North Korea Threatens Nuclear War

Kim Jong Il's regime takes the new UN sanctions rather seriously:

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea's president ordered his top security officials Sunday to deal "resolutely and squarely" with new North Korean warnings of a nuclear war on the eve of his U.S. visit. In Washington, Vice President Joe Biden said "God only knows" what North Korea wants from the latest showdown.

President Lee Myung-bak travels to Washington on Monday for talks with President Barack Obama that are expected to focus on the North's rogue nuclear and missile programs.

The trip comes after North Korea's Foreign Ministry threatened war with any country that stops its ships on the high seas under new sanctions approved by the U.N. Security Council in response to its May 25 nuclear test.

It also vowed Saturday to "weaponize" all its plutonium and acknowledged a long-suspected uranium enrichment program for the first time. Both plutonium and uranium are key ingredients of atomic bombs.

A commentary published Saturday in the North's state-run Tongil Sinbo weekly claimed the U.S. was deploying a vast number of nuclear weapons in South Korea and Japan.

North Korea "is completely within the range of U.S. nuclear attack and the Korean peninsula is becoming an area where the chances of a nuclear war are the highest in the world," it said.

Kim Yong-kyu, a spokesman at the U.S. military command in Seoul, denied the allegation, saying the U.S. no longer has nuclear bombs in South Korea. U.S. tactical nuclear weapons were removed from South Korea in 1991 as part of arms reductions following the Cold War.

President Lee summoned his top security ministers Sunday and ordered them to "resolutely and squarely cope" with the North's threats, his office said. The Unification Ministry, responsible for ties with the North, issued a statement demanding that it stop inflaming tension and resume talks with the South.

"North Korea should give up its nuclear program ... and stop any kind of military threat," it said. "We urge North Korea to respond in a sincere dialogue to improve South-North Korean relations."

The new U.N. sanctions approved Friday are aimed at depriving the North of the financing used to build its nuclear program. They also authorize searches of North Korean ships suspected of transporting illicit ballistic missile and nuclear materials.

Biden told NBC's "Meet the Press" that it's crucial that the U.S. and other nations "make sure those sanctions stick."

North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, reportedly had a stroke 10 months ago and analysts believe there may be a plan in place to name his inexperienced 26-year-old son, Kim Jong Un, as the future leader.

"God only knows what he wants," Biden said of Kim. "There's all kinds of discussions. Whether this is about succession, wanting his son to succeed him. Whether or not he's looking for respect. Whether or not he really wants a nuclear capability to threaten the region. ... We can't guess his motives.

"We just have to deal with the reality that a North Korea that is either proliferating weapons and or missiles, or a North Korea that is using those weapons ... is a serious danger and threat to the world, and particularly East Asia," the vice president said.

Lee Sang-hyun, an analyst at the Sejong Institute, a South Korean security think tank, said he believes the North will continue to conduct nuclear tests until it masters the technology to mount nuclear warheads on missiles and will give credit for it to Kim Jong Un.

"Kim Jong Un's status is still unstable. Kim Jong Il appears to be trying to give the son a powerful means to strengthen his succession," Lee said. "Kim Jong Un could also get the credit for nuclear weapons development."

North Korea is already believed to have enough plutonium for at least half a dozen atomic bombs.

North Korea says its nuclear program is a deterrent against the U.S., which it accuses of plotting to invade and topple its regime. Washington, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, has repeatedly denied having any such plans.

Some thoughts: 1. The United States doesn't need to place nuclear weapons on South Korean soil to be in nuclear striking range of North Korea. Kim Jong Il is mistaken if he doubts we have that kind of long-range technology.

2. Because a nuclear strike doesn't necessitate having weapons on the Korean peninsula, I'd think that we would strike from dozens of mobile or trans-continental locations, rather than have our whole aresenal stockpiled in a lcoation where North Korea can easily retaliate (We can strike an island in the south pacific with a rocket launched from California in half an hour)

3. Politically, I'd think that the South Korean government would be hestiant to let the United States re-stockpile dozens of nuclear weapons in a previously tense region, as Kim Yong-Kyu suggests

4. Politically, North Korea's response that they are aiming to present a deterrent is valid, as one of the best arguments in favor of nuclear arms is the argument of deterrence. The United States does it, the Soviet Union did it, the whole Western world did it, and it appears that North Korea is following in those footsteps. The only issue however, is the nutcase in power with his finger on the trigger. Traditionally we have been accepting of high-polity nations using nuclear arms as deterrents particualarly because we are their allies. Now, I guess times have changed (or haven't really, they've just gone back to that Soviet-era ethic of mutually assured destruction)

5. Kim Jong Un doesn't need nuclear arms to increase credibility, because credibility doesn't matter in this regime. Whether credible or not, he will assume power and hold it (if he is talented enough). Should the general public fear that a weak leader is leading their nation, leave it to the state-run media to pursuade them otherwise.