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2005-02-12 China-Japan-Koreas
N. Korean Bluff Is Typical, Experts Say
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Posted by Fred 2005-02-12 12:35:05 AM|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 The Norks problem is that people have to believe they have a bomb for the bluff to work. Remember they have never tested one. So the US (and Howard) is doing the right thing by suggesting - they don't believe the Norks have a working bomb. IMO the fact they have never tested one is conclusive proof they don't have one that will work.
Posted by phil_b 2005-02-12 5:09:37 AM||   2005-02-12 5:09:37 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 Kimmie is a classic one trick pony. We've seen it.
Posted by .com 2005-02-12 5:23:39 AM||   2005-02-12 5:23:39 AM|| Front Page Top

#3  "...Remember they have never tested one."

Phil_b, are we sure that is the case; what was that huge mountain explosion that occured in North Korea a couple of months ago? Has it been definitively ruled out as a nuke test (ie; no radiation), if so, what was that blast?!
Posted by smn 2005-02-12 5:54:40 AM||   2005-02-12 5:54:40 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 Yeah smn that wasn't a nuke blast. A nuclear detonation has a particularly unique seismic signature that shows up easily. Sorta analogs the double flash in an above ground nuclear explosion.
Posted by Valentine 2005-02-12 8:04:46 AM||   2005-02-12 8:04:46 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 â€œIt's a pattern that's been seen repeatedly in the past. The North stoked world fears when it threatened to pull out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in the early 1990s, then backed down after signing a 1994 deal with Washington to receive energy aid”.


I’m not sure if backing down really describes what happened. After all they received everything they asked for: food and oil without any effective oversight of their nuclear program.
Posted by Canaveral Dan 2005-02-12 9:40:45 AM||   2005-02-12 9:40:45 AM|| Front Page Top

#6 The NKors must have run into a technical problem developing a bomb that actually works. Semantically their inference to a weapon could indeed be a dirty bomb of some sort. Thus the bluff of a "nuke."
Posted by JP 2005-02-12 10:55:00 AM||   2005-02-12 10:55:00 AM|| Front Page Top

#7 Call his bluff. Tell him if one goes off anywhere in the world, we'll assume North Korea's involved and Pyongyang goes up in smoke.
Posted by tu3031 2005-02-12 11:05:05 AM||   2005-02-12 11:05:05 AM|| Front Page Top

#8 JP,
Betting that NK has tech problems is a bad bet. NK traded Pakistan ballistic missile tech for uranium enrichment and bomb tech. The Pakistani nuke tests in 1998 showed them which designs did and did not work (some fizzled). http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/pakistan/nuke/
Posted by ed 2005-02-12 11:41:36 AM||   2005-02-12 11:41:36 AM|| Front Page Top

#9 Wasn't there some speculation that one of Pakistan's nuclear tests was done on behalf of another country?
Posted by Robert Crawford  2005-02-12 1:03:27 PM|| [http://www.kloognome.com/]  2005-02-12 1:03:27 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 Several Pakistani nuclear bomb tests didn't work. Think about it, if the Norks had tested a bomb that worked their negotiating position improves dramatically. If they have one they would have tested it for sure.
Posted by phil_b 2005-02-12 2:41:11 PM||   2005-02-12 2:41:11 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 All I needed to see was the Kimmy graphic, and I'm happy. Thanks, BigEd, for putting it in earlier this week. I was at work, and didn't see it till way too late.
Posted by nada 2005-02-12 5:34:54 PM||   2005-02-12 5:34:54 PM|| Front Page Top

00:02 Aris Katsaris
23:54 CrazyFool
23:25 Cyber Sarge
23:17 DMFD
23:15 Dishman
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23:08 phil_b
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22:48 Dishman
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22:35 Tom
22:33 God Save The World
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