Top U.S. military officer: North Korea 'very dangerous' country

[Faygo Kid]

Source: Associated Press

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said today he worries that North Korea is advancing its potential nuclear capability toward "real life" after a scientist reported new activity in its atomic program.

The American nuclear expert who recently visited North Korea says he was taken to a small industrial-scale uranium enrichment facility and told that low-enriched uranium was being produced for a new reactor.

Adm. Mike Mullen, the top U.S. military officer, said such activities would violate U.N. security resolutions and agreements by North Korea over its nuclear program.

"From my perspective, it's North Korea continuing on a path which is destabilizing for the region. It confirms or validates the concern we've had for years about their enriching uranium, which they've denied routinely," Mullen said. "They are a country that routinely we are unable to believe that they would do what they say.". . .

Read more: http://detnews.com/article/20101121/NATION/11210323/1361/Top-U.S.-military-officer--North-Korea--very-dangerous--country

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I have a very bad feeling about North Korea and what they might do. They are no longer a viable country and resentment against South Korea is palpable. The Chinese can only do so much - this is a very dangerous situation.

[Loge23]

1. Seems a little premature.

I mean, we still have another 3-4 years minimum to grind up cash and flesh in Afghanistan.
Can't be too early, I guess, to start planning the next war.

[Arctic Dave]

2. So says the ass hat in charge of occupying two foreign countries

The US military is the biggest threat to any nation not NK.

[Faygo Kid]

4. Sure hope you're right.

I guess if you are, we can just forget about North Korea, which does such wondrous things for its citizens.

[Arctic Dave]

5. On a that scale, look how great we treat our own citizens.

As far as I know the shit bags in the military had a grand time fucking with people in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have yet to see NK drop bombs on the homes of people in other countries have you?

[Posteritatis]

10. LOL at the idea that American citizens have it worse off than North Korean ones. (nt)

[Arctic Dave]

12. Is being homeless and hungry in the US somehow better then NK?

[Posteritatis]

13. I would say yes, actually.

Americans rarely get sent to labour camps for vagrancy, nor do they have to worry about famines to the point where they eat grass. The most blighted poor in the US still have a variety of rights, however abridged, and opportunities, however far-indeed-from-perfect, that a peasant in North Korea at this point probably literally cannot conceive of.

[du_grad]

16. Watch this documentary and be frightened

http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/National-Geographic-Inside-North-Korea/70061970?strackid=7919728cc0a4a03c_0_srl&strkid=2052422229_0_0&trkid=438381#height1813

My husband and I watched this about a month ago. The U.S. is NOTHING like NK. They have turned the populace into robots. If the robots disagree they are sent to rot in prisons.

[L.Torsalo]

18. Yes, but they at least have

something to believe in. America's got squat. What are rights when violated? What is destitution but maximum oppression?

[SkyDaddy7]

20. You must have not got the memo...

Americans are to embrace Christianity, Evangelical Christianity, as the foundation of your life! We are to be good little Christians and do what our masters in corporate America say & embrace suffering in this life for streets of gold in the next! After all Christ suffered so who are we to complain? HOO-RAAY!!

Now that is something to BELIEVE IN!

I seriously wish I did not have to say this but the above was SARCASM! I am a very proud atheist & I hate to see how religion is used to get so many people to march like robots...Very similar to folks in North Korea just a different religion, a state religion! Which is exactly what the Republicans want this country to be!

[ProgressiveMajority]

32. Yup, the difference between US and North Korea is not so large. Purpose Driven Life.. Juche??

The ideology which North Korea is built on is quite similar to a lot of religious ideology promulgated in the US. The only ideology offering real freedom is progressive socialism.

[Arctic Dave]

24. Uh, Americans are sent to jail for vagrancy daily.

Ah how exactly does starving in NK differ from starving in the US. Please list some of the opportunities that homeless people have here that their NK compatriots don't have.

[ProgressiveMajority]

34. Well said. In fact, unlike the US constitution, the DPRK gaurentees housing, food, clothing, school

Libertarians and the like can talk a big game about all the opportunities the US provides, but until the US at least provides a basic level of equality I'd say we have a long way to go and that we should hold our tongue when judging north Korea for having homeless or starving people when those same problems exist here.

Article 25, DPRK constitution:
The DPRK regards the steady improvement of the material and cultural standards of the people as the supreme principle of its activities.

The constantly-increasing material wealth of society in our country, where taxes have been abolished, is used entirely for promoting the well-being of the working people.

The State shall provide all working people with every condition for obtaining food, clothing and housing.
Source: http://www1.korea-np.co.jp/pk/061st_issue/98091708.htm

[PacerLJ35]

36. Seeing as though the State determines every detail of a person's existence in NK

...the State providing food, clothing and housing is akin to a prison providing you with food, clothing and housing. Amazing that people here are actually taking up for NK and making it out as if it's actually a great place...

