Why North Korea is not a threat

Who would've known the day I call in sick (mental health day-as if that was an attainable goal)I'd wake up to threats of nuclear war? The next thing I expected was some nun from a past life posing the question: if the communists came in and asked you to give up your religion, how many of you would be willing to die for your religion?

Frankly, when that scenario played out(many,many) years back, there were 2 students who didn't raise their hand. Above-mentioned nun queried one of them (he was this red-headed guy with beautiful handwriting--which was always a plus in a nun's column) as to his unraised hand and he said:

I don't want to die.

Sensible, no?

No. Sensible took a vacay today, and everyone's fucking hair is on fire.

Did I mention that Jong Il Kill Will looks as if his hair actually is on fire? Yeah, a Don King wannabe.

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In the first place, did anyone ever notice that the North Korean flag is like the Texaco logo? Call yourself a nation? I'd fear a country with a Nike swish over that.

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We all know that folks play with oil company signs when they really don't mean it.

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Jesus fucking Christ--the tube is flashing pics of Kruschev & Nixon. Do we have to remake the world into the Cold War that condi got her straight A's in?

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Seriously, even in the name of journalistic responsibility, why is everybody freaking out on a claim that North Korea is testing nukes?

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I can claim that my goal is to possess the entire California coastline. (I will not let dogs poop on the beach, however)What a scary thought. One person lusts after the entire California coastline. Obviously this means war with devore!

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Did anyone notice we were treated to a week of rummy--CNN special, his WaPo editorial, and Woodward's counter-editorial? That bush41 cropped up on the tube as did the "great statesman" jim baker?

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Darlings-get your 21st century Ug boots on. North Korea is a country so regimented they actually enjoy the "HEAD-ON" commercials.
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Yeah, I know Halloween has become huge in the US over the past 20 years or so.

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BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
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And there's already another missing white girl in the line-up.

•  Trick

  or treat.

  by Miss Devore on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 01:47:48 PM PDT

•  NK nuke? Who cares?

  Look, we've known that they have nuclear weapons for years.  What difference does it make that they may (or may not) have tested one?  

  The technology isn't particularly complicated or difficult, so it makes no nevermind that some technicians in North Korea may (or may not) have demonstrated that they too are as smart as your average physics grad student.  In fact, if they actually have set off a test, that's probably a good thing ... assuming that their stockpile of nukes is still rather small, testing one of the devices decreases it by a not-insignificant amount.

  NK nukes?  BFD.

  by N in Seattle on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 01:57:38 PM PDT

  •  I've been thinking largely the same thing

    most of the day.  Has there been any definitive proof that they actually set off a nuclear nukuler explosion and not just something truly monumental but conventional?  Anyone remember 'Divine Strake'?  Anyone happen to remember that huge accidental explosion that occured in a North Korean trainyard a couple of years back?

    So exactly why are we getting our respective undies in a wad?

    by EeDan on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 02:17:09 PM PDT

•  Isn't it

  more than slightly disgraceful that a buffoon is in charge of this country, too?

  by Miss Devore on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 01:58:47 PM PDT

  •  Miss Devore, does this turn seniors on or off?

    Seniors are usually more concerned about Social Security and Medicare and not as much about international affairs, is that right? Bush just regressed us into a good old-fashioned nuclear race in the Far East, right next door to China. Will this motivate Cold War era seniors and baby boomers to vote against the GOP now? Or will this make them nostalgic for the good old days and pretend Bush is the new Reagan?

    by wakemeup7nov06 on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 02:31:25 PM PDT

•  ((( Iran )))

  Chris Hedges: Bush’s Nuclear Apocalypse

  by ZappoDave on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 02:03:11 PM PDT

  •  scary stuff

    especially coming from chris hedges who hasn't been wrong much.

    by rasbobbo on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 02:37:52 PM PDT

•  Mmmmmmmm!

  Pie!

  by EeDan on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 02:03:38 PM PDT

•  my favorite logos

  is the Word of G-d, made flesh in the form of Jesus of Nazareth, which was present in the beginning of the world and which will be with us until the end of the age.

  So while a Foley catheter might be handy, and I could use the vitamins in the tomatoes and spinach, I will be bringing ho logos.

  by Pondite on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 02:04:38 PM PDT

•  Man...

  reminds me of the drills where we used to go into the hallways or under our desks and put our heads between our legs (of course, I don't know if I could do that for long periods now).

  This must be the Ghost of October Surprises Past.

  by mayan on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 02:13:00 PM PDT

  •  that sounds like the Repuba-Drill...

    ...only the last step is omitted - the "insert head into anus" part.

    by luckydog on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 02:23:11 PM PDT

•  Miss Devore

  Apply directly to the forehead!

