N. Korea: U.N. sanctions are a declaration of war

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

I say yes to both?

[size]N. Korea: U.N. sanctions are a declaration of war [/size]
Updated 10/17/2006 1:14 PM ET E-mail | Save | Print | Subscribe to stories like this   
 
 
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SEOUL (AP) — North Korea said Tuesday it considered U.N. sanctions aimed at punishing the country for its nuclear test "a declaration of war," as Japan and South Korea reported the communist nation might be preparing a second explosion.
The North broke two days of silence about the U.N. resolution adopted after its Oct. 9 nuclear test with a statement on the official state news agency, as China warned Pyongyang against stoking tensions.

"The resolution cannot be construed otherwise than a declaration of a war" against the North, the statement said. North Korea is known officially as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The chief U.S. nuclear envoy, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, said the North's response was "not very helpful."

"I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding about what the international community feels about its actions," Hill said in Seoul after a meeting with his South Korean and Russian counterparts.

Hill said he could not confirm South Korean and Japanese reports that the North may be preparing another nuclear explosion, but said a second test would force the international community "to respond very clearly."

North Korea "is under the impression that once they make more nuclear tests that somehow we will respect them more," Hill told reporters after a meeting with U.S. and Russian counterparts. "The fact of the matter is that nuclear tests make us respect them less."

In its statement, North Korea said it would not be intimidated.

The communist nation "had remained unfazed in any storm and stress in the past when it had no nuclear weapons," the statement said. "It is quite nonsensical to expect the DPRK to yield to the pressure and threat of someone at this time when it has become a nuclear weapons state."

Chun Yung-woo, South Korea's top nuclear envoy, dismissed the statement as "the usual rhetoric that they have been using at the time of the adoption of the Security Council resolution."

China has long been one of North Korea's few allies, but relations have frayed in recent months by Pyongyang's missile tests and the nuclear explosion last week.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao warned Pyongyang against aggravating tensions, saying the North should help resolve the situation "through dialogue and consultation instead of taking any actions that may further escalate or worsen the situation."

The United States pressed on with a round of diplomacy in Asia aimed at finding consensus on how to implement U.N. sanctions on the North. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was expected to go to Japan on Wednesday before traveling to South Korea and China.

Hill stressed that the international community should make the North pay a "high price" for its "reckless behavior."

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said his government had "information" about another possible blast, and a senior South Korean official said there were signs that the North could be preparing a second test — but emphasized that it was unlikely to happen immediately.

"We have yet to confirm any imminent signs of a second nuclear test," the official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

North Korea on Tuesday marked the 80th anniversary of the "Down-with-Imperialism Union" — a political platform on which the communist state's ruling party was later built — with an enormous gathering in a central square in Pyongyang and parades throughout the country.

In Pyongyang, hundreds of women in brightly colored costumes sang and held bunches of flowers, including some named after Kim Il Sung, the late father of current leader Kim Jong Il.

China, whose support for the measures is key to whether they will have any effect on neighboring North Korea, has begun examining trucks at the North Korean border to comply with new U.N. sanctions endorsed over the weekend.

South Korea has said it would implement the U.N. sanctions, but also has been cautious about allowing sanctions to shake regional stability. Seoul has also indicated that it has no intention of halting key economic projects with the North, despite concerns that they may help fund the North's nuclear and missile programs.

"Sanctions against North Korea should be done in a way that draws North Korea to the dialogue table," South Korean Prime Minister Han Myung-sook said Tuesday, according to Yonhap news agency. "There should never be a way that causes armed clashes."

In Washington, U.S. National Intelligence Director John Negroponte's office said Monday that air samples gathered last week contain radioactive materials that confirm that North Korea conducted an underground nuclear explosion.

In a short statement posted on its website, Negroponte's office also confirmed that the size of the explosion was less than 1 kiloton, a comparatively small nuclear detonation. Each kiloton is equal to the force produced by 1,000 tons of TNT.

It was the first official confirmation from the United States that a nuclear detonation took place, as Pyongyang has claimed.

[NewFederalist]

No and No. Go rent The Mouse That Roared... that is all this is.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

No/Yes.  I don't think China will approve any sanctions against the DPRK that would be severe enough to cause Kim to start a shooting war as aopposed to the usual war of words, but if it does become a shooting war. the U.S. will be involved.

[The Dowager Mod]

Well the war never ended, it's been a 50+ year cease fire.

[Boris]

TexasGurl is correct. Technically, South Korea is still at war with North Korea.

And no, I don't think war will break out. It really isn't within the interests of either side to have a Korean War II.

