North Korea Threatens to Nuke Washington Over Sanctions

[DerMißingno]

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - March 7, 2013 (WPVI) -- The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Thursday for tough new sanctions to punish North Korea for its latest nuclear test, a move that sparked a furious Pyongyang to threaten a nuclear strike against the United States.

The vote by the U.N.'s most powerful body on a resolution drafted by North Korea's closest ally, China, and the United States sends a powerful message that the international community condemns the ballistic missile and nuclear tests - and repeated violation of Security Council resolutions.

Immediately before the vote, an unidentified spokesman for Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry said the North will exercise its right for "a preemptive nuclear attack to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors" because Washington is pushing to start a nuclear war against the North.

It appeared to be the most specific open threat of a nuclear strike by any country against another.

Although North Korea boasts of nuclear bombs and pre-emptive strikes, it is not thought to have mastered the ability to produce a warhead small enough to put on a missile capable of reaching the U.S. It is believed to have enough nuclear fuel, however, for several crude nuclear devices.

The new sanctions are aimed at reining in North Korea's nuclear and missile programs by making it more difficult for Pyongyang to finance and obtain material for these programs, tracking illegal diplomatic activity and intensifying inspections of cargo to and from the country. In a measure targeted at the reclusive nation's ruling elite, the resolution bans all nations from exporting expensive jewelry, yachts, luxury automobiles and racing cars to the North.

After the 15-0 vote, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice told reporters that "taken together, these sanctions will bite and bite hard."

Responding to Pyongyang's nuclear strike threat, she said, "North Korea will achieve nothing by continued threats and provocation."

She urged North Korea's leaders to heed President Barack Obama's call to follow the path of peace. If it doesn't, she said, the Security Council is committed in the resolution to take further measures.

China's U.N. Ambassador Li Bao Dong said the top priority now is to "bring down the heat" and focus on diplomacy and restarting the six-party talks aimed at denuclearizing the Korean peninsula.

In North Korea, Army Gen. Kang Pyo Yong told a crowd of tens of thousands that North Korea is ready to fire long-range nuclear-armed missiles at Washington.

"Intercontinental ballistic missiles and various other missiles, which have already set their striking targets, are now armed with lighter, smaller and diversified nuclear warheads and are placed on a standby status," Kang said. "When we shell (the missiles), Washington, which is the stronghold of evils, .... will be engulfed in a sea of fire."

The statement by the North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman was carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

It accused the U.S. of leading efforts to slap sanctions on North Korea. The statement said the new sanctions would only advance the timing for North Korea to fulfill previous vows to take "powerful second and third countermeasures" against its enemies. It hasn't elaborated on those measures.

Source



Spoiler: They won't do it.

 

[97SaturnSL1]

Nukes for economic sancions? ay carumba...

Also CHINA is also another MAJOR player in the sancions. By logical thinking, that means N korea is also calling CHINA and RUSSIA indirectly an agressor because both the USA and China made these sanctions and Russia voted to enforce these new sanctions.

And if NK actually manages to launch something that is an actual threat, South Korea will be known as the Island of Korea or have a parking lot where the North was. THe US is way more valuble for China because we are a major key supporter of china financially. If NK were to attack the sourse of income for china then i dont think china would be too upset if the USA would destroy NK


they do fail to realize our potential in defence and still act like everyone is still back in 1951...they will be in for a very rude awakining if they try to pull a Pearl Harbor 2.0

 

[Tophat Dragoneye]

Spoiler: They won't do it.

Nope, but they certainly got the guts to declare such things. Either way, if they were to do that, they would be in a hell of a lot of trouble.

 

[Stratago]

Spoiler: They won't do it.

Nope, but they certainly got the guts to declare such things. Either way, if they were to do that, they would be in a hell of a lot of trouble.

This isn't the first time North Korea has attempted to throw it's collective weight around to intimidate people, and it prolly won't be the last.

Hmm... I hope they're not doing a 'boy who cried wolf' thing to lull everyone into a false sense of safety...

 

[Kthleen]

North Korea says it ends peace pacts with South

North Korea says it is scrapping all non-aggression pacts with South Korea, closing its hotline with Seoul and closing the crossing point between the two countries.

The announcement follows a fresh round of UN sanctions against Pyongyang over its controversial nuclear programme.

The UN resolution was in response to the North's nuclear test last month.

Earlier, Pyongyang vowed to use its right to a pre-emptive nuclear strike against its "aggressors".

The announcement, carried on North Korea's state news agency, says the North is cancelling all non-aggression pacts with the South and closing the main Panmunjom border crossing inside the Demilitarized Zone.

