North Korea bomb claim a new challenge for Clinton Campaign

[Geaux4it]

Yep, Slick Willies agreement with Korea is about as good a the POS he set up with Iran.

-Geaux
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To Republican U.S. presidential contenders, North Korea’s claim that it tested a hydrogen bomb may further make the 2016 race what they dearly want it to be: a referendum on President Barack Obama's foreign policy and, by extension, Hillary Clinton’s.

For months, these Republicans have liked to say the world is "on fire," pinning the conflicts in Iraq and Syria, the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, and the recent tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia on Obama’s administration and Clinton’s stint as his secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.

Now, they can add North Korea to the threats they say face American voters.

"When China fell to the communists (in 1949), the question that dogged the Truman administration was: 'Who lost China?'" said John Feehery, a Republican strategist. "The question that will dog the Democrats is: Who lost North Korea?"

The criticism on foreign policy has ratcheted up the pressure on Clinton, the likely Democratic presidential nominee in November's election, to take a harder line on national security without handing Republicans more ammunition to argue that Obama's stewardship has been a failure.

Analysts said Republicans may have little room to maneuver since the Obama administration's approach toward containing North Korea did not differ materially from the one used by Republican George W. Bush's administration before it.

"They’ve been a headache for every Democrat. They’ve been a headache for every Republican," Michael Rubin, a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said of the North Koreans. "North Korea may be the last remaining foreign policy quagmire that hasn't been politicized in a partisan fashion."

That does not mean Republican candidates did not try on Wednesday after North Korea's announcement.

They said Obama's foreign policy let North Korea bolster its nuclear arms capabilities, and also assigned blame to Clinton.

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"Three out of the four nuclear detonations that the North Koreans have done have happened on Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton's watch," New Jersey Governor Chris Christie told Fox News, "and they have just not acted strongly at all around the world."

North Korea bomb claim a new challenge for Clinton campaign

 

[eagle1462010]

 

[MarathonMike]

If ever there was a leader that needed to be assassinated, it is that butt faced idiot running North Korea.

 

[Rexx Taylor]

if Ding Jing Pow Ping sent a bomb to a US naval ship, u think Obama would strike back?

 

[Steven_R]

if Ding Jing Pow Ping sent a bomb to a US naval ship, u think Obama would strike back?

Not in any meaningful way that mattered. He might lob a few cruise missiles at milk factories or something, tell the Norks via back channels that would be it, and then send them all the money and aid they ask for in exchange for not attacking Japan or South Korea.

It's danegeld on a massive scale and the Norks know that Obama doesn't have the stones to do anything about it.

 

[waltky]

That's why they should depose Lil' Kim...

North Korea poured $3B into weapons development, equal to 3 years' worth of food
Jan. 7, 2016 - A significant portion of North Korea’s investment would have gone toward the construction and expansion of the Yongbyon nuclear facility, South Korea officials said Thursday.

North Korea may have poured $1.5 billion into nuclear weapons development and an additional $1.7 billion into missiles, or more than $3 billion – equivalent to the cost of three years' worth of food for North Korea's population of nearly 25 million. Seoul military and intelligence officials stated estimates of costs from various international and South Korea experts indicated North Korea's 2013 nuclear test, its third since 2006, placed the cost of nuclear weapons development between $1.1 billion and $1.5 billion. In terms of grain prices, the cost of development is equal to 4.5 million tons of Chinese corn that could feed about 23 million North Koreans for a year and 10 months, South Korean newspaper Hankook Ilbo reported Thursday. North Korea could be facing a serious food shortage this year because of a recent drought.

An anti-U.S. rally in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea spent more than $3 billion on nuclear weapons development and on missiles, an estimate that does not account for the most recent test that Pyongyang has claimed was a hydrogen bomb​

A significant portion of North Korea's weapons investment would have gone toward the construction and expansion of the Yongbyon nuclear facility, including a 5-megawatt reactor, a 100-megawatt light-water reactor, a uranium-enrichment plant – costing Pyongyang $600 million to $700 million, according to South Korea estimates. North Korea's centrifuge facility, designed to produce highly enriched uranium, could have cost between $200 million and $400 million. The nuclear tests could have cost between $160 million and $230 million. The costs for the most recent North Korea nuclear test claim, however, are yet to be determined. Experts said that if more sophisticated technology were involved, the costs could be far higher than the 2013 test.

Lee Chun-geun, a senior research fellow at South Korea's Science and Technology Policy Institute, said nuclear weapons development and manufacturing becomes more complex as production shifts from basic nuclear bombs to a hydrogen bomb. That means the most recent test could have easily surpassed $1.5 billion. North Korea already is under multiple U.N. and U.S. sanctions, but Pyongyang managed to import $2.09 billion worth of luxury merchandise into the country despite the ban, Yonhap reported Thursday. North Korea continues to purchase the goods, including jewelry, gemstones, carpets, yachts and luxury cars, from China, Europe and Southeast Asia, said South Korean lawmaker Yoon Sang-hyun. "No strong sanction can stop North Korea's series of nuclear provocations," Yoon said.

North Korea poured $3B into weapons development, equal to 3 years' worth of food