1. Welcome! Please take a few seconds to create your free account to post threads, make some friends, remove a few ads while surfing and much more. ClutchFans has been bringing fans together to talk Houston Sports since 1996. Join us!

North Korea warns of attack if ships checked (Really People?)

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by Hicklander, May 27, 2009.

Tags:
Page 1 of 5
  1. Hicklander

    Hicklander Member

    Joined:
    Aug 19, 2003
    Messages:
    713
    Likes Received:
    17
    SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea, facing international sanction for this week's nuclear test, threatened on Wednesday to attack the South after Seoul joined a U.S.-led initiative to check vessels suspected of carrying equipment for weapons of mass destruction.
    A North Korean army spokesman also said the country was no longer bound by the armistice signed at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War because Washington had ignored its responsibility as a signatory by drawing South Korea into its naval initiative.
    The threat comes after South Korean media reported earlier that Pyongyang had restarted a plant that makes weapons-grade plutonium.
    "Any hostile act against our peaceful vessels including search and seizure will be considered an unpardonable infringement on our sovereignty and we will immediately respond with a powerful military strike," the spokesman for the North's army was quoted as saying by the official KCNA news agency.
    South Korea announced on Tuesday it was joining the naval exercise, called the Proliferation Security Initiative.
    Pyongyang also appeared to have fired a third short-range missile late on Tuesday after it added to tensions with a launch of two others earlier in the day, the South's Yonhap news agency quoted a unnamed government source as saying.
    U.S. President Barack Obama is working to form a united response to Monday's nuclear test, widely denounced as a major threat to stability that violates U.N. resolutions and brings the reclusive North closer to having a reliable nuclear bomb.
    The secretive state appears to have made good on a threat issued in April of restarting a facility at its Yongbyon nuclear plant that extracts plutonium, South Korea's largest newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, reported.
    "There are various indications that reprocessing facilities in Yongbyon resumed operation (and) have been detected by U.S. surveillance satellite, and these including steam coming out of the facility," it quoted an unnamed government source as saying.
    The Soviet-era Yongbyon plant was being taken apart under a six-country disarmament-for-aid deal and there were no signs yet that the North, which conducted its only prior nuclear test in October 2006, was again separating plutonium.
    Seoul's financial markets, which had fallen in the wake of the nuclear test, rose on Wednesday though traders said investors were still nervous about when the North would try to be more provocative and ratchet up tension in the region.
    Analysts say Pyongyang's military grandstanding is partly aimed at tightening leader Kim Jong-il's grip on power so he can better engineer his succession and divert attention from the country's weak economy, which has fallen into near ruin since he took over in 1994.
    Many speculate Kim's suspected stroke in August raised concerns about succession and he wants his third son to be the next leader of Asia's only communist dynasty.
    MILITARY THREATS
    The country, which has a history of using military threats to squeeze concessions out of global powers, may have ramped up its provocations early in Obama's presidency in order to have more cards to play during his time in office.
    There may be little the international community can do to deter the North, which has been punished for years by sanctions and is so poor it relies on aid to feed its 23 million people.
    A U.S. Treasury Department official said it was weighing possible action to isolate the North financially.
    A 2005 U.S. clampdown on a Macau bank suspected of laundering money for Pyongyang effectively cut the country off from the international banking system.
    Japan's upper house of parliament denounced the test and said in a resolution the government should step up its sanctions.
    North Koreans celebrated, with a rally in the capital of top cadres, KCNA said.
    "The nuclear test was a grand undertaking to protect the supreme interests of the DPRK (North Korea) and defend the dignity and sovereignty of the country and nation," it quoted a communist party official as saying.
    North Korea's meager supply of fissile material is likely down to enough for five to seven bombs after Monday's test, experts have said. It could probably extract enough plutonium from spent rods at the plant for another bomb's worth of plutonium by the end of this year.
    The North's next step may to be resume operations at all of Yongbyon, with experts saying it could take the North up to a year to reverse disablement steps. Once running, it can produce enough plutonium for a bomb a year.
    The test raised concern about Pyongyang spreading its weapons to other countries and groups. The United States has accused it of trying try to sell nuclear know-how to Syria and others.
    The hermit state has also threatened to launch a long-range ballistic missile if the Security Council does not apologize for tightening sanctions to punish it for an April launch widely seen as a missile test that violated U.N. measures.
     
