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| Axis of Evil |
| NKor rants, raves, makes faces... |
| 2003-01-01 |
| Showing no willingness to ease tensions over its nuclear weapons program, North Korea vowed Wednesday to build an army-based ``powerful nation'' and defy pressure from the United States. Better get started, before everybody either starves to death or defects... North Korea said it fears a possible U.S. military attack, but President Bush said he was confident the North's nuclear issue can be resolved through diplomacy. ``This is not a military showdown. This is a diplomatic showdown,'' Bush said Tuesday. "It's just hard to talk to them, because they're incoherent..." North Korea, in its New Year's Day message, called on its people to unite under ``the banner of the army-based policy'' and build a ``powerful nation'' to counter a possible U.S. invasion. ``The United States is now becoming all the more frantic in its moves to stifle (North Korea), openly clamoring about a preemptive nuclear attack on it,'' said the message, carried on the country's foreign news outlet, Korean Central News Agency. Ummm... No, we're not. But go ahead: work on that "army-based policy." It'll be interesting to see how well it works. If it does. The English-language message did not mention rising international concern over Pyongyang's decision to reactivate its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon, but stressed the importance of uniting around the country's military. I think NKor is as divided at the government level as Iran is, only not quite so obviously. Dear Leader is nothing more than a figurehead for the factions within the party. It would appear that the faction that's pushing the "army-based policy" is in the ascendant at the moment, but — as we've noticed before — these things can and do change without warning. Unless the army policy faction manages to push them over the edge and into war, they could be back to a "Sunshine Policy" again in a month or two... In an apparent effort to take advantage of an upsurge in anti-U.S. sentiment in South Korea, the message urged ``all the Koreans in the North and the South and abroad'' to join in confronting the United States. ``It can be said that there exists on the Korean Peninsula at present only confrontation between the Koreans in the North and the South and the United States,'' it said. Which is why we should pull our troops out and let 'em settle their own problems. South Korea's not the undeveloped agricultural half of the peninsula it was the last time the North swarmed it. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #7 Unless things have changed dramatically since the last time I had anything to do with them, the SKors should be fully able to defend South Korea. They've got it all over the North with regard to equipment, training, morale. The Americans represent a magic feather - plus a well-trained extra division. I think what they're worried about is seeing everything they've built in the past 50 years devastated again. The more you have to lose, the more reluctant you become to lose it. |
| Posted by: Fred 2003-01-02 08:04:52 |
| #6 NKor can't have that many, so Ryan's right: They use 'em, there's nothing preventing the US from suddenly jumping in. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2003-01-02 06:42:21 |
| #5 Its Skor all the way unless the North uses nukes, you mean. Though I suspect that the north wants them for the threat value... to prevent U.S. involvment in their invasion. |
| Posted by: Ryan Waxx 2003-01-01 23:26:00 |
| #4 Steve, from all I've been reading, it's SKor all the way....the questions seem to be: 1) How many dead, and 2) What's left of Seoul. It sounds like NKor would have real logistical problems moving that many bodies south over their (huge number of fallen) comrades.... Would like to hear if this is wrong though |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-01-01 18:58:53 |
| #3 Fred, Steve, et al., Is it clear that the ROK armed forces could stop a NKor attack without US assistance? It'd be devestating either way, of course, but whether we can safely pull our forces depends on whether the ROK can stop 'em far north of Pusan. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2003-01-01 17:59:45 |
| #2 Woops. I meant, NKor LEAVING the NPT. |
| Posted by: ptah 2003-01-01 17:48:54 |
| #1 The English-language message did not mention rising international concern over Pyongyang's decision to reactivate its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon... What's even more interesting is the lack of international squawking over the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. |
| Posted by: ptah 2003-01-01 17:48:00 |