Material in North Korea's nuclear test unclear, worrying for U.S.
By Jill Dougherty and Pam Benson
More than a month after North Korea tested a nuclear device, the United States is unable to pinpoint whether the regime was able to use uranium to fuel the explosion, a capability that would represent a significantly enhanced nuclear program.
The lack of clarity comes as North Korea ratchets up its bellicose rhetoric each day.
New video broadcast on North Korean television showed the nation's leader, Kim Jong Un, addressing his troops along the border on Monday and issuing a blood-chilling threat, "Throw all enemies into the caldron, break their waists and crack their windpipes." It was the same location he and his late father visited in November 2010, just two days before the North shelled an island, killing four South Koreans.
The bellicose comments have been intensifying over the past months, increasing worry about Kim's unpredictability.
"I am very concerned about what they might do. And they are certainly, if they chose ... could initiate a provocative action against the South," Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday.
North Korea has threatened a pre-emptive nuclear attack not only on South Korea, but on the United States too. Military and White House officials have said the United States can defend against any such threat. President Barack Obama told ABC news this week that he does not think North Korea can make good on the threat.
"They probably can't, but we don't like margin of error," Obama told ABC News.
That ambiguity is not lost on Sen. Dianne Feinstein. "There's perhaps nowhere else on Earth where the capacity to wreak enormous damage is matched by the possibility of North Korea using their nuclear weapons," the chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee said.
Particularly worrisome are the advancements the North Koreans have made in their nuclear and missile programs. In December, they successfully launched a long-range ballistic missile for the first time under what the United States and other Western nations say was the guise of putting a satellite into orbit.
The United States is concerned that a long-range ballistic missile could be fitted with a nuclear warhead and could be capable of striking the mainland, although experts say North Korea does not yet have the expertise to do so.
And then last month, the Pyongyang regime conducted its third underground nuclear test.
U.S. officials tell CNN they have not determined what kind of nuclear device the north tested underground from its Pung-gye-Ri nuclear test site.
A U.S. intelligence official said "nothing has changed" since the Office of the Director of National Intelligence put out a statement within hours of the February 12 nuclear test indicating the test had an explosive yield of several kilotons.
The U.S. Air Force uses sniffer planes to take air samples after a test in hopes of scooping up radioactive particles that will provide more specific details about the contents. The official's comment indicates the United States has obtained no further information that would help determine the type of nuclear material used, and at this late date, probably would not.
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, an international group that monitors nuclear tests, also said it was unable to get a fix on what fissile material was used by the North Koreans and didn't expect it ever would.
"What we are not sure of is if the North Koreans used plutonium, which they used in their earlier tests or highly enriched uranium for this third test," said Daryl Kimball, the executive director of the Arms Control Association. "If they used highly enriched uranium, that would be very worrisome because it would suggest they have a larger supply of this material that would allow them to build a larger number of nuclear weapons."
Kimball said detection is always iffy. If the chamber where the explosion takes place deep underground is well-sealed, few particles may be released into the atmosphere. And if samples are gathered, they need to be "relatively fresh and very good" to determine whether it was a plutonium-based or uranium-based explosion.
The type of nuclear material matters because North Korea gave up its production of weapons-grade plutonium six years ago and only has a limited amount of the fissile material in its stocks, enough for approximately six bombs, according to experts. After years of denial, the regime acknowledged in 2010 it had an enriched uranium facility. That's problematic because such facilities are hard to detect and could produce large supplies of highly enriched uranium.
Kimball doesn't like the trend. "They don't yet have the capability to deliver a nuclear warhead on a long-range missile that could reach the U.S. Despite whatever they say, they may soon - in the next two to three years with further testing - be able to deliver a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile that could strike their neighbors," Kimball said.
A North Korean expert believes that Kim Jung Un's regime is playing the international community. "North Korea had done three tests: the ballistic missile, the nuclear and a test of all of us, and the question is, what are we going to do?" said Philip Yun, executive director of the Ploughshares Fund, an anti-nuclear weapons foundation.
The United States and the United Nations have recently imposed additional economic sanctions against North Korea, but so far sanctions have not led to the resumption of talks.
The U.S. special envoy to North Korea says unless the regime is serious about talks and meets its obligations to de-nuclearize, its future will be bleak.
"North Korea will not achieve security, economic prosperity and integration into the international community while it pursues nuclear weapons, while it threatens its neighbors, while it tramples on international norms, abuses its own people and refuses to fulfill its long-standing obligations and commitments," Glyn Davies told a congressional panel. "This is one of the hardest foreign policy problems out there."
@natlsecuritycnn on Twitter
They don't have long range missiles, but why can't they just drop it from a plane?
Because they'd be intercepted and shot down before getting over US soil.
as Barney Fife would say " nip it in the bud "
China is totally to blame for this situation.
It should be policy that any attack from the NKs (conventional or nuclear) should be treated as an attack by China.
Make Peking pay for supporting the heavily-armed, paranoid-children that have enslaved NK.
I agree. I believe China tries to appear separate from North Korea, but I believe they control North Korea and much as the US controls Hawaii.
lol at wanting to kill millions of people including Americans by going to war with china. Are you people insane?
Neutron bombs for north korea, problem solved!
Yeah sure, whatever. The second a missle is launched in our direction it'll be shot out of the sky and we're retaliating. I know people think Americans are over confident, but you know what? Those are the capabilities of our country's defense and one of the reasons I love that I live here.
I am disturbed by North Korea's statements of miserable destruction agaisnt innocent people. Alot of innocent people are gonna die because of one man. People on both sides. What a ridiculous world we live in.
I think that if this guy had a better barber he would not be so angry at the world all the time.
Posturing for the media. Surprised how many gullible readers swallow such easy bait..
I think we're naive if we think that Iran does not already have nukes. We're also naive if we think that China is not the puppeteer of North Korea and Iran.
Since we don't have control over our borders with Mexico, Canada, Pacific and Atlantic ocean, some of those nukes may already be in the US.
So, don't worry, be happy. As the song says.
Yes, because it's ever so easy to transport nuclear devices. Are you braindead? Or does your tinfoil hat need tightening?
Let's hope you're in the know to be able to tell us how difficult it is to import stuff like that.
I don't know if you realize that a lot of miniaturization has happened since WWII
good put and but there are suitcase nukes form Russia missing.....if they had them, they would use them........
Peter, please grow a brain cell or two prior to posting.....
Too late to grow brain cells. Too much beer 🙂
We would know it if they did. There's sure-fire signs of it detectable by satellite.
What this little idiot doesn't realize, is that we DON'T need to use nukes in retaliation for a first strike. Some well-targeted bunker busters and MOABs (worthy successor to the Daisy Cutter) will take out their command and control as well as their front-line troops just as effectively without creating a radioactive wasteland.
They may try to strike first, but we will most certainly finish it most effectively.
Right you are Sperry, but wouldn't you think that a tiny little country like N. Korea would be wise to try and get along with the rest of the world, instead of mouthing off like it does?? Where are this little commie's brains....up his ar-se? Any such strike, anywhere......would be dealt with.....with deadly ramifications! One would think they would know that!
Here's the scary question. What if China WANTS NK to stir up trouble, send a "glowing Christmas present" down our chimney, only to invade while we concern ourselves with the Asian Naploean? China has the resources and certainly the people (Million Man Army) to cause great destruction and chaos in our country. NK may just be the fuse for the "large explosion"...just a thought
China must have left the gate open again. Their little dog is out and pooping on lawns.
You'd think they'd have them under control by now. China's sphere of influence looks pretty small right now.
