South Korea has confirmed that North Korea has begun restoring the Yongbyon nuclear facility.
This after reports in the US and Japanese media.
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South Korea has confirmed that North Korea has begun restoring the Yongbyon nuclear facility.
This after reports in the US and Japanese media.
Korea News via Google
15 Comments
Eh… it’s a negotiation ploy.
You just don’t “rebuild” a nuke facility out of thin air…
Maybe this time they will put in a MacDonald’s because those lunch breaks are just too short.
Negotiation? N. Korea doesn’t Negotiate. It just tells nations what it is or isn’t going to do. Period.
What did Bush say about Bolton’s credibility again?
North Korea just suckers other countries for aid money and benefits and then just does what it wants anyway. I can’t understand why anyone gives anything to the North in a bilateral agreement. Haven’t they figured out they are being played yet? What is it, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me 100 times, you must be North Korea,”?
I can see why the South Sends aid, it just doesn’t want to deal with huge bill it will pay when North Korea collapses and it is constitutionally obliged to merge it with itself. Why the US, or anyone else, (even China), gives the North anything is beyond me. They will get nothing back either in treaty form or good will.
Hell I don’t even know why they talk to the North, it’s just an exercise in sadomasochism.
Actually, in the US, I blame free and fair elections. Every few years you get a new government in office that doesn’t really know anything about the North and tries to deal with them in the same manner it would any other country. Or in 주체 speak, “New capitalist running dog opponents ready to be anally penetrated by the righteous, cunningly correct foreign policy of our noble Dear Leader.”
I don’t see how ‘free and fair’ elections applies to either the US or North Korea?
Do you propose both countries become more democratic to resolve this problem?
I do not think it is very likely that either country will dispose of their nuclear arsenals or nuclear power programs.
The former is too good for military reasons and the latter too good for the environment.
North Korea always pulls a stunt like this at this time of year. They want food and fuel aid.
North Korean fields do not yield enough crops (thanks to the government’s mismanagement of its soil and workers) to feed the population and bribe the armed forces. A high percentage of the crops they produce (and of the aid they receive) is used to appease the armed forces in order to ensure that they don’t overthrow the government.
peter,
I was just saying that free and fair elections in the US causes a change in personal directing foreign policy. As, until recently, North Korea remained relatively off the radar as far as US foreign policy was concerned, this change in leadership allowed the North to, effectively, play the same con, over and over, on the US. By the time the newly elected American leaders realized they were being played, they were replaced by new leaders who were clueless.
(Let’s face it, in the US foreign affairs almost always takes a back seat to domestic in election politics. Those running for office must master the later and not necessarily the former. So, you often have newly elected officials learning on the job in regards to international politics.)
This, in my opinion, has been a negative effect of what I consider, overall, to be a very, very positive process, free and fair elections. Or, at least, a weakness that has been noted and exploited by the North Koreans.
I truly wonder how legit these nuclear facilities ever were. Build a couple smoke stacks, a few non-descript buildings, have a steady stream of trucks carrying nothing go to and from said “facilities,” making sure that the activity is done in broad daylight under cloudless skies and US intelligence will go bonkers over the possibility of nuclear proliferation in the Korean peninsula. Biggest scam in the world.
I guarantee that what ever was done with it, when they blew it they were done with it. This “rebuild” is likely just for show, trying to squeeze some more bucks out of someone.
Interesting point, #10, SambekZX. There are some round here who will swear to you that the North has not only been building plutonium bombs using the Yongbyon facility but also experimenting at enriching uranium in secret. One of the big pieces of evidence for the latter is that the North “admitted” to it.
#8 Tripod
Is it mismanagement of land or is it intentionally manufacturing a famine in order to get food aid (to feed the military and government elite) so they can divert resources to something else like, let’s say, “glow-in-the-dark” technology and delivery systems? North Korean development of missile technology tracks with foreign food and fuel aid.
#13,
A little bit of both and more. Starvation is viewed by the North Korean government as a means to control the population and stifle dissent. You simply can’t keep on sending skilled workers, doctors, and engineers to their death for long before the country begins to suffer…not that the North Korean government ever cared.
I recommend that you read ‘Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader’. It’s an eye-opener.
#14 Tripod
Definitely another reason the sick bastards do it, and starvation isn’t the worst of what’s going on there. I’ll look into the book.