    #1 Hicklander, May 27, 2009
  2. tmacfor35

    tmacfor35 Member

    Joined:
    Aug 20, 2008
    Messages:
    24,000
    Likes Received:
    14,674
    North Korea is trying to start WWIII. I don't understand the intentions of the Korean's, they are starting a war that they can't win.
     
    #2 tmacfor35, May 27, 2009
  3. orbb

    orbb Member

    Joined:
    Dec 9, 2002
    Messages:
    2,045
    Likes Received:
    16
    This is all bluster. They aren't stupid... other than the heavy losses they would take in a war, the current cabal in power can expect some life sentences in chinese and s. korean jails.
     
    #3 orbb, May 27, 2009
  4. tmacfor35

    tmacfor35 Member

    Joined:
    Aug 20, 2008
    Messages:
    24,000
    Likes Received:
    14,674
    Who is in control in N Korea? Or is there really any control?
     
    #4 tmacfor35, May 27, 2009
  5. lalala902102001

    lalala902102001 Member

    Joined:
    Jul 4, 2002
    Messages:
    6,629
    Likes Received:
    445
    We are talking about a crazy dictator possibly on his deathbed. Logic does not apply here.
     
    #5 lalala902102001, May 27, 2009
  6. aghast

    aghast Member

    Joined:
    Aug 7, 2003
    Messages:
    2,329
    Likes Received:
    169
    Kim Jong-Il is rumored to have suffered several strokes recently, and may be near death. Thus, we may be witnessing a bunch of outward saber-rattling, in preparation for an internal battle for succession as ruler.
     
    #6 aghast, May 27, 2009
  7. ChrisBosh

    ChrisBosh Member

    Joined:
    Mar 29, 2006
    Messages:
    4,326
    Likes Received:
    301
    Nothins going to happen, they've made many bold threats before, I'm all for every country having nuclear arms, it'll make this world a lot safer.
     
    #7 ChrisBosh, May 27, 2009
  8. Shroopy2

    Shroopy2 Member

    Joined:
    Feb 16, 2003
    Messages:
    16,245
    Likes Received:
    2,026
    Well, gotta get used to it I guess. They kinda got the world by the balls here. Its more WHO has the nuclear capability, and unfortunately its 1 of the most unpredictable nations here.
     
    #8 Shroopy2, May 27, 2009
  9. Deji McGever

    Deji McGever יליד טקסני

    Joined:
    Oct 12, 1999
    Messages:
    4,013
    Likes Received:
    952
    North Korea can afford jets, nuclear power and weapons and can't afford to feed people. I'm all for completely isolating the country until the regime dies a proper death so this doesn't happen any more:

    <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ms4NIB6xroc&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ms4NIB6xroc&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
     
    #9 Deji McGever, May 27, 2009
  10. aghast

    aghast Member

    Joined:
    Aug 7, 2003
    Messages:
    2,329
    Likes Received:
    169
    With the possible exception of a military dictatorship with an ailing dictator and a shaky line of succession that might not last past his final breath.

    "Free for all power grab" + "mushroom cloud" don't go well together.

    If not zero (and we're well past that), once you get to two, the fewer fingers on the button the better. For comparison's sake: what's your stance on gun control? Personally, I don't want my ever-drunken neighbor unholstering a .45 every time he thinks my stereo is too loud. Nor his tramp of a wife, who always thinks he's cheating. 'Tis better they sleep it off, unarmed, rather than shoot it out.

    Same goes for nation-states, I believe, especially when the firing of just a few missiles cascades into the end of us all.
     
