U.S. Warns North Koreans About Nuclear Test, page 1

The US on Wednesday declared that it "...was not going to live with" a nuclear North Korea. The statement, made by Christopher Hill, Assistant Secretary of State, for East Asian and Pacific affairs, went on to say that North Korea, "can have a future or it can have these weapons, it can not have both." Earlier in the day the US delivered a writtien warning to the N Korean mission at the UN.

www.nytimes.com
Mr. Hill did not suggest what the American response would be and gave no hint of an economic or military response. But he said of North Korea: “It can have a future or it can have these weapons. It cannot have both.”

Mr. Hill’s comments, made at the newly created U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, contrasted sharply with Washington’s muted initial reaction on Tuesday to North Korea’s announcement that it would conduct an underground nuclear test “in the future.”

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that a test would be “provocative,” and the National Security Council released a statement saying that it would “severely undermine our confidence in North Korea’s commitment to denuclearization.”

Mr. Hill said the direct message to North Korea, delivered to its mission at the United Nations, was in keeping with Tuesday’s responses.

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Well, when adding the comments of Mr. Hill to those from South Korea, Russia and Japan, I'd say this is about the stiffest warning that N Korea has received yet to stand down from it's intention to test a nuclear weapon. Will it have any effect? Propably not. Warnings from China and Russia previously had no effect in preventing the launch of ICBMs in an earlier test and N KOrea has proved over the years that it is nothing, if not indifferent to rebuke by the international community.

The real question here is whether the world will accept the test without invoking severe punishments and sanctions against N Korea. Only time will tell.

Related News Links:
www.bloomberg.com
www.abc.net.au

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
N Korea Plans More Plutonium For Nuclear Arms
North Korea Announced That They Will Test a Nuclear Bomb

[edit on 10/5/2006 by Stormrider]