by Michael Hammerschlag
Taking
advantage of
President Bush’s Oedipal obsession with Saddam, North Korea’s bizarre leader
Kim Jong Il has provoked the most serious nuclear crisis with Americans in decades,
booting up their nuclear reactor, tossing out international inspectors, and
admitting to a 8 year program to enrich uranium for a bomb. In 1994, confronted with the spectacle of
the unstable nation making nukes, Clinton first made serious noises about
bombing them, then acceded to a Jimmy Carter managed face-saving deal of
providing fuel oil, and strangely, 2 light water nuclear power plants (harder
to breed fuel with than their primitive graphite reactor, but never finished).
There was every reason to believe that the paranoid regime wouldn’t abide by
any agreement, but with a million man army poised within shelling range of 13
million people in Seoul, any attack could spiral into a nightmarish war. from HAMMERNEWS.com
Over
the last half century, North Korea has been the world’s most consistent
terrorist nation, repeatedly sending assassins, saboteurs, and infiltrators
into the South. In 1968, 600 infiltrations were reported, one commando attack
coming within 1/3 mile of the Presidential Palace, another sent 120 soldiers to
organize a Vietcong like guerilla war. In 1970 an assassin was killed planting
a bomb trying to kill President Park Chung Hee; they succeeded in killing his
wife 4 years later. A U.S. work crew in the truce zone was attacked by Northern
troops with axes in 1976- 2 were killed. In the worst state sponsored
attack on another government, a Northern bomb virtually wiped out the entire
South Korean government in 1983 at a Rangoon conference, killing 18 and
wounding 14. “It was a terrible time”, said Richard Walker, the US ambassador
then, to me. Just this year, they admitted to kidnapping Japanese citizens off
the beaches to provide training for their terrorists (who pretended to be
Japanese). In Nov. 1987, 2 of these agents blew up a Korean Air jet returning
from Abu Dhabi, killing 135. After one committed suicide, the woman bomber
tearfully confessed that the operation was directed by President
Kim Jong Il*, who was then in charge of operations against the South,
to sabotage
the 1988 Seoul Olympics. In 1996, 11 saboteurs were found coming
ashore in the South, rather than surrender (where they would have received
better conditions in prison), they had all committed suicide. This is
indoctrination, paranoia, and madness of a chilling degree. In a 1998 display
of intimidation, NK launched their missiles over Japanese seas; their Taepo
Dong II missiles can reach the US west coast. The South has discovered 500 ft
deep reinforced tunnels that ran under the DMZ into the South and could transport
tens of thousands of troops in a matter of hours; there are undoubtedly more. Just
last June the North attacked and sunk a Southern patrol boat, killing 4 sailors
and wounding 19.
After
losing their Soviet and Chinese stipends, the North suffered floods, drought,
and an appalling famine from 1995 to 1999, where up to 2 million people (of
only 22 million) starved to death while the detestable “Dear Leader” held huge
celebratory rallies in sports stadiums for foreign dignitaries. The people, who
were banned from
even foraging for food, died in their homes eating bark and grass, while
what food there is goes to their huge military, which sucks up 1/3 of all their
resources. North Korea is now one big lunatic above ground cemetery: Romania without the atmosphere, Somalia on
the steppe; and famine is again threatening in the –50 degree winter. Pledges
to the UN World Food Program for 2003 are only 7% of what's needed
because of NK obstructionism and Japanese withholding. The per capita GDP is
estimated at only $1000, 57% that of Bangladesh. It is the only place in the
world where a decapitating strike at the leadership (and worldwide relief
operation) might be the most merciful course, even without the nuclear motives.
Bush
labeled them “an axis of evil” (an axis with no spokes) in January and cut off
their fuel oil. In response to recent revelations, Rumsfeld clumsily warned of
our ability to wage two wars at once (uh huh). Now Bush, via Colin Powell,
claims that this is just a “diplomatic problem”, and that the North already
has nukes, so there is nothing to worry about; and his misbegotten Iraq
invasion can proceed apace. Oh, and it’s all Clinton’s fault, though his
agreement has prevented them from having dozens or hundreds of nukes now. But
trying to project chess-like rationality onto the erratic, lying, and vicious
NK leaders is a fool’s errand. They already have furnished missile and nuclear
technology to Pakistan (and missiles to Iran) that may yet result in the first
real nuclear war. If they crank up their plutonium generation, they can
distribute it widely enough that some of it will result in a man-made sun
dawning on an American city. The plutonium in a Hiroshima size bomb is the size
of a baseball and can be safely shielded by cardboard. A different element, it
is easy to chemically separate, unlike uranium, which requires huge facilities
to physically separate the under 1% fissionable U235. Of course, if they’ve
spent 8 years doing that, who knows what they have? Although India, Pakistan,
and Israel had nukes long before they admitted them; that’s not definite with
North Korea- even if true it’s better to force them into hiding their
actions because of the added difficulty.
President
Bush has taken the worst course, talking tough about the deranged dictator,
reneging on our agreements, isolating them by equating negotiation with
appeasement; … then rolling over and conceding
everything as a fait accompli. Nothing is worse with psychotics than
inconsistency, because they will be spurred to greater outrages, but nothing
can be allowed to interfere with our unelected President’s grand plans for
Saddam. On a 10 point scale of imminent threats, North Korea is a 9, Al Qaida
an 8, China a 5, and Saddam perhaps a lowly 3. But don’t expect the facts or
shifting strategic reality to interfere with Bush’s feet or mind, which are
implacably set in August 2000 concrete.
*there is some question about this- the woman may have
been pressured to say that by the KCIA, who had complete control of her and the
manuscript of her book that claimed it.
Michael Hammerschlag has written commentaries
+ articles for Seattle Times, Providence Journal, Honolulu Advertiser,
Columbia Journalism Review, Media Channel, & Moscow News, Tribune, and Guardian; and spent 2 years in Russia. He’s written
columns and papers on nuclear issues for 30 years. His website is http://mikehammer.tripod.com e-mail: hammerschlag@bigfoot.com
MY NUCLEAR ARTICLES: TREMBLING ON THE BRINK - Indiakistan tensions 1/02 - Online
Journal
VULNERABLE WINDOW of
OPPORTUNITY (pan right) NEXT STAR of
BETHLEHEM – meaning of Israeli nuclear arsenal
Chance to buy + destroy Soviet missiles and
bombs- Moscow Tribune ‘93 Seattle Times '87
MAD FANTASY OF
LIMITED NUCLEAR WAR - Providence
Journal (pan right) '81
A WARM + BRIGHT FUTURE (orig .-1/2 pending OCR) - Threat of nuclear war w visit to FEMA
defense center, and detailed effects of 20 meg blast on NYC (long mag. art.)
ABC Nightline
starvation rep: http://abcnews.go.com/sections/nightline/DailyNews/northkorea020610_famine.html
CIA Factbook NK- http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/kn.html
North Korean Nuclear Arsenal- http://www.kimsoft.com/korea/nk-nukes.htm
(I
don't vouch for this's accuracy)