... and that is what China may want us to think. China: "Oh I can't control North Korea. After all, we all know they're nuts."
Yea, right. Sometimes what seems obvious is not what the strategy is.
China has very long term planning. They think 50 years ahead. Two ways of becoming the next top dog in the world.
Plan 1 – Do it economically, by feeding the US with all the money it wants to borrow. In this sense, China is the drug pusher to the spending drug addict that is the US. Eventually, we can't even pay our interest on the debt, the dollar collapses and it is no longer the world reserve currency. That is one way China wins control. And, if the financial method does not work, then there is plan 2 ...
Plan 2 – So if the US does not self destruct financially, the Chinese use surrogates (NK, Iran and others) to take the blame when their nukes are smuggled into the US and destroy major cities.
Do you guys think this is not what is going on? I hope I'm wrong!
You forgot that they are using "the art of war" against us in trade stealing our technology and jobs via counterfeiting and hacking and cheating which lowers our wages and puts us into a catch 22 where we are more and more dependent on their cheap goods. They will keep doing it to hide that their communism doesn't work and they will hold up their gains that they stole from us as the rewards of their communism when the truth is they have had a long time to get things right instead they steal the wealth and rewards of a young country with diversity that worked out a more constructive and fair government that can evolve.
Bwa ha hah a lol
It's really to bad politicians back in the 1950s did not want to win the Korean war. The war could have been won and this wouldn't have been an issue for the last 60 years. The last president to actually win a war was Harry Truman and he used the military resources at his disposal. This North Korean problem will go on and on because we are not willing to do what it takes to put down a Communist government.
Harry Truman used nuclear weapons in WWII but opted to not do so in Korea. An early assessment of the North Korean invasion was that it could be stopped with 5 A-bombs. Obviously, this option was not exercised.
While I agree with the general sentiment of your post, to refer to the DPRK as Communist is laugable. It is a dictatorship, flat out.
Time for you to brush up on some history. Truman was president for nearly the entirety of the Korean war and had already began leading the U.N., KPA, NDK, and U.S. in negotiations for a peaceful resolution. If it wasn't for the issues surrounding POW's the resolution would have probably been signed before he ever took office. The U.S. pledged a little over 300,000 troops to fight in a war that had ultimately reached a stalemate and had a casualty rate of about 10%. (36,000 American soldiers died) You say we should have continued to send in troops, however, the Soviet Union technically had control over North Korea after WWII (hence why it is a communist country) and a U.S. led invasion would have futher provoked a country that already had a tense relationship with the entirety of the U.N. but especially the U.S.
The Korean War happened because they divided control over the region based on the 38th parallel. For the U.S. to invade and take control (even if it was just going to give it back to Korea) would have been to breech the U.N. Security Council Resolution after WWII and made things very difficult for the entirety of the U.N.
So in short, that would have been a really bad idea.
He was also heard to say "Disrespect their esophaguses and trample their very spleens." He's a cartoon leader with nuclear weapons.
Dennis Rodman, get this man under control
Dennis can't get himself under control. Much less other people.
They fell out when Rodman figured out he wasn't the Gangnam guy. I think that's what started the latest tantrum.
Obama is a Bush turd. The people of South Korea are going to die at the hands of Obama.
Idiot.
Captain Oveur: Joey, have you ever been in a... in a Turkish prison?
Unfortunately as long as China keeps supporting (and protecting) N. Korea, there's not much we can do.
Why don't you start by boycotting Walmart? 90% of what they sell is crap made in China.
YOU MEAN "COMMUNIST CHINA" ?
"Crack their wind pipes?" That's the BEST this guy could come up with? HOW PATHETIC – I thought that this guy actually went to collage to Europe? Where Amsterdam to study on a HASH PIPE?
He went to college in Europe. He probably didn't make collages in Europe.
He went to college in europe, but his audience didn't You didn't go to college anywhere did you.
He meant to say "Smash their Crack Pipes"
Since South Koreans generally hate Americans anyway, why exactly should it bother us if North Korea goes forward with a first strike?
ET's are here...........
They didn't hate Americans 20 years ago when I lived their for 2 years. They treated me like I was a celebrity. However, I sensed a jealousy sometimes because we are certainly blessed here in the US compared to most other places. There was a some hate mostly limited to college campuses, but that may have grown since I was there.
What do you base your statement on? I've been to South Korea. They don't hate Americans. Everywhere I went Koreans were generous and wanted to engage in coversation. I've traveled in Europe and the Koreans were much more friendly and helpful. I'm sure there are some young people who don't remember the Korean war and would like to see our troops leave but that doesn't mean they don't like us. I'm sick of people on these discussions saying things that have no basis.
Alot of South Koreans (particularly women) like Americans, especially the G.I.s, trust me on this. When I was stationed in Germany, I couldn't believe the number of Koreans on base, and shopping at the PX's. Alot of the women marry American G.I.s to come here, sadly. So the blanket statement that South Koreans hate Americans is not true. And we're over there in South Korea helping to protect their asses so there is no basis for their sentiment against US.
What?? South Koreans love Americans for the most part. We have a great relationship with them. I was in South Korea for 3 months a few years ago, and everywhere I went I was basically treated like a celebrity just for being American. I have been to a lot of foreign countries and I can honestly say South Korea is the friendliest place I have ever visited.
What people don't seem to realize/grasp/remember is that whenever you have soldiers in a foreign country there ends up being some local resentment, particularly when the soldiers commit crimes or have accidents (ie a crashed helicopter) that harm local civilians. There have been incidents of both the crime and accident variety involving our troops in South Korea. So yes, a few South Koreans that live near our military facilities are jaded against Americans for those reasons but honestly they are an extremely small percentage of the population.
South Koreans also are very aware of how significant our guarantee to protect them is.
If we stopped defending people who hate us, France would be west germany.
This is pretty concerning since this is a country that keeps threatening us and our Government is not responding and now our Military doesn't know what type of weaponry they used? Are they going to wait until a missile is headed our way?We went to Iraq and Afghanistan for a lot less.
Please Michael, grace us with you vast experience in foreign policy and tell us what should be done.
In short yes, what till a missle comes our way, shoot it down, and then send a dozen, or more if needed back and then let North Korea figure out if they want to join the world in peace and we'll probably help them out and if the don't then let them figure their own way back from the stone age. I don't see any other legitimate or morale response that doesn't make us the oppressor. It's esentially the old cold-war Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) we had with Russia. We stand in defense and then kick the you know what out of North Korea if they do a preimptive strike.
North Korea doesn't have anything worth taking.
Where's Ronald Reagan when you need him?
FU(K you Kim Jong Un. $H1T or get off the pot. I'm sick of hearing you talk big, do something or shut the Fu(k up.
Fu(k yeah!
Yeah, Kim Jong Un, Jay's gotta go potty. What are you doing in there? It doesn't take that long to wash your hands...
Nuke em NOW.
Windpipes?? Really?? Given your height, I suggest that next time you go with kneecaps.
people say some dumb stuff on here .,jhust to get attention
get a life and grow up .. and stopfeeningfor attention
at child emperor is being fed lies by his older minions to instigate a war that they don't want to be blamed for. Dennis Rodman better talk some sense to Kim before he regrets his order for war. There are forces in this world that look forward to this because it's spells 'big business'. Question all authority people. We can prevent the staging of an Armageddon through the banishment of our own ignorance. May Jehovah God bless humanity to help bring peace so that He can help us build a paradise on Earth. Hallelujah and praise Jesus. Amen.
THAT child emperor better not be playing with fire or him and his whole country will get burned by the consequences of his actions...
Blessings upon you from JHVH1.
