This is not a positive development.

North Korea declared Tuesday that it would conduct a nuclear test to bolster its defenses against the United States, raising tensions in the region and marking the communist government's first unambiguous pledge to prove it has become a nuclear power.

Though North Korea has previously said it possesses nuclear bombs -- U.S. intelligence officials have estimated it could have as many as 11 -- a test detonation would dramatically change the region's power dynamics. Analysts have said the United States and area neighbors including China, Japan and South Korea would be forced to deal far more harshly with the North Koreans.

A test would be a "very provocative act," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said during a visit to Cairo. It would create a "qualitatively different situation on the Korean Peninsula" that would spill over into the entire region, she said. Rice declined to predict what the U.S. response might be.

In a statement issued through the official KCNA news service, North Korea's Foreign Ministry said the government would "conduct a nuclear test under conditions where safety is firmly guaranteed." The statement did not say when the test might occur, but added that the North's "nuclear weapons will serve as reliable war deterrent for protecting the supreme interests of the state and the security of the Korean nation from the U.S. threat of aggression."

If such a test occurs, the US and other nations must respond to eliminate the remaining weapons and North Korea's nuclear program.

I'd suggest bombing North Korea back to the Stone Age, except for the fact that most North Koreans are already living in conditions pretty close to that due to the policies of the corrupt dicatorship of Kim Jong-Il. I guess we'll just have to bomb them back to the Paleolothic Age from the Neolithic.

And by the way -- what president's ineffective policies allowed for the North Koreans to develop nuclear weapons while receiving US assistance? The same president whose ineffective policy on terrorism allowed Osama to remain at large to plan the 9/11 attacks. Thanks, Bill!

Posted by: Greg at 10:21 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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