NKorea vows 'nuclear strikes' in latest threat

[cory777]

Source: AP

By KWANG-TAE KIM, Associated Press Writer Kwang-tae Kim, Associated Press Writer

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea's military warned South Korea and the United States on Friday of "unprecedented nuclear strikes" as it expressed anger over a report the two countries plan to prepare for possible instability in the totalitarian country, a scenario it dismissed as a "pipe dream."

The North routinely issues such warnings. Diplomats in South Korea and the U.S. have repeatedly called on Pyongyang to return to international negotiations aimed at ending its nuclear programs.

"Those who seek to bring down the system in the (North), whether they play a main role or a passive role, will fall victim to the unprecedented nuclear strikes of the invincible army," North Korea's military said in comments carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100326/ap_on_re_as/as_koreas_nuclear

[napi21]

1. Oh yeah. The country that can't manage to get a missel launch farther than a plop in the ocean.

I see THAT happening!

[David in Canada]

15. Don't Underestimate them!

Well, the missile launch WAS a failure. However, the failure was the missile itself.

A nuclear weapon (well, an atomic device) is pretty much old-hat technology with a LOT of people who know HOW to construct one. A bunch of physics geeks with someone who knows how to construct and explosive device could construct one in the lab of a third-tier state university with a couple million dollars and access to HEU (Highly-Enriched Uranium).

Considering North Korea has the cash (if only just), combined with a small army of nuclear physicists AND their own homemade HEU and with the will to construct one, it is not a stretch to conclude they have several devices.

Delivery is trickier as missile designs tend to be more closely guarded and it takes more money and effort to construct what is, essentially, a giant fuel-propelled javelin and have it hit and explode the payload at a specific point on the globe.

However, to deliver such a device to South Korea is not so difficult. Seoul is less that 60 miles from North Korea and such a device could be delivered old school a la the "Enola Gay".

The question is this. Is North Korea willing to commit national suicide due to delusions of possible victory and reunification?

[Submariner]

2. Maybe that dipstick ought to try and get his country electrified behind this first

He must have hired Ari Fleischer as a strategic adviser.

North Korea at night from space

[pundaint]

3. Must be good for astronomy hobbyists

[comtec]

4. that would probbaly be a good tourist trade if allowed.

but that would being harmful outside influences.

im guessing that BIG single dot is kim's palace?

[jmowreader]

8. Close. It's Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea.

And the hell with "tourist trade." If that shifty little fucker knew jack shit about making money, he'd build a professional observatory.

Fifty years ago, Caltech's astronomy program built the world's largest reflecting telescope, the 200-inch Hale Telescope. It was installed on Mount Palomar because No One Lived There. Today, the area around Mount Palomar is heavily populated, and the resultant light pollution makes it extremely hard to use the instrument.

Now! Take the same instrument and move it to North Korea. Because North Korea is a communist country they can control where people live--and with the terrain they have there, there is a LOT of land in the DPRK that's useless for farming or living on, but it would be perfect for building an observatory. If Caltech or whoever wanted a 50-mile dead zone around their observatory, they'd get one. And with the wonderful electrification program in North Korea, there certainly wouldn't be any light pollution.

There are two questions: would Kim, Jong Il ever allow this, and would world-class astronomers really want to live even for a few weeks at a time in North Korea? The answer to both is probably no.

[Ian David]

10. KJI wouldn't trust people installing sensitive electronic and optical instruments in his country.

He'd suspect them of spying.

[David in Canada]

17. They Don't Want Any...

Actually, Kim Jong il doesn't want any tourists apart from closely-monitored small groups of foreigners who are basically spoon-fed propaganda. Even then, they essentially forbid their citizens from speaking with them.

Their official storyline they drum into their citizens is that the rest of the world in living in some kind of Mad Max scenario (yes, I know it is a bit oversimplified) and they have the best standard of living in the world so every bit of foreign influence must be stopped before it can seep in.

[David in Canada]

16. P'yongyang

The bright dot inside North Korea is P'yongyang. Considering that the city is the centre of power, it is not at all surprising. Most North Koreans are never allowed inside P'yongyang and its denizens have a better (well, less crappy) life than those outside of it.

[pampango]

5. My guess is that the retaliation for a NK nuclear strike MIGHT endanger the rule (not to mention the

life) of Dear Leader and his chosen successor (I mean whomever the North Korean people might choose to replace him ;) ).

[Suji to Seoul]

6. God. . .please take Kim-Jong-I-Look-Like-Yoda-Il and bury him in the lowest

rung of Hell.

