Kind of curious of what people think of about the North Korean threat of a Nuclear War against the United States. Here is some news on it...

WASHINGTON (May 25) -- North Korea's nuclear test makes it no likelier that the regime will actually launch a nuclear attack, but it adds a scary dimension to another threat: the defiant North as a facilitator of the atomic ambitions of others, potentially even terrorists.
It presents another major security crisis for President Barack Obama, already saddled with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a nuclear problem with Iran. He said Monday the U.S. and its allies must "stand up" to the North Koreans, but it's far from clear what diplomatic or other action the world community will take.
So far, nothing they've done has worked.
At an earlier juncture of the long-running struggle to put a lid on North Korea's nuclear ambitions, the administration of former President Bill Clinton in the mid-1990s discussed with urgency the possibility of taking military action. That seems less likely now, with the North evidently nuclear armed and the international community focused first on continuing the search for a nonmilitary solution.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that if the North Korean claim of a successful nuclear test can be confirmed it would represent "a clear violation" of a U.N. Security Council resolution. The council called an emergency session Monday to discuss the matter.
The North's announcement that it conducted its second underground test of a nuclear device drew quick condemnation across the globe, including from its big neighbor and traditional ally, China. The Obama administration, which said the North's action invited stronger, unspecified international pressure, has consistently called for Korean denuclearization but seemed not to have anticipated a deepening nuclear crisis.
Just two weeks ago, the administration's special envoy for disarmament talks with North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, said during a visit to Asian capitals that "everyone is feeling relatively relaxed about where we are at this point in the process." If so, they are no longer.
Obama, appearing in the White House Rose Garden, condemned the nuclear test and North Korea's subsequent test-launch of short-range missiles.
He called the actions reckless and said they endanger "the people of Northeast Asia."
North Korea conducted its first atomic test in 2006 and is thought to have enough plutonium to make at least a half-dozen nuclear bombs. It also is developing long-range ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, in defiance of U.N. actions.
Obama made clear his intention to work with other world leaders to bring diplomatic pressure to bear on Pyongyang, and the United States could still try to resuscitate so-called six-party talks with the North as well as work with other members of the United Nations. North Korea has vowed not to resume participation in the six-party talks with the U.S., Japan, South Korea, China and Russia.
Reflecting his view that only unified international action will compel North Korea to change course, Obama said that Russia and China, as well as traditional U.S. allies Japan and South Korea, have come to the same conclusion: "North Korea will not find security and respect through threats and illegal weapons."
The Bush administration worked hard to get China, in particular, to press the North Koreans to denuclearize, and it seems likely that Obama will push equally hard with Beijing, which sided with the North Koreans against U.S. and United Nations forces during the 1950-53 Korean War. In recent years the Chinese have openly criticized the North Koreans for the nuclear arms program.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke by phone Monday to her counterparts in Japan and South Korea, and she planned to speak later with the Russian and Chinese foreign ministers in what Clinton spokesman Ian Kelly called intensive diplomacy in response to the North's nuclear test.
"The secretary stressed the importance of a strong, unified approach to this threat to international peace and security," Kelly said.
Such broad language leaves unsaid at least two of the main worries about North Korea: Would it use a nuclear bomb to attack a neighbor or the United States? And might it continue an established pattern of selling nuclear wherewithal and missiles to foreign buyers?
Launching a nuclear attack would be an act of likely suicide by North Korea, given overwhelming U.S. military firepower and U.S. defense commitments to Japan and South Korea.
Graham Allison, an assistant secretary of defense in the first Clinton administration and now director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, said Monday that the latest North Korean nuclear test should alert people to the fact that the international community regularly underestimates North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's willingness to do the unexpected.
"Could this guy believe he could sell a nuclear bomb to Osama bin Laden?" Allison asked in a phone interview. "Why not?" It would be easier, he said, than helping Syria construct a nuclear reactor, which the North Koreans are accused of having already done.
The U.S. has believed for years that the North Koreans pursued the bomb mainly to use it as political leverage, or blackmail, against its perceived enemies. That is a main reason the Bush administration pushed hard to build a missile defense system, which it explicitly described as protection against a North Korean threat. It was more a matter of preventing nuclear blackmail than expecting an attack.
Victor Cha, a former director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council and now an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Monday that one of the first things he expects the Obama administration to do is send a high-level official to the region to reassure allies like Japan that their security is guaranteed by U.S. nuclear weapons superiority.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. Active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2009-05-25 15:59:56

Here is todays update of the situation...