You know you're a tea party patriot if you drink out of a mason jar because you don't own any real glasses.
what war experience does this guy have other than Call of Duty? thats what scares me he has no concept of what real war is like, there is no replay button fatso!
Too many people in the world think like this. And this is all paranoia. Who cares about North Korea otherwise? What would a war be about?? Just attention seeking? Why don't they just seal themselves off from the rest of the world, all countries swear that they have No interest in them whatsoever and everyone just simmer down?
Find a way to get Palin's b00bs and Kartrashian's azz in space and no rockets will be able to get thru our air space
You know you're a tea party patriot when you invite your friends over to watch Deliverance.
You know you're an Obama supporter if, well if your black. That's all the reason you need. Holler at a player.
I support Obama. I'm white. Could you pleas elaborate on your racist remark.
Haha He*l yeah boi! Hey, how have your Klan meetings been going??
The only thing different from President Obama from any other past President, is his skin color. Anyone who compares President Obama to Abe Lincoln or any other respectable historical figure is high. Obama is no Lincoln and he is one of the most controversial, liberal Presidents we've ever had. Not a good thing.
You know you're a tea party patriot when you don't like excessive taxation and living in a socialist regime.
I looked up "tea party patriot" in the dictionary, and they gave the definition that it meant "traitor". Hmmmm! Sounds about right.
Translation is wrong, he really said they need to make the enemy stew, steal their food and smoke their crack pipes.
You know you're a tea party patriot when you own more copies of Sarah Palin's crosshairs poster than you do pairs of socks.
Why is your name palintwit and you say this? Are you being serious or are you being IRONIC and ZANY impersonating a right winger???????
I've been using this screen name for a few years. There's another low-life on here who started using my name. It's the same guy who's making fun of blacks. I don't do that.
You know you're a palintwit when you blow your whole welfare check on the Blu Ray box set of "Saved by the Bell".
ok, that one is funny.
Sorry. I have no idea what that is.
Crazy as he was, Kim Jong Il was a reasonable pragmatist compared to his son, Un. We had a very similar situation in the US when Shrub took over HIS father's job and we found out how bellicose and irresponsible he was. We are only now recovering from those 8 dark years. At least we limit our incompetent rulers to 8 years at the helm, God help the North Koreans.
Dennis Rodman needs to leverage some of his influence and set that boy straight.
Kim is like a black bass.....all mouth and no body.
Obama good, he give me and me family of 12 kids all free stuff. Me no pay a thing and never have to work.
You know you're a tea party patriot when you vacation in LaCrosse, Kansas and visit The Barb Wire Museum.
aaaaa... so why do you care where people visit? typicial lib.. always knows better, but can't do a darn thing.
95% of blacks voted for Obama. Now you tell me who's racist in America.
he's absolutely right
95% of democrats voted for Obama. What's your point? That blacks should have voted for Romney? Seriously? Are you normally this deluded?
Why shouldn't they vote for Romney. What does the left do over the right that benefits minorities? If you really really look at the truth you'll see that the only difference is the left showers minority groups with free stuff and that's not why you should vote for someone.
That's easy, the people who didn't vote for Obama because he's black are the racists. The only possible reason to support an idiot like Romney over Obama is racism.
Blacks make up 16% of the US population. Yet they make up 85% of violent crime in the US, 72% of the prison population, have the highest percent of people on welfare and continue to have children more than any other race. That is cold hard facts.
Kevin and what about the 98% of blacks that just supported him because he's half black? They aren't racist of course right? They have a legit reason but when it comes to whites their only reason can be racism right?
That's because they are smarter than you. Obviously.
@Yolo: Blacks have historically voted for White candidates, can the same be said of White voters? Black voters supported Obama for the same reason White voters like me did, he had the best ideas and was overall the smarter candidate qualified to lead the country. Black voters do not and would not support a Black candidate with Tea Party notions. That's not to say ALL white people are lazy stupid racists, just the one's like Romney and his supporters.
Don't they also claim that their not racist those 95%
Yo kevin, you get your obamaphone yet? Holla at me shawty if you did so we can go get some 40's with my EBT card. Obama is tha SHIZZLE!
Not accurate. The statement may be that 95% of blacks who voted, voted that way. Your statement is dumb.
Wow Bob you are sooo smart! Unreal how smart you are. Did you just take a break from your jet propulsion laboratory job at NASA to write this? Better get to work because you are about to be out of work. Obama is cutting that program to fund his growing obamaphone program. Holler at a playa shawty.
Palinwit… The fact that is all you can see and understand is that blacks are racist only proves that you're racist. All racists are like that – they're blind to anything else. So it would be a waste of time for anyone to try and make you see a different point of view because you are a racist. And those are the facts…
What a lot of people are thinking..........
Palinwit… To further illustrate how ignorant you are, there are only three races on the face of the earth – Hebrew, Gentile and Ethiopian. Those are the only three races God created. Every person on the face of the planet falls into one of those three categories. The Israelis are the only people who fall into the Hebrew category. What you call the white man, includes the french people, the italians, and all people with whitish skin fall into the category of being "Gentile". All people of mixed races and with darkish skin – Africans, Mexicans, Latinos, Taiwanese, etc all fall into the category of being "black" or Ethiopian. In fact, you might be black yourself and not even know it. So get some truth next time before making such outlandish and uninformed statements…
i would whole heartedly aggree that most blacks voted for Obama strictly because he is Black and not because of the Policies he brings to the table. i have heard and read many blacks say as much.take a look at the number of first time voters in the black community that came out to vote these last two elections. "proof in the puddin" i however am not racist. but facts are facts. Obama still sucks though.
Yolo 2012!!!
Well, Obama has always been very pro-caveman.
Hey look everybody! its that fake Palintwit poser again! So full of spite and so anti American. If you don't like this country so much why don't you just leave! Other wise just shut the F$#K up, be greatful for what you have and get a life!
With all the respect to you brethern, your statement contradicts your name. One Love, One People.
You transposed the A and the L in your username. All I see is "plain twit" that's what you are
What is disturbing about North Korea is not so much it's growing ability to launch a long range nuclear weapon, but the fact that it has a mindset to threaten that or perhaps even try that with the certainty of devastating retaliation. That's suicidal. That kind of fanaticism is dangerous.
I lived in S. Korea for 13 years so I know for sure N. Koreans are sadistic enough to do something terrible – it's not IF, it's WHEN. N. Koreans hate Americans. I am so glad that I don't live anywhere near California or Hawaii – easy target.
The UN unnazied the world.
While there are those here who don't remember this. Back in the day, we used vinegar with baking soda to lauch our toy rockets..
will kim and his cronies be dancing the gangnam style around the cauldron?
You know you're a tea party patriot when you fondle your assault weapon instead of your girlfriend.
What does that have to do with this story? You do realize how scary this could be if North Korea can follow through on its threats?
Why are you feeding the troll, Pat?
He looked hungry.
There are alot of white people on welfare and no blacks aren't the highest race bin prison, get your facts straight. when people voted fot Obama they didnt vote because he was black, they voted because they wanted too see a change because all George Bush did was make this country worse whgen he was the president !
Ashley, that party tagline of change may have flown 4 years ago for his first presidency but we've had 4 years of no deficit cuts (he promised they'd be halved), he pushed a health care agenda free of compromise on the american people that will serve to only cripple our economy. The fact is nothing has really changed for the better in 4 years, but all dems want to do is continue to blame bush. When exactly the the shortcomings of obama's presidency become his own? Oh that's right they never have to, under obama the rich get blamed for everything...
