North Korea

[Steve]

Opinions on this situation?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/w...hreatens-to-restart-nuclear-reactor.html?_r=0

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea announced plans on Tuesday to restart a mothballed nuclear reactor, the latest in a series of provocations by its leader, Kim Jong-un, to elicit a muted response from American officials, who believe they can wait out Mr. Kim’s threats until he realizes his belligerent behavior will not force South Korea or the United States into making any concessions.

“Right now, they’re testing the proposition that we’ll choose peace and quiet, and put it on our MasterCard,” said a senior American official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the administration’s internal calculations. “When they get through this cycle, they will have gotten no return on their investment.”

Secretary of State John Kerry, using time-tested diplomatic language, said North Korea’s plan to restart the reactor would be a “provocative act” and “a direct violation of their international obligations.” Speaking in Washington after his first meeting with South Korea’s foreign minister, Yun Byung-se, Mr. Kerry reaffirmed the determination of the United States to defend its ally.

American officials still worry about the consequences of any miscalculation, given the hair-trigger tensions on the Korean Peninsula and Mr. Kim’s inexperience at this type of brinkmanship. The top American commander in South Korea, Gen. James D. Thurman, called the situation “tense” and “volatile” in an interview with ABC News.

But the senior official predicted that North Korea would eventually back down, as Mr. Kim’s need for food aid and hard currency outweighed the domestic political gains from his threats to shoot missiles at American cities.

“The North Koreans want the international community to feed their people, fuel their factories and fill their bank accounts,” the official said. “If North Korea were a self-sufficient enterprise, we would have a much bigger problem on our hands.”

Still, the announcements by the North’s General Department of Atomic Energy were troubling on a couple of levels: The plan to restart the reactor at the main nuclear complex in Yongbyon reverses gains from a short-lived 2007 nuclear disarmament deal with the United States. And its plan to use a uranium-enrichment plant on the site for the weapons program gives it two ways of producing fuel for bombs, since the reactor produces plutonium.

The announcements came two days after Mr. Kim said his nuclear weapons were not a bargaining chip and called for expanding the arsenal in “quality and quantity” during a meeting of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea.

It was the first time North Korea had said it would use the uranium plant to make nuclear weapons. Since unveiling it to a visiting American scholar in 2010, North Korea had insisted it was running the plant to make reactor fuel to generate electricity, though Washington suggested that its purpose was bombs.

The five-megawatt, graphite-moderated reactor, which experts say would require significant effort to bring back on line, had been the main source of plutonium bomb fuel until it was shut down under the deal with the United States. North Korean engineers are believed to have extracted enough plutonium for six to eight bombs from the spent fuel unloaded from the reactor.

It is unknown whether North Korea’s third nuclear test in February used some of its limited stockpile of plutonium or fuel from its uranium-enrichment program, whose scale and history remain a mystery.

Mr. Kim has recently raised tensions with a torrent of threats to attack the United States and South Korea with pre-emptive nuclear strikes. But this week, he appeared to shift his tone slightly by reiterating that his nuclear weapons were a deterrent that helped his country focus on more pressing domestic economic issues.

The White House said it was reaching out to China and Russia to encourage them to use their influence to urge restraint on Pyongyang. The senior American official said the new Chinese leadership, led by President Xi Jinping, was frustrated by Mr. Kim’s belligerence, which it viewed as a threat to China’s own security. And Mr. Yun of South Korea said the Chinese had been cooperative since the passage of the latest United Nations sanctions.

China’s official Xinhua news agency issued comments from Deputy Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui that did not expressly single out North Korea but nonetheless signaled deepening worry about its actions and the response from the United States and its allies.

“We do not want to see war or turmoil break out on the peninsula, and we oppose provocative words and actions by any side,” Mr. Zhang said, using more urgent language than his government has tended to use until now.

On Wednesday, North Korea blocked traffic across the heavily armed border to an industrial park it has run with South Korea for eight years. It was unclear whether the action resulted from a communications problem or represented the end of one of the last symbols of North-South cooperation.

Opinions? Mine personally? for the good of the world, NOPE. We must protect the South Korean women!

 

[Steve]

US'S RESPONSE:

Reuters) - The United States flew two nuclear-capable stealth bombers on practice runs over South Korea on Thursday, in a rare show of force following a series of North Korean threats that the Pentagon said have set Pyongyang on a dangerous path.
The drill by the two B-2 Spirit bombers - flying all the way from the United States and back - appeared to be the first exercise of its kind and showed America's ability to conduct long-range, precision strikes "quickly and at will," the U.S. military said.

