North Korea Tests A Nuke

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So North Korea has decided to get even more stupid, and more dangerous….because there is nothing worse then a idiot dictator with a nuke:

North Korea said Monday it had conducted its first nuclear weapons test, setting off an underground blast in defiance of international warnings and intense diplomatic activity aimed at heading off such a move.

U.S. and South Korean officials could not immediately confirm the North Korean report but the
U.S. Geological Survey said it recorded a seismic event with a preliminary magnitude of 4.2 in northeastern North Korea that coincided with the country’s announced nuclear test.

The Colorado-based agency said it was unable to tell whether the event was the result of an atomic explosion or a natural earthquake.

Condemnation from the region came swiftly. Japan’s top government spokesman said if confirmed, the North Korean test would post a serious threat to the stability in the region and a provocation.

China, the North’s closest ally, said Beijing “resolutely opposes” the North Korean nuclear test and hopes Pyongyang will return to disarmament talks.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the alert level of the military had been raised in response to the claimed nuclear test.

The U.N. Security Council is expected to discuss the reported North Korean test on Monday, and the United States and Japan are likely to press for a resolution imposing additional sanctions on Pyongyang.

This report states where they believe the test was conducted:

NORTH Korea is believed to have conducted its first nuclear test in a horizontal tunnel near its northeastern missile base, a South Korean lawmaker said today, quoting intelligence officials.

The officials said in a report to Parliament that the test appeared to have been conducted in a 360m high mountain northwest of its Musudanri missile base in Hwadaeri, according to lawmaker Chung Hyong-Keun.

He quoted an intelligence official as saying: “In consideration of the height of the mountain, the test appeared to have been done in a horizontal tunnel.”

Mr Chung was speaking after North Korea announced it had successfully conducted an underground nuclear test, with no radiation leakage.

As Texas Rainmaker said, I wonder if the old Clinton regime is still toasting to their huge success?

Recall Clinton’s famous words:

President Clinton – in some of his most strident language to date – warned Sunday he will not let North Korea develop a nuclear bomb.

Clinton , on NBC’s Meet the Press, also declined to rule out a pre-emptive strike against North Korea ‘s nuclear facilities, from which international observers have been banned.

“We have got to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons,” Clinton said.

Australia’s PM John Howard can always be counted on:

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Monday that North Korea should be condemned in the strongest possible terms for undertaking a nuclear test.

Describing the test as an outrage at a time when North Korea is struggling to feed its own people, Howard called on the United Nations through the UN Security Council to take action to impose retaliatory sanctions on the regime in Pyongyang.

Howard said seismic tests suggest that a nuclear test was carried out Monday and “in those circumstances I would condemn…the tests in the strongest possible terms.”

“North Korea is very gravely mistaken if she thinks this nuclear test will improve that country’s bargaining position,” Howard told parliament.

And for all the hippies out there who will say “N.Korea didn’t get nuke’s until Bush came around” I have one place for you to visit. OneFreeKorea has all the facts, including the fact that N.Korea was gathering the material to build a nuke DURING Clinton’s regime, right under his nose, and may have tested one in Pakistan in 1998. Rich Lowry said as much in 2003:

The secret North Korean uranium-enrichment program — to which they confessed in October 2002 — had been in operation since 1997 or 1998. If the North Koreans were cheating in 1998 because they already knew that Bush would be elected and invade Iraq, maybe Kim Jong Il really is the bizarre paranormal being he sometimes seems.

Actually, the North Korean cheating wasn’t the least bit surprising. The CIA had thought North Korea wouldn’t comply with the agreement all along. “Based on North Korea’s past behavior,” the CIA reported in 1995, “the [intelligence] community agrees it would dismantle its known program, [only] if it had covertly developed another source of fissile material.”

The U.S. came to believe in 1997, for instance, that North Korea had built an underground nuclear facility in Kumchang-ri. The administration still dishonestly maintained that all was well with the Agreed Framework. On July 8, 1998, Albright told Congress, the Agreed Framework had “frozen North Korea’s dangerous nuclear-weapons program.” When intelligence about the suspect site at Kumchang-ri became public in August 1998, Albright told frustrated senators at a hearing that she hadn’t known about the information until later in July. The head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, present at the hearing, had to interrupt her: “Madame Secretary, that is incorrect.” She had been told many months earlier.

