News For The Day - 13 Jun 2009 pt 2

North Korea Vows To "Weaponize" Stored Plutonium

Associated Press apparently has a stake in keeping the world's collective blood pressure up too. The long and short of this story is this: North Korea continues to 'feel threatened' by the United Nations, and with enough refined plutonium for 6 bombs, and enough uranium to refine into material for at least one more, have vowed to 'react with a decisive military response' if new UN sanctions are enforced.

Anyone else feel like we have a child with a gun running off at the mouth to a bunch of adults? The weapon is dangerous, yes, but more dangerous is the mind behind it. In this international game of one-up-manship, we all lose. The UN asks for nuclear disarmament from North Korea as the one major condition to withdrawing the sanctions that are starving the North Korean people. Instead of dropping their nuclear program, the North Korean government accelerates their plans, while basically giving the finger to the US, UK, Russia, and China (wow, sounds like a good idea, no?). So the UN, namely the countries mentioned previously, impose more, and more stringent, sanctions. What started out as 'put the gun down' has turned into 'put the gun down, and clean the whole house, you're grounded'. I feel like it's a grander scale of the scene that plays out at my house. While there are no guns at my house, I do tend to go rounds with my six-year-old on a regular basis as he 'tests the boundaries'. Taking the analogy further, I think that the only way the United Nations is going to end this stand-off is with 'decisive action' against the North Korean government. I know it sounds bad, and it will (once again) earn the condemnation of countries like France and Belgium, it needs to be done. Excise the head, and the serpent will die (granted, some post-mortem thrashing can be expected).
Kim Jong Il is dying. I can foresee that the international response is going to involve a 'sit and wait' until the new dictator is installed, but what if he's no better than his father? What if he's like Saddam's sons, more cruel, more vicious, and more unbalanced than his parent? This whole thing just reeks of bad ideas.

Until Next Time!