Out of curosity, are there any military buffs on here that could hypothesize what a conventional war between North and South Korea would look like today? I'm guessing China would ride it out neutral, while the South Korea would be backed by the United States and various European Union powers. I also think that it would quickly turn into a war of attrition, and with ways of replenishing their resources, North Korea would crumble within a few weeks.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

South would win, but at a very very heavy cost. We're talking millions of civilian casualties.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Only a lunatic would support war with North Korea. I'm hoping that Bush doesn't.

[jerusalemcar5]

Yes we will use the huge military force we have at the ready to crush N. Korea.

[MasterJedi]

Yes there will be a war, just not now.

[MODU]

North Korea isn't very smart then, since we are still in a state of war with them since the war first broke out.

Well the war never ended, it's been a 50+ year cease fire.

Exactly.

[Colin]

Kim Jong-Il doesn't want to spend the rest of his life rotting in a jail cell when the other option is living in opulence and controlling a nation with an iron fist. So unless the US presses the issue, which isn't happening, nothing will come of it. This is a ploy by Kim to make the Western media scared and try to show that he has some backbone. The bad thing is the papers are buying into this histeria that war is likely or imminent because a threatening war always sells newspapers.

[Bdub]

There isnt going to be a war anytime soon.

[Jake]

Out of curosity, are there any military buffs on here that could hypothesize what a conventional war between North and South Korea would look like today? I'm guessing China would ride it out neutral, while the South Korea would be backed by the United States and various European Union powers. I also think that it would quickly turn into a war of attrition, and with ways of replenishing their resources, North Korea would crumble within a few weeks.

Pretty much. If China sits it out, we're looking at no more than a month-long offensive from North Korea using "blitzkreig" like tactics to move south. Seoul would be pretty much destroyed by air, rocket, and artillery bombardment, costing as BRTD says, millions of civilian casualties. The North Koreans have no possible way of maintaining an offensive ala 1950, and once the run short of supplies (especially fuel), their offensive will grind to a halt. Then it's up to whoever wants to pick up the pieces and occupy the North (my bet's on the Chinese, with UN aid propping the country up).

The war would cause an economic collapse (obviously) in Korea, and the world economy would suffer heavily. Not a pretty situation, which is why I'm wondering why the warmongerer Inks is so giddy for it to happen.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The war would cause an economic collapse (obviously) in Korea, and the world economy would suffer heavily. Not a pretty situation, which is why I'm wondering why the warmongerer Inks is so giddy for it to happen.

^^^

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Well the war never ended, it's been a 50+ year cease fire.

very good point

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

TexasGurl is correct. Technically, South Korea is still at war with North Korea.

And no, I don't think war will break out. It really isn't within the interests of either side to have a Korean War II.

Out of curosity, are there any military buffs on here that could hypothesize what a conventional war between North and South Korea would look like today? I'm guessing China would ride it out neutral, while the South Korea would be backed by the United States and various European Union powers. I also think that it would quickly turn into a war of attrition, and with ways of replenishing their resources, North Korea would crumble within a few weeks.

I disagree.  If push came shove, Cuba would come in all that they could.  China would back NK.  Japan and Taiwan and SK and the world would come together.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

TexasGurl is correct. Technically, South Korea is still at war with North Korea.

And no, I don't think war will break out. It really isn't within the interests of either side to have a Korean War II.

Out of curosity, are there any military buffs on here that could hypothesize what a conventional war between North and South Korea would look like today? I'm guessing China would ride it out neutral, while the South Korea would be backed by the United States and various European Union powers. I also think that it would quickly turn into a war of attrition, and with ways of replenishing their resources, North Korea would crumble within a few weeks.

I disagree.  If push came shove, Cuba would come in all that they could.  China would back NK.  Japan and Taiwan and SK and the world would come together.

Wow, Cuba. That's a massive aid to NK!

China would not. They have nothing to gain. The only thing they'd do is secure their border and prepare to occupy NK after the inevitable collapse of the regime. They gain nothing from it remaining in power at that point.

You didn't reply as to why you want to cause millions of civilian casualties and greatly depress the world's economy.

[Boris]

TexasGurl is correct. Technically, South Korea is still at war with North Korea.

And no, I don't think war will break out. It really isn't within the interests of either side to have a Korean War II.

Out of curosity, are there any military buffs on here that could hypothesize what a conventional war between North and South Korea would look like today? I'm guessing China would ride it out neutral, while the South Korea would be backed by the United States and various European Union powers. I also think that it would quickly turn into a war of attrition, and with ways of replenishing their resources, North Korea would crumble within a few weeks.