It was clear by the late 1990s to honest observers that North Korea still had a nuclear-weapons program, while it was spreading missile technology far and wide and battening itself on U.S. support in keeping with the Agreed Framework. In response to congressional outrage, the administration tapped former defense secretary William Perry in late 1998 to review its North Korean policy. He said in March 1999, “What they’re doing is moving forward on their nuclear weapons.” He added, “We believe this is very serious. The long-range-missile program itself suggests in parallel the development of a nuclear weapons program.”

Hot Air can see the handwriting on the wall:

Diplomacy isn’t going to stop North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. That’s the bottom line. North Korea sees nukes as its last best hope of survival, while the rest of the world (minus China and possibly Russia) see North Korean nukes as an intolerable threat. I don’t see a peaceful end to this. Either China deals with Kim, or we do. And it doesn’t look like we will.

And neither will the Chinese judging by their past behavior:

Last month’s sale by China of 20 tons of tributyl phosphate to North Korean agents, as reported in the press, demonstrates the magnitude of the problem. This is a key chemical needed to extract plutonium from depleted uranium fuel rods in a process known as “purex.” The Chinese shipment was enough to extract plutonium for four to five bombs from the approximately 8,000 spent fuel rods North Korea has.

UPDATE

Fox News is reporting that Tony Snow stated there is not enough information to confirm if it was a nuclear test.

UPDATE II 10/9/06 0015hrs PST

Michelle Malkin has up a picture of Kim Jong-il being burned in effigy in South Korea today:

Oh, and American officials, according to Fox, are now confirming that there was indeed a nuclear test but that the test was quite small, indicating that N.Korea may not have the big whopper as of yet:

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea successfully tested of a nuclear weapon late Sunday night, a senior Bush administration official confirmed to FOX News.

The official said, however, that initial readings from South Korea reported only a 3.58-magnitude seismic reaction, which is smaller than what would be expected from the 4-kiloton explosion the Axis of Evil nation sought. The put the bomb’s capabilities in context, a 20-kiloton explosion could conceivably kill 200,000 people.

“North Korea may not have got what they wanted,” the official said.

Macsmind is reporting that Korean TV is stating that this test was over the upcoming appointment of Ban Ki-moon to head the UN:

According to news reports over South Korean TV this is thought to be a direct challenge to Ban Ki-moon’s new position at the UN – it’s a line in the sand if you will

UPDATE IV 0035hrs PST

Everythings ok everybody, N.Korea says so:

The field of scientific research in the DPRK successfully conducted an underground nuclear test under secure conditions on October 9, 2006 at a stirring time when all the people of the country are making a great leap forward in the building of a great, prosperous and powerful socialist nation,” the KCNA said in its English report.

It has been confirmed that there was no danger from radioactive emission in the course of the nuclear test as it was carefully calculated and carried out with scientific consideration.

The nuclear test was conducted with indigenous wisdom and technology 100 percent. It marks a historic event as it greatly encouraged and pleased the KPA and people that have wished to have powerful self-reliant defence capability.

It will contribute to defending the peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the area around it.

On another note, we all know what the Democratic talking points will be by morning right? Bush should of held one on one talks (we all know how well those work out) or the tried and true “October Surprise” conspiracy.

UPDATE V 0045hrs PST

Bill Roggio at his best:

The South Korean government has convened a high level emergency cabinet meeting. The “Sunshine Policy” between the South and North is officially dead, as are the six party talks between North Korea, South Korean, the U.S., Russia, China and Japan. The South Korean stock market “took a beating” on the news of the nuclear test. South Korea has suspended a shipment of aid to North Korea.

The North Korean nuclear detonation shines a light on the international proliferation of nuclear technology, equipment and know-how. A.Q. Khan, the infamous Pakistani nuclear scientist, was instrumental in establishing North Korea’s nuclear program. “A.Q. Khan’s network provided North Korea with both centrifuge designs and a small number of actual, complete centrifuges, in addition to a list of components needed to manufacture additional ones,” according to Global Security. Khan has also assisted with Iran’s mature nuclear program and al-Qaeda’s nascent nuclear program.

North Korea and Iran have also cooperated on missile delivery systems. North Korean Taep’o-dong-1 and No-dong missiles have been converted into Iranian Shahab variants. The Iranian and North Korean governments are working to build a missile to deliver a nuclear warhead. “Iran is watching how the international community is going to react to North Korea,” said B Raman, the former head of Indian intelligence on Sunday’s broadcast of Global Crisis Watch, “And indeed we are finding Iran is thinking that the world situation now is such that the international community cannot act against it.”