AShley you are incorrect. President Obama has continously blamed Bush for our economic problems when prior to Bush we had Clinton for 8 years. Obama has done more spending than any other President we've had, and Obamacare is going to put companies under, and create less jobs, not more. He also has very little understanding of our dire need of a strong military. Cuts should not be made in our defense budgets yet he has cut significantly while we are continuing to give countries like Egypt hundreds of millions of dollars in aid. Do your research about Liberals and Democrats, and spending. We also have more people on disability and food stamps than we have ever had. Obama and his administration enable these people and feel the government should be supporting those who don't work or don't want to. Look at Chicago-that city is in complete ruin to the libtards running that city. Not a Republican in sight. Chicago has the worst schools in the country and the worst gun violence and our good ole president is from Illinois. You are lacking intelligence if you don't think this is a big issue.
It's quite apparent that all these so called sanctions are not working. Talk is cheap; that's why it's used to try and convince rogue leaders to change their direction. It doesn't work. To prove a point, I had a discussion with a co-worker who was convinced negotiations were the safest way to achieve peace. We both agreed to an experiment where we would use negotiations to obtain a goal. No physical action would be allowed. Just prior to lunch I obtained his car keys and asked him to negotiate their return. We talked and talked and I refused to give him his keys back. Lunch time passed and he missed lunch due to the fact that he needed to go out and buy his lunch. I still had his keys. He threatened to report me to our boss (aka, attack) if I didn't comply. His negotiations continued and I continued to ignore him or passify him with promises to comply. End of shift, I went home with his keys. He got home somehow. Ruthless, you bet. We don't talk anymore – we're enemies similar to the relation between NK, SK, Iran etc. No amount of talking convinced me to return his keys. The only way he could have gotten his keys back was to physically take them. That's what needs to happen with NK and Iran – they need to be physically stopped. Period. Turrn that wasteland to glass before they do that to us and SK. All that is accomplished is it buys time for these ruthless dictators to achieve their goals. Nations like Iran and NK could care less about negotiations; they keep pushing forward to gain the momentum needed for military action. When the bombs start to fall, it's too late. Lives are lost and nothing changes. The only thing these maniacs deserve is direct military action against them. Yes, that option also causes loss of life but it's likely to be less than a massive nuclear holocaust. You only achieve what your willing to sacrifice. If a nuclear free world is our goal then we must be willing to sacrifice a small percentage to achieve a larger goal.
There is a huge difference between "taking someones keys" and a nuclear attack. With taking ones keys, there is no fallout from a bomb, nor is there colletral damage.
The keys are B.S. I would have set your car on fire and then renegotiated.
Let's get back on topic here, ok people?!?! I'm not so much worried about Lil' Kim can get a nuclear warhead here because i believe he can and I know we can defend such an act with our defense missles. For me, it's what if he launches a half dozen at once? I'm not sure we'll be able to take out all of them in flight. I believe the US/UN are taking the right stance on this issue and first dealing out tougher sanctions and letting the DPRK dig their own grave, because rest assured that if they make a bold enough move the allied forces will react and react swiftly and without unrest until that regime is swept clean. By handling this with ease and allowing them to dig their own grave the allied forces will not be looked down upon by the international community when it comes time to strike back. However, if they now just go in and start a war against the DPRK then all of the world will have a fit about it and say we didn't do enough to try and prevent this from happening. On another note, lets just stop all the racsist nonesense and move on.
If NK strikes, it will be against SK. NK knows better then to cut off it's noe to spite it's face, NK has been a thorn in the side of the world for decades. If they did strike, they would be on the loosing end because China would sit back and do nothing. China knows all too well who butters their bread, if they did get involved...the world would most likely put sanctions against them as well.
I love how you state "the world"... You make it seem as if the entire world is against China and NK. Lets not forget that its "the world" that you are refferring to that depends on China, not China on it. I read an article that China is dramatically increasing its influence in the African continent, and they are doing this with mutual benefit to both nations, thus creating strong ties. We can hope that China does not support them, however, if they do, it means hell for the world militarily and financially.
Guys we can all type whatever it is that we want, however, lets not forget the influence and importance of other big nations. MADE IN CHINA appears almost even under YOUR hairline, who would replace them as a supplier?
What if It's not Uranium but instead they have figured out Nuclear Fusion and are just using there other radioactive materials to make dirty bombs. This is very unlikely but the last one has me concerned.
if North Korea attempts to launch a missile at the United States, and the U.S. fires one back at North Korea.... what does China do. How are people not more upset about China's tolerance towards North Korea? The way i see it, We have two dragons to sleigh, and both are becoming more powerful by the minute.
Keep shopping at Walmart.
keep being nothing
China will not back the DPRK in this situation. It has too much invested in the international community, so for them to stand behind Lil' Kim right now (at least on this issue) would do China more harm than good. they've signed the UN sanctions so they are prepared back up the UN in this situation.
I would think that China benifits from having a buffer zone (North Korea) bewteen them and a U.S. back South Korea. I am not so sure they would give that up.
Yep.....you're stupid.
who are you calling stupid? either way not very grown up,
I want dragons on my sleigh! Up until now I've just been using reindeer.
feinstein is an idiot.i think she gets her intelligence from Sheila jackson lee
This can be solved with a diplomatic agreement that excludes N. Korea. All countries agree to let China walk into N. Korea and take over its territory in exchange for peace with S. Korea. China will get the brunt of nuclear fallout if N. Korea uses a nuke as immediate and severe nuclear retaliation would occur without an agreement for China to proceed with ground forces.
China doesn't want a border with U.S. ally South Korea. That is the major reason they prop up North Korea as a big buffer zone.
China would not do this even if offered. They like having N. Korea there as a buffer. If they have a capitalist nation on their boarders China is worried this would cause issue and dissent in China. Now I have to add this will occur even if North Korea is still there. The Chinese are getting wealthier and another 20-40 yrs at most before China's communicst party is in real trouble.
Chuck Norris will sneak in and grab any launching missile with his fingers and make it fly into Pyongyang.
99.9 % of the worlds problems could be solved by asking one question. What would Chuck do?
Hire Huck to take doughboy out!!
I hope that the Chinese governemnt is not behind the bellicosity of this north korean buffoon. Are they playing on both sides of this game? The buffoon instead of sohouting the war cries should be focusing on feeding the poor people in his country and try to uplift the nation to economic prosperity. Looks like another idiot.
Why no body ask the already nuclear states to close their nuclear projects and remove this deadly weapons from their stockpiles before they ask North Korea to stop prolifiration.
Because of the finatics who will always seek such a weapon themselves. It is called a detterent! Why do people stockpile simple handguns and other weapons???? Same answer...IKR!
So could we say that the Koreans are ALSO creating their own nuclear deterrent against a foreign military occupying THEIR peninsula?
It is amazing that no one wants to recognize that it is the foreign occupation of the Korean Peninsula that IS responsible for the peacelessness on the Korean Peninsula.
Let me toss you a clue, Dear Leader: No country of any worth is even remotely interested in using nuclear weapons to conquer NK. That would be like killing a spider with a shotgun so you could take over the cobweb. Nobody gives a rats ass about Pyongyang, its a prop in the middle of a dump. Look at a sattelite photograph of the Korean pennisula taken after dark...you tell me who has more to lose (and more to defend).
Just 9 nations have nuclear weapons, ever time you add one their close political rivals feel pressured to join the 'race'. Pakistan and India would be one of the best examples of this.
So maybe you think we should just let every nation have them as a deterrent...think of what could have happened in Egypt if they had them or Syria. How will China react is North Korea demonstrates a viable ICBM and nuke then South Korea announces they either want a nuke from the US or they will develop their own?
