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| Korea |
| Norks Bluster, Sorks and UN Blather about US Proposal |
| 2003-06-20 |
| North Korea vowed on Friday to take "strong emergency measures" to retaliate if the United States succeeds in taking Pyongyang's nuclear programs to the United Nations Security Council. The North Korean threat came as South Korea reiterated its reluctance to put the issue before the Council at this time despite U.S. moves on Thursday for a statement condemning Pyongyang for reviving its nuclear weapons program. Weenies A draft statement circulated by Washington would call on Pyongyang "to immediately and completely dismantle its nuclear weapons program in a verifiable and irreversible manner" and fully comply with international nuclear safeguard requirements, according to a copy of the text obtained by Reuters. "In the event the United States takes the nuclear issue to the United Nations, we will respond with powerful emergency measures," said the communist state's ruling party newspaper. The Rodong Sinmun did not specify how it would respond if the nuclear crisis is taken up by the Council -- a U.S. goal it described as "an attempt to legitimize an international pressure campaign against us and provoke a second Korean War." Extra rations of Juche and white slag for everyone! South Korean Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan told reporters in the Cambodian capital on Friday, that Seoul wanted more time to allow a North Korean response to proposals for multilateral talks on the eight-month-old nuclear crisis. "With a proposal made for follow-up talks to the Beijing meeting, our government's stance is that it is important to properly choose the timing" for a U.N. Security Council debate, Yoon was quoted as telling South Korean domestic media. Weenie In April, Beijing hosted talks among U.S., North Korean and Chinese officials at which Pyongyang's representative said North Korean possessed nuclear weapons and was set to make more and possibly test or transfer them to third parties. A proposed new round of multilateral talks would expand the Beijing format to involve South Korea and Japan. North Korea has resisted this formula, insisting on bilateral talks with the United States that might be followed by a larger forum. China, joined by Russia, blocked a previous U.S. effort in early April to convince the 15-nation Security Council to condemn North Korea. On account of the Norks are such nice, reasonable folks. Washington sought the action after Pyongyang announced it was pulling out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and was enriching uranium that could be used in making bombs. |
| Posted by:JP |
| #6 Marmot: sorry, my comment was a lost smiley situation -- in the U.S. TV show "MASH", the camp was supposed to be located in a place called (phonetically) "Wee-john-boo", which seemed a fair guess at how to pronounce "Uijeongbu". The Internet is a *really* good way to make yourself feel parochial... :-) |
| Posted by: snellenr 2003-06-20 16:11:42 |
| #5 Uijeongbu is a pretty big military town, but as far as a MASH units goes, I'm not quite sure. Perhaps someone else could tell us? |
| Posted by: The Marmot 2003-06-20 16:00:13 |
| #4 Marmot: If the Sorks ask us to file an environmental statement, or similar delaying tactic, we need to tell them "OK, we'll just move the troops back to the states while the details are worked out". In other words, fix the timetable for moving out of the current Uijeongbu? If I'm mispronouncing that transliterated name correctly, isn't there a MASH unit thereabouts? |
| Posted by: snellenr 2003-06-20 14:39:12 |
| #3 5th column propaganda? What 5th column propaganda? (As I look out my office window at the big Korean banners reading "Disband the Anti-Unification, Pro-American Grand National Party!" and the "Expel the Murderous US Military!") Ahh... life on a Korean university campus. Look, that repositioning is going to take a lot longer than you think - Seoul is going to stall that every step of the way by using, among other things, anti-American NGOs to protest the new base sites south of Seoul. Heck, they're not even moving south directly; first, the 2ID is going to consolidate in Uijeongbu (about a 30 minute subway ride north of Seoul), and then redeploy south of the Han. Already, people are complaining in Uijeongbu about land transfers. These guys should be pulled out immediately - there's no reason for the USFK to continue being a pawn in domestic Korean politics. As I've said nearly a 1000 times, if Seoul doesn't want to be a team player, it should be kicked off the team. Weenies, indeed. |
| Posted by: The Marmot 2003-06-20 12:52:49 |
| #2 The Norks (great name!) rattle their cages and the Sorks shake, cower, and appease. Man it is S.O.P. Why should the Norks not do this brinkmanship and foamism? It does not get them what they want, but they get some rice and an opening. I think that we need a new approach after 50 years of this nonsense. S.K. needs a message and accellerated US troop repositioning and then withdrawl should get the message across. The S.K.s also have to start cleaning all the 5th column propaganda out of their schoolbooks and everything else, or they are going down, with or without us. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-06-20 12:00:57 |
| #1 Hope our troops are relocated to the south on a faster pace every time one of the SK invertebrates tries to play down the conflict. Even better, pull em out completely in favor of an Aegis deployment between NK and Japan |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-06-20 10:59:59 |