This Might Explain Why We Have Not Done a Pre-Emptive Strike

China and US Make North Korea Nuclear Pledge (Libra) BBC: China and the US have vowed to work together to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear programme and to settle tensions through dialogue. A Chinese statement issued during a visit by US Secretary of State John Kerry said the nuclear issue was the "shared responsibility of all parties". Mr Kerry said the two sides must decide "very quickly" how to proceed. North Korea has recently threatened nuclear attacks, and is feared to be preparing a missile launch. (Envy?) This Might Explain Why We Have Not Done a Pre-Emptive Strike: From Yahoo News: A former North Korean spy who bombed a South Korean airliner said Wednesday that the North's leader Kim Jong-Un is struggling to control his military and using war talk to shore up support. Kim Hyun-Hee, who said she was ordered by Jong-Un's father Kim Jong-Il to bomb the airliner in 1987 killing 115 people, said she believes the son is still trying to establish himself following his father's death in December 2011. "Kim Jong-Un is too young and too inexperienced," she told Australia's ABC television in an exclusive interview from Seoul, where she lives at an undisclosed location surrounded by bodyguards. "He's struggling to gain complete control over the military and to win their loyalty. That's why he's doing so many visits to military bases, to firm up support."  A flurry of warlike statements from Pyongyang has prompted speculation that a launch could happen on 15 April, when the country marks the 101st birthday of the nation's founder and former leader, Kim Il-sung. (+ BBC video)

Kim Jong Il was forced to confront his own inability to reshape the world

(Socialism Killed Kim Jong Il)The plant in Huichon, Jagang Province, was built to solve the chronic power shortage in the Korea’s capital Pyongyang, meeting around half of the city’s energy needs. The dam is reported to be more than 300ft high and 1,800ft wide and capable of storing 850 million cubic metres of water. An anonymous source said the problem was more than ‘just a crack’, and added: ‘The safety of the entire dam was in question’. The news was the ‘final straw’ for Kim Jong-il, who had also been told about serious defects in other key steel and textile projects. North Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo reported: ‘After being briefed about the leak, Kim Jong-il lambasted officials and ordered them to repair it. ‘He rushed to make an on-site inspection of the facility unable to contain his anger and died suddenly.’(MORE)

North Korea conducted nuclear warhead tests for Iran

(Israel Hayom h/t Allyson Christy) ‎"Evidence of the nuclear tests was first published early last month in Nature magazine, citing the work of Swedish nuclear physicist Lars-Erik de Geer.
De Geer detected the presence of radioisotopes which revealed that there had been a uranium bomb explosion in North Korea, the Nature report said. “North Korea may have conducted two covert nuclear weapons tests in 2010, according to a fresh analysis of radioisotope data,” the report said.
News of the test, Nature said, “might also explain a bizarre statement issued by North Korea’s state news agency in May 2010, which said that the country had achieved nuclear fusion. The news was largely ridiculed in the South Korean and Western media — but it was not so quickly dismissed by the small circle of experts who devote their careers to ident...ifying covert nuclear tests.”
According to Ruhle, North Korea would likely not have kept mum on the tests if Pyongyang was testing its own nuclear weapons. He adds that while the country’s previous tests included bombs containing a plutonium core, the 2010 tests seemed to have used enriched uranium.
Ruhle concludes the reason for this is probably that North Korea carried out the nuclear tests for a “foreign entity” which in this case, he says, is Iran." - Israel Hayom report

UN holds moment of silence for one of their own

oh... but it is diplomacy right? We are merely dealing with moderates... just like the Muslim Brotherhood... and the MoveOn.org and Think Progress people will not stop pushing that idea. They will tell you that you are the radical for having a position, when their position is the radical silencing opinion.

video via vladtepesblog.com

(israelmatzav.blogspot.com)Just how sick is the United Nations? Consider this: On Thursday, they held a moment of silence in memory of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il.

Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, president of the 193-nation assembly, called for a "minute of silence" before the start of a routine meeting at 3:00 p.m. EST in the half-empty UN General Assembly hall.
"It is my sad duty to pay tribute to the memory of the late Kim Jong-il, Secretary-General of the Workers Party of Korea, Chairman of the National Defense Commission of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army, who passed away on Saturday, Dec. 17," he said.
The minute of silence lasted for 25 seconds before Nasser proceeded with the scheduled meeting. The United States, European Union member states and Japan were among the countries that boycotted the tribute to Kim Jong-il.
North Korea's UN mission made a similar request to the Security Council, but Western diplomats said it was rejected.
"We didn't think it would be appropriate," a diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Several Western diplomats said Pyongyang's request for Kim to be honored was highly unusual. They voiced surprise that Nassir had granted it and added that their delegations would most likely boycott the moment of silence in the assembly.
Speaking at a news conference, Nasser cited "protocol" as the reason for agreeing to the request from North Korea, a full UN member. One diplomat said the reason for granting the request was probably because Kim was an acting head of state.

A reminder: North Korea is under UN sanctions because of its nuclear program (and ought to be under them for being a nuclear proliferator), and many of its people eat grass because there is nothing else to eat. That the United Nations considers Kim worthy of emulation speaks volumes as to the mentality that pervades the organization.

