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North Korea warns nuclear war imminent
Posted: 2003-03-02 04:32am
by Enlightenment
Article with very long URL.
Seoul — South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, in his first policy speech since taking office, on Saturday warned of a "calamity" from the standoff over North Korea's nuclear program unless a peaceful resolution is found quickly.
After his speech, Pyongyang issued a dispatch threatening that nuclear war could break out on the Korean Peninsula at "any moment," an escalation of the communist North's hostile rhetoric as international pressure grows for it to disarm.
On the eve of Mr. Roh's inauguration Tuesday, North Korea fueled tensions by test-firing a missile into the sea off its east coast. Anticipating a second test, Japanese Deputy Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said Saturday that Pyongyang may fire its long-range Taepodong ballistic missile toward the sea between Japan and the Korean Peninsula, Kyodo news agency reported.
The North's official news agency also accused Washington of planning massive war games to prepare for an invasion, and said the country is "fully ready to repel the U.S. military attack."
North Korea will take "a self-defensive measure when it thinks that the U.S. pre-emptive attack is imminent," the agency KCNA said, without elaborating.
KCNA — the reclusive Stalinist regime's official name — claimed that an American RC-135 reconnaissance plane had intruded into North Korean airspace over its east coast almost daily since Feb. 21.
The U.S. military does not comment on such reports, said Stephen Oertwig, a U.S. military spokesman in Seoul.
The allegations came as the United States and South Korea planned two joint annual military exercises on March 4-April 2 and March 19-26.
"These unceasing U.S. war drills drive the situation on the Korean Peninsula to such a dangerous pitch of tension that a nuclear war may break out on it any moment," KCNA said Saturday.
In addition to the missile test, North Korea has reactivated a 5-megawatt reactor that could produce material for nuclear weapons, U.S. and South Korean officials said earlier this week.
Washington has refused to hold direct talks unless Pyongyang abandons its nuclear programs and has ruled out a formal nonaggression treaty with Pyongyang, saying it has never signed such a treaty with any country.
So much for the <cough>imminent threat posed by Iraq...
Posted: 2003-03-02 04:34am
by Tragic
North korea. Just acting and saying all that shit cause D.C. is ignoring them right now. They need the U.S. to start listening so they can try and black mail us into giving them oil and food.
Posted: 2003-03-02 04:42am
by Shinova
This is almost becoming like old news.
NK sabre-rattling?
AGAIN??? 
Course, there's the slight, minute possibility that they may really mean action when called for, but...well...suicide?
Posted: 2003-03-02 04:52am
by Captain tycho
Saber rattling. Same thing they've been doing for the last year.
Posted: 2003-03-02 05:19am
by Spanky The Dolphin
Aww... is little North Korea getting jealous of all the attention big brother Iraq has been getting?
Posted: 2003-03-02 11:46am
by Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi
North Korea's being an attention whore again. Nuclear war would be suicide for them, because even if they use all their nukes, America would still have enough firepower to turn North Korea into the Strait of Korea.
Posted: 2003-03-02 12:29pm
by neoolong
Yes, let's threaten a country that could slag us. Could NK be any more stupid.
Posted: 2003-03-02 01:08pm
by Joe
NK is a better place to go after anyway, a war there wouldn't piss off the entire Muslim world to no end and no one would miss it, except maybe some of the Stalinists who are still around.
Re: North Korea warns nuclear war imminent
Posted: 2003-03-02 01:14pm
by Illuminatus Primus
Enlightenment wrote:So much for the <cough>imminent threat posed by Iraq...
Durran Korr wrote:NK is a better place to go after anyway, a war there wouldn't piss off the entire Muslim world to no end and no one would miss it, except maybe some of the Stalinists who are still around.
This always makes me chuckle.
The whole point of going after Iraq is to stop them before they get nukes. Once they do you can't do anything but negotiate or beg them to stop, because a paranoid pathetic group of Stalinists like Ill's ilk will use their nukes if you attack them. The whole idea is to not get stuck in a pathetic and dangerous political quagmire like the USSR is miniture. So you try and stop them before they get nukes. Which is why we're in Iraq.
Posted: 2003-03-02 03:02pm
by Howedar
Kim Jong Il is like some petulant child, wanting attention but never getting it. He keeps getting sillier and sillier...
Posted: 2003-03-02 03:54pm
by Exonerate
DPRK is just posturing... I hope.
They'd be idiots to try and start a nuclear war against the US, which can reduce the whole pennisula into a pile of slag.
Posted: 2003-03-02 03:57pm
by Master of Ossus
Exonerate wrote:DPRK is just posturing... I hope.
You forget, they could win a nuclear exchange with the United States with their weapons that can ONLY hit the West Coast at best, and with their EXTREMELY limited supply of nuclear warheads.
Posted: 2003-03-02 03:57pm
by Enforcer Talen
either they're posturing, in which case they can be ignored, or they are real, in which case they'll be nuked, then ignored.
sure are persistent tho.
