"North Korea to target U.S. with nuclear, rocket tests/"

cobbland
cobbland Members Posts: 3,768 ✭✭✭✭✭
North Korea to target U.S. with nuclear, rocket tests

3:01am EST

By Ju-min Park and Choonsik Yoo

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Thursday it would carry out further rocket launches and a nuclear test that would target the United States, dramatically stepping up its threats against a country it called its "sworn enemy".

The announcement by the country's top military body came a day after the U.N. Security Council agreed to a U.S.-backed resolution to censure and sanction North Korea for a rocket launch in December that breached U.N. rules.

"We are not disguising the fact that the various satellites and long-range rockets that we will fire and the high-level nuclear test we will carry out are targeted at the United States," North Korea's National Defence Commission said, according to state news agency KCNA.

North Korea is believed by South Korea and other observers to be "technically ready" for a third nuclear test, and the decision to go ahead rests with leader Kim Jong-un who pressed ahead with the December rocket launch in defiance of the U.N. sanctions.

China, the one major diplomatic ally of the isolated and impoverished North, agreed to the U.S.-backed resolution and it also supported resolutions in 2006 and 2009 after Pyongyang's two earlier nuclear tests.

Thursday's statement by North Korea represents a huge challenge to Beijing as it undergoes a leadership transition with Xi Jinping due to take office in March.

China's Foreign Ministry called for calm and restraint and a return to six-party talks, but effectively singled out North Korea, urging the "relevant party" not to take any steps that would raise tensions.

"We hope the relevant party can remain calm and act and speak in a cautious and prudent way and not take any steps which may further worsen the situation," ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters at a regular press briefing.

North Korea has rejected proposals to restart the talks aimed at reining in its nuclear capacity. The United States, China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas are the six parties involved.

"After all these years and numerous rounds of six-party talks we can see that China's influence over North Korea is actually very limited. All China can do is try to persuade them not to carry out their threats," said Cai Jian, an expert on Korea at Fudan University in Shanghai.

Analysts said the North could test as early as February as South Korea prepares to install a new, untested president or that it could choose to stage a nuclear explosion to coincide with former ruler Kim Jong-il's Feb 16 birthday.

"North Korea will have felt betrayed by China for agreeing to the latest U.N. resolution and they might be targeting (China) as well (with this statement)," said Lee Seung-yeol, senior research fellow at Ewha Institute of Unification Studies in Seoul.

U.S. URGES NO TEST

Washington urged North Korea not to proceed with a third test just as the North's statement was published on Thursday.

"Whether North Korea tests or not is up to North Korea," Glyn Davies, the top U.S. envoy for North Korean diplomacy, said in the South Korean capital of Seoul.

"We hope they don't do it. We call on them not to do it," Davies said after a meeting with South Korean officials. "This is not a moment to increase tensions on the Korean peninsula."

The North was banned from developing missile and nuclear technology under sanctions dating from its 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests.

A South Korean military official said the concern now is that Pyongyang could undertake a third nuclear test using highly enriched uranium for the first time, opening a second path to a bomb.

North Korea's 2006 nuclear test using plutonium produced a puny yield equivalent to one kiloton of TNT - compared with 13-18 kilotons for the Hiroshima bomb - and U.S. intelligence estimates put the 2009 test's yield at roughly two kilotons

North Korea is estimated to have enough fissile material for about a dozen plutonium warheads, although estimates vary, and intelligence reports suggest that it has been enriching uranium to supplement that stock and give it a second path to the bomb.

According to estimates from the Institute for Science and International Security from late 2012, North Korea could have enough weapons grade uranium for 21-32 nuclear weapons by 2016 if it used one centrifuge at its Yongbyon nuclear plant to enrich uranium to weapons grade.

North Korea gave no time-frame for the coming test and often employs harsh rhetoric in response to U.N. and U.S. actions that it sees as hostile.

Its long-range rockets are not seen as capable of reaching the United States mainland and it is not believed to have the technology to mount a nuclear warhead on a long-range missile.

