A New World Awaits
09 October 2006
North Korea has apparently followed through on it's threats and carried out a test of a nuclear weapon.
Apparently, the test was carried out at 11:36am AEST - the same time as South Korean monitors detected a 3.58 magnitude seismic disturbance.
There's very little information available at this stage. The North Koreans claim that there's been no radiation leakage as a result, but they did conduct the test on a Monday...and we all know how sloppy output can be on back-to-work Monday.
Aside from any environmental damage that may result, the political implication of this are staggering. As John Bolton, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., said on Friday, “We think the main point is that North Korea should understand how strongly the United States and other council members feel that they should not test this nuclear device...And if they do test it, it will be a very different world a day after the test.”
Will the U.S. invade if they know a country actually has WMDs? Will there be a mass exit from the Korean peninsula? Would sanctions have any effect, or is it too late? Are you getting sick of rhetorical questions? I don't know, but we may have much to fear in the days ahead.
Of course the US won't invade a country which can actually fight back. They're way of of their depth in Iraq and the Taliban are starting to reclaim Afghanistan. The US itself will do nothing about North Korea, but it will try and bully the UN into doing something. Interesting, relying on a South Korean Secretary General to tackle North Korea.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of an old Egyptian curse: "May you live in interesting times."
Well as all the pundit have pointed out, the U.S. couldn't invade now even if it wanted to.
ReplyDeleteAs for sanctions...well they did a great job getting rid of Saddam and nuetered the Communist government in Cuba real well too.
Korea doesn't have oilfields.
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm amazed that they got included in the axis of evil in the first place.
ReplyDeleteWhere evil is a eupehmism for "let us have OUR oil!"
Nor is N Korea an Arab nation, so it doesn't fit in with the racist agenda of the dictarships that is the UK/Oz govt, or the theocracy that is the US govt.
ReplyDeleteIt could simply be good old McCarthyism back again, Capitalism and juggernauts like the Word Bank and the WTO have done a good job of crushing communism by appealing to the greed of the average person, but there still remain a few communist ("second world") places out there which are doing ok. Can't pick on China, rather forget about Cuba, let's pick on a smaller state. It worked in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq... Sorry, looking at a parallel universe there.