​

The bomber flights, and the unusual public announcement of them by the U.S. military, appeared designed to send a message of Washington's resolve to North Korea amid rising tensions on the Korean peninsula.
In recent weeks, North Korea has said it canceled an armistice agreement with the United States that ended the 1950-53 Korean War and has cut all communications hotlines with U.S. forces, the United Nations and South Korea.
North Korea has threatened South Korea with war and the mainland United States with a pre-emptive nuclear strike, although it is far from clear it has the ability to carry out the latter threat.
"The North Koreans have to understand that what they're doing is very dangerous," U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters at the Pentagon.
"We must make clear that these provocations by the North are taken by us very seriously and we'll respond to that."
The U.S. military said that its B-2 bombers had flown more than 6,500 miles to stage a trial bombing raid from their bases in Missouri as part of Foal Eagle war drills being held with South Korea.
The bombers dropped inert munitions on the Jik Do Range, in South Korea, and then returned to the continental United States in a single, continuous mission, the military said.
Thursday's drill was the first time B-2s flew round-trip from the mainland United States over South Korea and dropped inert munitions, a Pentagon spokeswoman said.
'REHEARSALS FOR INVASION'
North Korea has put its armed forces on readiness to fight what it says are "hostile" war drills by the United States and South Korea, describing them as rehearsals for invasion. The U.S. says the annual drills are entirely defensive.
Victor Cha, a North Korea expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the drill fit within the context of ramped efforts by the Pentagon to deter the North from acting upon any of its threats.
Asked whether he thought the latest moves could further aggravate tensions on the peninsula, Cha, a former White House official, said: "I don't think the situation can get any more aggravated than it already is."
Despite the shrill rhetoric from Pyongyang, few believe North Korea, formally known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, will risk starting a full-out war.
It has also kept a joint economic zone with the South open as it generates $2 billion a year in trade from the venture, money the impoverished state can ill-afford to lose.
Still, Hagel, who on March 15 announced he was bolstering missile defenses over the growing North Korea threat, said all of the provocations by the reclusive state had to be taken seriously.
"Their very provocative actions and belligerent tone, it has ratcheted up the danger, and we have to understand that reality," Hagel said, renewing a warning that the U.S. military was ready for "any eventuality" on the peninsula.
North Korea conducted a third nuclear weapons test in February in breach of U.N. sanctions and despite warnings from China, its one major diplomatic ally.
While the North has an armory of Soviet-era Scud missiles that can hit South Korea, its longer-range missiles remain untested.
Independent assessments of its missile strike force suggest that it may have the theoretical capacity to hit U.S. bases in Japan and Guam, but the North has not tested these missiles.
Still, Hagel told reporters the North had a "significant" missile capability and defended his decision to spend nearly $1 billion bolstering American missile defense capabilities, saying the Pentagon needed to plan for potential threats.
"You only need to be wrong once," Hagel said.
"And I don't know what president or what chairman or what secretary of defense wants to be wrong once when it comes to nuclear threats."
(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart and David Alexander in Washington; Editing by Warren Strobel and Paul Simao)

AMERICA!!

 

[copper]

Wow. The US sent two stealth bombers from Missouri to North Korea to target shoot on Korean ranges. Well played, Mr. Hagel.

 

[Cock]

Just a bunch of Dick swinging,

US flys some planes to South Korea to get some good Dinner,
North Korea goes on a computer made in the 80's and starts up a nuclear power plant that is not attached to any power gird.
Seems legit.

It's really sad to see the brain washing that Happens in Best Korea. Kids who are 6 years old and not one independent thought.

 

[47]

best defense: ensure you are too worthless to invade

 

[Brades]

Destroy North Korea... nothing of value lost.

 

[iCe]

We really should just blow them off the face of the earth, its getting annoying. At least Iran is a real threat, these momos are a joke.

 

[zackychuu]

SRS BSNS
I count 3 Joke posts already

 

[Brades]

Mine was serious

 

[iCe]

SRS BSNS
I count 3 Joke posts already

Who wasn't serious?

 

[zackychuu]

I just assumed jokes weren't allowed here, going by the shitstorms that have happened in past Serious Business threads...

 

[iCe]

I just assumed jokes weren't allowed here, going by the shitstorms that have happened in past Serious Business threads...

I don't think anyone is joking, the country is a joke in general.

 

[Fork Included]

finally, a chance for real war, none of this rebel bullshit.

 

[Xilorator]

We really should just blow them off the face of the earth, its getting annoying. At least Iran is a real threat, these momos are a joke.