Kim Jong Il croaks

....Hi Dad!...

Kim Jong Il eldest son, Kim Jong Nam fell out of favor after he was caught trying 2enter Japan on a fake passport to visit Tokyo's Disneyland. It's what I would expect a progressive leftist would do to his kid.(Eye)(CNN) -- North Korea's longtime leader Kim Jong Il, the embodiment of the reclusive state where his cult of personality is deeply entrenched, has died, state TV reported.

He was believed to be 69.
Regarded as one of the world's most-repressive leaders, Kim Jong Il always cut a slightly bizarre figure. His diminutive stature and characteristically bouffant hair have been parodied by some in the West. More...

a metaphor for Obama's foreign policy

(dailymail.co.uk)In need of a revamp: These rusting tracks don't provide visitors with much confidence on the looped rollercoaster. When Westerners have ventured to the park, they come back with tales of riding the rollercoaster with unlocked harnesses and engineers quickly bashing in a few loose screws on the track beforehand.

North Korea's Luxury Restaurant

Phoenix Commercial Ventures Ltd offers investors business and investment opportunities in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK - aka North Korea), enabling them to take advantage of the economic reforms that are taking place there.

North Korea named head of UN nuclear disarmament body

North Korea has been named to head the U.N.'s nuclear disarmament body?

...it makes perfect sense within the scheme of the U.N.. Why is anyone surprised?

........ ...... ..... ........ ...... ..... ........ ...... ..... ........ ...... ..... via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

The president parties while the world burns

If the world is in crisis, you wouldn’t know it by watching President Obama’s spring break. Between golf, basketball and the president’s upcoming trip to Rio de Janeiro, the White House is projecting a disinterested aura of business as usual. For this administration, “tuned-out” is the new normal.

You offend!

The Mideast crisis is continuing, and Hillary Rodham Clinton has been the one taking the 3 a.m. phone calls. The secretary of state has been dealing with political reform in Egypt, a military crackdown in Bahrain and the continuing civil war in Libya. However, she is hampered by a chief executive who can’t make up his mind which course of action would best secure his place in history. It’s no wonder she took the opportunity to tell CNN she had no interest in continuing in the job in a theoretical Obama second term.

For the president’s part, he did manage to squeeze in a phone call to the kings of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to express his “deep concern over the violence in Bahrain” and stress “the importance of a political process as the only way to peacefully address the legitimate grievances of Bahrainis.” After this exercise in talking-point leadership, Bahrain’s crackdown continued apace. Mr. Obama’s views simply don’t matter to a world that views him as weak.

The news from Japan grows direr as the nuclear crisis intensifies. The Obama administration has shown considerably less interest in responding to this disaster - actually three disasters: earthquake, tsunami and potential nuclear meltdown - than it did to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. This is strange given the possibility for a monumental nuclear catastrophe and destabilizing the world’s third-largest economy, which also happens to be one of America’s best friends. A radioactive plume is set to hit the U.S. West Coast on Friday, and on Thursday President Obama said - twice - that “we do not expect harmful levels of radition to reach the U.S.”Either way, it certainly won’t pose a threat to the president, who by this weekend will be safe with his family on Brazil’s beaches.

Congress continued to debate a stopgap federal budget during the week, and on Tuesday the national debt scored a one-day $72 billion jump. Given the critical importance of the debate, it would be reasonable to expect Mr. Obama to be working hard to find a way out of the fiscal mess he largely created. The president, predictably, was nowhere to be found. Sen. Joe Manchin, West Virginia Democrat, scored the president for his “failure to lead” on the budget issue, and Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Republican, said the president was “absent from this debate.” Vice President Joe Biden, who was supposed to be representing the White House in the congressional budget wrangle, instead took a trip to Russia.

None of this is meant to suggest Mr. Obama hasn’t been productive. He laughed it up at the Gridiron Club dinner, took a stand against schoolyard bullying and spoke on the radio about Women’s History Month. Over the weekend, he played his 61st round of golf as president and finalized his March Madness bracket picks, predictably avoiding controversy by choosing the four top seeds for the Final Four. On Monday, he attended a gathering of potential big-money donors at the St. Regis hotel that Democratic Party officials insisted was not a fundraiser. Sure, it was not a fundraiser; and the White House isn’t coming across as disconnected, weak, passive and paralyzed either.

(WaTi) via eye-on-the-world.blogspot.com

Reuters and Jordan Times think North Korea is Artistic

SEOUL (Reuters) — North Korea, renowned for its secrecy and incredible artistic performances, is now planning the ultimate magic show — complete with disappearing aircraft. The North’s state-run KCNA news agency reported that the capital Pyongyang would host a “new form” of magic show in which the aircraft, a bus full of passengers and an elephant would be made to disappear. via jordantimes.com image via telegraph.co.uk 

Bend Over!

