The Jake
01-12-2003, 08:01 PM
Since I noticed the top four topics of the day appear to be
"Paper cuts"
"girl=hot"
"Today sucked"
and
"Pimp me out"
I figured today was a slow day on the board.
So I figured I might as well attempt a swing at controversial topic.
The whole North Korea issue.
One article:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/01/12/nkorea.nuclear/index.html
And:
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/01/12/1041990179632.html
Notice this bit in the second article:
"The latest crisis erupted after a US envoy reported in October that North Korean officials had confirmed that Pyongyang was engaged in a covert uranium enrichment program, violating a 1994 agreement with Washington to freeze nuclear activity in return for two peaceful nuclear power plants and supplies of oil.
The US halted oil shipments last month, and North Korea responded by announcing it would reactivate a small research reactor and resume work on two other reactors. Inspectors from the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency were expelled at the end of December, and IAEA surveillance cameras switched off at a storage site for spent nuclear fuel rods containing plutonium that could be reprocessed to yield bomb-grade material."
Interesting... basically what it's saying is that during the whole nuclear disarmament debacle, the US helped North Korea build two nuclear reactors and supply oil so it wouldn't have to play around with nuclear. Not a bad idea. The US gets to keep informed on what it's Korean 'friends' are up to, control their energy supply AND keep world peace!
The US finds out the Koreans are enriching uranium (a technique used for making the warheads more powerful for military applications IIRC) so they cut off the oil supply. Within a month, the Koreans are like "Well **** you, you cut off our oil, we'll start doing what we feel we have to."
You can see what it's saying...
If you look at the timetable, the US watchers reported that the Koreans violated the treaty last October - after the axis of evil speech. So they probably started enriching their uranium, thinking of building up their own power and supplies it AFTER George Bush names them in the axis of evil speech. So the NK government thinks "Great. The Americans think we're the bad guys?" (Not that I think the North Korean government is any good, but I don't think it's necessarily the US Government's job to tell the world how to run their countries.)
Anyway the US feel that Korea is in the wrong for violating the treaty by enriching the uranium so they cut off the oil. Thereby crippling the nation's power supply. So what does that do? Exacerbate the problem.
N. Korea feels even MORE threatened by the US cutting off their oil after being named in the speech. They see the US basically going it alone against Afghanistan, leading the charge against Iraq and thinks "we're next" and it feels compelled that it has to protect itself. The Koreans prolly feel that the UN is a big bloody joke (rightfully so at this point) and so they pull out to cover their own asses.
Can you blame them?
This can be fixed from the way I look at it, but it requires the US to be diplomatic and not threaten this country (or every ****ing country it disagrees with for that matter). Coz I sincerely doubt the Koreans will take it. And if they don't, sooner or later the US will run across a government that won't take it lying down and will attack. I have a *hunch* that the US will actually solve this one diplomatically, which may be why they're not reacting as swiftly to it. Maybe they know something we don't and that's why they're playing it cool.....
... Either that, or they know they will just bomb the **** out them.
Neither response would suprise me, but I'm hoping for the the former over the latter.
- The Jake
"Paper cuts"
"girl=hot"
"Today sucked"
and
"Pimp me out"
I figured today was a slow day on the board.
So I figured I might as well attempt a swing at controversial topic.
The whole North Korea issue.
One article:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/01/12/nkorea.nuclear/index.html
And:
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/01/12/1041990179632.html
Notice this bit in the second article:
"The latest crisis erupted after a US envoy reported in October that North Korean officials had confirmed that Pyongyang was engaged in a covert uranium enrichment program, violating a 1994 agreement with Washington to freeze nuclear activity in return for two peaceful nuclear power plants and supplies of oil.
The US halted oil shipments last month, and North Korea responded by announcing it would reactivate a small research reactor and resume work on two other reactors. Inspectors from the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency were expelled at the end of December, and IAEA surveillance cameras switched off at a storage site for spent nuclear fuel rods containing plutonium that could be reprocessed to yield bomb-grade material."
Interesting... basically what it's saying is that during the whole nuclear disarmament debacle, the US helped North Korea build two nuclear reactors and supply oil so it wouldn't have to play around with nuclear. Not a bad idea. The US gets to keep informed on what it's Korean 'friends' are up to, control their energy supply AND keep world peace!
The US finds out the Koreans are enriching uranium (a technique used for making the warheads more powerful for military applications IIRC) so they cut off the oil supply. Within a month, the Koreans are like "Well **** you, you cut off our oil, we'll start doing what we feel we have to."
You can see what it's saying...
If you look at the timetable, the US watchers reported that the Koreans violated the treaty last October - after the axis of evil speech. So they probably started enriching their uranium, thinking of building up their own power and supplies it AFTER George Bush names them in the axis of evil speech. So the NK government thinks "Great. The Americans think we're the bad guys?" (Not that I think the North Korean government is any good, but I don't think it's necessarily the US Government's job to tell the world how to run their countries.)
Anyway the US feel that Korea is in the wrong for violating the treaty by enriching the uranium so they cut off the oil. Thereby crippling the nation's power supply. So what does that do? Exacerbate the problem.
N. Korea feels even MORE threatened by the US cutting off their oil after being named in the speech. They see the US basically going it alone against Afghanistan, leading the charge against Iraq and thinks "we're next" and it feels compelled that it has to protect itself. The Koreans prolly feel that the UN is a big bloody joke (rightfully so at this point) and so they pull out to cover their own asses.
Can you blame them?
This can be fixed from the way I look at it, but it requires the US to be diplomatic and not threaten this country (or every ****ing country it disagrees with for that matter). Coz I sincerely doubt the Koreans will take it. And if they don't, sooner or later the US will run across a government that won't take it lying down and will attack. I have a *hunch* that the US will actually solve this one diplomatically, which may be why they're not reacting as swiftly to it. Maybe they know something we don't and that's why they're playing it cool.....
... Either that, or they know they will just bomb the **** out them.
Neither response would suprise me, but I'm hoping for the the former over the latter.
- The Jake