The genie cant go back in the bottle unless/till human civilization evolves past national, racial and religious segregation but allowing proliferation will only lessen our chance of surviving long enough to do that.
Insanity must run in the family
I personally only see then capable of getting dressed. Everything else is a reach.
Insanity is letting them shell SK islands and sink SK ship then only responding with words.
I suggest a 7mm parked in the fat boys forehead + one in the expectant wife so we don't have a 3rd gen of nut jobs to deal with. cheap and permanent. the next 'leader' can learn from that example.
Kim Un is a puppet on a string, and you want a pregnant woman to be killed as part of the answer?
Un . . . I laugh at thee.
This idiot is in China's back yard.
For ONCE...let someone else handle the world's nutjobs. We've done our bit, and maybe it's time for someone else to do the heavy lifting.
Nasty Chubby Little Bugger is'nt he....Apple did'nt fall far from the tree.....Charles Bowen Solomon Stone
The apostrpohe replaces the missing letter. Isn't – replaces the 'O' in not.
noly, stfu
I never took to being threatened very well.
Are those Craiger wheels on the artillery piece in the photo above ?
They do look expensive.
I suppose if after the American Civil war, the US was divided with a North & South – and the: pick any (Chinese, French, Germans) had large military bases in the South, the North would probably be a bit ticked off
Both sides of the US civil war were governed by educated men, not punks with a high school education.
Of course because it only takes a high school diploma to build a nuclear weapon.
My friend, Kim Jung Un studied in the West and has a college education.
He was selected by birth not education, popularity, or reasoning ability.
"...break their waists and crack their windpipes." That all sounds so... specific. He might as well have added "irritate their colons, and lacerate their litle toes.
Those comments make me wonder if it is the right interpretation. Break their waists and crack their windpipes? Who says that? Maybe they meant "eat their waste and smoke their crackpipe"?
LOL!!!
"Break their waist". Umm....does he mean hip? Maybe in his country, people break each other's waists because they all have 24 inch waists and weigh 88 lbs, but you aren't going to be breaking Americans' waists.
Yet again, LOL!!!
The Chinese Missile launchers in the last parade could mean they already have intercontinental missiles "minus the warheads." They may have came with the launchers. The United States did that with South Korea in 1978 . For example the Honest John rocket was the first Tactical Nuclear weapon system deployed by the United States in 1958 . The weapon system was deployed to South Korea in 1958 and turned over to the ROK Army minus the nuclear warheads in 1978. Who's to say?
Time to send Dennis Rodman back. At least none of the North Koreans can reach as high as his windpipe.
Simply awesome
95% of blacks voted for Obama. That's all the african americans that have 12 kids, on welfare, been to prison, havent had a job in over 5 years, have free healthcare and an EBT card they can buy booze with. All thanks to Obama. Why dont we send that 95% to NK and have the blacks actually do some work for once in this country. Obama and the blacks are pathedic in this country!
Amazingly racist rant. That aside, what does that have to do with North Korea.
It has nothing to do with anything about this subject. what a loon.
Maybe we should just send Rodman over there with his new best friend? We all know Obama is too much of a coward to face anyone.
1. Still smarting from the November's embarassing thrashing, I see.
2. Speak for yourself, Clem.
3. Once again, I am so happy being me, and not someone like you.
this sound like a white male that is unemployed or at least a white sepremacist. Since you have all this hate built up, why don't you join the military and go over and guard the neutral zone. Don't blame the president because you don;t have a job. If your that upset about this country, then leave. No one is holding you here like North Korea or Cuba. Leave! Move! Make this country a little better without your A_S here.
Blacks make up 16% of the US population. Yet blacks commit 85% of violent crimes in the US, make up 72% of the prison population, have the highest rate of unemployment, highest rate on welfare, have the most children of any race in the US, we all know they complain more than any race on the planet... so you tell me what good this race does in the US besides leach off tax money and commit crime, homie.
Hey Obozo, I bet you're an elderly white man, who would never have the balls to spew any of that hateful bulls*!t to a black person or any other minority, who I will wager you hate equally. No instead just post it here, on a news story about North Korea. Hmmmmm
The most consistent thing about the internet is when anonymous, a fool will reveal him/herself every time. This story is about potential nuclear capability of North Korea, and this clown is talking about black folks who voted for President Obama. This idiot isn't even fair and balanced...he doesn't mention anything about those who voted for "Dubya"...oh wait...that's right...despite the legacy he left behind...a "pathetic" one at that...he's the greatest president of all time...right?
Wow, did I just walk into the middle of a klan rally?
I'm a black father of 2, employed and never been on welfare or received or heard of a free phone in my life. Please enlighten me and reveal your're source for your're data. You sound like a Faux News Moron, that continues to spew untruths for the sake of spreading hate.
Sounds like Nazi rhetoric. Next you'll be saying send them to the gas chambers. Racism in the United States sickens me.
Not that i necessarily agree with his hateful approach in his rant, but the stats regarding prison population, violent crime, and welfare rate ae widely published figures and he is correct, unfortunately.
@wouldyoulookatthat, it's true if you repeat something overhand over people will believe it. The only statistic that was correct was population so you do the math...
Those stats might be somewhat true but I know black people servings as army rangers in the military. They give all the sacrifice in the world.
Obamaphone: your right wing nut mentality is obvious. :You're not even an American .......native american. Just some bozo with European ancestry..........that's all.
Obamaphone doesn't know the free phones started under Bush.
You sir, are a pinhead.
lol
LOL...a troll! A racist troll at that! Stereotyping is so funny! And you voted for whom? You want to gain a majority with that thinking with ________(place candidates name here)??? LMAO. I encourage you to go to your closest urban center and spout your views aloud! Hear, Hear I say!
Ya, when blacks have an issue, they blast it for everyone to hear, rant about it and demand attention and some kind of compensation. When a white person simply states facts, such as welfare, prison population, crime, by race... he's a racist to the extreme. Sad.
Racist? 95% of blacks voted for Obama... Ninety Five Percent. Now you tell me who's racist.
Hey, 95%. Give that 95% their due. That many were smart enough to vote for the right man for the job.
You're obviously uneducated obamaphone. I'm white and not a supporter of Obama, however this should be for educated responses. Not rants just because you don't like black people. How about you go to college, become a politician and do something about the "problem". That there is probably too much WORK for you though.
Blacks, doing work? Go back and read the hisory books, you ignorant racist!!! Btw, while you're receiving help on how to read, you may want to learn how to correctly spell "pathedic.."
"been to prison". Strangely enough, felons can't vote.
for many years now china has been using north korea as a distraction so the world does not pay attention to its own military buildup and plans to take over tiawan. Wake up people.
Nailed it!
oh come now, if we know this is going on then so does everyone else. China is not going to invade Taiwan, just isn't going to happen.
I think when it come to military hardware , this is the way it should be. If these tests where conducted here in the states, all the rogue nations needed to do was to watch CNN or the history channel.
All the details of the tests would be broadcasted live for the world to see.
This guy is a raging nut job. We should assassinate him while we have the chance.
No, Sir...we cannot assassinate him. Well, the only way we could accomplish that is by using a drone. But if we did so and Dennis Rodman was to get hit in the crossfire, Rant Paul would call for the impeachment of our President. See, we must have "due process" before we can go after Jung-Fat.
I agree all the way,Waste this dude quickly and be done with this whole bit of nonsense. Put in a south Korean and start rebuilding the country as a whole. China will not back them if they keep up the nonsense
Then I guess that's why those Chinese Intercontinental ballistic missile launchers were in the last parade? Its safe to say the Chinese have no intention of letting the north fall.
