E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
KCNA via Reuters
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspects a Korean People's Army Unit in this undated picture released by the official KCNA news agency on Thursday.
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea has bolstered its defenses against a "hostile" United States with its third nuclear test, it said on Thursday, noting that countries that had bowed to U.S. pressure to abandon their nuclear plans had suffered "tragic consequences."
Pyongyang carried out its largest nuclear test to date last week, in defiance of U.N. resolutions, prompting warnings of tougher sanctions for the isolated and impoverished state and its young ruler, Kim Jong Un.
Libya abandoned its nuclear program in 2003 in a bid to mend relations with the United States and later saw leader Moammar Gadhafi overthrown in an uprising that was eventually supported militarily by Washington.
North Korea releases a new propaganda video calling the U.S. hostile and showing images of President Obama superimposed with flames. Meanwhile, residents line the streets of Pyongyang celebrating the country's recent nuclear test. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
In apparent reference to Libya, North Korea said it never backed down.
"The tragic consequences in those countries which abandoned halfway their nuclear programs... clearly prove that the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) was very far-sighted and just when it made the (nuclear) option," North Korea's KCNA news agency said.
Kim staged the latest test in response to tighter U.N. sanctions imposed in January after the country launched a long-range rocket last year in a move that critics said was designed to prove technology for an intercontinental ballistic missile.
North Korea has recently stepped up its rhetoric against South Korea, threatening to destroy its rich, democratic neighbor.
Most military assessments suggest that North Korea would lose any war against the U.S.-backed South and that its leaders would not risk a major conflict.
Related:
North Korea propaganda video shows an American city in flames
North Korea's propaganda poets stay true to their muse despite world's laughter
PhotoBlog: Kim Jong Un inspects army unit
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Leave a Comment:
Stupid Monkeys
Racist much?
Anyhow you gotta admit they have a point...
Why nukes when they can't even feed their own people?
.
posted by me the iPig.
pig...
this article has nothing at all to do with john boehner...go back to your pen please :)
Pigotry, Because before they had them they were savagely attacked. I don't blame them for developing nukes. I'd rather starve than be invaded and carpet bombed.
Now, the reason they can't feed their people, in fact the real reason they're our enemy, is because they refuse to privatize their central bank. In other words, they refuse to hand their economy over to the owners of the world. So they've been frozen out of the world's economic community (run by the same folks who own our central bank) via economic sanctions. There are two other countries in the whole entire world without private central banks, they are Cuba and Iran. Interesting list there, right? Well it gets even interesting-er, the most recent countries to privatize their central banks are Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Sudan.
I'm sure you can connect the dots... But in case you can't, Iran's next, and the only two remaining countries will be those who possess the bomb. Can't say I blame them...
Are you saying the only way to stop a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke?
North Korea has a point. When Iran began its crude nuclear research program the neocons threw a hissy fit and demanded war. North Korea actually tests nukes/missles and the neocons shrug it off and retaliate by making jokes about the fat leader. A very good lesson.
denver bill 2,
Yes. The only deterrent to the bully with the big stick is a big stick of your own.
America taught Iraq a lesson about what happens when you don't have nukes.
Where does North Korea get it that we (the U.S.) are hostile? Everyone just wants to get on with their lives, the war was over many many moons ago, yet it's kept in a perpetual state for no good outcome. They are missing out on so much wealth just jumping in with the community as a friend instead of acting like a foe.
They should follow China's example.
The people of the US aren't hostile toward DPRK. But its not the people they're talking about.
The US is not Hostile?
If you have no appreciable oil reserves, don't worry about invasion by the U.S.
Oh yes! Poke and curse the Tiger long enough and He'll finally become so afraid He'll go into hiding. The folly of many fools just before they were eaten.
OK, Kim. This is your last chance. No more nuclear tests. We mean it, darn it! We're serious!
OK, now. Seriously young man, this is your last warning. No more after this last one you just fired. We mean it! We're serious!
OK, now you're starting to get us upset. This is your final warning! Any more nuclear tests, mister, and you are in some serious trouble! We mean it! We're serious!
Man! I've never been in favor of the nuclear option, but in this case, I think we should make some preemptive strikes against North Korea's nuclear facilities. That is, of course, our wonderful government can even find them and agree on what's best.
Our foreign policy is making us look hypocritical. Here's an idea, let's get out of the business of trying to pick winners and losers in the world. End foreign aid and bring our troops home.
I keep thinking about Pearl Harbor. The Japanese made an extremely bad decision and realized they had "awakened the sleeping giant". Did people not learn anything from Hiroshama and Nagasaki? Never, ever bet against the Americans....
We could show them how a Tomahawk warhead works?
If the North Koreans want to see a hostile US, they should keep playing with fire and testing nukes and launching rockets our way. They will soon see soon enough how much our military has advanced in 60 years compared to theirs.
