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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| North Korea 'determined to carry out underground test' |
| 2006-09-10 |
| Russian diplomats believe it is now "highly probable" that North Korea will officially join the nuclear club by carrying out its first underground test of an atomic device. Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader, is said to have made clear his intention to explode a device during recent talks with Russian and Chinese officials in Pyongyang. Although he was pressed to resume six-party talks over his nuclear programme, the Russians concluded that he was serious in his desire to demonstrate that his scientists have successfully built a nuclear weapon. Their fears appear to bolster American suspicions that a test is being prepared, after intelligence reports last month of unusual vehicle movements in the area believed to be the test site. Any such test would be an escalation of tension in the region and would raise the stakes in the stand-off with the United States. During talks at the Russian and Chinese embassies, Kim was warned that such a move would alienate even Moscow and Beijing – regarded as North Korea's closest friends – who were infuriated by the country's long-range missile tests earlier this summer. "If North Korea conducts an underground nuclear test, it will face severe punishment," said one Russian diplomat. "It would pose a very serious threat to world peace." He said Kim Jong Il was "irritated" by financial sanctions imposed last year by the US, including the blocking of bank accounts abroad believed to have been used for money laundering and other illegal deals, including arms and drugs trading. Kim is said to have threatened "to use all necessary means" – including further development of the nuclear deterrent – to make Washington change its position. Six-party talks with China, America, South Korea, Japan and Russia, aimed at persuading Kim to abandon his nuclear ambitions were suspended last November. In Washington, the State Department's spokesman, Sean McCormack, said last week that a North Korean nuclear test would be "a deeply provocative act". Kim disappeared from the public eye the day before large scale missile tests on July 5, prompting speculation that he had gone into hiding in case there was a military response to the tests. A book by the North Korean leader's former sushi chef, Kenji Fujimoto, says that Kim has had a bunker built near Pyongyang to shelter from a nuclear attack. |
| Posted by:john |
| #5 Ah, but if Korea unifies and is friendly with China, the US can finally leave. We have already wound it down with them, and having bases there seems to be pretty much zilch to us. Remember the circumstances I gave, of China taking out Kim and installing a government who would bargain into reunification. The Skors would be so friggin grateful to China that their already good relations would get a lot better. Of course China would keep a heavily fortified border for fear of democracy leaking in. But if the US suggested the idea in the first place, China would take a long, hard look at it. And remember what the alternative is, something about as pleasant as having that porcupine shoved up there, backwards, in the first place. One damn unhappy porcupine, I might add. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-09-10 21:20 |
| #4 Nice try, 'moose, but the Mandarins would rather sh!t a porcupine backwards than ever see a unified democratic Korea on their doorstep. Big trading partner, the Chinese "way", no starving refugees, none of them mean spit compared to maintaining a continued counterweight to American military might in Northeast Asia. Kim effectively provides an overt nuclear threat that China can otherwise only tacitly maintain. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-09-10 20:08 |
| #3 Okeydokey, Kimmie! Here's the deal - you test one below ground, we test one above ground - about 2 thousand feet over Pyongyang. Deal? |
| Posted by: FOTSGreg 2006-09-10 19:55 |
| #2 Diplomatically, some time ago we probably approached China with an offer. Neither of us wants either Korea to go nuclear. We will not tolerate a nuclear North Korea, and neither, probably, will Japan. Since you (China) want to keep your nuclear monopoly in the region, *and* you sure as hell don't want a nuclear Japan, *and* you don't want the US Air Force pounding the hell out of the Norks on your doorstep, we make you the following proposition. If the Norks test a nuclear weapon, *you* punish them, to *our* satisfaction. This means decapitating their government and replacing it with one more satisfactory. But wait! There's more! If that government is more peaceful than this one, even conducive to reunification talks, you, China could make billions in the deal. A Korea unified with your help would be ever so grateful, it would also be a huge trading partner, and it would definitely be in *your* sphere of influence. You would no longer be deluged by illegal immigrants, you would no longer have the US on your doorstep, and you would have a powerful ally that also doesn't care much for Japan. By now, you've found your comfort level with a modestly-still-democratic Hong Kong; and in most ways, a unified Korea would be much the same. And most of all, they do things the Chinese "way" in Korea, your acid test for compatibility. So all you have to do is retire Kim, and you're in clover in all sorts of ways. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2006-09-10 18:39 |
| #1 Time to test the bunker busters. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles in Blairistan 2006-09-10 17:40 |