Bill Clinton was ready to send in the US military 20 years ago to take out North Korea's regime, but at the last minute Jimmy Carter inserted himself into the "peace process" and cut a deal which would supposedly prevent North Korea from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Well, here we are, 20 years later, and North Korea has nuclear weapons and is more dangerous than ever.
Thanks a lot, Jimmy.
The UN Command and the United States both violated the armistice agreement in 1958 when we deployed 4 different nuclear weapons systems to the south Korean DMZ. Why? As a Chinese/NK invasion deterrent. I'm sure that we created that race of paranoid hermit people. And now it seems to be payback time.
Whaaaat? I must have missed that one 20 years ago...Bill Clinton was never ready to invade anyone, let alone NK.
He wouldn't even commit troops to Kosovo until the shooting had stopped and his administration let the genocide in Rwanda go on unabated for years, despite pleas from evryone in the West to put an end to it. Of course, France didn't do anything about Rwanda either.
Well if they make a threat, we dont negotiate with terrorists, we just need to wipe north korea off the map. Nobody likes them and their being lead by a young psycopath.
Once again, dude, let's be fair, ok? Innocent North Koreans have done nothing to you, so no need to suggest things like that. It needs heavy investigation, and communication, to truly resolve, not only this problem, but similar problems, with other countries. By saying "Nobody likes them, let's wipe them out", don't you think you sound exactly like a psycho dictator?
Not worth worrying about. This is just a spoiled brat trying to act all tough. It's posturing, he knows if he lashes out he'll be punished.
Why isn't D.R. helping the US, he is best friend of that lunatic.
Looks like we'll be going to war with Korea. Again...
The USA in 2016???? Over 20 Trillion in Debt, Constant unemployment of 7 & 8%, Return of a Russian Empire, NY blown off the map by an Iranian/N. Korean nuclear weapon, WWIII....... It’s Evening in America. Thank You Mr. Obama!
You are ludicrous.
The USA in 2018???? Over 293857 Trillion butcoins in Debt, Constant unemployment of 132% Return of a Klingon Empire, Mississippi blown off the map by an Brazilian/N. Ireland chemical weapon, WWZ....... It’s Mid-to-late afternoon in America. Thank You Mr. Ed!
2012 in America – Honey Boo Boo. It's over and we lost.
Bobobo man, oh man, I needed a friggin laugh like that. Thank you very much sir!
who cares
If they dare to strike, or even make an attempt to strike, the U.S., don't give them a second chance. Blow them off the map.
It is stuff like this that would cause a global issue, people need to handle this with intelect, not brute force.
But brute force (usually) makes for a better movie, Red Dawn not withstanding.
Dianne Feinstein is Chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee? Isn't that a dichotomy?
Uh... no.
Good for Dianne
Perhaps you should look up the big words before attempting to use them in any meaningful way.
He reminds me of Dr. Evil from Austin Powers. lol. I think that as soon as Kim Jong Un even attempts to send anything our way, North Korea will be a gapping hole in the earth, or at least wherever he rests his small brain. He just seems like the bigger is better type...big gun go boom boom ha ha ha...pea brain.
Many think he is all talk and no action, but I would never trust this little man. He is not dealing with a full deck, which makes him very dangerous.. He has ego and control issues and is looking to be a big man in his minds eye, which makes him even more dangerous.
Are you talking about kim jong or george bush ?
Wow, that joke isn't getting old or anything. Lame. Time to move on mate.
He's not going to do anything. All this big bad talk is for his own party officials and to show his country that he is willing to standup and defy the US. His father and grandfather used the exact same tactics and never once did they act on their words. I personally was stationed in South Korea along the DMZ in 1992 when Kim Jong Il said he was going to invade the South and bury his father in Seoul. That was over 20 years ago and I'm sure his dad is still buried in North Korea. It's all a dog and pony show hyped-up by the media so that we'll offer concessions for them to act appropriately. The problem is this whole act has played itself out too many times and I don't think the US or it's allies are willing to be pulled into this crap again. If we had the right administration and leaders we would have already smacked this little son-of-a-kimchi-eater's rear and sent him crying to China.
Damn media, angling for concessions. I had a feeling that's what's been going on.
We will not need to turn a country into glass and kill millions of inocent people. They (N. Korea) know the power that we have and the elietes don't want to die. People, just calm down, do not play into the emotional thing. We can survive a N. Korea strike (if they really have one) but they can not survive a responce.
Please, just chill they are not a real threat...
I wonder if you'd still say that if it was one of your loved ones killed in the event of an attack.
So your response for any minute threat is to wipe them off the face of the world? There are new antibiotic-resistant TB strains from Russian prisons. Let's blow them away. A dissident group from Mali gave us the middle finger. SEND OUT NUKES NOW.
So are you advocating turning the other cheek if they attack? How would that look to the rest of our enemies?
"We will not need to turn a country into glass and kill millions of inocent people."
I think the OP was quite clear what he thinks would happen if they attack. He just does not believe that they will, thus it will not need to happen.
Hummm sounds like "small wee-wee" syndrome to me....Yes definitely small wee-wee !!
idiot
After the oil war debaucle in the mideast(Bush's war),how can we trust what they are now telling us about N.Korea ?
Is this just another ploy by the war machine/profiteers to restore spending cuts to the military?or the big profits the arms manufacturers reap through war ? First they tell us it was a nuke test and NOW they aren't sure if nuke fuel was used ?
What's wrong with this picture ?
They used nuke fuel – they are not sure if it was enriched uranium or a plutoium bomb. Plutonium is easier to make than enriched uranium, although getting it separated is a nightmare. To understand the differnce – Little Boy was an enriched uranium bomb and was technically easier to set off (the one they dropped on Hiroshima was the first time they set one off), whereas Fat Man was a plutoium bomb (this was the one in the Trinity test). To trigger a plutonium bomb, you have to explosively squeeze it together – the timing on this HAS to be spot on get maxiumum yield. The enriched uranium bomb simply requires you slam two sub critical pieces of enriched uranium together – piece of cake, they used an old navy cannon for the Little boy bomb.
I'm with you there! But:
* Economics 101, if there's no demand for your product, you are out of business! Our 2 wars are coming to an end, Libya's no longer hot, we refused to get in Syria, it's quiet in Chechenya, Serbia, Somalia, Sudan and Kashmir, I mean, business is BAD for the arms industry. I think we're overdue for world war 3, don't you! If nothing else, just so those armored cars don't have to go rusty in warehouses, while the rest of the world is hugging and "negotiating"!
* Rich man's war, poor man's blood, as they say! The people who advocate military action, don't send their own sons and daughters to die! They send suckers who're whipped into a patriotic frenzy! You come back with fewer limbs, PTSD and a lousy pension, and there, everybody wins!
The politics of PyongYang and the sanctions imposed on them are like the chicken and egg conundrum; you wonder which ones is a result of which!
If the big boys in the West would stop bullying everyone, maybe fewer boys like Jong Un would feel the need to trash talk! But then again, that's oversimplifying it!
It is only a question of "Which" nuclear fuel was used that they can't determine at this late date. Uranium bombs (specifically U-235) needs far more advanced enrichment processes than Plutonium based atomic weapons. The detection of which element the bomb is based is compounded by the time since and its underground nature.
Please read articles carefully before ranting bombastically.
If North Korea was ever stupid enough to try and start a nuclear attack, the US alone would turn their entire country into a self lighted glass floored parking lot.
LMBO...yes sir!