Bend Over!Bend Over!Bend Over!Bend Over!Bend Over!Bend Over!Bend Over!Bend Over!Bend Over!Bend Over!Bend Over!Bend Over!Bend Over!Bend Over!Bend Over!Bend Over!Bend Over!Bend Over!Bend Over!Bend Over!Bend Over!

www.flickr.com

WikiLeaks cables suggest Burma is building secret nuclear sites

Burma's military regime has said it wants a nuclear power plant but denied any plans for atomic weapons. Photograph: Khin Maung Win/AFP/Getty Images

Witnesses in Burma claim to have seen evidence of secret nuclear and missile sites being built in remote jungle, according to secret US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, heightening concerns that the military regime is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
A Burmese officer quoted in a cable from the US embassy in Burma said he had witnessed North Korean technicians helping to construct an underground facility in foothills more than 300 miles (480km) north-west of Rangoon.
"The North Koreans, aided by Burmese workers, are constructing a concrete-reinforced underground facility that is '500ft from the top of the cave to the top of the hill above'," according to the cable. The man is quoted as saying the North Koreans were "blowing concrete" into the excavation.
An expatriate businessman told the embassy in Rangoon he had seen a large barge carrying reinforced steel bar of a diameter that suggested a project larger than a factory. Other informants included dockworkers, who reported suspicious cargo.

via guardian.co.uk

you would think our government would allow this information out to counter their actions? nope

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

WikiLeaks Archive — Iran Armed by North Korea

Yonhap News Agency, via European Pressphoto Agency

Iran bought 19 advanced missiles from North Korea, a diplomatic cable says. The North displayed what some experts say are the same kind of missiles in an October parade.
Iran obtained 19 of the missiles from North Korea, according to a cable dated Feb. 24 of this year. The cable is a detailed, highly classified account of a meeting between top Russian officials and an American delegation led by Vann H. Van Diepen, an official with the State Department’s nonproliferation division who, as a national intelligence officer several years ago, played a crucial role in the 2007 assessment of Iran’s nuclear capacity.

The missiles could for the first time give Iran the capacity to strike at capitals in Western Europe or easily reach Moscow, and American officials warned that their advanced propulsion could speed Iran’s development of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

via nytimes.com

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Iran steadily smuggled arms to Hizballah using various means including in ambulances and medical vehicles during the 2006 war - Wikileaks Confirm Our Analysis of U.S. Policy and Middle East Politics

1. Iran steadily smuggled arms to Hizballah using various means including in ambulances and medical vehicles during the 2006 war. This violates the laws of war. At times, the media has condemned Israel for attacking ambulances though it showed Hamas was also using such vehicles for military and arms-smuggling operations. Moreover, the postwar UN force proved consistently ineffective in stopping smuggling while the U.S. government did not denounce Iran, Syria, and Hizballah for breaking the ceasefire arrangements.

2. Israeli leaders have repeatedly made clear in diplomatic discussions their acceptance of a two-state solution but warned that the Palestinian leadership sought Israel’s destruction.

3. Arab states have constantly been warning the United States about the threat from Iran as their highest priority, even urging the United States to attack Iran itself.

4. Iran and North Korea cooperated to provide Tehran with long-rang missiles that were shipped to Hizballah.

5. One week after President Bashar al-Asad promised a top State Department official that he would not send “new” arms to Hizballah, the United States complained that it had information that Syria was providing increasingly sophisticated weapons to the group. Yet the U.S. government did not take strong action.
(Reminds me of how Bashar promised the Bush Administration that he would stop buying oil from Iran in violation of UN sanctions but continued doing so; and how Yasir Arafat promised that he had nothing to do with terrorism and arms smuggling from Iran and then was shown to have lied. Is there a pattern here?)

6. Israel has been warning the United States about how Iran obtaining nuclear weapons would destabilize the region, not just create a danger of an Ian-initiated attack on Israel.

7. U.S. Officials in Turkey think that the current government is in fact an Islamist one, though the U.S. government (and media) keeps insisting it is some kind of democratic-reform-minded centrist regime.

Here are some sources for the raw materials:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/240364
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40405218/ns/world_news-the_new_york_times/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/209599
http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/2010/11/wikileaks-bombshells-get-early-release.html  

via rubinreports.blogspot.com

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Fidel Castro: Uncle Sam Did it!

“Castro suggested that Washington was behind the mysterious destruction of the South Korean corvette Cheonan, which exploded and sank March 26 near the disputed maritime border between North and South Korea in the Yellow Sea, killing all 46 crew members.” Indo-Asian News reported.

via msrb.wordpress.com

North Korean-Iranian Cooperation

Earlier this week, the appearance of an Iranian-style nosecone on a North Korean missile raised eyebrows all over the wonk-o-sphere. That the two countries cooperate in missile development is not exactly new news, but the images from Kim Il Sung Square gave eloquent testimony to this relationship.

But just how far does the technical collaboration extend? Is it confined to ballistic missiles, or is there a nuclear angle as well?

As it turns out, Iran and North Korea have signed a series of three-year plans for “cultural and scientific exchange.” KCNA has announced three of these, with the most recent signing taking place this past April in Pyongyang. The contents of the plans have not been publicized.

via pollack.armscontrolwonk.com

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