I disagree.  If push came shove, Cuba would come in all that they could.  China would back NK.  Japan and Taiwan and SK and the world would come together.

Wow, Cuba. That's a massive aid to NK!

China would not. They have nothing to gain. The only thing they'd do is secure their border and prepare to occupy NK after the inevitable collapse of the regime. They gain nothing from it remaining in power at that point.

You didn't reply as to why you want to cause millions of civilian casualties and greatly depress the world's economy.

Exactly. It goes completely against China's self-interests to support anything North Korea does. If they don't even support North Korea's nuclear test, why the hell they back them against a war against the world? They would gain absolutely nothing and would ultimately lose everything that their economy has achieved since the 1970s.

[dazzleman]

TexasGurl is correct. Technically, South Korea is still at war with North Korea.

And no, I don't think war will break out. It really isn't within the interests of either side to have a Korean War II.

Out of curosity, are there any military buffs on here that could hypothesize what a conventional war between North and South Korea would look like today? I'm guessing China would ride it out neutral, while the South Korea would be backed by the United States and various European Union powers. I also think that it would quickly turn into a war of attrition, and with ways of replenishing their resources, North Korea would crumble within a few weeks.

I hope you're right, but to be fair, the first Korean War wasn't in anybody's interests either, and it still happened.  Crazy people like Kim Jong-Il (and Saddam Hussein) aren't always the best at gauging their own interests.

If North Korea launches a war, it will be destroyed.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I hope you're right, but to be fair, the first Korean War wasn't in anybody's interests either, and it still happened.  Crazy people like Kim Jong-Il (and Saddam Hussein) aren't always the best at gauging their own interests.

I would not say that Saddam was irrational.  He came to the rational decision that if the United States invaded Iraq it would open up a can of worms that it was not prepared to deal with.  His mistake was assuming that Bush 43 would, like Bush 41 had, come to that same conclusion.  Of course that's what usually starts wars.  The leaders of the opposing sides come to different predictions of what the result be, and as a result, war breaks out.

[dazzleman]

I hope you're right, but to be fair, the first Korean War wasn't in anybody's interests either, and it still happened.  Crazy people like Kim Jong-Il (and Saddam Hussein) aren't always the best at gauging their own interests.

I would not say that Saddam was irrational.  He came to the rational decision that if the United States invaded Iraq it would open up a can of worms that it was not prepared to deal with.  His mistake was assuming that Bush 43 would, like Bush 41 had, come to that same conclusion.  Of course that's what usually starts wars.  The leaders of the opposing sides come to different predictions of what the result be, and as a result, war breaks out.

I was actually thinking more of his invasion of Kuwait when I wrote that.  That's what really started his problems.  If he wanted war, he should have kept fighting Iran.  If he had, we'd be the closest of allies today.  The ending of the Iran-Iraq war was the worst thing to happen in the middle east.

[Gabu]

North Korea, like any non-superpower rogue state*, basically has a very careful balance to strike.  If they give too many concessions to the rest of the world, the leaders will end up losing their power.  If they give too few, the leaders will end up being forced out of power through a military invasion.

Kim Jong-Il is very experienced in the art of bluffing just enough to make people scared without going so far as to make them decide to take action against him.  I have no doubt that this, too, is intended to be a bluff to try to make the world back off without inciting people to violence against him.

That said, however, I don't know if war will break out.  I have a feeling that Kim knows full well he's not going to win in a war against the rest of the world, but he may still go too far due to someone reacting more strongly than he had expected.

In the very, very long run, it would probably be a good thing to have Kim removed (and not replaced by one of his relatives), but it would come at a very, very heavy cost up front, and I would not exactly consider it desirable for that reason.

*I say non-superpower because this doesn't apply to, say, the Soviet Union.  They were in the situation where it wasn't really guaranteed at all that the invaders would win a war (in fact, their nukes made it essentially a certainty that no one would win in the war).

[AuH2O]

Any war on the Korean peninsula would be a very messy affair. It's a nightmare scenario for the US because Seoul would be destroyed by conventional weapons. Really, NK has had a deterrent all along for that very reason, which is why their pursuit of nukes goes way beyond deterring US attack (that might be a tertiary reason, at best).

The US would have to choose between letting NK destroy the South, and nuking the North, which would save lots of lives initially but throw radioactive dust in the vicinity of China, Japan, etc. There is a chance Kim's generals will not follow orders to initiate an attack, though obviously they would fight if attacked.