It said it was notifying the South that it was "immediately" cutting off the North-South hotline.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is also reported to have visited front-line military units that were involved in the 2010 shelling of a South Korean island.

He is said to have urged the soldiers there to keep themselves ready to "annihilate the enemy" at any time, and reconfirmed so-called "enemy targets" on five islands in the West Sea.

Earlier, the UN Security Council unanimously backed Resolution 2094, imposing the fourth set of sanctions against the North.

The resolution targets North Korean diplomats, cash transfers and access to luxury goods.

It imposes asset freezes and travel bans on three individuals and two firms linked to North Korea's military.

Speaking after the vote, US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said the document "strongly condemns" Pyongyang's actions.

She said the sanctions would "further constrain" North Korea's ability to develop its nuclear programme.

Ms Rice also warned that the UN would "take further significant actions" if Pyongyang were to carry out another nuclear test.

Source
Another source

 

[Goodbye Blue Monday]

I think Bill Maher made a joke once about North Korea about how its place in international diplomacy is like the 5-year-old boy at a party who can't stop showing everybody his weenie. Because PEOPLE AREN'T PAYING ENOUGH ATTENTION TO US! LET'S MAKE THEM PAY ATTENTION TO US!

Anyway, North Korea won't really use their nukes on anyone because of the whole idea of Mutually Assured Destruction - the countries closest to them include two with their own, stronger nuclear programs (Russia and China) and two who don't need them because they've got the US and our massive number of nukes on their side (South Korea and Japan). And Russia, China, Japan and the U.S. at least, each have the military capability to take out the DPRK without nukes, I believe. If North Korea ever posted a serious threat to any of those countries, they'd be pretty much committing suicide.

Like, the very fact that they're threatening to nuke the U.S. itself shows it's all a stunt.

But I just don't like that we are having this discussion at all. I really wish that nuclear weapons would just disappear from the face of the earth. The very fact that they exist, even if no one is using them, is still really scary.

 

[GliscorMan]

Even they have to realize that we have more antimissiles than there are nukes in the rest of the combined world. Let alone enough nukes of our own to blow up their country several million times over (heck, we have enough nukes that we could blow up the entire solar system and STILL have enough to give Proxima Centauri a beating).

Short answer? They just want someone to care. Poor, poor, socially awkward country. It can't even figure out the #1 rule of world politics: Don't mess with 'Murica!

 

[Big Lutz]

I think Bill Maher made a joke once about North Korea about how its place in international diplomacy is like the 5-year-old boy at a party who can't stop showing everybody his weenie. Because PEOPLE AREN'T PAYING ENOUGH ATTENTION TO US! LET'S MAKE THEM PAY ATTENTION TO US!

Anyway, North Korea won't really use their nukes on anyone because of the whole idea of Mutually Assured Destruction - the countries closest to them include two with their own, stronger nuclear programs (Russia and China) and two who don't need them because they've got the US and our massive number of nukes on their side (South Korea and Japan). And Russia, China, Japan and the U.S. at least, each have the military capability to take out the DPRK without nukes, I believe. If North Korea ever posted a serious threat to any of those countries, they'd be pretty much committing suicide.

Like, the very fact that they're threatening to nuke the U.S. itself shows it's all a stunt.

But I just don't like that we are having this discussion at all. I really wish that nuclear weapons would just disappear from the face of the earth. The very fact that they exist, even if no one is using them, is still really scary.

I gotta agree nukes are scary, I have no idea how my grand parents lived through all the nuclear fears of the 50s. But as for MAD and North Korea, I have to think and worry, that we may finally be facing a country that just really doesn't care if they are wiped out, as long as they can take as many people as possible with them.

And that should keep everyone up at night.

 

[Goodbye Blue Monday]

@Big Lutz; Yeah, that's what scares me. I feel like every other potentially-scary country there is, we can at least figure out what their motivations are. Like, Ahmadinejad is crazy, and Iran having more of a nuclear program would be scary, but at least that's a craziness we understand and can plot in the existing networks of alliances and enemies (if that makes sense). But North Korea is such a wild card. And, as far as I know, they have pretty much no allies, largely because they keep pulling this kind of shit. So it's really hard to understand why they keep doing this, unless it's because they just want to keep reminding others periodically that they exist.

Or, what you said. I mean, I hope not, but that's just as plausible.

 

[Tophat Dragoneye]

On the subjects of nukes, I don't think North Korea has one at all. Sure, they've made some test explosions, but that could indicate that they're far from having a nuclear missile at all.

