OTOH, I somehow don’t see the Foley mess getting a lot more press for the next week anyway, unless some big coverup revelation came out of the blue. And, as someone else has already speculated, it could also be spun as “well, maybe we wouldn’t BE in such a state if SOMEONE hadn’t already committed so many troops and resources to a region where NO WMDs were…”
What happens when Islamic terrorists approach Kim waving petrodollars?
I give in, what does happen when Islamic terrorists approach Kim waving petrodollars?
He perceives hostile semaphore? A hint here please, I’m lost.
He has them executed and takes the money. And no, neither he nor anyone else is going to give terrorists nukes, any more than they’ve been given biological or chemical weapons. As I’ve said before, no government hands those kinds of weapons to people whom they can’t control. Especially to terrorists who are quite likely to want to kill Communists.
I know what Truman, both Roosevelts, Kennedy, Nixon, Reagan, and mabye Bush Sr. would do.
They not let this stand. There would be 1-2 days of negotiations and payoffs, and China would be all over invading and ending this shit right here and right now. You’d have to wave the invastion/nuclear stick a bit, but China and the US are really on the same page here. Hopefully the wh gets a call from dad soon.
Left off Clinton. Sorry 
The SDMB president would be “are you sure it was not an earthquake?” “Get some USGS Scientists down there now!” OK, I kid.
We’re gonna see some major China developments this week 
No they can’t.
If the response to Iran’s nuclear program has been greater than the response to North Korea’s, that’s only because there was so very little else left to do to North Korea. There’s no stick left.
zuma, “let China handle it” may be the best plan. But I don’t think America would invade as things stand now. Even removing the nuke threat, North Korea’s ready for an invasion from the south. They’d lose, but they’d make us pay for it. And they’d destroy Seoul in the process.
I don’t think we’re willing to risk that.
Truman, Roosevelts, Nixon & Team would have done no such thing, recognizing the precarious military situation on the Korean Peninsula and the likely risk of the US getting swept up into a dangerous regional war.
I’m not so sure. Any nation that shoots down a U.S. warplane, routinely blinds U.S. satellites with lasers, runs an unprecedentedly massive intel program inside our country, murders and/or beats dissidents, conducts ongoing war games postulating sea-to-ground attacks on U.S. cities on the West Coast, and publishes reports that foresee a day when an increasingly assertive PRC clashes with the US in an Asian (or trans-Pacific) theater, may see the NK situation as a strategic opportunity. It isn’t above the Chinese gvmt. to play the North Korea Card in its ongoing stalement over Taiwan. For China, Kim may be a convenient idiot who they give just enough leash for his Crazy Nixon Role (think Vietnam). While Kim’s hyperbolic conduct certainly strengthens relations between the US, Japan and South Korea, perhaps the Chinese are willing to accept that as an inevitable strengthening, given their greater regional and strategic interests. The US is China’s No. 1 trade partner, but also its future military antagonist. China’s capitalists and military/party are themselves on a narrowing collision course, so I wouldn’t look for too much coherence in China’s policies.
That is the last thing China wants to do. They would prefer a nuclear North Korea to 20 million starving refugees fleeing into China. Your priorities are different when there is a potential failed state on your border.
Carter would fuck it up. There would be peeps in china, planes in the air and bombs dropping with any other president than carter. Im sure that’s happening now. We’ll see bush and whoever on tv within 12 hours fixing this.
At least we don’t have to wait long to see how wrong you are.
Bush just announced he will be calling for “decisive action by the UN”. Yeah, Carter would never dare any thing that tough.
While perusing this AM’s Korea Herald, I ran across this bit in the editorial section: What N.K. can expect
It appears that they expect the current diplomatic stalemate to continue.
I find it interesting that we’re not sure if a nuclear detonation even happened. This was confirmed a minute ago:
I thought the U.S. had the capability to detect a gamma-ray signature and EMP from an atomic detonation, even an underground one? My googling has so far only found the now-defunt Vela satellites, which have presumably been replaced by something better. I’m sure this will be cleared up fairly shortly, but I’d think someone in the U.S. military has a pretty good idea by now if that was a nuclear blast or it wasn’t.
[/QUOTE]
The size of the bomb is uncertain. South Korean reports put it as low as 550 tons of destructive power but Russia said it was between five and 15 kilotons. The Hiroshima bomb of 1945 was 12.5-15 kilotons.
[QUOTE]
that was from here
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20061009/korea_nuclear_061009/20061009?hub=TopStories
Sorry, I’ve yet to learn how to make the links nice and neet. In contrast another report I read gave a figure of 120,000 kilotons for a French nuclear test. I’m certainly no expert, but seems like it could be a bluff.
A.Q. Khan sold some nuclear technology to North Korea, among other places. Why couldn’t North Korea do the same? If Kim could be sure the terrorists in question wouldn’t come after him (and honestly, why would they? In no way is North Korea a primary target for them), he might do it. Or perhaps he’d get nervous and only sell nuclear technology to other countries. They’ve already threatened to do that.
Update!
[QUOTE]
South Korea put its troops on heightened alert after the announcement, which came just minutes before Japanese Prime Minister Shinto Abe landed in Seoul for a visit.
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Bush planned to make a statement on North Korea at 9:45 a.m. EDT (1345 GMT), the White House said.
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Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said there was no leak or danger from its test.
“The nuclear test was conducted with indigenous wisdom and technology 100 percent,” KCNA said.
“It marks a historic event as it greatly encouraged and pleased the KPA (Korean People’s Army) and people that have wished to have powerful self-reliant defense capability.”
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Analysts say North Korea probably has enough fissile material to make six to eight nuclear bombs **but probably lacks the technology to devise one small enough to mount on a missile. ** BOLDING BY Bosda
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“In terms of yield, we have it registering at less than four on the Richter scale. That’s the kind of thing that could be the result of several hundred tons of TNT, rather than a nuclear test,” the official added
…
There really isn’t much Bush can do. He can’t risk a stampede into SK. China won’t go along with any military response (nor would any be justified, IMO). He pretty much telegraphed in his announcement this morning that they were just going to stay the course with diplomatic options. Nothing’s going to happen, but yammering excitedly about it allows the GOP and Fox News to get the Foley scandal off the front of the news cycle for awhile.
I’d be surprised if China invaded North Korea. What kind of message would that send to potential allies in the future? It’s in bad form to invade your allies. Plus they surely wouldn’t want to incur all those casualties and deal with baby-sitting the place after they take it. And then there are those nukes to contend with.
It would make more sense for them to find a faction of the North Korean army that may be ready to overthrow Kim. They could lend their support to such a group. I’m not saying this will happen, but it makes more sense than an invasion.
At 4.2 on the Richter scale it’s right in the expected range. The Nagasaki blast was 5.0. Setting up a conventional blast that size is a damned big deal, and I’d be shocked if our spy satellites hadn’t picked up truckloads of explosives moving into the coal mine blast site.