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North Korea Kills Phone Line, 1953 Armistice; Kim Jong Un's Funds Found In China
eldavojohn writes "Last week, North Korea promised a "preemptive nuclear strike" prior to a UN vote on new sanctions. Despite the threat, the sanctions were unanimously approved. North Korea has responded by killing a Red Cross hotline with Seoul and claims that it has canceled the 1953 Armistice although the UN notes this cannot be done unilaterally (North Korea attempted the same thing in 2003 and 2009). While everyone thought that Kim Jong Un would ride out the sanctions on slush funds, the United States claims to have found his funds in Shanghai and other parts of China totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. Beijing has reportedly refused to confiscate these funds despite voting for the very UN resolutions sanctioning North Korea that read: 'More specifically, States are directed to prevent the provision of financial services or the transfer of any financial or other assets or resources, including 'bulk cash,' which might be used to evade the sanctions.'"
North Korea again? I've seen this movie before. It sucked the first time.
That way they can point to a country and say to its people: "See, you CAN do worse. Now get back to work."
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/northkorea/2009/05/28/46/0401000000AEN20090528004200315F.HTML
China's corrupt legal system doesn't enforce its OWN laws, somebody thought they'd enforce the UN's?
Was stationed in S. Korea many years ago. Every year, the U.S. has conducted a large-scale joint military maneuver with the ROK. Every year, N. Korea goes on a rant about the exercise. Usually their rant is just the usual propaganda about an impending invasion, and their great General Kim Il Sung foiled the Imperialists once again until next year. But now that they have a new Fuhrer, maybe he feels he needs to kick it up a notch to be noticed. N. Korea is a dangerous country, but 99% of their rhetoric is for internal propaganda purposes. Maybe the recent rebellions in the Middle East + new leader + China no longer being their unconditional ally are taking a psychological toll.
Also because the regime would probably decide to go out in a blaze of glory (or rather bombs and chemical weapons.) Even if they didn't cause major damage in their death throes, North Korea collapsing would mean a flood of North Korean refugees coming into the country, even closer to starving than they are now and not really useful for anything other than worshiping their leader. And NK is a bargaining chip for China anyway.
I'm pretty that a cease-fire CAN be broken unilaterally. All you have to do is start attacking the other side again.
One is reminded of the classic Dilbert with Dogbert selling a suitcase nuke to the North Elbonians: "Our slingshot can fling this a hundred yards, is that enough?" *wag* "That's plenty."
WikiLeaks' Julian Assange has revealed that John McAfee has smuggled 5,000,000 ::Cue::Cats to the DPRK. A young boy by the name of Sinuj has dug out his C64 from where it was hidden under a chickencoop and is liveblogging the amazing changes to his country as the regime collapses. Apple is going to be the first to break the sanctions by opening a Apple store in Pyongyang and a 20,000,000 sqft factory in the suburbs. SCO is suing Kim Jong Un over the blatant infringement of their copyrights in his "Klinux" operating system.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
If they wont at least freeze the funds, then they are supporting North Korea and all they stand for. China would benefit from a war between Korea and the USA. they can sell to both sides.
If you dont agree, then what is your reason as to why they wont freeze the funds?
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Damn, it feels good to be a banksta.
North Korea is the ultimate expression of what "little dog syndrome" is all about. A tiny little spit of land with a tiny population, nothing to speak of to contribute to the rest of the world except some extraordinary xenophobia and isolationism. Bark bark bark! Grrrrrrrrr!!! That's North Korea. They either aren't cognizant that the U.S. or any number of other countries could smash them flat in no time at all, or they're so batshit insane and suicidal that they don't care. Meanwhile something like, what? 99.9% of their population lives in the worst poverty imaginable and is starving, while the tiny elite minority lives it up? I really don't know what to think; I have no words. We sure there isn't any way we can persuade China to just absorb North Korea, kill the 0.01% that's causing all the problems, and just be done with it? Why do we even need a North Korea, considering how much noise and trouble they keep causing?
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
They could put it in a sealed cargo container and ship and detonate by gps when it gets close enough to it's destination. Lots of ways they could.
claims that it has canceled the 1953 Armistice although the UN notes this cannot be done unilaterally
Only in the imagination of diplomats is unilateral cancellation of an armistice impossible. The rest of us know what the North Koreans know; that they can start shooting anytime they want.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
"We called at 9 a.m. and there was no response," a government official from South Korea said. The line is tested each day.
With their assets now frozen, they weren't able to pay the phone bill.
Atari user detected.
When you rely on a corrupt government for the tiny amount of food that you get, you've believe just about anything they tell you to. And that's the point.
Nukes. And, sharks with lasers. And guns. And missiles (or the lack thereof). Global Thermonuclear Warfare.
Not to mention, we like discussing douches, whether they are from SCO, Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, the US government, the UK government, or the North Korean government.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
The answer is on the front page, just a couple stories down: Apple sues Samsung. Perhaps you're familiar with the quote "What's good for General Motors is good for the country" (Charles Erwin Wilson, though that's not actually what he said). That's even more true in South Korea which is, more or less, a subsidiary of the Samsung Group.