Iran can now justifiably claim that the North Koreans pose a more serious threat to peace than they do. Iran can also let Korea do their nuclear testing by proxy.
It's time for action... we've been blustering threats and sanctions for way to long. Millions of people starving, gulag like death camps... it's time to put an end to that shiz...
the reason the war isn't over, over there, is simply because we keep on feeding the hand that bites us. If only we could learn to allow nature to take its course, we'd stop being in conflict with it.
Ray,
First. With what money?? Where's it gonna come from?? Second. I expect you'll be the first in line to storm the beaches right??
You might want to check your facts. If you check we do still have a "Declaration of War" with North Korea. The Korean War has never ended. There was a cease fire issued but no "Peace Treaty" or Armistice signed. So if North Korea really wants a peaceful end to the current issues they might just thing about putting an end to a war that they started over 60 years ago.
North Korea starves its own citizens to death. Those who disagree with the Kim family get a lifetime of misery in work camps, complete with the most sickening gruesome torture that your mind could possibly imagine. The Kim family makes Satan look good. In the spirit of freedom, America needs to bum-rush this country and wipe the Kim family off the face of the map forever and ever. We need to rain hell on the Kims. The Kim family is lower than Hitler's ball sack.
We can show them hostile
N. Korea has no oil to be afraid of a war. Who cares about WMDs?
I just passed gas out of my smelly Kim hole. Then I wiped my Kim-hole with toilet paper. Dear Leader Kim looks like a turd out of a dog's anuz, but far less attractive. Kim and Jim Jones prod eachother in their bum holes with their tongues, and both fart.
I can't help but wonder if they might take Ted Nugent in return for being left alone. They have similar dreams of grandeur. They belong together.
But seriously. They want something. This is their SOP. When they want the West to talk to them they do something like this "supposedly" forcing the hand of the West then they make their request in return for backing down. It's been going on for decades. Could be food, could be fuel, could be the latest Hollywood films for the "dear" leader. You'll have to grub to find out what. The media doesn't publicize that side as much. Not as sensational.
The US government has a habit of sticking its nose where it doesn't belong.
LOL....I bet there will be some American hostility towards that comment!! Who, US, hostile? They have got to be kidding!!
LOL
Yea, and China is going to sit by and let that happen. The other day I wrote a piece about how N. Korea, and N. Vietnam were backed by China during the wars America had with those two countries, remind me, what happened?
Hannibalektr
You can thank Barack Obama for validating to the rest of the world that we are hostile. When he began his presidency "with an apology tour" he has apologized for what he deems to be American arrogance, dismissiveness, and derision; for dictating solutions, for acting unilaterally, and for acting without regard for others; for treating other countries as mere proxies, for unjustly interfering in the internal affairs of other nations, and for feeding anti-Muslim sentiments; for committing torture, for dragging our feet on global warming and for selectively promoting democracy. His own words and I don't think anyone on here can debate this, however; debate if you like because I know you all will. This type of political grandstanding is adding kindling to the fire for anti-american countries like North Korea to believe that we are hostile.
North Korea is technically still at was with the US and there are 30,000 American troops at the border. That's why Kim Jong-un thinks America is a threat.
America should take the threat of a nuclear North Korea very seriously. They have proven they have nukes and this Kim is crazier than the last one. I expect he will use a nuclear weapon as soon as he has a reliable delivery system. He won't care about the consequences as long as he is remembered through the ages, as the guy who nuked America.
Ed, like one of our subs couldn't turn North Korea into a sheet of glass before his missile gets in the air. I don't see a real U.S. threat coming from that little retard Kim Jong-un. He can't be that stupid that he doesn't realize that......... On second thought maybe he is that stupid.
Kim Jun : "And what can you tell me about this piece of cake? "
"It's a rifle, fearless leader"
Kim Jun: "I will rifle down this cake Immediately".
Chris,
Thanks for the laugh...
I can see the introductions now..."Your Supreme Donut, uh, creme puff, uh, Michelin Man...Hey, Kim, what do we call you? You don't have any war experience, you don't have any leadership experience and you didn't live your entire life here in NK, oh for crying out loud, stop chewing on that AK, it's NOT edible."
ha... google image "kim jong un cake". there are some real funny ones.
Not a crumb will fall off his table to feed his starving children. We should bomb the country with oatmeal cookies stamped USA.
Irish-n-green, I like the way you think. Send in the Irish, and then send in the Vikings. They will go Berzerk!
27 years old and never enlisted in the NK armed forces.....
4 Star General...
Commander in Chief is higher.
Notice some of those clowns hates look bigger than their heads. Must mean they have small brains.
T Melora, that was a pretty poor attempt at humor. Just sayin. :( I would post less if I were you.