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea fired a barrage of short-range missiles off its east coast Thursday, a possible prelude to the launch of a long-range missile toward Hawaii over the July Fourth holiday.

Firing a ballistic missile on Independence Day would be a challenge to Washington, which has been rallying international support for enforcement of U.N. sanctions imposed against Pyongyang following a May 25 nuclear test. North Korea is banned from testing ballistic missiles under U.N. resolutions.

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said Thursday that a long-range missile launch this weekend was possible. "We cannot rule out the possibility," he said, citing Pyongyang's past behavior.

In 2006, North Korea launched its most advanced Taepodong 2 missile while the U.S. celebrated Independence Day, though the rocket fizzled shortly after takeoff and fell into the ocean.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the United States remains concerned about North Korea's missile and nuclear programs but called Thursday's launches "not unexpected."

Several U.S. Defense Department officials said there is nothing to indicate that North Korea is ready to launch a long-range ballistic missile and there appears to be no immediate threat to the United States.

The April 5 launch of a Taepodong-2 required 12 days of preparation on the launch pad, which was fully observable to U.S. satellites. Short and medium-range missiles, however, can be launched with little notice.

Missile defenses around Hawaii were beefed up following a mid-June report in a Japanese newspaper that the North might fire a long-range missile toward the islands in early July.

The head of the U.S. Northern Command, Gen. Victor E. "Gene" Renuart, said in an interview with the Washington Times this week that U.S. missile defenses are prepared to knock down any incoming North Korean missile. "I think we ought to assume there might be one on the Fourth of July," he said, according to the paper.

North Korea raised concern in late April when it explicitly threatened to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile and warned of a nuclear test. The regime followed through with the atomic blast in May, leaving the ICBM test as its next likely step.

"I totally expect that we will see another long-range missile launch ... because they said they will do it," Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum CSIS think tank, told The Associated Press from Beijing where he was attending a nonproliferation conference.

The North's April launch, which is estimated to have sent a rocket about 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers), represented a "significant advance" in the country's long-range rocket technology, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists said in a recent report.

South Korea believes the Taepodong 2 can travel at least 4,100 miles (6,700 kilometers), putting Alaska and Guam within striking distance. The North is also believed to be developing an advanced version of the Taepodong 2 that could reach not only Hawaii, but also the West Coast of the U.S. with a potential range of about 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers).

Pyongyang had earlier marked a large area of water off its east coast as a no-sail zone through July 10, citing military drills. Thursday's launches of four short-range missiles were believed to be the North's first military action in the designated zone.

Yonhap news agency, citing an unnamed military official, reported that all four missiles flew about 60 miles (100 kilometers) and identified them as KN-01 missiles with a range of up to 100 miles (160 kilometers).

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso denounced the launches as "provocative." South Korea's foreign minister, Yu Myung-hwan, said the firings are "not a good sign because they are demonstrating their military power."

South Korean analysts were skeptical about the possibility of a long-range launch anytime soon.

Koh Yu-hwan, a professor at Seoul's Dongguk University, said he expects the North will take more time to assess international reaction to its recent pledge to expand its nuclear program.

Tensions over North Korea's actions come as its leader Kim Jong Il has reportedly been laying the groundwork to hand power over to one of his sons, and as two American journalists were imprisoned for illegal border crossing and hostile acts.

Analysts predict the North will continue its provocative acts in an attempt to command world attention that can lead to economic benefits.

"I think what North Korea will continue to do is ratchet up the tension," said Brad Glosserman, another analyst at the CSIS think tank. "It needs that attention to get the concessions from other countries ... as well as to demonstrate its strength to domestic constituencies."

President Barack Obama has vowed the U.S. won't make the same mistake of rewarding North Korea's bad behavior, and his administration has been pressing China — a key North Korean ally — to enforce the new U.N. sanctions against Pyongyang.

In an interview with The Associated Press Thursday, Obama said he was trying to "keep a door open" for North Korea to return to international nuclear disarmament talks, but the country must abandon its nuclear weapons programs before it can join the world community.

Philip Goldberg, in charge of coordinating the implementation of sanctions against the North, told reporters in Beijing that he had "very good conversations" with Chinese officials Thursday, though did not give details of the talks .

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Associated Press writers Kwang-tae Kim, Hyung-jin Kim and Kelly Olsen in Seoul, Alexa Olesen in Beijing, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo, Mike Eckel in Moscow and Pamela Hess in Washington contributed to this report