NoKo Reaction to UN Sanctions

The Norks appear to be a bit miffed over the sanctions. Their responses in the MSM were typical.

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea said Tuesday the United Nations effectively declared war on the country when it imposed sanctions for the North's nuclear test.

North Korea wants "peace but is not afraid of war," the North's Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

The U.N. Security Council "resolution cannot be construed otherwise than a declaration of a war," the ministry said, calling the sanctions "a product of the U.S. hostile policy toward" North Korea.

So what action do you take when the United Nations overwhelmingly condemns your nuclear tests? Why, you setup to do another.

South Korea is aware of indications North Korea may be preparing to conduct a second nuclear explosion, after a report said U.S. satellites picked up activity at the site of the country's first test last week.

The South Korean government has detected signs of activity, a government official who declined to be identified said today by phone in Seoul when asked about the ABC News report.

Seems logical to me. But they are prepared for war.

The commentary on this is fascinating. The Screechers that complained about the US acting unilaterally in Iraq are now demanding that the US act unilaterally with regards to NoKo. The rhetoric is pretty interesting. There is the Imperial argument that always gets you a laugh.

Like Kofi Anan, Jimmy Carter is advising that "What must be avoided is to leave a beleaguered nuclear nation convinced that it is permanently excluded from the international community, its existence threatened." It is no secret that since its reported nuclear test, Pyongyang has repeated what is has been saying for years: it can accept a denuclearized Korean peninsula if the U.S. will engage in bilateral negotiations. Still imaginative, President Carter reminds us that Bush's rejection of bilateral talks can be "finessed through secret discussions with a trusted emissary like former Secretary of State Jim Baker" who has reminded us that it is "not appeasement to talk to your enemies."

This crisis is not an aberration. Rather, it is systemic product of sixty years of U.S. nuclear arrogance, as well as being a consequence of Bush-Cheney imperial fantasies and their "romance of ruthlessness."

I love Jemma, just when you think he's said the stupidest thing you'd expect from him, he takes a further step down. Secret talks would be just lovely. Bet China and Japan would be thankful that they were left out of those talks. And seeing that Clinton did leave them out of the '94 talks, I'm sure the results of secret talks would have so much better results. As for the Bush-Cheney imperial fantasy, what evidence does this reporter actually have to support that contention? Well, none. Or maybe they mean something different than the classical understanding of empire. Or maybe they're just throwing out invective to spin people up.

This need not be our future. Anticipating Kofi Anan and Jimmy Carter, during the week before the North Korean test, a delegation of senior Japanese nuclear weapons abolitionists - including A-bomb survivors - reminded U.S. audiences the world is almost completely unified in opposing North Korean A-Bomb. They also warned that much of the world is aghast at the prospect of the world's superpower, with its arsenal of 15,000 deployed a stockpiled thermonuclear weapons, feeling so threatened by North Korea that it refuses patient bilateral negotiations with the desperately poor and isolated country and threatens military actions and war.

As awful as they were, the archetypical Cold Warriors Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger did not hesitate to negotiate with Soviet and Chinese leaders. Why then do Bush and Cheney fear testing Pyongyang's offer of a denuclearized Korean peninsula in exchange for bilateral negotiations? Why not use those negotiations to engage the Six-Party negotiators to create a Northeast Asian Nuclear Weapons Free Zone like those in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the South Pacific, Africa, and Latin America? And, why not prevent future nuclear weapons proliferation and nuclear wars by honoring our "irrevocable commitment" to Article VI of the NPT and by implementing the 13 steps agreed to at the 2000 NPT Review Conference?

The writer seems to think that because the Norks population is poor and isolated that bilateral negotiations are not an issue. Failing to conceive that Kim Jong-Il has intentionally violated past agreements that did substantially benefit his country while at the same time ignoring the destitution of the population. But that follows the thought that NoKo had no nuclear weapons under the Clinton administration and it wasn't until Bushitler came to office that the suddenly gained all the resources to build one. Stupidity abounds if they truly think that the Norks weren't making plutonium or the infrastructure to make it during the Clinton years.
I also get a chuckle out of the contention that Bushitler "fears" negotiating unilaterally with Pyonang for a de-nuclearized Korean peninsula. Not that Korea hasn't violated treaties before or anything. And let's not forget that China would be the only real power in the region that could force the Norks to honestly abide by any treaty.

The end topic is coming to how the US screwed this whole issue up. Never mind that the US bent over backwards under the Clinton administration to try and resolve the problem by giving the Norks a huge amount of help, just to be ignored and bypassed. Let's also forget that China continues to fail to push a dangerous neighbor to stability. Their fears of large numbers of refugees flooding into China isn't assuaged by continuing to allow a rogue regime to continue to ignore the problems of it's people so they can arm against a military threat that wouldn't exist if they stopped threatening to arm the worlds other nut jobs.

And don't forget the Norks paranoia that the US will invade them for some reason if they don't have nuclear weapons. Seeing as they have so much to offer for the empire.