Wednesday, May 27, 2009

North Korea vs. Obama


The last missile that North Korea sent up, I was thinking, "Are they nuts with these UN resolutions? SHOOT IT DOWN PEOPLE! Why fear the increasing of tensions? This guy is a nut job! Sanctions? Just stay calm?"

Am I the only one scratching my head, here? It won't take long for them to have the capability to send a missile to our backyards. I miss Dick Cheney and George Bush! Those men understood and could identify evil. You can't stop evil by talking..by punishing. Evil persists unless it is annihilated. Sounds scary, yes. Sounds radical, yes. But far better than the alternative.

When Pastor Warren from Saddleback Church asked John McCain last summer what we should do about evil in the world, McCain said, with all seriousness and without hesitation, "We should annihilate it." He knew! He gets it! I hope Dick Cheney doesn't stop talking, and I hope McCain speaks up as well.

Obama scares me because he says exactly what the opposition wants to hear. He dazzles with his words, while at the same time pushing through his radical abortion agenda. We've never had a leader with more aggressive, pro-abortion views. He isn't pro-choice..he's pro-abortion. He went to Notre Dame and people cheered. He said what they wanted to hear. Even the Vatican praised the speech, to a certain extent. The guy is brilliant. Dangerously brilliant. And dangerously naive. And people are still smitten. Less of them than before, but still many.

He'll use some harsh phrases about North Korea to appease the American conservatives. He'll go to the UN and spew more harsh rhetoric--but in the end, he'll take no lead. He'll do nothing. And North Korea knows it!

Much prayer is needed! God, let those who understand speak. Give them your courage. I fear the same people who aren't sure there is a God, also aren't sure there is evil.

N. Korea threatens to attack US, S. Korea warships



A couple stands by North Korea's Scud-B missile, center green, and other South AP – A couple stands by North Korea's Scud-B missile, center green, and other South Korea's missiles at the …

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea threatened military action Wednesday against U.S. and South Korean warships plying the waters near the Koreas' disputed maritime border, raising the specter of a naval clash just days after the regime's underground nuclear test.

Pyongyang, reacting angrily to Seoul's decision to join an international program to intercept ships suspected of aiding nuclear proliferation, called the move tantamount to a declaration of war.

"Now that the South Korean puppets were so ridiculous as to join in the said racket and dare declare a war against compatriots," North Korea is "compelled to take a decisive measure," the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a statement carried by state media.

The North Korean army called it a violation of the armistice the two Koreas signed in 1953 to end their three-year war, and said it would no longer honor the treaty.

South Korea's military said Wednesday it was prepared to "respond sternly" to any North Korean provocation.

North Korea's latest belligerence comes as the U.N. Security Council debates how to punish the regime for testing a nuclear bomb Monday in what President Barack Obama called a "blatant violation" of international law.

Ambassadors from the five permanent veto-wielding council members — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France — as well as Japan and South Korea were working out the details of a new resolution.

The success of any new sanctions would depend on how aggressively China, one of North Korea's only allies, implements them.

"It's not going too far to say that China holds the keys on sanctions," said Kim Sung-han, an international relations professor at Seoul's Korea University.

South Korea, divided from the North by a heavily fortified border, had responded to the nuclear test by joining the Proliferation Security Initiative, a U.S.-led network of nations seeking to stop ships from transporting the materials used in nuclear bombs.

Seoul previously resisted joining the PSI in favor of seeking reconciliation with Pyongyang, but pushed those efforts aside Monday after the nuclear test in the northeast.

North Korea warned Wednesday that any attempt to stop, board or inspect its ships would constitute a "grave violation."

The regime also said it could no longer promise the safety of U.S. and South Korean warships and civilian vessels in the waters near the Korea's western maritime border.

"They should bear in mind that the (North) has tremendous military muscle and its own method of strike able to conquer any targets in its vicinity at one stroke or hit the U.S. on the raw, if necessary," the army said in a statement carried by state media.

The maritime border has long been a flashpoint between the two Koreas. North Korea disputes the line unilaterally drawn by the United Nations at the end of the Koreas' three-year war in 1953, and has demanded it be redrawn further south.

The truce signed in 1953 and subsequent military agreements call for both sides to refrain from warfare, but doesn't cover the waters off the west coast.

North Korea has used the maritime border dispute to provoke two deadly naval skirmishes — in 1999 and 2002.

On Wednesday, the regime promised "unimaginable and merciless punishment" for anyone daring to challenge its ships.

Pyongyang also reportedly restarted its weapons-grade nuclear plant, South Korean media said.

The Chosun Ilbo newspaper said U.S. spy satellites detected signs of steam at the North's Yongbyon nuclear complex, an indication it may have started reprocessing nuclear fuel. The report, which could not be confirmed, quoted an unidentified government official. South Korea's Yonhap news agency also carried a similar report.

The move would be a major setback for efforts aimed at getting North Korea to disarm.

North Korea had stopped reprocessing fuel rods as part of an international deal. In 2007, it agreed to disable the Yongbyon reactor in exchange for aid and demolished a cooling tower at the complex.

The North has about 8,000 spent fuel rods which, if reprocessed, could allow it to harvest 13 to 18 pounds (six to eight kilograms) of plutonium — enough to make at least one nuclear bomb, experts said. North Korea is believed to have enough plutonium for at least a half dozen atomic bombs.

Further ratcheting up tensions, North Korea test-fired five short-range missiles over the past two days, South Korean officials confirmed.

Russia's foreign minister said world powers must be firm with North Korea but take care to avoid inflaming tensions further.

The world "must not rush to punish North Korea just for punishment's sake," Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, adding that Russia wants a Security Council resolution that will help restart stalled six-nation talks over North Korea's nuclear programs and will not provoke Pyongyang into even more aggressive activity.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak urged officials to "remain calm" in the face of North Korean threats, said Lee Dong-kwan, his spokesman.

Pyongyang isn't afraid of any repercussions for its actions, a North Korean newspaper, the Minju Joson, said Wednesday.

"It is a laughable delusion for the United States to think that it can get us to kneel with sanctions," it said in an editorial. "We've been living under U.S. sanctions for decades, but have firmly safeguarded our ideology and system while moving our achievements forward. The U.S. sanctions policy toward North Korea is like striking a rock with a rotten egg."

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Associated Press writer Steve Gutterman in Moscow and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

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