The thing about Iran is that it's a sovereign nation (it has got its shit together unlike Egypt/Syria/Iraq). The United States wants Iran to be fighting with it's neighbors, not the U.S. And it wants them to fight with its neighbors as a disorganized country because they are much easier to control, and much, much less of a threat. They also want them internally divided. The sanctions on Iran are for keeping its oil off the market as much as possible to force China (the only people that can stop the U.S. at this point from total global hegemony) to buy oil at a higher price and slow their economic growth. Right now, Russia is still in the shitter, but they don't have any hegemonic plans to take over the world like the U.S. because they are content with selling oil to China to maintain their status quo. The whole point of going into Iraq was not to take their oil but to keep it off the market and force countries like China to buy from more expensive sources and therefore slow their growth.

Clinton, Bush, and Obama all have the same foreign policy. Expand U.S. hegemony, while encircling its future enemies. It's why Obama followed the timeline Bush had already in place. Now that the Middle East is in chaos and there is really nothing left but Israel to keep order somewhat with U.S. support then the U.S. can shift to Asia much like Obama said "pivot to Asia" because that's where everything is going to go down from now on. If a war happens with Iran, it will likely be quick either through a coup or an air war so as to not get stuck in Iran.

 

[excalibur]

Blow them off the face of the earth but DO NOT send in ground troops, keep it in the air.

 

[TurboTaco]

Kim jong un is a puppet leader, he clearly has no control over national and foreign policy. They guy is more about looking like dear leader and getting hammered with sake n sushi while riding dennis rodmans shoulders. The current general of north koreas army is the wormtongue of kim jong un. Either way, let em provoke more and destory their govt n reoccupy then liberate the poor souls living in destitute gulags

 

[TurboTaco]

Whats really fucked is that kim jong un was educated in switzerland, and the peeps there are very progressive and humane. When he was abroad there, wtf did he do? Live in his penthouse and never go out assuming he was still in north korea?

Majority of north koreans are living in a famine with no meat, milk, or veggies that can be easily accessed and afforded. What does new dear leader do? Creates a fiscal policy that prioritizes militarization and weaponization of govt assets instead of supporting infrastrucure, agriculture, and domestic growth. The only ones allowed to eat and earn decent money have to commit their lives to the military.

Dunno why south korea or us dont just assassinate the fatass bitch of a leader, tear down all monuments and propaganda related to the kim tyranny and liberate the damn country.

Probably because they have no real resource value that is worth going to war over...but honestly, does the world have to wait for a madman to push a button before we bin laden this guy?

 

[iCe]

Whats really fucked is that kim jong un was educated in switzerland, and the peeps there are very progressive and humane. When he was abroad there, wtf did he do? Live in his penthouse and never go out assuming he was still in north korea?

Majority of north koreans are living in a famine with no meat, milk, or veggies that can be easily accessed and afforded. What does new dear leader do? Creates a fiscal policy that prioritizes militarization and weaponization of govt assets instead of supporting infrastrucure, agriculture, and domestic growth. The only ones allowed to eat and earn decent money have to commit their lives to the military.

Dunno why south korea or us dont just assassinate the fatass bitch of a leader, tear down all monuments and propaganda related to the kim tyranny and liberate the damn country.

Probably because they have no real resource value that is worth going to war over...but honestly, does the world have to wait for a madman to push a button before we bin laden this guy?

Because we don't want to waste any more money on these useless pakis, and there is no oil there.

 

[47]

The thing about Iran is that it's a sovereign nation (it has got its shit together unlike Egypt/Syria/Iraq). The United States wants Iran to be fighting with it's neighbors, not the U.S. And it wants them to fight with its neighbors as a disorganized country because they are much easier to control, and much, much less of a threat. They also want them internally divided. The sanctions on Iran are for keeping its oil off the market as much as possible to force China (the only people that can stop the U.S. at this point from total global hegemony) to buy oil at a higher price and slow their economic growth. Right now, Russia is still in the shitter, but they don't have any hegemonic plans to take over the world like the U.S. because they are content with selling oil to China to maintain their status quo. The whole point of going into Iraq was not to take their oil but to keep it off the market and force countries like China to buy from more expensive sources and therefore slow their growth.

Clinton, Bush, and Obama all have the same foreign policy. Expand U.S. hegemony, while encircling its future enemies. It's why Obama followed the timeline Bush had already in place. Now that the Middle East is in chaos and there is really nothing left but Israel to keep order somewhat with U.S. support then the U.S. can shift to Asia much like Obama said "pivot to Asia" because that's where everything is going to go down from now on. If a war happens with Iran, it will likely be quick either through a coup or an air war so as to not get stuck in Iran.

good post. I learned shit.

 

[Cock]

Because we don't want to waste any more money on these useless Low Budgets, and there is no oil there.

They don't even have lights, like literally zero electricity! I don't even know if they have the equipment and knowledge to even dig for oil. Fuck even them finding it would be amazing.