 

[Green Zubat]

I almost hope NK does go crazy and try to nuke the U.S., just so that all those poor North Korean civilians (not to mention the political prisoners) are finally put out of their abject misery by the complete devastation of their country that would be sure to follow.

 

[DerMißingno]

But I just don't like that we are having this discussion at all. I really wish that nuclear weapons would just disappear from the face of the earth. The very fact that they exist, even if no one is using them, is still really scary.

That's true but (and I'm being perfectly serious here) we need nukes for defense against alien invasion. It's really the only possible defense that we have.

Even they have to realize that we have more antimissiles than there are nukes in the rest of the combined world. Let alone enough nukes of our own to blow up their country several million times over (heck, we have enough nukes that we could blow up the entire solar system and STILL have enough to give Proxima Centauri a beating).

Intercepting an ICBM is risky business. It's possible to do, but it's still very difficult and our current missile shield is far from perfect. You need to remember that these things are traveling at about 6 kilometers per second, and it will be a surprise when it is launched so we won't be able to track it until it is well on its way. Then we have to send a missile up to meet it, traveling at 6 kilometers per second, in space. It's possible and it has been done in several tests, but people have to know that there is no magical AT field protecting the country.

@Big Lutz; Yeah, that's what scares me. I feel like every other potentially-scary country there is, we can at least figure out what their motivations are. Like, Ahmadinejad is crazy, and Iran having more of a nuclear program would be scary, but at least that's a craziness we understand and can plot in the existing networks of alliances and enemies (if that makes sense). But North Korea is such a wild card. And, as far as I know, they have pretty much no allies, largely because they keep pulling this kind of shit. So it's really hard to understand why they keep doing this, unless it's because they just want to keep reminding others periodically that they exist.

Or, what you said. I mean, I hope not, but that's just as plausible.

China is their biggest ally, but they actually co-wrote the sanctions with the United States so I really don't think they would support Communist Occupied Korea.

 

[Big Lutz]

That's true but (and I'm being perfectly serious here) we need nukes for defense against alien invasion. It's really the only possible defense that we have.

You would think if aliens are able to master faster than light travel, they would have shields and defenses that not only could shoot down a missile, but would be able to protect themselves against a mere nuclear bomb. That is unless we are going the Jeff Goldblum route from Independence Day:

"We've gotta burn the rain forest, Pops. Dump toxic waste, pollute the air, rip up the ozone. Maybe if we screw this planet up enough they won't want it anymore."

Honestly like Chemical Weapons after WW1, I think nukes are so powerful that they just would not be used by any non crazy nation. Even if North Korea were to say nuke San Fransisco, we would not respond by nuking Pyongyang, we would engage in strategic bombing like we saw with "Shock and Awe" in Iraq, but the age of nuclear retaliation by 1st World Countries pretty much ended with the Cold War.

 

[DerMißingno]

That's true but (and I'm being perfectly serious here) we need nukes for defense against alien invasion. It's really the only possible defense that we have.

You would think if aliens are able to master faster than light travel, they would have shields and defenses that not only could shoot down a missile, but would be able to protect themselves against a mere nuclear bomb. That is unless we are going the Jeff Goldblum route from Independence Day:

"We've gotta burn the rain forest, Pops. Dump toxic waste, pollute the air, rip up the ozone. Maybe if we screw this planet up enough they won't want it anymore."

I would be more than happy to have this conversation somewhere other than this thread.

Honestly like Chemical Weapons after WW1, I think nukes are so powerful that they just would not be used by any non crazy nation. Even if North Korea were to say nuke San Fransisco, we would not respond by nuking Pyongyang, we would engage in strategic bombing like we saw with "Shock and Awe" in Iraq, but the age of nuclear retaliation by 1st World Countries pretty much ended with the Cold War.

I'd agree with that statement. I would definitely hope that the US never uses its nuclear weapons. I think that Korea would want its currently occupied North to be relatively un-radiated when they would inevitably take back control if it does end up being liberated.

 

[Goodbye Blue Monday]

Honestly like Chemical Weapons after WW1, I think nukes are so powerful that they just would not be used by any non crazy nation. Even if North Korea were to say nuke San Fransisco, we would not respond by nuking Pyongyang, we would engage in strategic bombing like we saw with "Shock and Awe" in Iraq, but the age of nuclear retaliation by 1st World Countries pretty much ended with the Cold War.

So considering Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the U.S. (at least, WWII-era U.S.) is a "crazy nation"?

