North Korea warns that nuke test may be imminent
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea's top military body warned Thursday that the regime is poised to conduct a nuclear test in response to U.N. punishment, and made clear that its long-range rockets are designed to carry not only satellites but also warheads aimed at striking the United States.
The National Defense Commission rejected a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the launch as a banned missile activity and expanding sanctions against the regime. It reaffirmed in its declaration that a December rocket launch was a peaceful bid to send a satellite into space, but also said the country's rocket launches have a military purpose: to strike and attack the United States.
The commission pledged to keep launching satellites and rockets and to conduct a "high-level" nuclear test as part of defensive measures against the U.S.
"We do not hide that a variety of satellites and long-range rockets which will be launched by the DPRK one after another and a nuclear test of higher level which will be carried out by it in the upcoming all-out action, a new phase of the anti-U.S. struggle that has lasted century after century, will target against the U.S., the sworn enemy of the Korean people," the commission said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"Settling accounts with the U.S. needs to be done with force, not with words, as it regards jungle law as the rule of its survival," the commission said.
North Korea carried out underground nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, both times just weeks after receiving U.N. sanctions for launching long-range rockets it claimed were peaceful bids to send satellites into space.
At a military parade last April, North Korea showed off what appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Experts say the North Koreans must conduct further tests of its atomic devices and make them smaller before they can be mounted as nuclear warheads onto long-range missiles.
Though it insists its efforts to launch a satellite are peaceful, North Korea also claims the right to build nuclear weapons as a defense against the United States, which stations more than 28,000 troops in South Korea. The adversaries fought in the three-year Korean War, which ended in a truce in 1953 and left the Korean Peninsula divided by the world's most heavily fortified demilitarized zone.
North Korea has enough weaponized plutonium for about four to eight bombs, according to nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker, who visited North Korea's nuclear complex in 2010. In 2009, Pyongyang also declared that it would begin enriching uranium, which would give North Korea a second way to make atomic weapons.
The National Defense Commission rejected a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the launch as a banned missile activity and expanding sanctions against the regime. It reaffirmed in its declaration that a December rocket launch was a peaceful bid to send a satellite into space, but also said the country's rocket launches have a military purpose: to strike and attack the United States.
The commission pledged to keep launching satellites and rockets and to conduct a "high-level" nuclear test as part of defensive measures against the U.S.
"We do not hide that a variety of satellites and long-range rockets which will be launched by the DPRK one after another and a nuclear test of higher level which will be carried out by it in the upcoming all-out action, a new phase of the anti-U.S. struggle that has lasted century after century, will target against the U.S., the sworn enemy of the Korean people," the commission said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"Settling accounts with the U.S. needs to be done with force, not with words, as it regards jungle law as the rule of its survival," the commission said.
North Korea carried out underground nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, both times just weeks after receiving U.N. sanctions for launching long-range rockets it claimed were peaceful bids to send satellites into space.
At a military parade last April, North Korea showed off what appeared to be an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Experts say the North Koreans must conduct further tests of its atomic devices and make them smaller before they can be mounted as nuclear warheads onto long-range missiles.
Though it insists its efforts to launch a satellite are peaceful, North Korea also claims the right to build nuclear weapons as a defense against the United States, which stations more than 28,000 troops in South Korea. The adversaries fought in the three-year Korean War, which ended in a truce in 1953 and left the Korean Peninsula divided by the world's most heavily fortified demilitarized zone.
North Korea has enough weaponized plutonium for about four to eight bombs, according to nuclear scientist Siegfried Hecker, who visited North Korea's nuclear complex in 2010. In 2009, Pyongyang also declared that it would begin enriching uranium, which would give North Korea a second way to make atomic weapons.
Slap their little pee pee's and let South Korea take over.
The sad thing is, is that it will only take one bomb to start an all out nuclear war. These idiots must really want the end of the world to be their out going mark on history... Don't they know they will all be erased from existance if they fire a single nuclear bomb our general direction?
I remember seeing an episode of Lost where Hurley was asked who won the Korean War. The Hurley character didn't even know there was a Korean War. Are kids these days even being taught that we are still at war with NK? Yes kids, NK is just a little obscure country with a dictator who's hell bent on the destruction of the USA and would like nothing better than to resume the battle that ended only with a "cease-fire" agreement. Iran and NK have things in common. Both want the destruction of the USA, both will become nuclear powers, and both know the USA is powerless to stop the onslaught they wish for us. An EMP strike over the US mainland will end this country.
" The Mouse that Roared"Â all over again. With Kim Jong Un as Count Rupert Mountjoy, the Prime Minister.
@al_wa Don't you believe it. Unlike the movie, the Kim family is very real and so is their goal to destroy those they are at war with.
 @johnbe  @al_wa Can't argue with that. I do believe they are more after compensation than war.Â
@al_wa NATO troops (US & ROK troops) are all that stands in Kim's way of South Korea. I think SK is the only compensation Kim is really interested in. I wonder what would happen if we just declared NK the winner of the war and came home. SK wouldn't like it much, but their economy is good enough that they can stand on their own two feet now.
So Seattle is only 8300 kilometers from Korea. All the Norks needs is to see if they can get the Taepodong-2 to go that far to get a US city. Or just fire a nuke in the atmosphere and let emp take down the West Coast electrical grid.
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Like father like son. This guy might even be worse than his dad and he was quite crazy in my book. Hard to talk or reason with people of that nature. Seems the only thing they comprehend is brute force.
 @Powderhound Actually I had some hopes...some...that he would be more of a reformer and help to bring down their walls and start to give their people more western freedoms and some more food...however this news makes me sad. Come on, Lil' Kim...be a good sport. "Jungle Law"? Looks like it's time to call in Rambo and Tarzan.
 @Donkey Kong You and me both. I had the same thoughts but it doesn't seem like he's better. Time will tell but judging by his recent actions and statements he's as nuts as his dad. Wish we could have turned that place into a glass lined parking lot in the 50's.
 @Powderhound Humankind hasn't changed in thousands of years. Only force earns respect from tyrants like these. One would have to be a drooling idiot or a progressive (but I repeat myself) to think otherwise.
"the democratic people's republic" what a misnomer, it's none of the above. We need to show them some love from our "Ministry of Peace".
 @Komo Dragon Ever hear of the DDR? German Democratic Republic? Also known, formerly, as East Germany? It's a popular thing among communists to name their countries like that.
 @Donkey Kong Yes, I heard of the DDR. Although one difference was that their Heads of State were still controlled by the Socialist Party - so there was some level of elections, a "democratic" process within the leading class, but not the populous.
 @Donkey Kong not entirely correct - also look at the duration of tenure - much shorter than life-time dictators. But it doesn't matter, the DDR is gone, and one more generation and Germans will have fully reunited, socially and psychologically.
 @Komo Dragon According to my family who were former East Germans, I believe that the elections went something like this: "You vote for who we tell you or you go to prison."
b/Better yet maybe an ICBM full of Seattle lawyers sent by our "Ministry of Slime" I can promise far more damage than any kind of weapon system known to man!