Seems quite plausible. Iran is watching to see how the world reacts……and what will that reaction be?

UPDATE VI 0100hrs PST

The world is upset:

China and the United States led condemnation around the world after
North Korea conducted its first nuclear test, slamming the move as provocative and, in some capitals, demanding a tough UN response.

China, Pyongyang’s closest ally in the region, expressed its “resolute opposition” to the “brazen” test, carried out early Monday in defiance of worldwide appeals and threats of sanctions.

The White House condemned it as a “provocative act” and called for immediate action by the UN Security Council, while Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in Seoul when news of the test first broke, called the move unpardonable.

Britain’s Foreign Office likewise condemned it as a “highly provocative” act and vowed the international community would “respond robustly”.

A Chinese foreign ministry statement on state television said North Korea, also known as the DPRK, “ignoring the general concern of the international community, brazenly undertook a nuclear test.”

Where was all this outrage when Kim was playing the world like a fiddle?

WorldNetDaily:

I don’t want to sound alarmist here, but North Korea has just conducted its first nuclear weapons test.

This is not good.

Imagine Adolf Hitler with a nuclear weapon. That would be the moral equivalent of Kim Jong-il with one. There is no difference.

Kim is a mass murderer, possibly on the scale of Hitler. The only difference, so far, is that Kim has killed millions of his own people through starvation, forced labor camps and executions – more in the style of Josef Stalin.

But Kim’s dream, like his Stalinist father’s, remains reunification of his country through military force. His million-man-plus army, as always, is massed near the border with South Korea, just waiting for the right moment.

South Korea was destroyed once by invasion from the north. The city of Seoul was leveled – with conventional weapons. Kim wouldn’t think twice about using more efficient means, like nuclear, to do it again.

This is not just a matter of brinksmanship. The lives of millions – and not just Koreans – hang in the balance.

[…]If we go the U.N. route again on this crisis, debates over resolutions will take years. China will lead the U.S. to believe it will be an ally, only to ensure Washington does not take unilateral action. Ultimately, as is so often the case, China will reject any meaningful multilateral action against North Korea – just as it has with Iran.

Banking on China to join us is a mistake. It won’t happen. China would like nothing better than to see the U.S. knocked off as a superpower. It would clear the field for its planned ascendancy on the world stage.

The West has made this mistake many times in the past. The clearest example is Neville Chamberlain’s trip to Munich. He asked Adolf Hitler what he wanted – how he could be “bought off.” Hitler said all he wanted was the Sudetenland. Chamberlain said he could have it. Then, of course, Hitler took all of Czechoslovakia.

After the war, Chamberlain still didn’t get it. He said everything would have been just peachy if Hitler hadn’t lied.

Well, guess what? That’s what evil tyrants do. And, no matter how many cheap gizmos you may have purchased from China in recent years, the leadership there is every bit as evil and cunning as Hitler was.

We can’t put our fate in their hands.

[…]Evil must be confronted and defeated. There is no option – other than to be defeated by it.

UPDATE VII 0110hrs PST

More protests in Korea:

UPDATE VIII 0120hrs PST

From the WaPo:

“If it is only one weapon, it would be a positive sign,” former U.N. weapons inspector David Albright told CNN in an interview. “If they conducted two, three or four tests it would be more worrisome because it would suggest they were conducting … a series of tests that would allow them to create a much better arsenal.”

Hajime Izumi, Korea expert and professor at the University of Shizuoka, said more tests could expected.

“They could do it two or three times and gather as much data as possible to use for its nuclear arsenal,” he said.

Also take a look at this article yesterday about the tension on the Chinese/Korean border:

THE North Korean refugee had one request for her captors before the young Chinese soldiers led her back across the steel-girdered bridge on the Yalu River that divides two “socialist allies”.

“She asked for a comb and some water because she said that if she was going to die she could not face going to heaven looking as dirty and dishevelled as this,” recounted a relative of one soldier who was there.

What happened next is testimony to the rising disgust in Chinese military ranks as Beijing posts more troops to the border amid a crisis with North Korea over its regime’s plan to stage a nuclear test.

