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| Korea |
| N. Korea suspends talks with South |
| 2003-03-22 |
| North Korea has suspended next week's talks on economic and maritime cooperation with South Korea, blaming Seoul's heightened military alert status. The suspension was reported Saturday by South Korea's Yonhap news agency. Yonhap quoted Park Chang-ryon, North Korean chairman of the inter-Korean economic cooperation promotion committee, as saying the postponement was necessary when "one party to the talks points a sword at the other." The two sides were to have begun a new round of talks in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang on Wednesday on aspects of economic cooperation, including commercial shipping. Commercial shipping? How in the world do the NKors manage to have any of that? "South Korea will have to take full responsibility for this," Yonhap quoted Park as saying. "He ain't heavy, he's my brother ..." South Korea moved to "defense readiness condition 2" on Thursday, with new President Roh Moo-hyun citing the situation with North Korea and the government's need to be prepared for a possible terrorist incident or "other contingencies" after the start of the U.S.-led attack on Iraq. The heightened military alert also coincides with the start of the South's annual large-scale joint military exercises with the United States, dubbed "Annual" means every year, which apparently doesn't translate well into the NKor dictionary. North Korea objects to the exercises, calling them a rehearsal for invasion and claims they are pushing the situation on the Korean peninsula to the "brink of a nuclear war." Its Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said that South Korea's move — which Seoul said did not involve significant troop movements — was a "reckless confrontation campaign" timed to coincide with the start of the war on Iraq. Nervous, are we? A statement read on KCNA said the United States was planning to mount a "preemptive attack" on nuclear facilities in North Korea. "The U.S. has so far put an international pressure on the DPRK (North Korea) to scrap its 'nuclear weapons program,' claiming that the DPRK's 'nuclear issue' poses a threat to the world," the statement said. "As this did not work on the DPRK, it is now going to settle it by military means." Well now that you mention it ... The North's postponement of next week's talks raises concern that it might suspend more important inter-Korean talks scheduled for next month to ease tensions over the nuclear issue, the Associated Press reported Saturday. The two sides have made little progress in improving ties since they held a historic summit in 2000. "Hey, Kim!" "Yes, Kim?" "We got any discretionary funds to bribe our rabid friends to the north for another meeting?" "Nope, tapped out. I think it's the recession." "Guess we won't be meeting with them next month." "Ouch. Bummer." "Yeah, let's go to the red-lamp district in Tokyo and tie one on." "I'm sure we got money for that!" |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #6 Frank---I wonder how much shipping has gone in and out of Nampo harbor since the "Whatsitsname" w/o any flag finally got back with a load of cyanide. I will bet there are some "silent service" types loitering around station, just in case.... |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-03-22 11:34:48 |
| #5 I believe it was our old friend Alaska Paul that suggested interdiction by torpedo of any shipping from NK? A blockade is an act of war, but seeing as how they've torn up the truce, what's the diff? If the NK's don't wake up to reality soon, they'll be faced with 2 options, one ending with the NK regime dead, and the other with most of NK and Seoul dead - trouble is, I don't think they have a preference |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-03-22 11:18:16 |
| #4 North Korea has at least one viable commercial export, weapons. Remember the ship that was interdicted by Spanish warship earlier in the year? That was carrying the North Korean scud missle which was originally claimed by Yamen government, but later re-routed to Iraq. |
| Posted by: BigFire 2003-03-22 07:30:20 |
| #3 The North Koreans are NOT weasels. They are moles! There are several thousands of miles of tunnels in North Korea. Bunker-buster bombs can't get down quite far enough, but I'm sure Kim wasn't terribly pleased to hear of that opening salvo. The one GOOD thing - on our part, at least - is that we've watched North Korea like a hawk for the last 50 years. While not everything they've done has been observed, we do know enough to know which air vents to hit with a nice mix of chemicals that will seep down, down, down, and then go BOOM! I'm sure Kim has lost 40 pounds this past week, thinking of how the war with Iraq opened. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-03-23 01:10:41 |
| #2 The North Koreans are NOT weasels. They are moles! There are several thousands of miles of tunnels in North Korea. Bunker-buster bombs can't get down quite far enough, but I'm sure Kim wasn't terribly pleased to hear of that opening salvo. The one GOOD thing - on our part, at least - is that we've watched North Korea like a hawk for the last 50 years. While not everything they've done has been observed, we do know enough to know which air vents to hit with a nice mix of chemicals that will seep down, down, down, and then go BOOM! I'm sure Kim has lost 40 pounds this past week, thinking of how the war with Iraq opened. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-03-23 01:10:39 |
| #1 North Korea has at least one viable commercial export, weapons. Remember the ship that was interdicted by Spanish warship earlier in the year? That was carrying the North Korean scud missle which was originally claimed by Yamen government, but later re-routed to Iraq. |
| Posted by: BigFire 3/22/2003 7:30:20 AM |