke over here before we blew them off the map. that's the whole thing of having nukes for other countries. obviously everyone knows they can't beat us, but they know we would never endanger even a small part of our country just to start a conflict. if there's a chance you can get one nuke off on us, we're not going to take that chance even if we could nuke your whole country in five minutes. to me that's the whole point of not letting saddam get nukes like nk has now. i'm sure treeman can give you a more in depth answer.
It's time to explain to China how we won't stand in the way of S Korea and Japan joining the nuke club if they allow N Korea to continue with their little Nuclear Extortion Game.
But I want to say this, In my government class in high school, my teacher taught us that the U.S is the only superpower, and its quantity of military weapons far, and I mean extremely far exceeds that of any other country. Now if N. Korea opts to start a nuclear war, wouldn't the U.S. just blow them out of the water, I mean convincingly?? Seems like North Korea is more of a threat than Iraq, I mean they have no fear. They sure are throwing out the threats. We would blow North Korea away -- the problem is cost. It's estimated that they could kill or would up to 500,000 South Korean civilians and military in just the first few days of war. They have so much junk (artillery, missiles, etc) that they would just launch on Seoul immediately, it could create a big disaster. Militarily, it would certainly be much more of a war than Iraq will be, but yeah, we would clearly win. I'm just not sure anyone thinks a half million deaths is worth it - and I don't think those figures even consider nukes. The only way NK uses nukes is if the US attacks them. And if we do end up in war with them -- meaning its the end of the NK government -- my guess would be that they try to use the nukes. Until then, those things serve as a deterrent to keep that government in power.
Somebody give Kim a pacifier, and make him take his nap. Tell him if he is a good little boy for awhile, and quit this untimely tantrum, he will eventually get the milk and cookies.
Idle threat. America will not attack the North, until provoked. The only thing that worries me as a Korean-American, is that the North COULD strike Seoul at anytime with their missiles. Kim Jong-Il is every bit as idiotic as Saddam. I hate that b*stard with a passion.
I say we send in 007 and Jinx to handle this one. Rumor is, though, that the North Korean General's son has changed his face to using some new DNA technology.
Everyone here's pretty much got it. The only point I would argue would be Major's contention that "The only way NK uses nukes is if the US attacks them.". I would argue that the best possible way - from their point of view, the way that offers the highest likelihood of success - to win a war would be a nuclear sneak attack against Seoul. They probably have no more than 2-3 nukes right now, and it will take aq little while (but not too long) to build more. They do not want to nuke a US city - even Kim must know that that would be suicidal. But if they keep the nukes restricted to SK targets, then there is a *good chance* that we would not respond with nukes. Therefore, they use one nuke on Seoul (SK's heart and soul) and one on Pusan (a major port city with large military facilities) or maybe Inchon, and reserve their SCUDs/FROGs with chemicals for military bases, and then roll over the DMZ... They would still lose, but this would appear to offer their best chance of success, however slim it might be. Actually, I like Cohen's idea. Let Japan and SK have some nukes to counter the North (and China, down the road). And before someone cries 'double standard', Japan and SK are responsible democracies as we are - there is a huge difference between letting unstable dictatorships and letting stable, peaceful democracies own them. Deterrance works both ways. Sometimes.
Amen to that. It would kill two birds with one stone, if SK were allowed nukes. The first would obviously be having a defense to NK, the 2nd would be that US troops might finally be able to leave the DMZ. There are a lot of ignorant Koreans protesting the presence of US troops along the DMZ, for various idiotic reasons. Kim Il-Jong has never played by the rules, nor will he ever. Force might be the only alternative to taking away his toys (nukes and army). Kim Il-Jong uses his starving nation as a pawn. http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2002/korea/ That link will give you more info than you ever wanted to know, regarding North and South Korea.
treeman, If NK attacked SK with one or two nukes, about how much of the country would be rendered uninhabitable? If tensions between the US and NK reach a certain point and the US feels that an attack by NK is inevitable, is it possible that the US might try to evacuate parts of SK before making a preemptive military attack? Or is it possible that NK might try to lob a missile at Japan instead?
South Korea is a very dense country in the cities. Maybe about half the country is farm land, the other the half cities. Obviously, if NK were to nuke SK, they would probably target Seoul. The fatality #'s from just one nuke would probably be at least 5-6 figures if Seoul were nuked.
Everyone here's pretty much got it. The only point I would argue would be Major's contention that "The only way NK uses nukes is if the US attacks them.". I would argue that the best possible way - from their point of view, the way that offers the highest likelihood of success - to win a war would be a nuclear sneak attack against Seoul. My thought here is that NK knows that if they nuke anyone -- SK or the US -- that's the end of their regime. We may not nuke them, but we certainly would eliminate their government at that point.
Good point Major. Kim is a power hungry sack of $hit, who might not want to give up his power. Nonetheless, I wouldn't put it past him to play with his toys before he dies.
There's also a lot of Koreans rallying in favor of the U.S. presence: http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200303/kt2003030217550610510.htm There's a picture here: http://www.solomonia.com/weblog/archives/00000143.htm and another here: http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/002429.php Kidrock: doesn't the protest movement in Korea consist mainly of college kids?
Ya. Most of the pro-US support comes from the adults who persevered through the Korean War, and realize that the US is a friend, not some enemy. The college kids who are protesting, are just like the hippies during the Vietnam War. I believe that most Koreans are in support of the US, it's just that the vocal minority of the aforementioned college kids are the ones who make the most noise. I was in Korea for a week and a half, during the tail end of the World Cup, and I didn't really see that much anti-US sentiment. However, I was there before the American soliders were acquitted from their role in the death of 2 Korean school girls.
Oski are you saying that Texas is somewhat ok if this nuke happens? I dunno anyone ever see that movie Testament? They had a nuclear explosion and the whole town started to slowly die, food was bad, thats one flick that scared the hell out of me..... The day after was nothing compared to that