Steve Jobs promised thermonuclear war and if he can't get it in the courts, he'll get it on the battlefield.
Side node: by now it should be clear that Steve Jobs is not actually dead -- if he was, his embalmed body would be on display.
There was a mystery passenger on Eric Schmidt's visit to North Korea. Could it have been Steve Jobs, offering iPads in exchange for war on South Korea?
Much like animals sensing a storm and fleeing a storm before it arrives, Apple has been diversifying their supply lines so as not to use any parts from South Korea. Could they know something that we don't?
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
I see this type of stuff from NK as a face-saving measure, with more focus aimed at their own people.
The fact that the rest of the world pays attention is just icing on the cake.
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
What privacy invading issues might you be referring to?
Each CueCat has a unique identifier that is appended to the scanned encrypted data. The original software was designed to track you based on everything you scanned.
Unfortunately for Digital Innovations, their ub3r 1337 h4x0r engineers decided that "base64 encoding + constant XOR == encryption". Fail. So, alternate software was quickly created to decode CueCat output, and the CueCats were thus rendered simple, free barcode scanners.
In retrospect, this whole debacle may have been the first lolcat. Heh.
He violated the cease fire agreement. I'd say that counts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1441
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
The lack of concrete action against NK might be a lesson for Iran.
If you don't want to be fucked with, actually having nukes is the best bet.
If NK actually did this, it too would glow enough to be seen from space.
He's demanding an all expense paid trip to Disneyland and a pony or he'll blow up Congress. American citizens have responded daring him to carry through with his threats.
Huh? If it's enriched uranium the decay mode is alpha particles. The wikipedia page has a photo of someone holding a disc of highly enriched U-235 with a pair of rubber gloves.
If it's Plutonium then the decay mode will still be alpha.
Out have I just been successfully trolled?
You are right and it should also be pointed out that one reason that China supports them is that they do not want hundreds of thousands of NK refugees coming over their border.
Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro
The last test was a bona fide nuclear explosion, not a fizzle. Granted, they don't have the capability to deliver nukes on a missile (yet), but Seoul is only thirty five miles from the DMZ. All the Norks need to do is load it on a jet, fly to Seoul, and detonate. There wouldn't be enough time to respond.
I'm not sure I understand what you are saying. Just that citizens of a corrupt communist regime believe everything their government tells them? Let me assure you that that is not the case.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
6-7 kT, as I recall reading about their last test.
So not even up to where we were in 1945.
If we assume that their bomb is about the size of Fatman or Little Boy, then they don't have a plane capable of carrying it, even if they were inclined to test South Korea's Air Defense with their only Bomb.
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
It's like taking a bandage off.
Nah, it's more like taking a diaper off.
Not quite. The bigger issue, aside from China is that while Iraq was supposedly building WMDs, North Korea actually has them.
I put some numbers against this the other day in the last discussion about North Korea, basically even if the whole entire population of North Korea crossed the border it would still only be about the same population increase China sees naturally despite having a one child policy in 2 years anyway, or a less than 2% increase in population.
This is still non-negligible and would be a big problem of course, but also as I pointed out the whole population wouldn't cross the border. When you factor in disease and famine, people who stay, people who die, people who flee elsewhere (to Japan, South Korea etc.) the actual figure is going to be fairly negligible. As there would be a hefty amount of international aid and support to boot it's likely that the border region of China may even actually see a net benefit - cheap labour and international funding to feed it, build accommodation, provide healthcare and so on.
Just to put this into context, Jordan saw 750,000 Iraqi refugees arrive in the three years between 2003 and 2006 which to them, was a 15% increase in population - drastically higher than anything China could suffer from war in the absolute worst case that would never come close to happening in practice of every single individual in North Korea going there.
I don't think the refugee argument is a legitimate one, I don't think that's China's concern at all.
More likely I think the real reason is simply that China doesn't want reunification - the last thing it wants is a successful Western ally backed by heavy US military presence right on it's doorstep, it prefers to maintain a buffer zone, that buffer zone being North Korea.
If this were to happen the bigger threat to China would likely be the emigration of it's brightest and best across the border into a new unified Korea, rather than emigration of North Koreans post-war.
I was bitter about the whole thing for a long time, until I learned the failure part...which made a tiny part of me very happy indeed.
Ah, schadenfreude—it has always seemed historically inevitable to me that the word with this definition would have German etymology. "There's a word for this? And it's German? Quelle surprise."
The historical precedents of invading Russia in the winter contain very valuable information regarding how to not invade Russia during the winter.
That is, make sure you have a supply line. Napoleon was forced to retreat from Moscow towards Smolensk which had previously been torched by Russian troops as they retreated from Smolensk to Moscow. After his army got checked trying to advance on St. Petersburg he had hoped that taking Moscow would force the Russians to capitulate. The Germans had planned for their Blitzkrieg to succeed quickly against Russian and never setup the supply lines to support their armies. There were also some strategic blunders on the Germans which permitted the Russians to envelope and destroy an entire army group. Not really something you want to do if you're trying to... you know.... win.
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
So far NC has not built one that I know of ...
I assure you that North Carolina has no intention of building submarines or cruise missiles.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.