It's da bomb -- Last update 2006.10.09.15:27
Contributed by Bill Faith
Consolidating some information from Bill's Bites into one post in an order that makes a little more sense. I'll add to this post as time goes on.
North Korea Says Nuclear Test Successful
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea said Monday it has performed its first-ever nuclear weapons test. The country's official Korean Central News Agency said the test was performed successfully and there was no radioactive leakage from the site. ...
Report: North Korea Tests Nuclear Weapon
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea performed its first-ever nuclear weapons test Monday, Yonhap news agency reported, citing government officials.
South Korean officials couldn't immediately confirm the report. ...
Unconfirmed report: N.Korea nuke test
Michelle Malkin
Drudge siren. Fox reporting. Allah monitoring: U.S. intel can't confirm.
Bryan Preston's thoughts from Friday: ...
Report: North Korea tests nuke
Allahpundit
Just breaking on Fox, according to South Korean government officials. Standby.
Update ....
Report: North Korea tests nuke;
Update: Yield of only 550 tons of TNT?
Allahpundit
[Keep scrolling]
North Korea nuke test: Eyes on Tokyo
Bryan Preston
Japan’s new Prime Minster Shinzo Abe is generally seen as a hawk, in the mode of former PM Junichiro Koizumi. But he’s not yet seen as being as strong a leader as the flambouyant Koizumi was. In one sense that’s good–Koizumi was very good at managing relations with the Bush administration, not so good at managing ties to China and South Korea. Abe’s ascent was already seen as a chance for Japan to stay in the US camp while mending fences with those two neighbors. That may help keep the international response to North Korea’s nuclear test focused on the core issue. We’ll probably know very shortly what kind of leader Abe is capable of being, as he is inheriting the worst foreign policy crisis Japan has faced in decades. North Korea threatens Japan nearly as often as it threatens the US; Japan has to see a nuclear armed Kim Jong-Il as an intolerable threat. Japan may find itself leading the world in taking on the threat from a nuclear-armed North Korea.
Abe has already formed a task force to discuss the North Korea issue. ...
Unconfirmed report: N.Korea nuke test;
update: seismic activity detected;
update: USGS reports 4.2 magnitude
US intel officer: "More fizz than pop"
Michelle Malkin
... ***scroll for updates...U.N. has no immediate comment; emergency meeting scheduled Monday morning...Australian PM John Howard condemns NoKo test. ""North Korea is very gravely mistaken if she thinks this nuclear test will improve that country's bargaining position," Howard told parliament."...Fox News reporting: "More fizz than pop," according to intel official, but "provocative" nonetheless, according to White House...***
10/9 1258am Eastern update: James Rosen reporting for Fox News: US will push for strong Chapter 7 resolution at the UN Security Council to make it illegal to transfer missile technology of any kind to NoKo and general trade sanctions but not on oil...
Joshua Stanton at One Free Korea predicts: I think this was an enormous miscalculation on North Korea’s part. The Republicans will be gleeful that no one will be talking about Mark Foley next week. ...
Initial thoughts on the NoKo nuke
Actually, the NoKos are looking pretty silly right now. They tried to build a 20 kiloton nuke and it fizzled.
Watch for Japan to have working nukes before the NoKos
Congressman Furley? Who's he? I'm voting Republican.
We are in range;
another test coming?
Michlle Malkin
... A military reader sends an illustration of the various ranges of North Korea's missiles. He writes: "Looking at their Taepo Dong 2 (two stage) missile range, nearly half our country is in range."
[image]
Good morning to you, too.
***
Taken with a grain of salt, but Russia's defense minister sez: ...
Video: Bush on North Korean nuke test;
Update: Equivalent to “several hundred tons of TNT”
Allahpundit
The head of South Korean intelligence reports “unusual movements” this afternoon at another NK nuke site. Kim likes his provocations in bunches, as you’ll recall.
Japanese planes are monitoring radiation levels on the peninsula; I did some bomb math at the end of the previous thread and it seems to me the Russian figure of 5-15 kilotons is likelier than the South Korean pop-gun estimate of 550 tons. Meanwhile, the Australian has a primer on the nuttiness of the North Korean dictator for those who still need one.
Israel’s worried, but then Israel’s always worried. ...
How bad is it?
Paul Mirengoff
In news of the inevitable, North Korea has exploded a nuclear device. Weird dicatators crave nukes -- it's one of the less weird things about them. No one was/is going to talk or pressure North Korea out of developing such weapons. If we had a shot, it was back in the mid-1990s when North Korea was just getting started. Our failure to take meaningful action and to hide instead behind the "agreed framework" is another piece of President Clinton's legacy and another item in President Carter's disgraceful resume.....
The Norks have nukes
Uncle Jimbo
... So the Norks officially have nukes, lovely. Nobody saw this coming, I mean they have been negotiating in good faith right? All we need to do is establish some common ground, open up lines of communication, establish a dialogue, conduct round after round of formal lying in formal wear and surely we can all just get along.
Nope, and now one of the craziest, megalomaniacal, homicidal tyrants on earth has the trump card, just lovely. As horrifyingly bad as this is I am going to focus on the upside first. Nothing like the actual threat of nuclear devastation to focus the old mind eh? ...
Kim Triggers Nuke, Pelosi Calls on Hastert to Quit
(2006-10-09) -- In the wake of the weekend detonation of North Korea’s first atomic bomb, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, called for the resignation of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-IL.
“It’s important that lawmakers keep the main thing the main thing,” said Rep. Pelosi. “We can’t get so distracted by debates about North Korea’s sovereignty that we forget that Dennis Hastert is still on the loose, indirectly endangering America’s children.” ...
Audio: Waybacking the North Korea nuclear crisis
Bryan Preston
CNSNews.com has pulled a prescient six-year-old story out of its archives, regarding how we got to where we are in Korea. It is one of the most relevant and informative articles you’ll read on the subject.
Earlier this afternoon I spoke by phone with CNSNews.com’s Editor in Chief David Thibault regarding that article and where the world stands a day after the North Koreans have conducted their first nuclear weapon test. Audio of that interview is below. It runs about 10 minutes.
Photoshopping Kim Jong-Il
Bryan Preston
Send us your links! ...
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