Hey Chris, I have a right to my opinion just as much as you. Last I checked we do not live in North Korea. So stuff it.
Oh you do have the right, but you need to work on your delivery. It's better for all the readers if you don't post. Thanks
Maybe some of them have "hat" envy ...
chris-2818887
27 years old and never enlisted in the NK armed forces.....
4 Star General...
Is he any different then our generals? Seldom see the front lines YET they carry more ribbons than given out at the Westminster dog show.
Our generals were actually at the bottom of the group at one point when they were in basic training. This guy did nothing.
Yup. He's a boy general and acts like one.
Kim's mother watched videos of her own family being burned alive, and she said not a word, because she was afraid of the North Korean government. Then, she sang sweet propaganda songs for Dear Leader.
For the life of me I don't understand why the people of North Korea don't revolt against their pinheaded leadership.
My impression is that nobody knows whose going to drop a dime on anyone else, so nobody does.
Living in abject poverty and near starvation is better than dying.
And real news is prevented from reaching the population. Classic case.
It's because they don't know any better. North Korean citizens have no access to the internet, and all forms of media are controlled by the government. Radios and televisions are actually altered so they cannot receive foreign broadcasts. If, by chance, you are able to receive foreign broadcasts and other people find out, you're deemed a threat to the regime and are sent (along with your parents, grandparents, children, and siblings) to a political prison where you are worked/starved/tortured to death.
A South Korean friend and I discussed this a while back, and realized that despite being as intelligent and inquisitive as we are, had we grown up in a place where we had no access to any "alternative" media and knew that if we so much as asked questions, we (and our entire families) would be sent to a death camp, we'd be brainwashed and afraid, too. It's a terrifying concept, and it's made worse by knowing that it still happens in this day and age.
No guns.
Propaganda. For all we know the people of NK don't actually know how ridiculous the country is. They're probably told that the US is in fact this evil hostile nation towards them.
Maddog .. The same reason the citizens in the US don't revolt against their pinheaded leadership....
IMO, they wouldn't know what to do if someone were to overthrow fearless leader. I can just imagine them all standing around looking at one another and saying, "I thought you knew what to do"!
No "faux news".
Because they actually like him. Don't get carried away with the wishful thinking that the Norks mostly hate their leadership and lust at the idea of rebelling - they don't. Period.
Ron1556874, ya got me........good one. Apathy is international.
@Ron-1556874, the reason the citizens of the US don't "revolt against their pinheaded leadership" is that most of us still buy into the myth of a democratic process.
Obama isn't exactly Genghis Khan. They should feel lucky John McCain isn't in office. I know I do.
I'd say China has more to be concerned with than the US. NK is their puppet state, although they can't seem to control those nutjobs.
Cracks China right up everytime we whine about North Korea to the UN. Paper Tiger attitude and pretend to support us. We take pay cuts so we can send billions to people who hate us. They're all laughing behind closed doors.
I wonder what NK will do when they realize China doesn't have their back any more. I've been hearing that China is not any more pleased than we are about NK's activities.
China doesn't want a confrontation with us any more than we do. They are the ONLY reason we haven't smacked PonYang like a red-headed step child. (no offense to red-headed step-children)
It's becoming more and more obvious that Kim Jun is even more unhinged than daddy. Either that, or he is more easily manipulated by the old hard-liners.
China doesn't want North Korea to fail because they do not want all of the North Korean refugees that would attempt to flood over the border.
Take a good look at the prosperity of SK compared with NK. You think they would get it. The US helped SK and we would probably do the same for NK if they weren't so stupid. SK should be very thankful to the US., there were close to 40,000 Americans killed so that SK could be what it is today.
NK average income is $1000/year. SK is more than 20x that. awesome.
There's actually a noticeable undercurrent of hostility towards the US in South Korea, particularly evident amongst the younger age group. I get the feeling this is related to the American military presence on the peninsula.
I sense the older generation has a far more pragmatic view though.
Dang just as we were going to invade, lol
China is the key here, they created NK. With out China's help the country would not even exist. You think China is really upset about this? They are using NK to test us to see how far we will go. What we will do and will not do. It's the same thing with Iran and Syria helping Hamas.
One of the reasons China helps NK is they don't want a mass flood of North Koreans coming across their borders. China doesn't want to see the US go down. We buy all of their stuff.
Another reason a---rand is that China quietly fears a potential North-South reunification might result in an ability for US ground forces, currently 2~3 divisional strength in the South, to directly approach the Chinese border, as they did in the early 1950s under General MacArthur.
And no Don, China did not create North Korea. That was negotiated between the US and Soviets.
North Korea knows that if they nuke us, we will not and cannot nuke them back. Wind goes from west to east there and Japan is directly east. They also know there is nothing we can do to stop them from making nukes. Neither China nor Russia are worried about it. They don't like Japan anyway. They're loving all this.