The soldiers, who later told family members of the incident, marched the woman, who was about 30, to the mid-point of the bridge. North Korean guards were waiting. They signed papers for receipt of the woman, who kept her dignity until that moment. Then, in front of the Chinese troops, one seized her and another speared her hand — the soft part between thumb and forefinger — with the point of a sharpened steel cable, which he twisted into a leash.

“She screamed just like a pig when we kill it at home in the village,” the soldier later told his relative. “Then they dragged her away.”

Such stories are circulating widely among Chinese on the border, where wild rumours of an American attack on nuclear test sites have spread fears of a Chernobyl-type cloud of radiation and sparked indignation at the North Koreans. “I’ve heard it a hundred times over that when we send back a group they stab each one with steel cable, loop it under the collarbone and out again, and yoke them together like animals,” said an army veteran with relatives in service.

As international tensions over North Korea have soared, China has deployed extra combat units of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to man the border from the Yalu River in the south to the Tumen River near Russia – evidently fearing the risk of chaos and collapse.

UPDATE IX 0855hrs PST

President Bush gave a short address a few hours ago:

Last night the government of North Korea proclaimed to the world that it had conducted a nuclear test. We’re working to confirm North Korea’s claim. Nonetheless, such a claim itself constitutes a threat to international peace and security. The United States condemns this provocative act. Once again North Korea has defied the will of the international community, and the international community will respond.

[…]The North Korean regime remains one of the world’s leading proliferator of missile technology, including transfers to Iran and Syria. The transfer of nuclear weapons or material by North Korea to states or non-state entities would be considered a grave threat to the United States, and we would hold North Korea fully accountable of the consequences of such action.

The United States remains committed to diplomacy, and we will continue to protect ourselves and our interests. I reaffirmed to our allies in the region, including South Korea and Japan, that the United States will meet the full range of our deterrent and security commitments.

Threats will not lead to a brighter future for the North Korean people, nor weaken the resolve of the United States and our allies to achieve the de-nuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Today’s claim by North Korea serves only to raise tensions, while depriving the North Korean people of the increased prosperity and better relations with the world offered by the implementation of the joint statement of the six-party talks. The oppressed and impoverished people of North Korea deserve that brighter future.

Rok Drop Blog has some good commentary:

North Korea has never had any intentions of giving up it’s nuclear program, the failure of the 1994 Agreed Framework only confirms this. The North Koreans were happy to appear to give up their ambitions of wanting nuclear weapons in return for international aid while covertly working on them any way and playing nice to the international community. Things changed with the Bush Administration. President Bush’s policy is that the North Koreans will not receive US aid unless it thoroughly without a doubt ends their nuclear weapon program. Bush wasn’t about to cut a deal just to keep the North Koreans quiet and out of the headlines and pass the problem to a future presidential administration that would allow the North Koreans to continue to receive aid while at the same time covertly working on their nuclear weapons program. If Bush had cut a deal with the North Koreans and let’s say a Democratic president takes power in 2008 and the North Korean nuclear issue came up again what do you think that Democratic Administration would be saying about the deal Bush cut with the North Koreans? They would say it is a failure and that is one of the reasons why Bush isn’t dealing.

Of course Bush could have been doing the Clinton/Albright song and dance they called diplomacy. Which in a nutshell was bending over and grabbing their ankles. Recall the Arafat “breakthrough”. How well did that go again? The Iraqi appeasement gave us Oil For Food and years of terrorist attacks on our civilians. The N.Korea “breakthrough” actually gave them the technology and materials needed to make a nuke.

Wow, what a diplomat huh? Funny how the MSM and left are spinning this story to say that Kim didn’t get a nuke until the day Bush was inaugurated when in fact it was suspected that they had a nuke since 1998.

But you know which form of diplomacy has been the only form to work in decades? Invasion.

Of the three most unstable, evil regimes (Iraq, Iran, and N.Korea) the only one we can say for sure that does not have any WMD is Iraq. We know this because we took that regime out, which also had the added side effect of getting Libya to denounce WMD plus we now have a Democracy in the Middle East.

We know how well the other form of diplomacy has gone with Iran and N.Korea.

UPDATE X 0920hrs PST

There may be another test in the works:

SOUTH Korean authorities suspect that the communist state might be preparing a second nuclear test after unusual activities were detected in a rugged area in North Korea today, a news report said.

Kim Seung-Gyu, head of South Korea’s spy agency, told parliament that activity involving vehicles and as many as 40 people was under way at Punggyeri in the north-eastern county of Kilju, Yonhap news agency reported.

