North Korea Agrees to end Nuke Program

[Prime Time Andrew Doyle 0]

North Korea Agrees to End Nuclear Programs

 

BEIJING -    North Korea on Monday agreed to stop building nuclear weapons and allow international inspections in exchange for energy aid, economic cooperation and security assurances, in a first step toward disarmament after two years of six-nation talks.

 

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The chief U.S. envoy to the talks praised the breakthrough as a "win-win situation" and "good agreement for all of us." But he promptly urged Pyongyang to make good on its promises by ending operations at its main nuclear facility at Yongbyon.

 

"What is the purpose of operating it at this point?" said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill. "The time to turn it off would be about now."

 

Despite the deal's potential to help significantly ease friction between the North and the United States after years of false starts and setbacks, Hill remained cautious.

 

"We have to see what comes in the days and weeks ahead," he said.

 

The agreement clinched seven days of talks aimed at setting out general principles for the North's disarmament. Envoys agreed to return in early November to begin hashing out details of how that will be done.

 

Then, the hard work of ensuring compliance will begin, officials attending the talks said.

 

"Agreeing to a common document does not mean that the solution to our problems has been found," said Japan's chief envoy, Kenichiro Sasae.

 

Another Japanese official, who spoke on condition he not be named in order to discuss the issue more freely, noted that there was no common understanding among the participants about the nature of North Korea's nuclear program.

 

The head of the U.N. nuclear nonproliferation agency welcomed North Korea's decision to allow inspections, saying he hoped his experts could take the country at its word as soon as possible.

 

"The earlier we go back, the better," said Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the    International Atomic Energy Agency.

 

According to a joint statement issued at the talks' conclusion, the North "committed to abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and returning at an early date" to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards.

 

"The six parties unanimously reaffirmed that the goal of the six-party talks is the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner," the statement said.

 

Responding to Pyongyang's claims that it needs atomic weapons for defense, North Korea and the United States pledged to respect each other's sovereignty and right to peaceful coexistence, and also to take steps to normalize relations.

 

"The United States affirmed that it has no nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula and has no intention to attack or invade (North Korea) with nuclear or conventional weapons," according to the statement, in assurances echoed by    South Korea.

 

The talks, which began in August 2003, include China, Japan, Russia, the United States and the two Koreas.

 

The negotiations had been deadlocked over North Korea's demand to keep the right to civilian nuclear programs after it disarms, and the statement acknowledges the North has made such an assertion but doesn't go beyond that.

 

North Korea had also demanded that it be given a light-water nuclear reactor at the latest talks — a type less easily diverted for weapons use — but Washington had said it and other countries at the talks wouldn't meet that request.

 

Putting aside the question for now, the statement said: "The other parties expressed their respect and agreed to discuss at an appropriate time the subject of the provision of light-water reactor" to North Korea.

 

The North will have to build trust by fulfilling all its pledges before that issue would be discussed, said Sasae, who is director of the Asia and Oceania Bureau at Japan's Foreign Ministry.

 

North Korea has also refused to totally disarm without getting concessions along the way, while Washington has said it wants to see the weapons programs totally dismantled before granting rewards. The statement, however, says the sides agreed to take steps to implement the agreement "in a phased manner in line with the principle of 'commitment for commitment, action for action.'"

 

The other countries at the talks said they were willing give energy assistance to the North, including a South Korean plan to deliver electricity across the heavily armed border dividing the peninsula.

 

"This is the most important result since the six-party talks started more than two years ago," said Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, Beijing's envoy.

 

North Korea was promised two light-water reactors under a 1994 deal with Washington to abandon its nuclear weapons. That agreement fell apart in late 2002 with the outbreak of the latest nuclear crisis, when U.S. officials said North Korea admitted having a secret uranium enrichment program.

 

The North is believed to have enough radioactive material for about a half-dozen bombs from its publicly acknowledged plutonium program, but hasn't performed any known nuclear tests to prove its capability. In February, the North claimed it had nuclear weapons.

 

Japan and North Korea also said in the statement they would move to normalize relations regarding "the outstanding issues of concern." The reference appears to allude to Tokyo's concerns over its citizens that the North has admitted abducting.

[Guest Damn You Helmsley]

 

God, this guy is easy going.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

About time, I guess diplomacy isn't dead after all.

[Slayer 0]

Two weeks later...

[CheesalaIsGood 0]

Didn't they agree to this before? There is going to have to be some serious proving done to get this to be even close to believed. Hopefully, it happens.

[BruiserKC 0]

I'll believe it when I see it. North Korea has promised this going back to the mid-90s and keeps lying through their teeth.

[2GOLD 0]

I'll believe it when I see it.  North Korea has promised this going back to the mid-90s and keeps lying through their teeth.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yeah, but the other times they didn't pinkie swear on it!

Or promise if they broke the treaty to, and I quote, "stick a needle in our eye".

[Guest Vitamin X]

Wait a minute... inspections, eh?

