N Korea Declares It has Nuclear Weapons - Page 3

11-02-2005, 10:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndrewJames

:noptopic: alert, but nah I am half italian and the rest...lets not go there

.

As for America being unstable so long as you have a flag ( our flag ) the size of New York don't worry they will blow everything up and leave the mess for us to clean.

N Korea could soon hand those weapons to the countries we dont like for money or political gain. This could be a very worrying moment for the western goverments. The prospect I bet of a terrorist nuclear strike on a western country has risen about 30% I bet since this news hit the press.

Andrew, so where do you stand on the mutual deterrence argument? It's not so long ago that this was being held up as the reasoning behind the proliferation of nuclear arms in the West. Now it seems that mutual deterrence is not enough. I'm confused as to why the argument has shifted (the answer seeming to be that, well, they're more crazy than us).

As those Tears For Fears chappies once mournfully sang, it's a mad world.

Anyways everybody where are we having that beer? It's gone 10 now after all.

Earl of Bronze · 11-02-2005, 10:06

TBH I dont think there is anything to worry about. So what, the nutcases in North Korea have nuclear weapons. What hinders them is their delivery systems, most of which are 20 - 30 years old. The only ''modern'' rocket they have is the improved Scud they manafacture and sell. IIRC this has a maximum range of approx 350 nautical miles, so is well short of reaching the US. If they where to fire of a nuke it would more likely be aimed at one of two countries, Japan or South Korea. North Korea is unlikely to develope a true ICBM any time soon, see as how massively expensive and complicated they are.

As to the worry of sales/ theft by terrorists, it would be much easier to buy a nuke in Russia, than try to get one from North Korea.

AndrewJ · 11-02-2005, 10:32

True lmao...well I doubt they will just aim about 6 or 8 carefully laid cruise missiles right into key areas and N Korea will go away back to being silent again.

AndrewJ · 11-02-2005, 13:42

Thankfully they are now willing to talk like professional and mature people.

I am a little more comfortable as nukes are something I know have brought peace but I always fear one going off...to many bad dreams about it...

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/d98ec91a-7c...00e2511c8.html

punky · 11-02-2005, 18:10

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp..._north_bush_dc

So it seems that NK wants to deal with the US unilaterally. The US says it wants to continue the 6 party talks. No doubt the US will get criticised for that as well.

AndrewJ · 11-02-2005, 20:28

catch 22 no matter what you do you wont win out of this one, best thingi s they are after talking right...rather then gung ho lets kill everyone with nukes...

11-02-2005, 21:05

Does this mean that North Korea now has a veto on many matters in the UN?
IIRC countries armed with nuclear weapons like UK France and US have special powers?

EDIT: Forget that question, I don't think they are in the UN.

AndrewJ · 11-02-2005, 21:08

I dont think they are in the UN N.Korea tends to be one to its own.

**Matt D** · 11-02-2005, 23:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diamond

Does this mean that North Korea now has a veto on many matters in the UN?
IIRC countries armed with nuclear weapons like UK France and US have special powers?

EDIT: Forget that question, I don't think they are in the UN.

Only the five *permanent* members of the UN Security Council have the power of veto over Security Council resolutions.

They are: The USA, the UK, France, China, & Russia.

Why? I think simply because they were the 5 main "winners" of WW2, & were the first five original nuclear powers.

AFAIK, North Korea does have a seat in the UN General Assembly. But it is not a member of the Security Council (permanent or otherwise).

Other states with nukes, & no power of veto...India, Pakistan, Israel........

Xaccers · 11-02-2005, 23:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Earl of Bronze

TBH I dont think there is anything to worry about. So what, the nutcases in North Korea have nuclear weapons. What hinders them is their delivery systems, most of which are 20 - 30 years old. The only ''modern'' rocket they have is the improved Scud they manafacture and sell. IIRC this has a maximum range of approx 350 nautical miles, so is well short of reaching the US. If they where to fire of a nuke it would more likely be aimed at one of two countries, Japan or South Korea. North Korea is unlikely to develope a true ICBM any time soon, see as how massively expensive and complicated they are.

As to the worry of sales/ theft by terrorists, it would be much easier to buy a nuke in Russia, than try to get one from North Korea.

They are able to launch objects into orbit so potentially could attack anywhere.

The MAD deterrance only works if the person with their finger on the button cares that their people will also be destroyed.
If you've got someone who thinks they're a god or invincible, or that the people would be happy to die in thermonuclear destruction, then MAD doesn't work.
NATO and the Warsaw Pact never started WW3 because they were too scared (thankfully)
When you've got someone who has nukes and is willing and likely to use them you have a serious problem.