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North Korea Threatens US With Preemptive Nuclear Strike
jppiiroinen writes "North Korea threatened the United States on Thursday with a preemptive nuclear strike, raising the level of rhetoric while the U.N. Security Council considers new sanctions against the reclusive country."
The statement said North Korea "strongly warns the U.N. Security Council not to make another big blunder like the one in the past when it earned the inveterate grudge of the Korean nation by acting as a war servant for the U.S. in 1950."
It's their standard MO and I hope it doesn't affect the UN's resolution. Another quote from North Korea:
"Since the United States is about to ignite a nuclear war, we will be exercising our right to a preemptive nuclear attack against the headquarters of the aggressor in order to protect our supreme interest," said the statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.
More details from reuters on what the new sanctions mean as well as South Korea's push back.
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And I'm pretty much done with any Slashdot discussion on this since the apologists and "MAD is good" folks have been mighty thick on these past few news stories. We have entered into the era of "Hey everybody, we have nuclear weapons now do what we say or we will nuke you!" Like a teenage gang member who found his first handgun
My work here is dung.
Sure, but they also said that they believe the US is about to start a nuclear war, right now.
From TFA:
Actually, they are at war. There's a cease-fire in place, there's no fighting to speak of, but the Korean war hasn't actually ended.
Rule of Slashdot #0: You and people like you are not representative of the larger population. - A.C.
I'm pretty sure that the last time Korea's togetherness issues really came to the surface, the shooting between US and Chinese troops was hardly accidental...
This skips the possibility they will launch at a US carrier group, barren island or other non-continental target to induce terror but not civilian damage. We don't want them to have nukes for lots of reasons.
You're a few years behind. They already have sunk a SK Navy vessel and killed SK civilians in an artillery barrage within the last few years. The only question is if they try the same thing with a nuke.
E pluribus unum
MAD only works when both parties are sane. DPRK seems less sane by the day.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Also, your assertions regarding the French language are not supported by the evidence. As a fluent French speaker, trust me, you can be just as ambiguous in French as in English.
Karma: Poor (Mostly affected by lame karma-joke sigs)
NK threatened this about a decade ago when we were getting ready to invade Iraq for no plausible reason, but apparently no one gave a shit. No one's going to give a shit this time either since NK still doesn't have a credible delivery system. People will suddenly start giving a shit by the time they DO have one.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council has voted unanimously for tough new sanctions to punish North Korea for its latest nuclear test, a move that sparked a furious Pyongyang to threaten a nuclear strike against the United States.
The vote Thursday by the U.N.'s most powerful body on a resolution drafted by North Korea's closest ally, China, and the United States sends a powerful message to North Korea that the international community condemns its ballistic missile and nuclear tests — and its repeated violation of Security Council resolutions.
The new sanctions are aimed at making it more difficult for North Korea to finance and obtain material for its weapons programs.
I apologize for making it sound like the United States was the sole proposer of the new resolution -- I actually got that vibe from the DPRK press releases. I didn't know until I read this that China (at least is reported to have) co-authored them with the US.
My work here is dung.
unfortunately over the last 10 years the US is also looking less sane by the day.
US: ~28,500
SK: ~639,000 active duty
~2,900,000 reserves
~300,000 paramilitary (possibly partially overlapping with reserves)
NK: ~1,106,000 active duty
~8,200,000 reserves
So, the US has 1/30 of SK, roughly, and 1/60 of NK, not counting reserves.
The US presence is more a physical manifestation of a guarentee that the US will assist SK in event of war than a serious threat. Its along the lines of the US presence in Europe during the Cold War - not nearly enough to stop a Soviet assult, just there to reassure the people there that the United States was serious about assisting with European defense. The real plan, in both cases, is that the troops in place will delay the advance of invading forces till reinforcements can arrive.
Data summarized from multiple Wikipedia articles.