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HandoGod
Joined: 06 May 2006
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 Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2006 3:32 pm Post subject: N.Korea Nuclear Testing |
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| Quote: | North Korea has claimed to have successfully tested a nuclear device. BBC News looks at the crisis over North Korea's nuclear ambitions, and the likely ramifications.
Why does this issue matter so much?
The nuclear test follows four years of mounting tension between North Korea and the US, in what is possibly the most serious threat to East Asia's short and long-term security.
If a nuclear test is confirmed, it will cement North Korea's place as a nuclear power, effectively ending hopes of resolving the stand-off through stalled six-nation talks. It would also greatly increase the risk of an East Asian arms race, as countries like Japan and South Korea weighed up whether to go nuclear as well.
Why has North Korea decided to test now?
The secretive North's leader Kim Jong-il appears to have given up negotiating.
He may have decided the US was never going to meet his conditions for giving up the North's nuclear programmes. North Korea's official media has long warned that the US was preparing to attack, and developing a nuclear capability was the only way to prevent this.
Mr Kim may also still be smarting after China, the North's only real ally, backed UN sanctions against the country in July.
Left isolated, Mr Kim may have felt that a nuclear test was the best way to shore up his own authority at home.
What do we know about North Korea's nuclear weapons programme?
North Korea claims to be working on building up its nuclear weapons arsenal.
The problem for the rest of the world is that it is very difficult to verify these claims.
Most arms control experts suspect North Korea did pursue an active weapons programme - certainly up to 1994, when it signed a landmark agreement to freeze all nuclear-related activities.
But in December 2002, it restarted its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon and forced two UN nuclear monitors to leave the country.
It is unclear how far work has progressed at Yongbyon since then.
If the reactor were fully operational, some analysts believe it could produce enough plutonium to build approximately one weapon per year.
America's CIA says a separate, enriched uranium programme could be producing "two or more" bombs each year by the middle of this decade.
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More...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2340405.stm
What are your thoughts?
I saw Bush make a statement on BBC News 24 this morning condemning their actions to go ahead with the test.
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faceless
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Joined: 25 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2006 3:42 pm Post subject: |
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The only thing about this that bothers me is that there are people getting by on nothing in North Korea down to the mismanagement of the country and yet Sung still finds the resources to invest in shite like this - in that sense he's not much removed from any other leader who puts ego and nationhood before its people.
The fact that the South Korean diplomat Ban Ki-moon has today been initiated as the head of the UN is quite a coincidence... |
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Skylace
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Joined: 29 Apr 2006
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
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| Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2006 5:28 pm Post subject: |
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I think nuclear weapons are evil things and I don't like anyone having them. The fact that he has been working towards this since before the current war in the Middle East and nothing was done about it shows to me that our current situation had nothing to do with WMD.
Kim Jong-il is a scary individual. However, it is not our place to say who can and cannot have nuclear weapons. I am also disgusted at how people there live and yet this has been able to take place:no: |
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janbo1960
Joined: 29 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2006 8:47 pm Post subject: |
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I bet George and Connie Rice have been up all night trying to find an al qaeda link!!!  |
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faceless
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Joined: 25 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 12:39 pm Post subject: |
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janbo1960
Joined: 29 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 1:16 pm Post subject: |
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| Nice one Face!!! |
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eefanincan
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Joined: 29 Apr 2006
Location: Canada
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| Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 9:15 pm Post subject: |
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| Skylace wrote: | I think nuclear weapons are evil things and I don't like anyone having them. The fact that he has been working towards this since before the current war in the Middle East and nothing was done about it shows to me that our current situation had nothing to do with WMD.
Kim Jong-il is a scary individual. However, it is not our place to say who can and cannot have nuclear weapons. I am also disgusted at how people there live and yet this has been able to take place:no: |
I share your opinion, Sky. It's not the USA's place to say who should have them. |
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janbo1960
Joined: 29 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 9:33 pm Post subject: |
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| eefanincan wrote: | | Skylace wrote: | I think nuclear weapons are evil things and I don't like anyone having them. The fact that he has been working towards this since before the current war in the Middle East and nothing was done about it shows to me that our current situation had nothing to do with WMD.
Kim Jong-il is a scary individual. However, it is not our place to say who can and cannot have nuclear weapons. I am also disgusted at how people there live and yet this has been able to take place:no: |
I share your opinion, Sky. It's not the USA's place to say who should have them. |
I Agree.... lest we forget ... theres only been one nation to actually use nuclear weapons on another...hmmmm |
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fritz
Joined: 29 Apr 2006
Location: Florida
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| Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 1:15 pm Post subject: |
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Hell its o.k. that he has nukes.He don?t live in my neighborhood.  |
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IRiSHMaFIA
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Joined: 29 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2006 4:36 pm Post subject: |
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| janbo1960 wrote: | | I bet George and Connie Rice have been up all night trying to find an al qaeda link!!! |
I'm sure there's some merit to that! |
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