....Come on people.......NK is simply not a threat in REALITY. One poster got it right, Kim simply wants to survive and continue the militarization of NK. The military leadership is the REAL POWER in NK. They absolutely know they would be CRUSHED by US nuclear weapons if they did anything at all. Therefore, they will keep their very poor country on full alert, forever, to insure the starving populace does what the military says.
And how is it you know what Kim and the other leaders of this isolated state think?
Everyone seems to know what North Korea is thinking!
That's why we are talking about it!
If NK was to follow through on their pre-emptive strike, the GOPT would have a big dilemma...should we get on board and support President Obama and help defend our country or should we call for the President to be impeached for retaliating against NK??? Yes, Jung-un has a friend in the GOPT.
There will not be a real war, a war of words yes but not a real war. The more that we comment and engage in this the more the war of words will continue. N. Korea and it's people are hurting, their leader is too young and inexperienced to be taken seriously. Don't take this stuff too seriously, really. Real strength does not react to these types of empty threats. The US is a real superpower, do not engage in this level of baiting. One US submarine equipped with a Trident 11 D, 5 systems can handle the situation.
Go to bed and get some rest, all is well.
Except there already is a real war, that was started in 1950 by North Korea. The only reason bullets haven\t been crossing the DMZ in both directions is because of a truce.
Except we don't know who is pulling the strings over there – Un or teh military. The announcement tey were abandoning teh cease fire came from the military, not Un – see GlobalSecurity website – I am not sure if this is usual or not. But if it is new, then I suspect a bunch of hawks are running teh show over there and it isn't good.
Underestimating your enemy is one of the biggest mistakes one can make and often the last.
Such cruel and insensitve people...and there are thousands more like him. They think they are bullies...meanwhile the US and other countries are tired of their antics and look at them for the fools that they are.
I just hope he follows through on his pre-emptive strike. He would just be setting in motion the reunification process. Go ahead and launch. Even Dennis Rodman's triangle and one offense won't help you.
All bark..little bite..even so it would be messy, especially for SK. Looking foward if a nuclear conflict does crop up and we destroy NK then we have Iraq looking at a major ally going up in smoke and worrying if they are next..The domino theory starts to unfold. I personally don't believe the pudgy one from NK will go that far. Basic instinct is to survive and he knows he will not.
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Kimey is as nutty as the old man, probably even nuttier because the old man probably beat him on a regular basis to get him ready for the job.
stop talking about war and start living in peace with eachother!
So you really don't care if theres a crazy country with nuclear weapons aiming them at cities like Tokyo, Soeul, and Los Angeles? I don't agree with calls for peace. its time North Korea should be taught a lesson. The problem is that Obummer is all talk but no balls.
You said our President is all talk and no balls??? Really??? So where were you on the night Americans waved Ole Glory, sang patriotic songs and chanted Obama got Osama, Obama got Osama, Obama got Osama??? Under a rock???
And where were you when Obama got Ghadaffi, Awalaki and over 300 al Qaeda operatives??? Perhaps you and Rant Paul were asleep in a drone.
Perhaps you would prefer someone who is all balls and no brains, like George W. You, know, the guy who went to war looking for WMD on the opposite side of the planet from where we knew they were?
Ah here we go, another worshiper of King Odumba trying to give him credit for something he didn't do. Ghadaffi wasn't taken down by The King Fool, he was killed by rebels. Also, Obama says that Osama is dead, where's the proof? Sorry, but the dumping of the body at sea just doesn't sit well with a lot of people. Keep kissing his rear end. Oh, you'll probably be one of the protesters in D.C. soon since one of the deep cuts your King signed into law is welfare, so get those wheels unchocked, i'm sure you'll be moving soon!!
First off Osama was a week broken old man, no longer a threat, thank not to Obama. Ghadafi was a sitting duck, outside by his own people. Obamas attack on him was a petty war crime to gain support of the regime.
@Bleh64 and Bobo
Thanks for the laugh. Don't forget to take your medication.
I remember a time when Americans stood together.
Now almost everyone politicizes everything as LEFT or RIGHT. Doesn't the individual mind matter anymore?
Disband Political parties – make people voter using informed choices and demand politicians govern with personal conviction, not party mandates.
you lost now come out of the basement and give the picture of romney a break....
So, what do you want to do? Do you know how to deal with this little turd? Make your selection from the list below.
1. Nuke 'em all
2. Nuke their nuke sites
3. Bomb them back into the stone age
4. Land invasion
5. All of the above
6. Ignore the little twit, he's like a yapping dog, he'll get tired and go off someplace to lick his, well, you know what I mean.
That was a misquote. What Kim Jung Un said to "Break their windpipes and make sure you do it with chopsticks, just so they can see how cold blooded I am." Then he said, "Ha, ha ha ha ha ha, you likey mikey, you pay the pricey"...........whatever that means. The guy's a clown.
We always need a boogeyman. Why not Kim? I do find it amusing when Kim shows up for his photo ops with his troops. The equipment is antiquated beyond belief. Old concrete bunker gun emplacements. Old dial telephones. Trench warfare? Honestly..??!! Trench warfare? A couple of cruise missles with AP CBU's (Cluster Bombs) would reduce them all to hamburger, and the trenches would be gutters for their blood. Please step up your game Kim. And those political posters that your produce look as if they were printed in 1935. Geez! Make it look believable.
At some point China is going to wake up and see that South Korea would be a better partner than NK and a unified Korea is in their best interest.
Amen to that, but do you really think that they are going to wake up and smell the coffee??
Kick their asses NOW
It keeps being stated by the media that NK does not have the ability to strike the US with an ICBM. First, there are what, 28k troops in South Korea. That would be significant. Second, it is known that NK has subs. We have subs that are capable of launching nuclear warheads. Curious if they do too.
There has been so much talk of dismissing NK in the media and claiming that he'll do nothing recently, he may almost feel like he has to strike to save face and not come off as impotent.
If our Trident Subs can track Russian subs fron a 1000 miles away, we can track a NK sub from a million miles away and blast it out of the water with a BB gun. We can even send our Girl Scouts over there to slap Jung-Fat.
Have you ever been in the military, or are you sitting in your arm chair talking out of your "A"?
And to think, if they had oil, we would be invading the living crap out of them right now
We didn't invade Iraq or any other country for its oil. Look into the actual details of what *actually* happened. Not what you *think* happened; not what you *want* to be the case; but what *actually* happened.
iraq invaded kuwait for the oil in 1990 and US interfered only because it was close to saudi arabia oil. yes it was oil why US is there. these guys accept USD for oil.
it was always about the oil. many countries are invaded and US don't care, kuwait is a small city state and not even a country politically it's not important but the kuwait oil was important.
We certainly didn't invade them because of their "weapons of mass destruction" program. We can argue all day about whether to call the deliberately misleading statements by George Bush and his administration "lies", but there is no doubt that they had good evidence those weapons didn't exist. Oil – or at least the hope that we would obtain control over some of it – almost certainly played a part. It's not what I "hope" happened, or "wanted" to happen. It's what we did.
The Pulitzer Prize for gratuitous use of "quotes" for March "2013" goes to, ... let me get this "envelope" open, ... "damn" it's not opening "easily", ... ah "yes" there it goes ... "Tim" Rigney! Congratulations Tim "!"
That's fair enough on the surface but it was 21 years ago. The world's moved on after a fifth of a century and 3 Presidents. In my opinion, the second war was about Saddam's continued refusal to obey the *10* U.N. resolutions he had agreed to obey in order to end the first part of the war. After the attacks, we no longer had the luxury of allowing him to do that, especially since to all appearances he was a Hitler-type expansionist dictator. We *had* to make an attempt to stabilize that part of the world, for the sake of the *entire* world. Whether or not it was a "failed" attempt, or "went well," imo is not relevant to whether it was strategically the right thing or not.