[Pab Sungenis]

9. The problem with retaliating

is that it has been American policy under EVERY Administration back to Truman, of both parties, that we will retaliate with nuclear weapons if we or our allies are attacked with nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons.

If Kim sets off one of his atomic pop-guns, even if it fizzles like we know the first of his "tests" did, we have no choice but to retaliate massively. If we don't, then our nuclear arsenal loses its only real power: its deterrence.

And if we explode even two or three mid-sized bombs over North Korea, then all of the fallout will drift first over Japan, then over probably Hawaii and eventually the West Coast of North America.

[David in Canada]

18. Yes, but...

You are correct in your analysis.

However, the question isn't whether North Korea would win a nuclear war or even have a snowball's chance in hell of surviving it. The question is whether Kim Jong-il (or the military brass, in the case of his demise) THINK they can win one.

As most of the current generation of generals were brainwashed as children with the "North Korea is invincible!" propaganda, it is possible that, even if they are part of the elite permitted to travel abroad and watch foreign programming, that the meme of total invincibility could be so embedded into their psyche that should they (or one of them, anyway) attain power after Kim's demise, that they could employ a nuclear device out of an irrational sense of superiority and invincibility. Irrational it would be, but a weapon does not require a reason to be given in order to detonate.

Just because we care about others and are rational and we have rational leaders doesn't mean theirs are too. Whether or not North Korea can or cannot emerge victorious from any war, much less a nuclear war, is irrelevant when analysing a possible course of action on their part. There are but two questions. First, "Do they believe they can use a nuclear weapon on South Korea and win and/or survive?" If yes, the second question is "Do they have the will and inclination to go ahead with it?"

The actual result of a North Korean nuclear attack isn't relevant to the question at hand. It is their PERCEPTION of reality regardless of whether it is sane and rational or deluded and psychotic. That is all.

[Pab Sungenis]

21. I'm not arguing for the sanity or rationality of the NK leadership.

I'm arguing that this might be a no-win situation for us. When (I'm starting to think it's not an "if" but "when") NK uses nuclear weapons, especially if it takes out some of our troops near the DMZ, then we'll have a choice of not retaliating in kind, taking away our deterrent and reinforcing the "paper tiger" concept, or causing major problems for the entire area and probably our own people.

I'm starting to think that maybe, if we know where the NK nuclear facilities and "stockpile" are, that we should go after them with conventional weapons and take them out before they're used. The sinking of a SK ship this week suggests that NK is hell-bent on war, and if one has to come then it better be on our terms.

[Ian David]

11. Keep in mind that a "limited" nuclear exchange of 14 nukes can trigger a Nuclear Winter.

We'd best hope that if such an exchange occurs somewhere, it's during a high-humidity rainy season.

[rucky]

7. They want more money, do they.

[SkyDaddy7]

12. Just let them bitch & moan...

If I were Obama I would not even issue a reply...Just ignore.

[One_Life_To_Give]

13. HEMP

HEMP - High Altitude Electromagnetic Pulse (HEMP)- Would be a much more serious weapon. Principally because it would devestate the highly electronic dependent world around NK. But NK itself would feel little direct effect from such a blast.

[caraher]

14. That would hurt South Korea more than North

After all, vacuum tube electronics are largely immune to EMP effects... (only half-kidding - see the satellite photo. Infrastructure? What infrastructure?)

[underpants]

19. Cantor is going to claim that they grazed the window of an office he has visited

[NuttyFluffers]

20. meanwhile in Seoul...

"OMG, I totally love this song! Wait, I'm so wasted right now... where the fuck am I?" <-- /group of sideways glances "...Waegugin"

"Oh shit! I'm falling down the stairs! ... Never mind this pile of humanity helps keep me upright. Now if i can only squeeze my shoe in here to get purchase on the stairs. No, that's someone's ankle..."

"... and Kim Jong Il supposedly means it this time!" "Yeah huh? Really? Cool, man! No way, this girl is totally diggin' me! ... Oh, she's just being crushed into me by the crowd. Bummer."



"Oh, I'm so full from eating all that! Well, it's midnight and you know what that means, girls -- let's go shopping!"

"Does this hair accessory make me look fat? I so don't want to lose my S-line curve. All the best guys love that shape." "That's so true. You should then go for a bigger bow. By the way, do you think this ultra mini shorts are a bit too long? I mean it's already the middle of January..."

"Dude, did you totally hear today that Kim Jong Il and North Korea is threatening to use nukes to destroy your country?" "Eh? Nah, didn't hear. Sounds serious this ti -- ooh, look at these shoes~!"