  MISS DEVORE!

  Apply directly to the forehead!

  MISS DEVORE!

  Apply directly to the forehead!

  by kingubu on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 02:13:54 PM PDT

•  This is a shallow diary

  I can claim that my goal is to possess the entire California coastline. (I will not let dogs poop on the beach, however)What a scary thought. One person lusts after the entire California coastline. Obviously this means war with devore!

  nuff said, silly and pointless, and shows a lack on understanding of the politics in the Korean Peninsula.

  by spinaltap on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 02:18:18 PM PDT

  •  I wonder how Miss D plans on stopping...

    ...the dogs-pooping thing...

    by luckydog on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 02:26:45 PM PDT

    •  nukes

      obviously

      by Miss Devore on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 03:03:20 PM PDT

      •  That's a relief...

        ...I was concerned that maybe you'd send in the inquisitional nuns that you mentioned above...

        by luckydog on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 03:15:30 PM PDT

        •  Nuns?

          There are only three nuns left in the entire U.S. of A. and they are all over 80.
          Oh, for the days of The Sound of Music.

          by johnnygunn on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 03:22:11 PM PDT

          •  the capital hills

            are alive with the sound of......foxy lettuce!

            by Miss Devore on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 03:25:36 PM PDT

            •  Lettuce...pray.

              nt

              by luckydog on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 03:28:44 PM PDT

            •  "Foxy - - Lettuce"

              Ah, Jimi!

              by johnnygunn on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 03:29:06 PM PDT

          •  that what they WANT you to think...

            ..."they" have been test-firing nuns for a coupla years now.

            Mass destruction, and all.

            by luckydog on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 03:27:47 PM PDT

  •  deep thoughts

    meanwhile, I am watching the CNN meme that it's....(who woulda thunk?)Clinton's fault.

    um, there was a snark tag.

    by Miss Devore on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 02:27:18 PM PDT

    •  yeah, about that "answering the call of nature"..

      ...thing, and all. I mean, are ya gonna expand the public restrooms - Men, Women, Dogs...? Or what?

      by luckydog on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 02:31:08 PM PDT

      •  lou dobbs is freaking out now

        you'd think an "illegal Mexican" got da bomb.

        by Miss Devore on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 02:58:54 PM PDT

        •  Mex. Hmmm. Alright, I'll rephrase...

          ...your chihuahua, at the beach. What are his options para defecar?

          by luckydog on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 03:07:20 PM PDT

•  a little bit of Seoul

  "when you're feeling low and a fish walks by..."

  by Miss Devore on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 02:18:22 PM PDT

•  somebody tell me this is a hoax

  from majikthise (which is a blog you should check every day) by way of Rox Populi this snippet (allegedly) from the new woodward gospel:

      George W. pulled Bandar aside.
      "Bandar, I guess you're the best asshole who knows about the world. Explain to me one thing."
      "Governor, what is it?"
      "Why should I care about North Korea?"
      Bandar said he didn't really know. It was one of the few countries that he did not work on for King Fahd.
      "I get these briefings on all parts of the world," Bush said, "and everybody is talking to me about North Korea."
      "I'll tell you what, Governor," Bandar said. "One reason should make you care about North Korea."
      "All right, smart alek," Bush said, "tell me."
      "The 38,000 American troops right on the border." ..."If nothing else counts, this counts. One shot across the border and you lose half these people immediately. You lose 15,000 Americans in a chemical or biological or even regular attack. The United State of America is at war instantly."
      "Hmmm," Bush said. "I wish those assholes would put things just point-blank to me. I get half a book telling me about the history of North Korea."
      "Now I tell you another answer to that. You don't want to care about North Korea anymore?" Bandar asked. The Saudis wanted America to focus on the Middle East and not get drawn into a conflict in East Asia.
      "I didn't say that," Bush replied.
      "But if you don't, you withdrawl those troops back. Then it becomes a local conflict. Then you have the whole time to decide, 'Should I get involved? Not involved?' Etc."
      At that moment, Colin Powell approached.
      "Colin," Bush said, "come here. Bandar and I were shooting the bull, just two fighter pilots shooting the bull." He didn't mention the topic.
      "Mr. Governor," Bandar said, "General Powell is almost a fighter pilot. He can shoot the bull almost as good as us."

  somebody please tell me that this is really not in the book.

  by rasbobbo on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 02:22:35 PM PDT

•  North Korea, nuke proliferation is a threat.

  It used to just be a threat to South Korea, now it's a threat to Japan, and it could be a threat to all, since there's no way it's not going to sell nuke technology for export.

