U.S. Govt: Years of negotiations with North Korea over nuc weapons a complete failure

[Little-Acorn]

The U.S. Government announced to day that it is likely that North Koreas has succeeded in developing a nuclear weapon small enough to mount on a ballistic missile.

After years of insistence on "negotiating" as a viable alternative to preventing the North Korean regime from getting nukes, this admission is a frank acknowledgement that such tactics have been a complete failure.

Today, on the heels of the announcement that untold years of negotiations had produced nothing, Secretary of State John Kerry announced the United States' new strategy:

The United States and its allies will open a new round of negotiations to try to prevent North Korea from carrying tests of missile and nuclear weapons.

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North Korea Can Put A Nuke on a Missile, U.S. Intelligence Agency Believes - ABC News

North Korea Can Put A Nuke on a Missile, U.S. Intelligence Agency Believes

The Defense Intelligence Agency has concluded with "moderate confidence" that North Korea might have a nuclear weapon that's small enough to be placed on a ballistic missile. But the DIA also says that if that is the case, the reliability of the missile would be low.

The alarming assessment came as North Korea has been issuing threats that range from testing a new missile to nuclear war against the U.S. and South Korea.

It was made public near the end of a House Armed Services Committee in which Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey were testifying about the proposed Pentagon budget.

Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., asked Dempsey if he agreed with a recent classified DIA report that contained an unclassified section that said, "DIA assesses with moderate confidence the North currently has nuclear weapons capable of delivery by ballistic missiles. However, the reliability will be low." Dempsey eventually admitted he had not seen this report so he couldn't answer the congressman's question.

 

[Little-Acorn]

For how many years, did we rely on these "negotiations" as the way to keep North Korea from getting The Bomb?

North Korea now has The Bomb. And they got it, about as quickly as if we had done nothing at all.

Next time we start thinking that negotiations will prevent the next whacko regime (Iran, Muslim Brotherhood's Egypt, Hugo Chavez's Venezuela etc.) from getting their own nukes, will we remember what happened this time?

See the fourth line of the OP.

 

[RoadVirus]

North Korea Can Put A Nuke on a Missile, U.S. Intelligence Agency Believes

The Defense Intelligence Agency has concluded with "moderate confidence" that North Korea might have a nuclear weapon that's small enough to be placed on a ballistic missile. But the DIA also says that if that is the case, the reliability of the missile would be low.

Glad to see those sanctions are working.

FAIL!

 

[waltky]

NKorea fires 3 short-range missiles...

SKorea says NKorea fires 3 short-range missiles
May 18,`13 -- North Korea fired three short-range guided missiles into its eastern waters on Saturday, a South Korean official said. It routinely tests such missiles, but the latest launches came during a period of tentative diplomacy aimed at easing tensions.

The North fired two missiles Saturday morning and another in the afternoon, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said by phone. He said the North's intent was unclear. His ministry said it is watching North Korea carefully in case it conducts a provocation against South Korea. In March, North Korea launched what appeared to be two KN-02 missiles off its east coast. Experts believe the country is trying to improve the range and accuracy of its arsenal. North Korea recently withdrew two mid-range "Musudan" missiles believed to be capable of reaching Guam after moving them to its east coast earlier this year, U.S. officials said. The North is banned from testing ballistic missiles under U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Earlier this year, North Korea threatened nuclear strikes on Seoul and Washington because of annual U.S.-South Korean military drills and U.N. sanctions imposed over its third nuclear test in February. The drills ended late last month. This past month, the U.S. and South Korea ended another round of naval drills involving a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier off the east coast. North Korea calls such drills preparation to invade the North. Analysts say the recent North Korean threats were partly an attempt to push Washington to agree to disarmament-for-aid talks. In response to Saturday's missile test, the U.S. said threats or provocations will only further isolate North Korea from the rest of the world and undermine international efforts to bring peace and stability to Northeast Asia. "We continue to urge the North Korean leadership to heed President Obama's call to choose the path of peace and come into compliance with its international obligations," said National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden.

This past week, Glyn Davies, the top U.S. envoy on North Korea, ended trips to South Korea, China and Japan. On Friday, an adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe returned from North Korea but didn't immediately give details of his talks with officials there. On Monday, North Korean state media showed that the country's hard-line defense minister had been replaced by a little-known army general. Outside analysts said it was part of leader Kim Jong Un's efforts to tighten his grip on the powerful military after his father Kim Jong Il died in December 2011. The United States and Japan are participants in six-nation nuclear disarmament talks along with North and South Korea, Russia and China. North Korea walked out of the talks in 2009 after the United Nations condemned it for a long-range rocket launch.

North Korea possesses an array of missiles. U.S. and South Korean officials do not believe the North's claim that it has developed nuclear warheads small enough to place on a missile. Last week in Washington, South Korean President Park Geun-hye and President Barack Obama warned North Korea against further nuclear provocations. Tension between the two Koreas remains high after both sides pulled out their workers from a jointly run factory complex earlier this year. The countries remain technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce instead of a peace treaty.

Source

 

[whitehall]

Maybe it does no good to argue about a political issue from a historical standpoint. The US had the Korean war won in less than a year. We (and the UN allies) beat back the NK invaders from S.K. and even captured the NK capital of Pong Yang. The logical thing would have been to declare victory but something terrible happened. The aging WW1 Veteran commander who had never spent a single night in Korea decided that exhausted Troops with thin supply lines should march clear to the Chinese border and "piss in the Yalu". It was an insane plan but president Truman was too timid to stop it. Americans walked into the biggest ambush in history and turned victory into a three year stalemate and a humiliating truce at the cost of 38,000 or 55,000 lives depending on which DOD statistic. We are living with MacArthur's failure of leadership.