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North Korea continuing nuclear programme - UN report
North Korea has not stopped its nuclear and missile programmes, violating UN sanctions, a report commissioned by the UN Security Council says. It also says Pyongyang has resorted to a "massive increase" of illegal ship-to-ship transfers of oil products and has been trying to sell weapons abroad.
The confidential report by a panel of independent experts was submitted to the UN Security Council on Friday. North Korea has so far not commented on the document's findings.
Last week, US officials said Pyongyang appeared to be building new ballistic missiles despite recent warming ties with US President Donald Trump's administration and pledges to denuclearise. Unnamed US officials told the Washington Post that spy satellites had spotted continuing activity at a site that has produced ballistic missiles.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 05 2018, @02:21PM (9 children)
Are you willing to stake the fate of the world on that? The last time there was a nuclear poker game with stakes this high was in 1962, and had JFK tried to call Khrushchev's bluff and attempted to attack Cuba as the Joint Chiefs were urging him to, probably none of us would be around today to talk about it. The nuclear threat from the DPRK could be real, could be just posturing, but when the stakes are measured in megadeaths you had better be ABSOLUTELY sure. But then again, you're probably one of those assholes who doesn't think Korean or Japanese lives are worth as much as American ones, as they're the ones most at risk from possible nuclear fire from Pyongyang.
If the Japanese and South Koreans lose confidence that Washington is really doing their best to protect them, they'll start developing their own nuclear weapons instead. For Japan it will be especially easy: their space program is a rather convincing demonstration that they can make ICBMs, and it would be trivial for a country as wealthy as theirs to turn their civilian nuclear facilities to military purposes. Heck, they might already have enough stockpiled plutonium from their reactors to make several warheads in a matter of months should the orders come down. Many analysts have described them as being a screwdriver's turn away from joining the nuclear club. I don't want to hear the news one morning that Japan has just conducted an underground nuclear test, and there's a new arms race in that part of the world. That's going to royally piss off the Chinese, and I don't even want to think of what other consequences that development will have.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 05 2018, @03:32PM
You're overreacting to N Korea, and allowing your fear to guide your thinking.
You are on the right track with Japan, however. They have a hell of a lot more military capability that is officially and publicly acknowledged.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/japans-lethal-helicopter-destroyer-aircraft-carrier-disguise-15740 [nationalinterest.org]
The title of that article is framed as a question. Replace the question mark with either a period or an exclamation mark, and it will be much more accurate.
Japan and nukes? Well, I don't have any sources, but the people who overcame their fear and hatred of nukes to build reactors can also build weapons. You have that exactly right!
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday August 05 2018, @08:58PM (4 children)
You're missing the point. Even if the nuclear threat from NK is twice what we suspect, it's still not anything even remotely close to the threat we pose to them.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 05 2018, @10:53PM
The USA is a bigger threat to the rest of the world and by extension ourselves, than anything NK is likely to do.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 05 2018, @11:09PM (2 children)
And you have even more completely missed the point. If you put the North Koreans into a situation where they feel they have nothing to lose, they could just decide to send nukes at least onto Seoul, Tokyo, and possibly some city on the west coast of the United States just out of spite. The US could then retaliate in a wargasm that turns the entire DPRK into molten glass, but long before the fallout settles you'll find that millions of South Koreans, Japanese, and Americans are still dead, and at least three major cities have sustained severe destruction. Also even a limited regional nuclear war of that sort could still possibly cause a small nuclear winter that could lead to global famine [soylentnews.org]. Are you telling me that you consider such an outcome acceptable?!
Cornered animals tend to lash out even if it means their deaths. We don't want to make North Korea into one, no matter how many nukes they have. Even if they had none, their conventional artillery at the border could still turn Seoul into a sea of flame in a matter of minutes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 06 2018, @02:11AM
They don't even need to use nuclear weapons. They have more than enough conventional firepower to level multiple South Korean and Japanese cities.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday August 06 2018, @11:02AM
You can't really put them in a position where they have nothing to lose with both sides are just engaging in a bit of domestic nerf-jingoism.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 06 2018, @03:07AM
Ive never met anyone who thinks this. Where is this coming from?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 06 2018, @03:38AM (1 child)
The last time? The last time it was the USA that was actually being the biggest threat to the world and not the other side.
It's the same all over again this time so the USA should just shut up, sit down quietly and stop threatening others.
The only reason why the NK leader is waving the trigger to his suicide vest while holding Japan is because the USA has threatened him and his regime.
Before the Cuba incident the USA put their nuclear missile batteries in Turkey, thousands of miles away from the USA but a lot closer to the USSR. And the USA tried to assassinate Fidel Castro.
So objectively who was threatening who first? Made perfect sense for the USSR to try to put nukes in Cuba for defense as a response to the USA's move.
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Monday August 06 2018, @04:17AM
Don't be silly. Everything within or without is a threat to a paranoid, loony tyranny like North Korea. There's no point to changing one's behavior on that basis.