“From 4pm (AEST) today, there have been some unusual movements under way at Punggyeri where we had thought the first nuclear test would be carried out,” Mr Kim was quoted as saying.

“We have been closely following developments there to find out whether North Korea is moving to conduct a series of tests as India and Pakistan did,” he said.

And John Hood has put this dangerous moment in perspective:

America and its allies have new evidence today of a threat to civilization and to our very lives. The North Koreans already supply Islamic totalitarians with conventional arms. The risk of Korean nuclear devices or expertise being transferred to our deadly enemies is real. It is not a political invention. It is not a partisan talking point. Examining the constellation of forces on the peninsula and elsewhere, the madman of Pyongyang has little reason to fear retaliation or feel deterred. He knows that our military options are, at best, problematic. He likely doesn’t care about the prospect of new sanctions, as they will affect his subject slaves but not his own household or power. In exchange for resources he needs, he will trade with terror states who want at least the nuclear leverage to demand American withdrawal and quiescence in the Middle East and Central Asia, while they seek to recreate an Islamic paradise they imagine existed more than a millennia ago. And some want not just this ability to threat and blackmail, but the ability to kill hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of infidels in a single glorious act of submission to a vengeful God.

Is America serious about confronting this threat? Are we willing to do what it takes to rally our allies and destroy our enemies? Will we take whatever action is necessary, including military action, to prevent Iran from following North Korea’s lead? Do we have the fortitude and the wisdom to confront the Taliban and al Qaeda without tipping Pakistan, another nuclear state, into a dangerous civil war? Will we leave Iraq precipitously and embolden our adversaries to take their war into Europe and closer to our shores?

And this update from Allah gives us some hope that Kim just doesn’t have the big bomb yet:

Just breaking on Fox News, a top U.S. official claims that the test produced a blast equivalent to several hundred tons of TNT — not even one full kiloton. That jibes with the South Korean estimate from last night and puts us back in the “implausibly low” box. What’s going on here? Are government officials lying to downplay the threat or did the NorKs really fail this badly? And if the latter, how do we know this was a nuclear test? I haven’t seen a single report confirming any radiation detection.

UPDATE XI 1200hrs PST

A reminder from Jonah Goldberg in 2002 about that peace prize awarded to Jimmy Carter.

Of all the reactions to North Korea’s admission that it has been secretly defying its promise not to develop nuclear weapons — shock, fear, etc. — the one most in order is some good old-fashioned finger-pointing.

Let’s start with the Nobel Peace Prize Committee. On Oct. 11, the Nobel committee announced it would award its Peace Prize to Jimmy Carter. It was really an un-Peace Prize for George W. Bush, whom the Nobel crowd believes is a foolish warmongering meanie.

“In a situation currently marked by threats of the use of power,” intoned the Nobel press release, “Carter has stood by the principles that conflicts must as far as possible be resolved through mediation and international cooperation based on international law, respect for human rights and economic development.” Translation: Bush should be more like Carter.

Well, one of the conflict-resolutions that supposedly put Jimmy over the top for winning the prize (over the more-deserving Afghan president, Hamid Karzai) was the one between the United States and North Korea in the early 1990s. When Bill Clinton and Kim Il Sung were squaring off over Pyongyang’s nuke program, Carter jetted off to the world’s last Stalinist nation to compliment the mass-murdering North Korean dictator as a “vigorous and intelligent” man. He declared of a government that has imposed famines on millions: “I don’t see that they are an outlaw nation.”

And it was brother Jimmy who had the bright idea of lavishing the North Koreans with aid in exchange for their “cross-our-hearts-and-hope-to-die” promise that they would stop pursuing nuclear weapons technology. Of course, many argue it was Carter’s mollycoddling of the North Koreans during his presidency that encouraged them to start their nuclear program to begin with. But hey, that’s heavy water under the bridge.

In 1994, when Carter went to North Korea to strike a deal, he didn’t have the support or authority of the U.S. government to agree to anything. That didn’t stop him from announcing on television that he’d made a deal. And the fact that the Clinton administration was out of the loop didn’t stop Al Gore from persuading Bill Clinton to leap on the proposal, even though it basically surrendered every major American demand, starting with our insistence that North Korea completely and immediately stop its nuclear weapon program.

