All But A Declaration Of War

Kim Jong Il's "unofficial" spokesman has what amounts to a declaration of war against the United States published in Asia Times. It's important to note that even the Asia Times puts the word "unofficial" in quotes. Kim Myong Chol is the pipeline Kim uses to send his declarations out to the world.

The nuclear test, once conducted, will have far-reaching implications for the Koreas and the rest of the world. It carries five messages.

The first message is that Kim Jong-il is the greatest of the peerless national heroes Korea has ever produced. Kim is unique in that he is the first to equip Korea with sufficient military capability to take the war all the way to the continental US. Under his leadership the DPRK has become a nuclear-weapons state with intercontinental means of delivery. Kim is certainly in the process of achieving the long-elusive goal of neutralizing the American intervention in Korean affairs and bringing together North and South Korea under the umbrella of a confederated state.

Unlike all the previous wars Korea fought, a next war will be better called the American War or the DPRK-US War because the main theater will be the continental US, with major cities transformed into towering infernos. The DPRK is now the fourth-most powerful nuclear weapons state just after the US, Russia, and China.

The DPRK has all types of nuclear bombs and warheads, atomic, hydrogen and neutron, and the means of delivery, short-range, medium-range and long-range, putting the whole of the continental US within effective range. The Korean People's Army also is capable of knocking hostile satellites out of action.

All the past Korean heroes let the Land of Morning Calm be reduced to smoking ruins as the wars were fought on its soil, even though they repelled the invaders. One of the two major aspirations of the Korean people has been the buildup of military capability enough to turn enemy land into the war theater. Kim has splendidly achieved this aspiration.

The other has been the neutralization and phasing out of the American presence in Korea before the two Koreas come together as a reunified state. When President George W Bush agreed on the 2009 transfer of wartime operational control over South Korean forces to the South Korean president, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld signaled the withdrawal of US troops with combat troops relocated from the front line to bases behind Seoul.

The title "the greatest iron-willed, brilliant commander" is reserved for Kim Jong-il, who has led tiny North Korea to acquire the most coveted membership of the elite nuclear club, braving all the nuclear war threats, sanctions and isolation efforts on the part of the US. It is little short of a miracle that the leader has outmaneuvered and outpowered the Bush administration against heavy odds.

There are five "messages" in this highly unusual document. But in essence it shows a thoroughly insane world view. One can assume this is direct from Kim himself. The claims are that North Korea has a massive arsenal of all types of nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them. It also appears to indicate that they have every intention of using them. The article also quotes extensively from American media.

There is a line being crossed here. Kim is apparently too insane to care.

Shuttle Was Hit By Object

NASA has announced that the space shuttle Atlantis was hit by an object while on its last mission. The impact was on one of the radiators that are extended from the payload bay during flights. The object left a hole about one tenth of an inch in diameter. It is the second worst damage experienced by any NASA vehicle to date due to a strike. There was no danger to the crew.

NASA officials said a micrometeoroid struck a radiator panel that extends from payload bay doors on the shuttle, which returned to Earth last month. The object did not hit the sensitive tiles or thermal panels that help protect the shuttle during its descent. Payload bay doors stay open during missions to lower heat produced by the shuttle.

James Hartsfield, a NASA spokesman, told the Times it was "the second-most-damaging particle that we've encountered in the program," but that the damage "posed no danger to the crew and no change to the mission."

The particle left a hole about a tenth of an inch in diameter at the point of entry. Within the radiator, where the particle shattered, the damage was about an inch around and a half inch deep. The exit hole was three-hundredths of an inch in diameter, and, also on that side of the radiator, there was a crack measuring two-tenths of an inch.

The hole's existence was first reported Thursday on NASA's Web site.

There is a picture of the hole over at the NASA website.

Nuclear Blackmail

Normally, the threat of nuclear weapons has always been one of deterrence. In other words that nation that has them regard them as ways to keep other nations from doing something - namely attacking it. At least, that has been how they have been regarded up until North Korea's latest statements. Because they appear to have told China that they will test their nuke unless the US lifts sanctions on the Kim regime. In other words it is straight, gangster extortion.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a device would be detonated about 2,000 meters (6,562 feet) inside a mine near the border with China in the north of the country.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had issued instructions that the test should "not excessively rock" Mount Paektu, a nearby peak many Koreans consider sacred.

"They are more or less ready," the source told Reuters after speaking to North Korean officials. He did not give a timetable.

His comments could not be independently confirmed, but South Korea newspapers reported that although there were thousands of mine shafts that could be used for a test. Seoul and neighboring countries were closely monitoring three or four sites.

The Hankook Ilbo newspaper said the most likely site was the administrative district of Gilju in North Hamkyung province.

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The Chinese source said Pyongyang "may not necessarily test," and would hold off if Beijing and other Asian powers could convince the United States to lift sanctions and open dialogue.

New Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is due to visit China on Sunday and South Korea the next day for summits to repair ties frayed by feuds over their wartime past. But North Korea's nuclear threat will grab a top spot on the agenda.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun visits China, North Korea's closest ally and major donor, next Friday.

"The bilaterals will be useless unless they can talk the United States into changing its attitude and respecting North Korea's sovereignty," the Chinese source said.

Pyongyang has boycotted six-country talks aimed at persuading it to abandon its atomic arms program for almost a year since the United States froze its assets in a Macau bank. Washington has said the move is part of a crackdown on suspected North Korean counterfeiting, money-laundering and drug-trafficking.

The United States absolutely cannot give in to this one. This is blackmail pure and simple. But if the North Koreans go ahead with the test, there should be immediate and harsh sanctions backed by every nation in the world. This would be a horrible precedent for the entire world.