 

Sounds like the beginning of the end for North Korea..

[Eclipse 0]

And how many years has that been in the making?

 

That inspections part just gave me an eerie Iraq vibe...

[Dangerous A 0]

North Korea kind of hangs the nuke threat over the world's head every now and then to get a bologna sandwich (figuratively speaking). Well, now they are getting some bologna sandwiches i.e. energy aid, economic cooperation and security assurances

[BruiserKC 0]

This is different from a nation like Iran getting nukes. In North Korea their people are starving, they want food, farming, and money so that they can get on their feet. If the bird flies, they get nothing. They know this, so they use the threat to get what they want.

 

In Iran..."Death to America" is as popular a slogan as "Where's The Beef." You put nukes in their hands they would try to launch on America if they could...Israel for sure. And the Israelis having nukes is the worst kept secret since Slick Willie said he didn't bang Monica in the Oval Office.

[Dr. Tyler; Captain America 0]

I'll believe it when I see it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[Guest cosbywasmurdered]

I have a bridge to sell

[Guest Cerebus]

Marty we're going back in time...to 1994!

[Slayer 0]

I saw the sign... and it opened up my eyes, I saw the sign

[SuperJerk 0]

Marty we're going back in time...to 1994!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Nothing makes for informed, insightful reading like a right-wing blog.

 

The lych pin of the argument presented in that link is a quote from something called Insight Magazine (dated January 6, 2003), which has also quoted a House of Representatives Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare from August of 1994. The Insight Magazine article is titled: Clinton Ignored Kim Jong-il's Nukes

 

Their proof?

 

But according to documents obtained by Insight, and confirmed by highly placed sources, North Korea already had operational nuclear devices in 1994 when the Clinton administration signed its controversial "oil-for-peace" agreement.

 

http://www.insightmag.com/media/paper441/news/342934.html

 

So, based on this they claim that not only did North Korea have nukes 11 years ago, but the President KNEW about it?

 

Just a little bit later, the article contradicts itself with this statement:

 

Publicly, experts disagree about the state of the North Korean nuclear-weapons program. Some estimates indicate that the Kim Jong-il regime could have a nuclear bomb within one year; others say it already has two.

 

That's some cutting edge journalism right there.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

windsofchange is usually a pretty good blog, but they have a few nutty types there.

[The Czech Republic 0]

PLEASE change your sig?

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

PLEASE change your sig?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

You don't like?

[The Czech Republic 0]

He's hanging out with The King in my nightmares.

 

[The Mandarin 0]

 

Why would you do that? Why would you do that?

 

Oh GOD I wish they'd bring back the guy who says "I'm spicy".

[SuperJerk 0]

N. Korea long-range missile fails in test launch

Rogue country sends at least five rockets into the Sea of Japan

The Associated Press

 

Updated: 9:20 p.m. CT July 4, 2006

 

WASHINGTON - A defiant North Korea test-fired a long-range missile Wednesday that may be capable of reaching America, but it failed seconds after launch, U.S. officials said. The North also tested four shorter range missiles in an exercise the White House called “a provocation” but not an immediate threat.

 

Ignoring stern U.S. and Japanese warnings, the isolated communist nation carried out the audacious military tests even as the U.S. celebrated the Fourth of July and launched the space shuttle.

 

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported as many as 10 missiles altogether may have been launched, but officials could not confirm that.

 

None of the missiles made it as far as Japan. The Japanese government said all landed in the Sea of Japan between Japan and the Korean Peninsula.

 

“We do consider it provocative behavior,” National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said.

 

Japan protested the tests and called for a U.N. Security Council meeting.

 

“We will take stern measures,” said chief government spokesman Shinzo Abe, adding that sanctions were a possibility. He said the launch violated a longstanding moratorium, and that Tokyo was not given prior notification by Pyongyang.

 

In Colorado, the North American Aerospace Defense Command was put on heightened alert, or "Bravo-Plus" status, slightly higher than a medium threat level, on Monday in anticipation of possible activities by North Korea, said Michael Kucharek, a NORAD spokesman in Colorado Springs.

 

NORAD and the U.S. Northern Command is responsible for defending U.S. territory.

 

Weeks of preparation, saber-rattling

President Bush has been in consultation with Rice, Hadley and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of state, is set to head to the region on Wednesday, and Hadley is to meet with his South Korean counterpart, a meeting in Washington that already had been scheduled, Snow said.

 

The test firings, which are seen as a provocation by the United States and other nations trying to get North Korea to submit to a verifiable nuclear program, occurred as Americans were celebrating Independence Day.

 

The reclusive communist nation's action came after weeks of speculation that it was preparing to test its Taepodong 2 missile. The preparations prompted warnings from the United States and Japan, which had threatened possible economic sanctions in response.

 

The launch came after weeks of speculation that the North was preparing to test the Taepodong-2 from a site on its northeast coast. The preparations had generated stern warnings from the United States and Japan, which had threatened possible economic sanctions in response.