[Synicus Maximus]

22. Well there was that little invasion of South Korea thing

[Arctic Dave]

27. LOL. Oops, forgot about that one. Little before my time.

[Ghost Dog]

29. Invasion? I think you refer to the disputed

division of previously Japanese-occupied Korea by "the victorious Allies", the USA and the USSR?

The division of Korea into North Korea and South Korea stems from the 1945 Allied victory in World War II, ending Japan's 35-year colonial rule of Korea. In a proposal opposed by nearly all Koreans, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to temporarily occupy the country as a trusteeship with the zone of control demarcated along the 38th parallel. The purpose of this trusteeship was to establish a Korean provisional government which would become "free and independent in due course."<1> Though elections were scheduled, the two superpowers backed different leaders and two states were effectively established, each of which claimed sovereignty over the whole Korean peninsula.

The Korean War (1950–1953) left the two Koreas separated by the DMZ through the Cold War to the present day.

/... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_of_Korea

[ProgressiveMajority]

33. Yup. And North Korea (Kim Il Sung) probably would have won an country wide election in 1950

The so called "invasion" was a response to a division of the peninsula by two foreign powers.

[DissedByBush]

7. Don't blame the military guy in charge

They take orders from the civilian in charge. The President.

In this case he is only there because Bush wanted to start a war and Obama is having a hard time figuring out how to fix the mess without leaving a total disaster behind.

[Arctic Dave]

25. These mutherfuckers cheerleaded these wars from the beginning

Save that following orders bullshit for the kiddies. The military is just as complicit in all the war crimes bush is.

[Pavulon]

31. Not here brother. In this country the military does not get a vote. they follow orders

from the executive which are funded by the legislative. this is 5th grade stuff. The military does not get a say like in turkey. The military serves at the direction of the people YOU elect.

Cold simple fact.

[Arctic Dave]

35. Yeah right, like those motherfuckers weren't TV cheerleading

this fuck ups from the get go. From cable news outlets, to "special" intelligence, to every last ooo-rah.

[Posteritatis]

8. It's possible for both the US and North Korea to be ill-behaved, dangerous states. (nt)

[Arctic Dave]

28. I will agree with that statement.

Both are mental patients trying to convince everyone that the other guy is crazier.

[Faygo Kid]

3. I don't think that's fair. No one is calling for war here.

But this is a dangerous situation, and it should be recognized as such. I worry that the North Korean ossified leadership will feel they have nothing left to lose, and act accordingly.

To recognize the danger is not to call for war. It's probably up to the Chinese here, and they are likely the only ones with any influence. The last thing they want is for North Korea to lash out and destabilize their border. When I say lash out, that implies a whole range of options - nuclear being the worst.

[Arctic Dave]

6. They will act out? WTF does that even mean?

Just because they have means of defending themselves on a grander scale then they have already doesn't mean they will start to invade countries for shits and giggles. Your post are ludicrous.

[Posteritatis]

9. There's a corvette crew that probably has something to say about how ludicrous that is

Well, there was such a crew, in any case.

[Arctic Dave]

11. Cryptic much?

[Posteritatis]

14. Not at all. (nt)

[Faygo Kid]

15. "Your post are ludicrous"

I won't waste time or energy arguing with an illiterate.

[Arctic Dave]

26. So you got nothing. I thought as much.

More of the same lame bullshit that if someone else tries to create weapons that will help their defense they are the biggest threat in the world, when in fact, it is our military that is the biggest criminals on the planet.

[Ghost Dog]

30. Funny, I'd read an alternative subtext in the op, at first sight. viz:

It would be very dangerous for the, um, warmongers to attempt an invasion, or anything like it, of the North.

All brainwash jingoism be damned.

Edit: And :thumbsup: from me to Arctic Dave. (Who can almost see NK from where he lives. On Faux, especially). Stay cool, Dave, I smell trolls.

[sarcasmo]

17. No more wars you assholes.

[thelordofhell]

19. Where does China stand on all this?

It seems like were doing all the heavy work in this region. China should be slapping North Korea down for this, not us.

[Mhak]

21. NK is all bark and no bite...

What are they going to do with a nuke? Use it on South Korea? So all that fallout wrecks half of the North Korean population as well, thanks to those ocean winds? I guess with Kim Jung Il that's actually something he might consider, considering he's already perfectly acceptable with letting hundreds of thousands of North Koreans die of famine.

What concerns me more is China. North Korea doesn't do anything without permission from the men holding the leash (that'd be the 20 or so guys who run the CCP). North Korea is attacking South Korean naval vessels, furthering a nuclear agenda and in general harassing the entire Western world, and you can bet China is loving every second of it.

[somone]

23. North Korea can't fart without permission from China