The bellicose statement on Thursday appeared to dent any remaining hopes that Kim Jong-un, believed to be 30 years old, would pursue a different path from his father Kim Jong-il, who oversaw the country's military and nuclear programs.

The older Kim died in December 2011.

"The UNSC (Security Council) resolution masterminded by the U.S. has brought its hostile policy towards the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (North Korea) to its most dangerous stage," the commission was quoted as saying.

(Additional reporting by Christine Kim in SEOUL, Ben Blanchard and Sui-Lee Wee in Beijing; Writing by David Chance; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/24/us-korea-north-nuclear-idUSBRE90N03I20130124
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Comments

  • Ajackson17
    Ajackson17 Members Posts: 22,501 ✭✭✭✭✭
    R.I.P Cali and Pico
  • unspoken_respect
    unspoken_respect Members Posts: 9,821 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited January 2013
    I know who's missiles have longer arms and its not NK. What else can our military do to convince the world how much they don't give a ? ?
  • Bodhi
    Bodhi Members Posts: 7,932 ✭✭✭✭✭
  • BiblicalAtheist
    BiblicalAtheist Members Posts: 15,668 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Sounds fishy, like propaganda.
  • illedout
    illedout Members Posts: 8,194 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I wonder why they hate the U.S. so much..
    it seem like at least once a year
    we have some type of confrontation
    with North Korea..
  • A.J. Trillzynski
    A.J. Trillzynski Members Posts: 2,270 ✭✭✭✭✭
    ^^chalk it up to the basics of runner a totalitarian society, there must be a constant sworn enemy - think Orwell's 1984 where Oceania's perpetual war with Eurasia was the backbone to keeping the society in check.
  • janklow
    janklow Members, Moderators Posts: 8,613 Regulator
    it's hard to express this in word form, so you have to picture me sarcastically pantomiming how REALLY SCARED i am
    illedout wrote: »
    I wonder why they hate the U.S. so much..
    because presenting the US as their big, bad enemy helps them control their population/government and explain the need/cause of their people's deprivations

  • illedout
    illedout Members Posts: 8,194 ✭✭✭✭✭
    janklow wrote: »
    it's hard to express this in word form, so you have to picture me sarcastically pantomiming how REALLY SCARED i am
    illedout wrote: »
    I wonder why they hate the U.S. so much..
    because presenting the US as their big, bad enemy helps them control their population/government and explain the need/cause of their people's deprivations
    Oh wow.. them people got it bad over there..
    if they only knew, we pay them little to no attention..
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0 Regulator
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • dalyricalbandit
    dalyricalbandit Members, Moderators Posts: 67,918 Regulator
    i thought the Jr was gonna be off that drama his old man had once he died, the U.S needs to just let one off so all these ? just fall back
  • BoldChild
    BoldChild Members Posts: 11,415 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Meh, when are we going to get/use the technology to locate Kim, and everyone in power over there, and just blow those ? to hell.
  • kingblaze84
    kingblaze84 Members Posts: 14,288 ✭✭✭✭✭
    It's all talk, North Korea wouldn't dare strike the U.S., their leaders are crazy but not suicidal. Same with Iran's leaders. A war against them wouldn't be pretty but no way North Korea wants to see a million of their people die the way a million Iraqis died after America bombed the ? out of them
  • kingblaze84
    kingblaze84 Members Posts: 14,288 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Would be fun to see NK try something though.....
  • unspoken_respect
    unspoken_respect Members Posts: 9,821 ✭✭✭✭✭
    First his little old woman lookin daddy and now this fat kid. Always something...
  • jono
    jono Members Posts: 30,280 ✭✭✭✭✭
    NK stays on some Wile E. Coyote ? when it comes to stuff like this.
  • Bcotton5
    Bcotton5 Members Posts: 51,851 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I know who's missiles have longer arms and its not NK. What else can our military do to convince the world how much they don't give a ? ?