 

“North Korea has gone ahead with the launch despite international protest,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said. “That is regrettable from the standpoint of Japan’s security, the stability of international society, and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.”

 

Series of launches

The missiles all landed hundreds of miles away from Japan and there were no reports the missiles caused damage within Japanese territory, Abe said.

 

He said the first missile was launched at about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, or about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday EDT. The two others were launched at bout 4 a.m. and 5 a.m., he said.

 

If the timing is correct, the North Korean missiles were launched within minutes of Tuesday’s liftoff of Discovery, which blasted into orbit from Cape Canaveral in the first U.S. space shuttle launch in a year.

 

It was not clear which launch was the long-range missile. The Japanese government was unable to confirm the report by U.S. officials that a Taepodong-2 was fired.

 

Han Song Ryol, deputy chief of North Korea’s mission to the U.N. in New York, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview: “We diplomats do not know what the military is doing.”

 

North Korea’s missile program is based on Scud technology provided by the former Soviet Union or Egypt, according to American and South Korean officials. North Korea started its Rodong-1 missile project in the late 1980s and test-fired the missile for the first time in 1993.

 

Rhetoric heats up

North Korea had observed a moratorium on long-range missile launches since 1999. It shocked the world in 1998 by firing a Taepodong missile over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean.

 

On Monday, the North’s main news agency quoted an unidentified newspaper analyst as saying Pyongyang was prepared to answer a U.S. military attack with “a relentless annihilating strike and a nuclear war.”

 

The Bush administration responded by saying while it had no intention of attacking, it was determined to protect the United States if North Korea launched a long-range missile.

 

On Monday, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns warned North Korea against firing the missile and urged the communist country to return to six-nation talks on its nuclear program.

 

The six-party talks, suspended by North Korea, involved negotiations by the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia with Pyongyang over the country’s nuclear program.

 

The United States and its allies South Korea and Japan have taken quick steps over the past week to strengthen their missile defenses. Washington and Tokyo are working on a joint missile-defense shield, and South Korea is considering the purchase of American SM-2 defensive missiles for its destroyers.

 

The U.S. and North Korea have been in a standoff over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program since 2002. The North claims to have produced nuclear weapons, but that claim has not been publicly verified by outside analysts.

 

While public information on North Korea’s military capabilities is murky, experts doubt that the regime has managed to develop a nuclear warhead small enough to mount on its long-range missiles.

 

Nonetheless, Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told U.S. lawmakers last week that officials took the potential launch reports seriously and were looking at the full range of capabilities possessed by North Korea.

 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13704198/

[Guest]

Dangerous as hell, but the long range missile failed. Granted, that's not much consolation to anybody and this problem needs to be solved quickly.

[Gary Floyd 0]

N. Korea long-range missile fails in test launch

Rogue country sends at least five rockets into the Sea of Japan

Oh shit...

[CBright7831 0]

N. Korea long-range missile fails in test launch

Rogue country sends at least five rockets into the Sea of Japan

Oh shit...

 

I you for the Godzilla reference.

[Guest JustPassinBy]

Tough spot for the US, bc China backs North Korea.

If the US retaliates, that will draw China into a conflict, and you dont want to get in a land war with China. They outnumber us 10-1.

[Art Sandusky 0]

China's kinda cheesed at North Korea these days too.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I'm wondering if the US could get away with dropping a nuclear weapon on North Korea in retaliation at this point.

[EricMM 0]

The US cannot "get away" with anything.

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

Our hands are mostly tied in dealing with North Korea because the option people keep talking about with diplomacy, more sanctions, simply isn't an option because North Korea is one of the most isolated places in the world and can't really get more isolated as it is.

 

This leaves us with three options on the table:

 

#1-Get China to cut off economic aid

#2-Launch a military strike

#3-Assassinate Kim Jong Il

 

The first option isn't likely because if China collapses the North Korea economy it would have to deal with a flood of North Korean refugees at its borders which it doesn't want and explains why it hasn't done anything severe to North Korea yet. The second option also isn't likely because China would not feel comfortable with U.S. forces so close to its borders and North Korea acts as a buffer against US influence in South Korea as is. It's the same parallel one can draw about Russia being nervous about the U.S. having forces in Uzbekistan and Krgystan years after 9-11. The third option is prohibited by executive order under Ford but I tend to favor it because Mr. Kim is insane and the longer he stays around acting like a spoiled child the more dangerous the world is going to be. However, this option isn't likely either.

 

At the end of the day the only nation who can do us some good here is China and I favor the diplomatic school of thought lately that says that China keeps NK around so that it can play an important role in U.S. foreign policy and as such they aren't going to be doing anything about it anytime soon. In fact, the ONLY way I see China getting involved is if Japan feels that its security is majorly threatened and starts exploring its own nuclear weapons program because if there is one thing the Chinese definitely do not want to see its a nuclear Japan they'd have to contest with in Asia.