The final agreement, which Clinton dubbed “a very good deal indeed,” called for the United States to provide the North Koreans with $4 billion worth of light-water reactors and $100 million in oil in exchange for a promise to be good and an assurance that inspectors would be allowed to poke around at some indeterminate point down the road.

At the time, Kang Sok Ju, the chief North Korean negotiator, bragged that “the complete elimination of the existing nuclear program will only come when we have the light-water reactor in our hands.” In other words you pay first, we stop later.

Chamberlain finally came to grips with the fact that appeasement wouldn’t work once Hitler invaded Poland. Carter and Clinton never did figure out that appeasement never works…..never.

Of course in today’s WaPo they blame….you guessed it, George Bush:

North Korea’s apparent nuclear test last night may well be regarded as a failure of the Bush administration’s nuclear nonproliferation policy.

Since George W. Bush became president, North Korea has restarted its nuclear reactor and increased its stock of weapons-grade plutonium, so it may now have enough for 10 or 11 weapons, compared with one or two when Bush took office.

As usual, it’s all Bushitlers fault….

Of course this chronology may prove the moonbats wrong, not that they would ever admit it. Here are a few pieces from it:

1992: Promises to allow inspections of entire nuclear program by IAEA, as agreed in 1985.

1992: U.S. intelligence observes a truck hauling things away from a plutonium extraction plant.

1992: To show good will, U.S. and South Korea cancel military exercises.

1992: North Korea declares to IAEA that it has seven sites and about 90 grams of plutonium.

1992: In 5 trips, lets inspectors visit 7 declared sites.

1992: Buries, according to U.S. intelligence, first floor of two-story building, believed to contain waste from plutonium extraction.

1992: Continues to produce plutonium and process it into weapon-ready form.

1992: IAEA concludes there are inconsistencies in North Korea’s nuclear declaration, and requests access to two additional sites at Yongbyon; North Korea denies access to one site and only visual access to the other.

1992: Russia reportedly prevents some 60 Russian rocket scientists from going to North Korea.

1992: The U.S. Department of State sanctions entities in North Korea, Iran and Syria for “missile technology proliferation activities.”

1993: Inspectors ask to see two undeclared sites, on suspicion that secret plutonium processing will be revealed, and allow one month for compliance. U.S. aerial photographs and IAEA chemical analysis data confirm existence of a nuclear waste dump and inconsistencies in N. Korea’s declaration of nuclear materials.

1993: Bars inspectors from undeclared sites and says that it will drop out of nonproliferation treaty. Inspectors declare North Korea has violated its obligations to open undeclared sites.

1993: Says U.N. sanctions would amount to a declaration of war.

1993: “Suspends” withdrawal from nonproliferation treaty but continues to bar inspectors from full inspection.

1993: President Clinton warns North Korea that using nuclear weapons against South Korea “will be the end of their country as they know it.”

1993: Restricts inspectors to working at night by flashlight. A North Korean defector describes underground missile launch pads.

1993: Repudiates the nonproliferation treaty; breaks off talks with inspectors. Inspectors say their data is “damaged” and “deteriorating.”

1993: Breaks off denuclearization talks with South Korea. President Clinton warns North Korea that it “cannot be allowed to develop a nuclear bomb,” and that “any attack on South Korea is an attack on the United States.”

1993: IAEA reports to UN that if IAEA inspectors are not permitted to revisit North Korea’s nuclear facilities, they can no longer verify the IAEA/North Korea safeguards agreement.

1993: North Korean diplomat is expelled from Moscow for trying to hire Russian scientists.

1993: Offers to let inspectors into only 5 of 7 declared sites, barring them from the 30-Mwt. reactor, the plutonium processing plant and two undeclared sites. Inspectors say their cameras no longer work.

1993: U.S. intelligence says North Korea has a “better than even” chance of possessing one or two bombs.

1993: Manufactures fuel for its 200-Mwt. reactor.

1993: Continues to produce plutonium.

1993: North Korea successfully tests the Nodong missile to a range of about 500km.

1994: Agrees to one-time inspection of all seven declared sites, but balks at procedures.

1994: CIA Director says he believes North Korea may have produced one or two nuclear bombs.

UPDATE XII 1245hrs PST

Check out this interview given by Jimmy Carter in 1994:

JUDY WOODRUFF: …. Are you absolutely persuaded that the North Koreans are going to honor this agreement, that while the talks are going on that it’s not just a matter of buying time on the part of the North Koreans, that they will not secretly pursue the program they were pursuing earlier, nuclear program?

