Trackbacked at Wizbang:
From USAToday:
The North [Korea], meanwhile, stepped up its threats aimed at Washington, saying it could fire a nuclear-tipped missile unless the United States acts to resolve its standoff with Pyongyang, the Yonhap news agency reported from Beijing.
“We hope the situation will be resolved before an unfortunate incident of us firing a nuclear missile comes,” Yonhap quoted an unidentified North Korean official as saying. “That depends on how the U.S. will act.”
Huh?
- “saying it could fire a nuclear-tipped missile unless the United States acts”
- “We hope the situation will be resolved before an unfortunate incident of us firing a nuclear missile comes”
Was that a threat? Did ‘Lil Kim’s boys just make a nuke threat against the US? Doesn’t this now make North Korea a terrorist country?
There are three kinds of threats:
(1) one so ridiculous that you pay it no mind, like me saying I am going to beat up Chuck Norris.
(2) one with just enough truth that you better pay it some attention, like me saying that after eating three chili dogs you better not stand between me and the men’s room.
(3) threats involving nuclear weapons.
Kim is obviously more needing of attention than even Presidential wannabe John Kerry. Nevertheless this gargoyle is stepping over the line.
Says Kim Priestap:
It’s easy to see the danger in someone like Kim Jong-il having access to nuclear weapons. Not only could he wave them around, so to speak, in an effort to force his will on the rest of the world just as he is right now, he could sell them on the blackmarket to al Qaeda who could do a hell of a lot of damage to the American people.
Now, the question is how do we handle this situation? Once a leader, despotic or not, gets nukes, our options are immediately limited. The UN will do nothing. It’s a paper tiger and everyone including Kim Jong-il knows that. Aside from war, the only reasonable option here is for China to assert pressure by threating to cut NoKo off from the oil and food it desperately needs.
“This is the way North Korea typically negotiates by threat and intimidation,” said U.S. Ambassador John Bolton. “It’s worked for them before. It won’t work for them now.” Now are you finally happy that, for the first time in years, we have someone in the UN that actually has some … cajones? Previous ambassadors would be pleading for mercy by now.
Says James Lewis:
It’s expensive and difficult to develop nuclear weapons. Iran is reportedly having trouble with its uranium refinement at Natanz. However, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard officers were seen observing Kim’s recent multiple missile launch, including a botched ICBM launch aimed at Hawaii. It makes sense that the Iranians and North Koreans have been working together on missiles and nuclear weapons.
If so, Tehran’s technical problems with enrichment may be solved very soon. Tehran has the oil money and the NoKos have the technology. Together, they are surely speeding things up. They are in a hurry, and the faster they move, the sooner they will have an unbeatable weapon.
Now don’t you just wish we had a strong leader like Al Gore in the White House?
There needs to be an “accident” at one of Kim Jong Il’s sites … one involving the “accidental” uncontrolled fission of a few pounds of plutonium.
