Norhth Korea threatens further weapons tests.

[Timber Loftis]

Timber's amazingly insightful opening OpEd: For my [img]graemlins/twocents.gif[/img] I note firstly that those who though their ICBM launches were satelittes, you bought their toung-in-cheek byline that they put out once everyone expressed anger. Second, I note that "normalized" relations involve, mostly, TRADE in common parlance. Not quite the thing to threaten nukes about, IMHO. Third, who TF do they think they are? Nuclear development in violation of treaties, kidnapping Japanese citizens, etc - and all with such balls. Some folks (meaning: dictators) really need to be put in their proper place upon occasion. Fourth, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi should quit po-pooing their threats so much, as he's the only first-world nation that their ICBM's can reach. Fifth, you'll note that the kidnappees were released to visit Japan, but N.K., after being caught in the abductions, kept the families to assure the return of the Japanese abductees/kidnappees. Assholes. Japan has raised the stakes, saying they will allow the abductees to stay, and that N.K. should send the families on over. Finally, I'll note that *this* is a country posing a threat - much moreso than Mr. Bad Mustache in the desert.

North Korea Warns of New Tests Unless Japan Ties Improve
By HOWARD W. FRENCH

TOKYO, Nov. 5 — North Korea warned today that unless relations with Japan are quickly normalized it would resume its testing of ballistic missiles.

The thinly veiled threat was issued by an unidentified Foreign Ministry spokesman less than a week after the first high-level talks between the two countries in two years, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ended in an angry stalemate.

Today's statement said that the "relevant organs" would "reconsider the moratorium on the missile test-fire in case the talks on normalizing the relations between North Korea and Japan get prolonged without making any progress, as was the case with the recent talks."

North Korea shocked this country in 1998 with a surprise test of a Taepodong intercontinental ballistic missile, which overflew Japan. North Korea later claimed that the missile test was a satellite launch, and has refrained from further testing for several years. It reaffirmed a self-imposed moratorium on missile testing only six weeks ago in a meeting between North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan.

Speaking in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where he was attending a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Mr. Koizumi dismissed the warning today, saying it did not figure in any government-to-government communication.

He expressed confidence that Japan's diplomatic engagement with the North would bear fruit. "I believe North Korea will not do anything to trample the spirit of the Pyongyang declaration," Mr. Koizumi said.

During Mr. Koizumi's one-day meeting with Mr. Kim, the North Korean leader pledged not only to continue to observe its missile test moratorium, but also to abide by all international obligations regarding nuclear weapons.

The meeting seemed to put the two countries on a fast track toward establishing diplomatic relations.

Since the demise of the Soviet bloc, North Korea has suffered devastating famines and increasingly severe economic hardships. In preparatory negotiations, Japan offered large financial incentives to the North to change its repressive, militaristic behavior, promising a major aid package in case of normalized relations.

Since the Sept. 17 meeting, however, the United States announced that North Korea had acknowledged the existence of a previously secret uranium-based nuclear weapons development program, which America says violates international commitments made by the North in 1994.

Until now the principal issue separating Japan and North Korea had been North Korea's kidnapping of 13 Japanese citizens, beginning in the late 1970's, for use as trainers in the country's spy program. Washington's insistence that North Korea eliminate its secret weapons program before receiving Japanese economic aid has revived tensions.

The five survivors among the 13 kidnapped Japanese, who are now visiting Japan for the first time in a quarter century, have become a political and emotional football between the two countries.

North Korea initially granted the five permission to visit Japan for two weeks, and kept their spouses and children behind, ostensibly as a guarantee of their return. On the eve of the normalization talks, however, Japan raised the stakes, announcing that it would extend the stay of its citizens indefinitely. It urged the North to allow the immediate relatives of those who had been kidnapped to travel here.

North Korea then angrily accused Japan of breaking the agreement. Following the stalemated talks with Japan, North Korea has resumed calls to the United States to normalize relations, saying it will surrender its nuclear program if the United States will guarantee the North's security.

Even as it sends out feelers like these, however, North Korea's official news media continue to issue belligerent statements. This week, for example, the daily Rodong Sinmun lashed out at the United States and others that have said the North was seeking economic rewards for dropping its programs to develop weapons of mass destruction.

This means that if North Korea "puts down arms, it will receive sugar," the Workers' Party daily said in an editorial, adding, "This is an unbearable insult."

"It is the faith and will of the Korean people that they can survive without sugar but not without arms," it said, adding that the country "cannot sacrifice its army for a piece of gold."

[Mellagar]

Sounds to me like North Korea knew exactly what they were doing. They couldn't get the ear of certain nations to hear their plea when the rug was pulled out from under them when the Russian bloc disappeared. So in turn they use nuclear weapons as leverage to get aid from the United States, and to save face against the Japanese. True they do have some balls on them as you say, but they do it because there's something to be had from it. I do not agree with what they did, and it does seem to be a bit extreme in order to get foreign aid, but the country was in famine and broke.