  No, nuclear proliferation is a threat and it always has been.

  by Inland on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 02:30:12 PM PDT

  •  Proliferation is an immediate reality.

    Japan can go nuclear within the year, and South Korea will follow soon after. US security guarantees are not good enough to keep them from it any more. China is bound to join the race in order to retain its dominance, so look for an increase in its arsenal. Russia next door will probably reactivate its program to keep up. With India and Pakistan already nuclear, and Iran frantically seeking a nuclear deterrent to avoid a US pre-emptive strike, Asia has just turned into the new proliferation playground.

    by wakemeup7nov06 on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 02:39:43 PM PDT

    •  Dr. Mohamed El Baradei

      Thinks that contries like Japan that already have:

      1. Nuclear facilities

      2. Highly trained engineers

      3. The financial resources

      Can go nuclear in a few months.

      People mention Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution.  Well, the new P.M. Abe is very militaristic and would probably have few qualms of doing it on the sly or under the guise of a "national emergency".

      by johnnygunn on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 03:26:12 PM PDT

•  Miss Devore ...

  ...I am a fan of much of your stuff. But not this Diary.

  Every new country that gets a workable nuke increases the risk that somebody will use one again. Whether the NorKs now have one is beyond my ability - and apparently even that of most experts - to assess so far.

  But if they do, the chances that Japan, Australia, Indonesia, Taiwan, perhaps South Korea and who-knows-who-else will be building one tomorrow increases significantly. Some people say 20 nations with nukes will be no risky than eight or nine because nobody has used nukes again thanks to the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. To me, that is whistling past the graveyard.

  All that said, a military attack on North Korea would not be a good idea. The best idea, despite what a difficult negotiating partner the NorKs are, is still face-to-face diplomacy, which the Bush Regime has refused to engage in, very probably making this nuclear test and future ones inevitable.

  by Meteor Blades on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 02:49:23 PM PDT

  •  Thing is, this test was a dud

    Check it out, from http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/... --

    13:50 Oct 09, 2006

    Dropping the F-Bomb on the NORKS
    posted by jeffrey under north-korea

    Well, the French are the first to drop the F-bomb on North Korea—failure. Speaking to reporters, French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said “it was an explosion with a force of about half a kiloton, which is not an extremely powerful explosion, or it shows that there could have been a failure.”

    AP’s Katherine Schrader paraphrased the official statement from the US Director of National Intelligence simply noting the subkiloton yield was ahistorical. Would it kill AP to run the full quote?

    The Intelligence Community detected a Sub-Kiloton explosive event in North Korea. We cannot confirm if it was a nuclear explosion. For an initial test a yield of several Kilotons has been historically observed. The NK Mission Manager will continue to monitor and gather analysis throughout the day.

    See, full quote run; no harm done.

    Anyway, IRIS has the seismograms online. And no, that is way beyond my skillset.

    AFP has a very competent summary of the debate about the test. One possibility is that North Korea faked a test, with a huge amount of conventional explosives—about 1,000 tons, come to think of it. That seems unlikely to me—after all, why fake an explosion that casts doubt on your nuclear capability? Did I mention that was a lot of explosive?

    Anway, we should know from radionuclide monitoring in a couple of days.

    Update: Kevin Drum brings in a big gun with the chops to deal with data that makes me squeamish.

    More Updates: I don’t mean to countenance the idea that the test was staged—after all, why stage a failure?

    In other words:  Why do Bush's bidding by Chicken Littling over this?  Fear is what keeps him in power.

    by Phoenix Woman on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 02:54:00 PM PDT

    •  Maybe a dud. But even your ...

      ...quoted source notes that he is not saying definitively that it was a dud.

      by Meteor Blades on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 03:41:17 PM PDT

  •  MB

    you are my idol, if I have one. (and you know I detest the star thang)

    all I am saying is "do you know how this scenario makes dubya look good?"

    precisely at the point where he should be unequivocally  declared a piece of shit.

    to take a KO device: which story will you be talking about.

    a week from now.

    Bolton, who was nearing a rejected nomination, is staring at my face right now.

    just sayin'

    by Miss Devore on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 03:11:58 PM PDT

  •  Hey, MB

    With Kim Jong Il we've got to have a little humor or we'd all die laughing.

    

    First off - North Korea uses up half of its annual gasoline production just to have one of those parades for ol' Kim.
    Second off - Besides being a dud or a near-dud, the word is that their bombs weigh in at five tons.  How do they deliver such a weapon - by UPS?
    Third off - Unlike the pharmaceutical plant in Sudan, the U.S. knows exactly where everything is taking place in North Korea.  If the powers that be really wanted to end the nuke program - they could.