Perry, About 2 passes with the B-2's there will be no north Korea.
Perry, the US has set off nearly a thousand nuclear weapons within 65 miles of Las Vegas, with more than 100 of them above-ground--atom bomb watching was a tourist industry in the '50s. The closest point to Japan in North Korea is more than 300 miles away. The notion that there is some huge fallout risk to Japan if the US uses nuclear weapons to destroy the ability of North Korea to wage war is simply uninformed.
As for China and Russia "not liking Japan", they'll like Japan even less if the North Koreans use a nuke on them--if that happens and the US doesn't do anything about it the Japanese will turn the key on their nuclear weapons industry and in a very short time there won't be anything left of North Korea.
Nobody in Asia in their right mind wants a remilitarized Japan.
J., obviously you have no clue what South Korea is fully capable of, or that the US has been more than ready to... eliminate North Korea, probably within 2 hours or so after they foolishly launch anything at either South Korea or the US. Pyongyang would look... funny as a big green glass parking lot. Trust me, some of us know the truth. Can you imagine how many "tactical nukes" we could fire off just ONE of our carriers BEFORE we launched any fighter-bombers?
Just drop a MOAB and be done, who needs a nuke with that thing?
A little dark humour here, but, some day North Korea might fire a nuke at us and it ends up landing in Peking.
yup the option of nuclear weapons has finally recognized to be a failure because of the cost and dirty mess they make. More scientific conventional weapons are smarter and cheaper. Countries that rely on nukes are targets.
Oh boy, China's step child is getting brave! Would be a very quick war indeed, if it ever started as it would end with nukes. Should have stopped them in the 50's with a couple, things would be different.
Let's nuke these idiots already. They contribute nothing to the world. And while we are at it, send a few to Iran also.
All this posturing by PonYang, I don't think China is going to sit back and pretend that NK isn't painting a large sign on Beijing. They may own our debt, but NK is only going to be able to push so far before it becomes too far and the entire world says enough. They are already dealing with UN sanctions.
Of course, in a couple of weeks, most of OUR military will be looking for jobs on the outside due to budget cuts, and we won't be able to fight a bad cold.
Way to go Congress, I applaud your lack of effort. And your ability to screw our combat Vets, while patting us on the back. WE go and fight for you and you, instead of cutting R&D, reduce our numbers and only give us a 1% cost of living raise...way to go.
I guess that if we aren't corporations developing useless weapons systems, we aren't worth the less than 1/3 of the Defense budget to keep us able to fight, and make a decent wage.
What a joke! There are so many worthless programs that could be cut before the military. It is all scare tactics. It seams to work though for those that know any better.
Thankfully, there will be not cuts to the Presidents pay, or Congress's pay, or the Senate pay. They can still make their Cayman Island deposits no problem....
Oh ok N Korea- keep your tinfoil hats on and the big boogeyman USA won't come & get ya!
Sounds like they've been sipping a little of the rwnj koolaid... don't look now, NK, but the black helicopters are coming to get you and take ur nukes! Sheesh.
Now what say you Mr. Kerry...what are your diplomats doing about North Korea?
What is amazing to me is that the North Korean government has not discovered that you can't eat bombs, guns and bullets.
Does it look like their leader is starving?
Fat Boy doesn't really care if the common people eat dirt as long as he's got his toys.
It's amazing to read these comments and see how racist we really are. We like to say that these "dumb asians" would get destroyed if they tried to mess with the U.S., which I 100% agree with, but can we realize that we are just coming off TWO decade long wars? We can't afford a third war in 15 years (with Iran and NK acting up it looks like we will be, which is absurd if you really think about it). Yes these guys are extremely foolish and though we would wreck them, at what cost? Another thousand of our troops? I get the fact that we look down upon these people but let's not forget that this is a very serious issue...
Whatthephuck
I don't see the racism you speak of. If anything, I see sympathy for the people of NK. Most understand that the people of NK are subjected to their government's propaganda machine and and that they're blissfully ignorant of the true geo-political state of the world. The majority of the posters have distinguished between the people and their leader. Those who say "nuke'em all" are morons and nobody really cares what they have to say anyway.
He can test all he wants. Doesn't change the fact that the US could wipe out their entire country with the press of a button. Not that it should come to that, but any nuclear action on their part against the US would be a suicide mission. Guess they're okay with that.
They are trying to develop one. We have thousands.
If 'un' fires one at South Korea, or stupid enough to attempt a launch against us, he and his clueless people will get to see a professional, complete nuclear weapon up close and personal.
Should have done that end of the Korean war.
They are correct. These weapons are a DO NOT INVADE card. NK is not going to launch it's nuclear missiles the same as no other country is going to be launching any anytime soon....eventually we all will launch our missiles but not yet...