Our buddy Kim

A little additional info for El Rajo:

July 19, 2006

The U.N. Security Council in a rare display of backbone voted Saturday
to impose limited sanctions on North Korea for its recent missile tests.
The reaction from Pyongyang was the diplomatic equivalent of a Bronx
cheer. The resolution bans U.N. members from selling material or
technology for missiles or weapons of mass destruction to North Korea.
It condemns North Korea's missile launches; it demands North Korea
suspend its missile program; and it urges North Korea to return to the
six-party talks (with South Korea, China, Russia, Japan and the United
States).

North Korea rejected the resolution within 45 minutes. John Bolton, U.S.
ambassador to the U.N., said that was a world record. A defiant North
Korea has vowed to continue its missile program. There seems to be no
compelling way to force North Korea to moderate its behavior. In the
early 1990s, when North Korea began extracting plutonium to make nuclear
weapons, the United States drew line after line in the sand, and North
Korea crossed each one. The regime of Kim Jong Il has shown that its
major objective is to acquire nuclear weapons and the means to deliver
them. That makes North Korea a threat - especially to South Korea and
Japan, but also to the United States.

North Korea is trying to develop a missile capable of reaching American
territory; and it has shown a willingness to "sell anything to anybody."
That makes its growing nuclear arsenal a danger to the world. What
options are left? The administration has to press the international
community to take a tougher approach towards North Korea, forcing it to
return to the six-party talks. It's probably wishful thinking that this
might work, but what else do we have right now?

California Poppy...

I read where we still have 55,000 troops at the DMZ in Korea. I wonder
why? South Korea is affluent enough to have its own force there. By
having US troops there, it will immediately draw the US into any
conflict. Wouldn't these troops be better placed elsewhere?

Jerry Okamura...

That is the purpose, I would think. As a "tripwire", just like they acted
as a "tripwire" when the North invaded the south the last time....
Hopefully, if it ever happens again, we won't be as badly mauled as the last
time.....

Fred Ghadry...

It's because of the unusual status of the Korean Conflict, never
officially terminated. North Korea and the U.N. are observing a truce;
the conflict never actually ended. I think it was just last year that
someone or other wanted to move the U.S. troops away from the border,
but the idea didn't have much political support. The Kims have used the
past fifty years to fortify their side, and there are all sorts of
marvelous conspiracy stories about how many tanks and artillery pieces
the North Koreans have hidden in tunnels under the 38th parallel.

We're already involved in the "conflict"; it's just that the truce has
lasted so long that most have forgotten that it exists.

Jerry Okamura...

"Nuke" North Korea into the stoneage?