by Meanwhile, in North Korea — while the whole world is watching the Vatican — the next round of Nuclear Bomb testing takes place. North Korea threw themselves back into the arena as one of the most undesirable rogue governments today by conducting a third round of nuclear tests. They met with universal condemnation, even from their biggest ally, China.
BEIJING — China said Tuesday that it firmly opposed North Korea’s testing of an atomic device and called for stability and a halt to nuclear proliferation in northeast Asia.
“The Chinese government calls on all parties to respond calmly, solve the problem of denuclearization of the peninsula through dialogue and consultation in the framework of the six-party talks,” China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
We have discussed the availability of nuclear weapons before on this blog as long ago as 2006 and other ways of approaching the Korean situation/problem as recently as last year when the idea of food for bombs was raised.
However much I personally abhor the idea of nuclear weapons, I have to live with the fact that they exist. The USA has them, the UK has them, as well as a plethora of other countries — there is a full list here .
Everyone is jumping up and down because there may be a new member of the nuclear club – if it is not North Korea it is Iran or another “rogue” country.
We are told that we have these weapons to defend ourselves and the term “deterrent” is used — why is that our right and not their right – do we all not have a right to a nuclear deterrent?
I personally think that the UN should either oversee the destruction of all current nuclear weapons OR provide every country with the technology to build their own deterrent.
Maybe the thought of the second of these options would be enough to make the first one more palatable and the money and resources saved could be used to make the world a much fairer place in other ways and actually bring some credibility back to the UN in the process.
I’m quite terrified of this as I was of the now former Soviet Union having similar weapons in the 1980s. I don’t like the thought of any country having weapons that can destroy the entire planet a few times over, for that matter!
So they should all go then !
You’re on top of the news today, Nicola! I love it that you are connecting and correcting the public record of what’s important to remind us what’s news and what is just wonderment! SMILE!
North Korea is fascinating. They appear to have no friends, and they would not mind seeing the rest of the world dissolve into the past in which they currently live.
It’s amazing how one big event can cast a shadow over another. I haven’t heard a word about this until just now. I’m so happy you posted this Nicola! Nice Job!
that was another thought that crossed my mind – did they change their testing date so it would be lost amongst the Pope news !
I guess having China sat right on top of you with all their economic power and more importantly their manpower – ie their whole population makes for a strange mentality. So is this a cry for help – ie we will stop this if you come and protect us …………….. or is it a backward country stamping its foot petulantly and saying were going to be in your gang now and you cant stop us ?
I am quite intrigued by their mentality now ………………………..
I feel for the people of North Korea. I think they’re stuck with strange leadership that offers no sane way out of the mess!
I do too – they have a very limited knowledge of the world outside their country and no reference points to judge their leadership by. There were pictures of them celebrating in the streets – allegedly !
World War 3 is inevitable, and — ironically — the sooner it happens, the better off we will be, because our strategic and tactical advantages over our enemies will never be better than they are today. There will be a briefcase bomb or dirty bomb detonated in a major American city, after which it will be everything we have against everything the Islamofascist/Evil Axis have, we will kill as many of them as we can, they will kill as many of us as they can, and, at the end of it all, we will have a set of winners and a set of losers, like at the end of World War 2, and I think the winners will be us. And the world will be safe for democracy for another few decades. The global disarmament chanters are just Pollyanna-ish and naive wishful thinkers. And the unilateral disarmament appeasers are downright suicidal.
Sadly I suspect you are right – that is the way of the world – that does not mean I have to like it and will keep exploring other options where I can.