Posted: 2003-03-02 03:58pm
by Exonerate
Master of Ossus wrote:Exonerate wrote:DPRK is just posturing... I hope.
You forget, they could win a nuclear exchange with the United States with their weapons that can ONLY hit the West Coast at best, and with their EXTREMELY limited supply of nuclear warheads.
I'm aware of that, but having a city or island blown away is still something you want to avoid.
Posted: 2003-03-02 03:59pm
by Durandal
He's full of shit, obviously. A nuclear war with the US won't get him what he wants (reunification and all that). It'll get his country turned into a replica of the Stone Age. At this point, he's trying to save face.
Posted: 2003-03-02 03:59pm
by Darth Garden Gnome
I tell you I will never understand how you can rationalize the concept of nuclear war. Its so stupid. Why? Becauseeveryonedies in nuclear war. Its a lose/lose situatuion.
Which is why, of course, NK is just sabre-rattling, and nothing more.
Posted: 2003-03-02 04:01pm
by Joe
I don't even see why Korea even needs nukes, Kim Jong Il can already turn into a giant robot.
Posted: 2003-03-02 04:06pm
by Tragic
Darth Garden Gnome wrote:I tell you I will never understand how you can rationalize the concept of nuclear war. Its so stupid. Why? Becauseeveryonedies in nuclear war. Its a lose/lose situatuion.
Which is why, of course, NK is just sabre-rattling, and nothing more.
A nuclear war between NK and U.s. can be won by the U.S. I would estimate they have aleast 5-10 and I seriously doubt all can reach the U.S. and if they can it can only reach Alaska and maybe L.A.
Our missle can reach anywhere in the world.
A nuclear with lets say Russia or China. No one can win that.
Posted: 2003-03-02 04:06pm
by Lonestar
Durran Korr wrote:I don't even see why Korea even needs nukes, Kim Jong Il can already turn into a giant robot.
Uh....what?
Posted: 2003-03-02 04:07pm
by Spanky The Dolphin
Durran Korr wrote:I don't even see why Korea even needs nukes, Kim Jong Il can already turn into a giant robot.
True, but it's just a modified DX MSiA Nu Gundam.
Posted: 2003-03-02 04:09pm
by Sea Skimmer
North Korea threatens to declare war every time the South as a military exercise over the brigade level. Their constant threats and posturing make it seem more likely that they don't actually have a working device, or at least not a device they can deliver. They know that bluff is there only strong card and words the only way to play it.
Posted: 2003-03-02 04:11pm
by jegs2
Yet more saber-rattling from the loudmouths in North Korea. They're obviously upset that they're off the US's #1 turd list.
Posted: 2003-03-02 04:14pm
by Sea Skimmer
Tragic wrote:Darth Garden Gnome wrote:I tell you I will never understand how you can rationalize the concept of nuclear war. Its so stupid. Why? Becauseeveryonedies in nuclear war. Its a lose/lose situatuion.
Which is why, of course, NK is just sabre-rattling, and nothing more.
A nuclear war between NK and U.s. can be won by the U.S. I would estimate they have aleast 5-10 and I seriously doubt all can reach the U.S. and if they can it can only reach Alaska and maybe L.A.
Our missle can reach anywhere in the world.
A nuclear with lets say Russia or China. No one can win that.
China has the whole of about thirty nukes that can reach the US, and whenever there single SSBN which has about half those goes to sea it has a USN boat right behind it. They don't even have all that many IRBM's. The bulk of there nuclear weapons are on MRBM's and SRBM's which are depoyed against Taiwan.
Posted: 2003-03-02 10:03pm
by 0.1
Pride is just great. The NK feel that they can't back down due to pride, and neither can the Americans. After all, if the U.S. backs down on NK today, tomorrow, some other dip shit little nothing country can do the same thing that the NK are doing.
Now, imagine the following response (note, the following never ever happen in reality, not this administration or any other because it will scare the shit out of everyone else around the world, and you'll never hear the end of protests by every group possible on the planet).
The U.S. state department issues a communique in response to the empty NK threat:
"Our diplomatic efforts to conduct multilateral negotiations in the region has failed, the repeated threats issued by the North Korean regime indicates that it is bent on military action in spite of peaceful attempts to resolve the issue. Given that North Korea's neighbors are unable to help peacefully resolve the situation without the direct intervention of the United States. Our course of action is clear, as soon as the Iraq situation is concluded, the U.S. government will begin exploring alternatives other than diplomacy to ensure a nuclear free Korean peninsula."
There is nothing about military action in that statement, but basically it lays down the law. You do the math, and anyway it turns out, NK loses. Saving face is one thing, and I'm all for letting your enemies having a way out. But hey, if your enemy insists on boxing himself into a corner, then it's not your fault that he is stupid and wants to die.
Posted: 2003-03-02 11:31pm
by Tragic
What do you guys thing the rest of the world would do or NK do. if lets say we launch a few stealths into Nk to take out the production plant they claim is making the materials.
Do you think they will attack our troops in the DMZ? or even shell south korean with all that artiualry they have along the zone.? and yes those weapons can reach Soual.