  • WYRM
    WYRM Members Posts: 993 ✭✭✭✭
    Back to the cold war I guess. I wonder who will be the next country to enter the standoff. Most logical being Iran I guess.
  • DMTxTHC
    DMTxTHC Members Posts: 14,218 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Good thing I live on the East Coast..
  • cobbland
    cobbland Members Posts: 3,768 ✭✭✭✭✭
    North Korea has rejected proposals to restart the talks aimed at reining in its nuclear capacity. The United States, China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas are the six parties involved.

    "After all these years and numerous rounds of six-party talks we can see that China's influence over North Korea is actually very limited. All China can do is try to persuade them not to carry out their threats," said Cai Jian, an expert on Korea at Fudan University in Shanghai.

    According to estimates from the Institute for Science and International Security from late 2012, North Korea could have enough weapons grade uranium for 21-32 nuclear weapons by 2016 if it used one centrifuge at its Yongbyon nuclear plant to enrich uranium to weapons grade.....

    North Korea gave no time-frame for the coming test and often employs harsh rhetoric in response to U.N. and U.S. actions that it sees as hostile.

    Its long-range rockets are not seen as capable of reaching the United States mainland and it is not believed to have the technology to mount a nuclear warhead on a long-range missile.

    This may not be relevant or worth discussing, but the article made me think of this game from 2005:

    Mercenaries_-_Playground_of_Destruction_Coverart.png

    Allied Nations:
    The Allied Nations is a fictional organization based on global peacekeeping groups and international coalitions such as the UN Peacekeepers. In the first game, The Allies fought against the forces of North Korea under the control of Choi Song with the intent to stop the ambitious dictator from going to war with Asia, and potentially, the rest of the world.

    South Korea:
    While the main South Korean military is part of the Allied coalition, a separate detachment called the South Korean Union was formed with the intent to establish a democratic regime in North Korea, and are secretly funded and backed by the CIA. The SKU's military equipment is pretty much the same as that of the Allies, although with a different aesthetic and a stronger emphasis on covertness.

    China:
    The Chinese, although officially part of the Allied coalition, function independently from them as they have their own agenda regarding North Korea, desiring to turn the nation into a province of the PRC. The Chinese possess some of the strongest vehicles in the game, but are sorely lacking in terms of powerful military aircraft.

    Russian Mafia:
    The Russian Mafia is a criminal organization who have taken advantage of the war in North Korea, performing various illegal activities in order to earn a large profit from the conflict. The Mafia is also the owner of an in-game website called the "Merchant of Menace" from which players can buy all sorts of weapons, ammo and vehicles so long as they have the money, the Mafia also owns a "chop shop" where vehicles captured from other factions are sold to the Mafia to earn a quick buck.

    North Korea:
    The North Koreans, under General Song, are the main antagonists of the game, they will always be hostile to the player wherever they are found, however, there is no penalty to engaging them in battle, and can be fired upon with impunity. They have the largest army in North Korea and have numerous military bases and bunkers located everywhere, sometimes out in the open, although usually they are hidden. Most of the cities are under the KPA's control and their soldiers can be seen patrolling the streets of every corner and usually have a helicopter hovering above, watching from the skies too.

    http://mercs.wikia.com/wiki/Mercenaries:_Playground_of_Destruction


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFJr-sECwvA
  • ShencotheMC
    ShencotheMC Members Posts: 26,051 ✭✭✭✭✭
    North Korea's arms are too short to box with ? ~ CM Punk
  • CottonCitySlim
    CottonCitySlim Members Posts: 7,063 ✭✭✭✭✭
    the US is not worried, they didnt start letting dependents move over there and revamp the bases to hold all those families for nothing.

    However if ? did pop off they would beat our ass at the start
  • StoneColdMikey
    StoneColdMikey Members, Moderators Posts: 33,543 Regulator
    Didn't their last missile failed miserably. Would be so much self-ether if one of their Nukes failed and actually drop on their land.
  • BoldChild
    BoldChild Members Posts: 11,415 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Yell remember in them old cartoons, when they'd fire a missile, and they ? would go up and up, then it'd stop working and come right back down, and blow up?

    That's gonna be NK right there.
  • dalyricalbandit
    dalyricalbandit Members, Moderators Posts: 67,918 Regulator