Don't forget that most Democrats in Congress were in FAVOR of it. (Look it up, like it or not it's true.) Clinton himself, in his courtesy letter to Bush before leaving office, said to him, "The key to stability in the Middle East is regime change in Iraq." That was *before* the situation completely, radically changed because of the attacks. It lowered the threshold of allowable tolerance. In my opinion we had NO choice.
Strange thought. Afghanistan has oil? Libya has low sulphur oil reserves? Bosnia? Korea? Vietnam? Kuwait had boatloads yet we restored that country's leadership six months after the first bullet and days after extinguishing the last oil well fire. Call me craaaazy, but I think there's a different principle involved.
it was 1990 and still memories of OPEC oil embargo. if saudi arabia only US ally in the US,,they didn't want the saudi kingdom to fall.
Saddam kuwait for the oil and he admitted it. kuwait is iraq territory. there is no such country as kuwait. As why the US has such interest in middleeast it is 40% of global 'cheap' oil and takes USD as payment. US didn't want hostile states not friendly to US to control oil and reduce supply like the OPEC embargo of the 70's causing massive inflation and recession in the 70's. you don't need to invade another country to get their resources.
Oil wasn't discovered in saudi arabia til the after 1945..Had the British saudi tribes or saudi desert kingdom which were nomads in the desert sitting on black gold they would have left. and kept saudi arabia as a colony or protective state to control the oil supply. Iran kicked out all foreign oil control companies which is why US is so anti-iran. iran nationalized their oil industry.
US wouldn't care or had the kuwait war in 1990 if kuwait was important oil exporter. many countries are invaded you don't see US troops interfering, it's because it's oil territory supply 40% of global oil supply in the 90's the cheap oil so it can crash oil prices or jack up oil prices by reducing supply.
AMEN.
So the United States shouldn't protect their interests? As I recall, buying oil from Kuwait is a legitimate business transaction. Protecting your business partners from blood-thirsty thieves also means protecting yourselves.
However, the second Iraq war wasn't about taking over Iraq's oil supply (never happened), nor was it about protecting nearby oil supplies as the UN troops were already doing a fine enough job.
Oh, and btw...
The US is set to become the global oil exporter within 7 years. OPEC will be answering to us. Gotta love it.
I would take them at their word. The sanctions are hurting the regime – and as is the case with dictators – they do not like the loss of power. China is, maybe for the first time, warning North Korea that they are treading on thin ice, but it does not look like Kim is listening. Now that they have walked away from their responsibilities and obligations, we should prepare for the worst. The world community faces a serious threat. My suggestion is probably radical, but I think a large squadron of drones that target the leadership might be needed – sorry to say. South Korea should get ready to fight. If the Asian countries let Kim know that they will not be protecting the North Korean regime – Kim may decide that all these threats he is making isolates him further – and figure diplomacy the best option. I do not hold out much hope though.
I agree with you. I don't like seeing the US abuse their power, but I'm sick of this game with them. Give NK a taste of what would be to come and maybe they will smarten up.
North Korea sees China as an exasperated, but supportive parent... They are going to be very, very surprised when China finally gets tired of all this and smacks them down. I take issue with much of China's policy, but they have been trying to become an active partner in the international community. The last thing they want is some spoiled, portly child dragging them into a war.
Sometimes I think they make these outrageous statements not just for their own internal propaganda, but also for their own amusement. They probably get a kick out of making the world squirm a little bit every time they release one of these statements. I wonder if the leadership has a contest to see which general can provide Kim with the best statement. The winner gets to spend the evening watching re-runs of "Two and a half Men" with Kim.
you don't see any volunteer US soldiers or military contractors offering to work free. now if the US gov't is broke it cannot fight a war.
But we're not broke; we're merely heavily in debt. Donald Trump once had a net worth of negative nine billion dollars and he was still one of the richest people in the country. It's all about perception. And the Pentagon budget is separate and quite secure.
saddam hussien in iraq surrendered and didn't have any resistance. that is the difference and all soldiers mutiny and weren't paid.
you fools don't know that one of bloodest wars world war 1 started with middle finger and disrespect. All wars start with a ultimatum when there is no alternative bu war to settle grievances. And contrary to popular, there was no appeasement by Chamberlain when he visited Hitler after Germany was fully militarized and prepared for war. Prior to that the Geman state was military state and deeply in debt. War was for their way out. so economic sanctions against north korea or any state is asking for war and more reason for them build up their arm forces and bombs for total war and defense of their regime or country. it's kind of crazy to threaten economic sanctions and threaten of invading north korea or any country and tell them not to build nukes to defend themself against 'foreign' aggressor or invader.
The only hope is controlling Pyongyang is in Beijing. So ... I propose the President channel his inner John Kennedy and announce the "Obama Doctrine," ...
"The United States shall regard any attack by North Korea anywhere in the world using nuclear weapons as an attack by the Peoples Republic of China upon the United States, requiring a full retaliatory nuclear response upon the Peoples Republic of China."
It's time to let the Chinese know that Kim's their little Frankensteinian monster and we expect them to keep him in check ... or else.
Yeah, let's go pick a fight with China because their smaller, younger brother is picking on us.
"I'M TELL-liiinnngg!!!!!"
yeah! Midlefingers will get you into alot of of (local wars on the Homeland) gang releated! My Dad serverved in Korean War,, wasn"t sondidered a war so he never got reconized. that said I am still on my dad side & if KIm wants to (puff his chsst) he can have at it,,,but S.Korea I will expect my USA to Defrend! no matter what
Why do you think we have a dog in this fight? We've had *enough* war, it's time for peace.
Tim, peace is only possible when the other guy wants it, too.
"Defrend" was that intentional or a accident? Either way hilarious!!
Howard – they do want peace. Just not with South Korea. After Iraq and Afghanistan (which I was in favor of), I don't see us having a dog in this fight. North Korea hasn't attacked us and clearly has no plans to. Perhaps a rare outside chance that they might if we continue to "meddle" in the affairs of a country *10,000* miles away from us. I personally want *no* U.S. military involvement even if they invade the South. In my opinion we've done ENOUGH, we have NO interest in this compared to the interest of bringing our kids home safe and keeping them there.
The baby elephant is trying to test our mettle. Let's give it to him. What was done in Iraq should have been done to North Korea, but our spineless leader Gorgie Bush spoiled it all.
iraq or saddam lost his support of his generals and people and like Libya was just dictator. North korea is republic and ruled by an army generals and has support of his people. when US invaded iraq, iraq regime was all but lost and his power weaken. over 10 years of sanctions. north korea been building up military and prepare for total bloodbath for 60 years. and have military weaponry and expertise it's economy is 100% war economy whereas afghanistan was nomadic and had to import it's bullets and air missles. that is the difference. afghanistan was a cake walk cause your invading a country where soldiers still travelling in horses.
Forgive me if I seem Upfront in advance: Surrounding NK,,britlaint!!
George W. Bush spineless? Hardly. Obama is by far the the most politically correct, desperate-to-get-votes President we have ever had. Atleast Bush stood by his beliefs and didn't cave in to the liberal elite like Obama is doing. Obama also is the most ineffecient, inept President as far as military affairs is concerned. Look how horrible Benghazi was handled and you think our President can handle North Korea? President Obama has done more spending than any other President and we are broke-cant continue blaming Bush for this. We cannot afford a war and that itself is scary.