    Ah, but perhaps they really don't want to.
    So - just for today - I'm hanging out with Liberace.

    by johnnygunn on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 03:40:07 PM PDT

    •  But, of course, if TPTB decided ...

      ...to take out that nuke program militarily, Seoul might be a torch five hours later. Those NorK rocket batteries along the DMZ DO work.

      by Meteor Blades on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 03:42:48 PM PDT

      •  TPTB

        TPTB includes Russia and, especially, China.
        If China cut off Kim, Seoul wold NOT be a torch.
        All the fear about the powerful NK military.
        Remember the late Soviet army?
        Where planes couldn't fly because the alcohol used as anti-freeze was consumed instead?  Or tanks couldn't roll because their parts had been cannibalized for the black market?  Oh, and didn't Rumsfeld himself suggest that Saddam Hussein had the sixth largest army in the world?

        by johnnygunn on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 03:53:50 PM PDT

        •  But China GAINS from ...

          ...a North Korea with a nuke - even a duddy one - because it provides (weirdly) a lever against the U.S.
          China keeps saying in the six-party talks that it can't tell the NorKs what to do. There is a reason for that, imho.

          by Meteor Blades on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 04:01:00 PM PDT

          •  Straw Man

            I would hope that this "test" brings up the entire subject of what a straw man the whole North Korea thing is.  Kim's military - although impressive on paper - is a bunch of 1977 Ford LTDs, 1980s cell phones, and first-generation Pac-Man computers.  The "Ride to Baghdad" showed just how effective such hardware is against high-tech weapons.  Sure Kim serves the Chinese Communist Party's interests.  (And what a sham the CCP is today.)  But he also serves American interests, too.

            Miss Devore's diary offers some excellent gallows humor - - of for our Canadian readers - - humour.

            by johnnygunn on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 04:25:28 PM PDT

            •  Yes, the NorKs are backward ...

              ...but they also have MiG29s (some of whose pilots probably wouldn't defect) and multiple-launch rocket systems capable of firing conventional explosives or and chemical shells, 600 or so Scud missiles  Ground units quite close the South Korean border can fire up to 500,000 artillery rounds per hour against South Korean defenses for several hours.

              No doubt, the U.S. (or China or Russia) could finish off North Korea fairly quickly. Say, a few weeks. But South Korea would be burying its dead in mass graves by the tens of thousands and the fatalities among American soldiers there could be as many as killed so far in Iraq in just a few days.

              by Meteor Blades on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 04:59:55 PM PDT

            •  no small thang

              making Canadians laugh.

              Seriously, they write the best song lyrics.

              by Miss Devore on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 07:19:23 PM PDT

•  NK nuke was a dud (and their missiles suck)

  Check it out, from http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/... --

  13:50 Oct 09, 2006

  Dropping the F-Bomb on the NORKS
  posted by jeffrey under north-korea

  Well, the French are the first to drop the F-bomb on North Korea—failure. Speaking to reporters, French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said “it was an explosion with a force of about half a kiloton, which is not an extremely powerful explosion, or it shows that there could have been a failure.”

  AP’s Katherine Schrader paraphrased the official statement from the US Director of National Intelligence simply noting the subkiloton yield was ahistorical. Would it kill AP to run the full quote?

  The Intelligence Community detected a Sub-Kiloton explosive event in North Korea. We cannot confirm if it was a nuclear explosion. For an initial test a yield of several Kilotons has been historically observed. The NK Mission Manager will continue to monitor and gather analysis throughout the day.

  See, full quote run; no harm done.

  Anyway, IRIS has the seismograms online. And no, that is way beyond my skillset.

  AFP has a very competent summary of the debate about the test. One possibility is that North Korea faked a test, with a huge amount of conventional explosives—about 1,000 tons, come to think of it. That seems unlikely to me—after all, why fake an explosion that casts doubt on your nuclear capability? Did I mention that was a lot of explosive?

  Anway, we should know from radionuclide monitoring in a couple of days.

  Update: Kevin Drum brings in a big gun with the chops to deal with data that makes me squeamish.

  More Updates: I don’t mean to countenance the idea that the test was staged—after all, why stage a failure?

  In other words:  Why do Bush's bidding by Chicken Littling over this?  Fear is what keeps him in power.

  by Phoenix Woman on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 02:53:04 PM PDT

•  yeah

  let's do anything but put our minds on Dafur.

  by Miss Devore on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 03:42:19 PM PDT

•  ok, I slept it off

  for hours.

  I wake up to hear the telly voice saying:

  "What was once a fear of Iraq, is now a reality in North Korea"

  have we established yet if it was a nuke?

  jayzuz.

  by Miss Devore on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 07:10:35 PM PDT