    #10 aghast, May 27, 2009
  11. robbie380

    robbie380 ლ(▀̿Ĺ̯▀̿ ̿ლ)
    Supporting Member

    Joined:
    Aug 16, 2002
    Messages:
    23,989
    Likes Received:
    11,163

    [​IMG]
     
    #11 robbie380, May 27, 2009
  12. danny317

    danny317 Member

    Joined:
    Jul 31, 2002
    Messages:
    1,756
    Likes Received:
    2
    the next step is dependent on how the chinese react.
     
    #12 danny317, May 27, 2009
  13. justtxyank

    justtxyank Member

    Joined:
    Jul 7, 2005
    Messages:
    42,920
    Likes Received:
    39,925
    I agree. I mean, in a situation where it only takes one person with a hand on a button making a bad/crazy/irrational/uniformed/vengeful decision to cause a global crisis, the obvious solution is to put a button in the hands of more people!
     
    #13 justtxyank, May 27, 2009
  14. KingCheetah

    KingCheetah Atomic Playboy
    Supporting Member

    Joined:
    Jun 3, 2002
    Messages:
    59,079
    Likes Received:
    52,748
    By 'attack' they mean harass with fishing boats.
     
    #14 KingCheetah, May 27, 2009
  15. ChenZhen

    ChenZhen Member

    Joined:
    Aug 20, 2000
    Messages:
    1,779
    Likes Received:
    43
    The problem is that they don't react. The next step is the Japanese threatening to develop a nuke to make them pee in their pants in order for them to react.
     
    #15 ChenZhen, May 27, 2009
  16. weslinder

    weslinder Member

    Joined:
    Jun 27, 2006
    Messages:
    12,983
    Likes Received:
    291
    #16 weslinder, May 27, 2009
  17. danny317

    danny317 Member

    Joined:
    Jul 31, 2002
    Messages:
    1,756
    Likes Received:
    2
    china is in a tough spot. theyre damned if they don and damned if they dont.

    if nk collapses, china is going to get a boat load of refugees that it doesnt want to deal with. plus they will have to deal with the disgruntled nk army.

    if nk goes to war, china is obliged to back them. but im sure thats the last thing china would want to do. however, if china doesnt back nk, then theyll get mopped up and china will lose the nk buffer against the us, japan, and sk.

    if china doesnt react and lets nk continue down this path w/o war, it encourages us, japan, sk to further develop the missle sheild tech and thus neutralizes chinas nuclear deterence.
     
    #17 danny317, May 27, 2009
    1 person likes this.
  18. VooDooPope

    VooDooPope Love > Hate

    Joined:
    Oct 11, 1999
    Messages:
    9,244
    Likes Received:
    4,750
    I feel for the NK kids that don't have food to eat but have a governement hell bent on developing nukes instead of developing relationships that might help their people.
     
    #18 VooDooPope, May 27, 2009
  19. MadMax

    MadMax Member

    Joined:
    Sep 19, 1999
    Messages:
    76,683
    Likes Received:
    25,924
    why does China need a buffer against the US, Japan and South Korea?

    the US and China are serious trade partners. for all the huffing and puffing, the relationship is very different from the former Soviet Union of the Cold War days. these countries benefit from one another's existence.
     
    #19 MadMax, May 27, 2009
  20. robbie380

    robbie380 ლ(▀̿Ĺ̯▀̿ ̿ლ)
    Supporting Member

    Joined:
    Aug 16, 2002
    Messages:
    23,989
    Likes Received:
    11,163

    having a ton of guns in america makes gun violence go down too.

    <a href="http://media.photobucket.com/image/thread derail/electricwhiteboy/derail2.jpg?o=1" target="_blank"><img src="http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn255/electricwhiteboy/derail2.jpg" border="0"></a>
     
    #20 robbie380, May 27, 2009
(You must log in or sign up to post here.)
Page 1 of 5

Share This Page