JIMMY CARTER: Judy, I’m convinced. But I said this when I got back from North Korea, and people said that I was naive or gullible and so forth. I don’t think I was. In my opinion, this was one of those perfect agreements where both sides won and got what they wanted and there were no-nobody blinked, nobody had to yield…. I think the most important lesson is that we should not ever avoid direct talks, direct conversations, direct discussions and negotiations with the main person in a despised or misunderstood or condemned society who could actually resolve the issue. And we went through this for ten years when nobody in our government would meet or talk to Yasir Arafat. The Norwegians did, and they were the ones that brought the peace agreement last summer….

UPDATE XIII 1400hrs PST

And the dummies roll on:

Reacting to the announcement that North Korea successfully conducted a nuclear test, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called Monday for an investigation of the Bush administration’s “failed North Korea policies.”

In a release, Reid said that “on the Bush Administration’s watch, North Korea’s arsenal has grown to as many as a dozen bombs,” because he said Bush is “distracted by Iraq and paralyzed by internal divisions.”

Calling the test “reckless and counterproductive,” Reid called on Bush to “rally the international community and … directly speak with the North Koreans so they understand we will not continue to stand on the sidelines.”

Reid also called for a “full review” of the Bush administration’s “failed North Korea policy,” the development of “recommendations to change course,” and direct communication with the North Koreans about “the consequence of their actions and the administration’s new course.”

In an election-year call for support, Reid said Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress “have made America less secure. It is time for a new direction,” he said, referring to the Democrats’ campaign slogan.

Ummm Harry? The only person who needs to be investigated is yourself.

But in the meantime it’s time for a reality check:

North Korea announced January 10, 2003 that it was withdrawing from the NPT, effective January 11. Although Article X of the NPT requires that a country give three months’ notice in advance of withdrawing, North Korea argues that it has satisfied this requirement because it originally announced its decision to withdraw March 12, 1993. Since then, whether North Korea remains an NPT state-party is ambiguous.

According to the “agreed framework” the spent fuel from North Korea’s 5-megawatt reactor at Yongbyon was to be put into containers as soon as possible (a process called “canning”) and removed from the country. The canning process, conducted with U.S. financing, began April 27, 1996 and was finished in April 2000. However, North Korea refused to ship it and the spent fuel remains in North Korea today.

Anyone with a properly functioning brain, Harry, can see this all happened before Rove the magnificent bastard was assigned an office in the west wing of the White House.

Two years later the Bush administration confronted Pyongyang with proof that they had reprocessed it into weapons-grade plutonium. North Korea admitted to doing so. Last night is further proof. According to the CIA, the amount of fuel is sufficient for several nuclear weapons.

I’ve provided plenty of information and links to those who want to do some real background on how we have arrived at this point. Any honest person would be able to understand that North Korea duped Clinton and gang, just as Saddam did.

UPDATE XIV 1415hrs PST

Had to take a look at the DummiesU cesspool and I wasn’t disappointed:

Jumpoffdaplanet (332 posts) Sun Oct-08-06 10:54 PM
Original message
Did Bush pay N. Korea to do the test this weekend?
Because it’s about the only thing that can knock Foley and Hastert off the news.

sandnsea (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-08-06 11:03 PM
Response to Reply #6
10. I am not known for believing conspiracy theories at all

But I do think Karl Rove knew about this test and has a campaign in place to take full advantage of it. You think they DIDN’T know Il was going to test this weapon???

lonestarnot (1000+ posts) Sun Oct-08-06 11:14 PM
Response to Original message
17. I heard some pundit say today or yesterday that the only thing

that would take Foley out of the news would be a nuke.

All I can say is:

Other’s Blogging:


Of the three most unstable, evil regimes (Iraq, Iran, and N.Korea) the only one we can say for sure that does not have any WMD is Iraq. We know this because we took that regime out, which also had the added side effect of getting Libya to denounce WMD plus we now have a Democracy in the Middle East.

We know how well the other form of diplomacy has gone with Iran and N.Korea.

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The only reason the North Korean people put up with the catastrophic leadership of Kim Jong Il is because of Chinese containment. I suggest China open the border and drain the swamp.

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Flopping Aces » Blog Archive » North Korea Tests A Nuke….Or Maybe Not

[…] Check out my earlier post here. […]

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