Britannia Radio

Sunday, April 05, 2009

 

Nuclear-Armed North Korea Again Defies the World

Obama's first test....

Two-and-a-half years after its nuclear bomb detonation, the world's worst dictatorship has again defied the so-called international community. Stalinist/Kimist North Korea--an ally of nuclear-arming, Islamist Iran--launched an intercontinental ballistic missile over Japan Saturday at 10:30 PM EDT.

A high-level delegation of Iranian intelligence and military officers, scientists and technicians observed the ICBM launch, which appears to have been successful.

The missile--a Taepodong-2--is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and hitting Hawaii, Alaska, and the western United States.

Initial reports said that the first booster rocket of the three-stage missile had dropped into the Sea of Japan 170 miles of the north Japanese coast. 

China made no real effort to stop its vassal from going ahead with the launch. Instead, China called on Japan and South Korea to remain calm and avoid an overreaction. 

China repeated the call for restraint after confirmation of the launch flashed around the world.

"We hope related parties stay calm and exercise restraint... and together maintain peace and stability in this region," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in a statement that referred to the rocket as an "experimental communications satellite". 

Like Iran, North Korea uses a space program to cover its missile development and proliferation activities.

China and Russia are expected to block U.N. Security Council moves to punish Pyongyang. 

A Russian foreign ministry official reacted to the launch by saying: "We are examining whether this is a violation of the corresponding United Nations Security Council resolutions and we call on all sides to refrain from actions which could cause an escalation of tensions on the Korean peninsula."

Advocates of appeasing North Korea and Iran can be expected to echo China's call for calm and restraint. It's only a matter of time before the America-hating Left finds a way to blame Washington ... and Israel ... for the latest outrage by a rogue nation bent on overthrowing the status quo.

AP's Pete Yost reports:

President Barack Obama said North Korea should refrain from further provocative actions after that nation's government made good on their promise to launch a long-range rocket.

"I urge North Korea to abide fully by the resolutions of the U.N. Security Council," the president said as the council approved an emergency session Sunday to deal with North Korea's rocket launch.

North Korea will not find acceptance in the international community "unless it abandons its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction," Obama said.

Obama called North Korea's latest act a clear violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1718, which prohibits North Korea from conducting ballistic missile-related activities of any kind. The Security Council adopted the 2006 resolution five days after North Korea conducted a test of a nuclear weapon.

"North Korea has ignored its international obligations, rejected unequivocal calls for restraint and further isolated itself from the community of nations," Obama said.

The president's statement came from Prague, the Czech Republic, where the president was to make a speech Sunday on nuclear proliferation.

Continue here.

Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton told Fox News on Friday that North Korea is not only security threat in Northeast Asia. It is "a global threat." Bolton:

As I mentioned, it's the world's largest proliferator of ballistic missile technology. Up through 2007, it was building a nuclear reactor in Syria up until the point the Israeli air force destroyed it. So it's cooperating with rogue states in nuclear programs, ballistic missile programs around the world. It's not just in its own region. It really could have a substantially detrimental effect on American interests worldwide.

Click here for the Bolton interview.

EDITOR'S NOTE: North Korea is holding two American hostages--reporters captured on the Chinese side of the China-North Korea border--as leverage again