In all seriousness here (and because I don't really want to get into that "was using the A-bomb necessary for VJ" debate), I think the reason we wouldn't use nukes against North Korea is because the U.S. could easily take down North Korea without using nukes. Even more so if we get all the other countries I mentioned involved. But if we had a more powerful enemy? Who knows? The ability to reduce the importance of human beings to a simple "the other" is powerful (and definitely in-play in terms of Americans' perception of the Japanese during WWII) and I don't think we can underestimate that dehumanization when it comes to ability - including the ability to get the public on their side - to use nuclear weapons. (And that goes for any country, not just the U.S. Part of the problem with North Korea is they've given them that perception of the rest of the world for a very long time.)

 

[Dorothy]

Honestly like Chemical Weapons after WW1, I think nukes are so powerful that they just would not be used by any non crazy nation. Even if North Korea were to say nuke San Fransisco, we would not respond by nuking Pyongyang, we would engage in strategic bombing like we saw with "Shock and Awe" in Iraq, but the age of nuclear retaliation by 1st World Countries pretty much ended with the Cold War.

So considering Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the U.S. (at least, WWII-era U.S.) is a "crazy nation"?

Well, like Lutz said, that was in the context of that specific war, as chemical weapons were in WWI.

 

[Goodbye Blue Monday]

Honestly like Chemical Weapons after WW1, I think nukes are so powerful that they just would not be used by any non crazy nation. Even if North Korea were to say nuke San Fransisco, we would not respond by nuking Pyongyang, we would engage in strategic bombing like we saw with "Shock and Awe" in Iraq, but the age of nuclear retaliation by 1st World Countries pretty much ended with the Cold War.

So considering Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the U.S. (at least, WWII-era U.S.) is a "crazy nation"?

Well, like Lutz said, that was in the context of that specific war, as chemical weapons were in WWI.

Well, that's why I was being tongue-in-cheek.

But even so, I think the U.S. was well-aware, based on their testing, of just how devastating the A-bomb was going to be. So I don't think we can take the idea that "they didn't really know yet."

Of course, today's nukes are much more powerful than the A-bomb, which was frightening enough on its own.

 

[DerMißingno]

Honestly like Chemical Weapons after WW1, I think nukes are so powerful that they just would not be used by any non crazy nation. Even if North Korea were to say nuke San Fransisco, we would not respond by nuking Pyongyang, we would engage in strategic bombing like we saw with "Shock and Awe" in Iraq, but the age of nuclear retaliation by 1st World Countries pretty much ended with the Cold War.

So considering Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the U.S. (at least, WWII-era U.S.) is a "crazy nation"?

Well, like Lutz said, that was in the context of that specific war, as chemical weapons were in WWI.

Well, that's why I was being tongue-in-cheek.

But even so, I think the U.S. was well-aware, based on their testing, of just how devastating the A-bomb was going to be. So I don't think we can take the idea that "they didn't really know yet."

Of course, today's nukes are much more powerful than the A-bomb, which was frightening enough on its own.

And the combatants in WW2 probably knew how nasty mustard gas was too, but they went ahead and used it anyway. It can be difficult to see the long term consequences of something like that, especially when you're desperate to win a war. So just as the developed nations of the world realized it's probably overkill to have soldiers walk away with dissolved eyeballs and permanently damaged lungs, they realized that weapons that devastate an entire city and leave the area uninhabitable due to radiation are probably overkill as well. Also not much as known about radiation at the time, especially its long term effects. This was a time when shoe stores had x-ray machines so you could see how well your shoes fit before you buy them. Hiroshima started being rebuilt in 1949, only 4 years after the bombing. For comparison, the Ukrainian city of Pripyat is still abandoned to this day due to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. So you kind of could argue that they didn't really now yet.

 

[Goodbye Blue Monday]

@TheMissingno.;

Exactly, I think it's less about "crazy" and more about the ability to "other" our enemy, to make them inhuman or at least into humans we don't care about. That's why the U.S. ended up using it on a country whose people they'd been spreading racist propaganda about for years, and even locked up American citizens who shared their ancestry during the war.

The reason North Korea gives no fucks is because they've basically convinced themselves that everyone in the world who isn't them is inferior. So they really don't care how many of us they have to kill. (Although I still think these threats are baseless, basically just to say "hey! we still exist!")

 

[Big Lutz]

Exactly, I think it's less about "crazy" and more about the ability to "other" our enemy, to make them inhuman or at least into humans we don't care about. That's why the U.S. ended up using it on a country whose people they'd been spreading racist propaganda about for years, and even locked up American citizens who shared their ancestry during the war.

I think it would be good to take this to the campaign bus, as there are some historical holes in your logic, and it is ripe for discussion.

http://bmgf.bulbagarden.net/f573/japan-atomic-bomb-148143/#post4648494