US draws up plan to bomb North Korea's nuclear plant
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Wednesday April 23, 2003 15:23
by Adolf Bush
SYDNEY (AFP) - The Pentagon (news - web sites) has produced detailed plans to bomb North Korea (news - web sites)'s nuclear plant at Yongbyon if the Stalinist state goes ahead with reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel rods, an Australian report said.
Citing "well-informed sources close to US thinking", The Australian newspaper said the plan also included a US strike against North Korean heavy artillery in the hills above the border with South Korea (news - web sites).
The artillery directly threatens Seoul as well as US troops stationed south of the Demilitarised Zone.
The Pentagon hardliners said to be behind the plan reportedly believe the precision strikes envisaged in it would not lead to North Korea initiating a general war it would be certain to lose.
This is because Washington would inform Pyongyang that the bombing was not aimed at destroying the regime of Kim Jong-il, but merely at destroying its nuclear weapons capacity.
The Australian report coincides with reports from Washington of an alternative US plan which envisages the United States teaming up with China to press for the removal of North Korea's leadership.
The second plan, contained in a classified memo reportedly circulated by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, argues that Washington's goal should be the collapse of Kim Jong-il's regime.
President George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s US Adminstration has repeatedly said it believed the standoff would be resolved through diplomacy.
The reports come as confusion prevails over the ambiguous statements issued by Pyongyang last week about whether it has begun reprocessing 8,000 spent fuel rods or merely completed preparations to do so.
Western analysts, including those in Washington and in South Korea believe North Korea's initial announcement was a mistranslation and doubt there had been any such reprocessing.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Tuesday that Canberra also believed Pyongyang's statement claiming it had begun reprocessing the fuel rods had been mistranslated.
Reprocessing the 8,000 fuel rods, which would yield enough plutonium for six nuclear warheads within six months, would be the most provocative step taken by North Korea since the nuclear crisis erupted six months ago.
Downer told ABC radio on Tuesday that the Pentagon undoubtedly had "contingency plans for all sorts of things they could do in North Korea, militarily.
"That's the military's job, to draw up contingency plans, but the American administration strategy, as the President explained to me three weeks ago, is to ensure that there is a successful diplomatic solution here," he added.
"We are just on the threshhold of entering into the first round of talks. I don't know how they will go, but in any case we are starting to make a little bit of progess on the diplomatic front and there isn't about to be a bombing campaign."
North Korea, the United States and China are set to sit down in Beijing this week for the first direct high-level talks since the nuclear standoff erupted in October. The talks will open Wednesday and are scheduled to run until Friday.
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Comments (9 of 9)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9is San Jordi day in Catalonia where I live.
it is also San Jorge day in Portugal.
and in Engurland it is Saint George for the boys.
San Jordi is very nice. The boys give girls roses and the girls give boys books.
Everyone gets something even if it is only a anarko-pamhplet or a vegetable.
San Jordi killed the dragon.
Of the many cities on this planet which are built on seven hills, one is in Korea.
one other is Lisboa, or Lisbon as it is known in Engurlish.
The English yesterday learnt through their established media that their police force are still racist.
The Engurlish have much to learn of civilised custom.
General Mac Arthur was neither engurlish or an adept capable of meeting the challenges of today's surreal geo-threats attributed to the Pentagon.
But he quite marvellously said to President Trumann, "bomb the fuck out of them".
For that he lost his job.
I kinda miss KIJAN
Set 'em up and then knock 'em down.
As was revealed at the weekend, Rummy sold the reactors to N. Korea.
As for KIJAN, maybe the Party Line changed and he became an oldthinker, and thus became an unperson?
They have this nasty habit of releasing nasty radiation, killing countless people and contaminating vast areas of land for thousands of years... Though, on recent events and active policy, that doesn't seem to concern America too much..
I'm sure that Kim will understand that the attack is nothing personal and he shouldn't think of retaliating, just like Roosevelt didn't mind too much when Pearl Harbour was attacked.
That it is a bit strange for the Pentagon to be telling the world in general that they plan to bomb North Korea ,and what in paticular??Bit of possible antiwar propaganda possibly?
leaking a document like this is like the N Koreans test firing their missiles in the run up to the Iraq war. It's a play to strengthen their hand for the upcoming negotiations. it's like each side saying "you know we are crazy enough to do this"
America are arrogant enough right now to not bother with surprise tactics. They will probably advertise the exact time place and method of their strike and still expect it to work flawlessly.
does anybody remember the name of the pentagons nuclear deterrent policy....ie how they intended to play the nuclear poker game with the ruskies..
M.A.D...Mutual Assured Destruction. Do any of you think that Military Intelligence is anything but insane.
When Oppenheimer and the other civilian physicists were ready to test the a-bomb for the military during the Manhattan project they wanted to hold off the detonations because they werent sure that an atomic chain reaction wouldnt spread to the Nitrogen in the atmosphere, turning it into a global nuclear inferno and extinguishing all life on planet earth for good.
The Military said ..no more waiting, test it now, we have to win the war.,
but what about life on earth, if we detonate the ...
We dont care, the A-bomb is a national Military imperative do as your told or well shoot you (well something along those lines)
anyway you get my point about the wisdom of Military leaders..madmen, bullies, trained killers and mysoginists, devoid of all humanity and in charge of enough firepower to kill every individual on the planet 14 times over.
Is THAT old chestnut still knocking around about Oppenheimer not knowing the effect of the bomb?That must be one of the first urban anti nuke myths going.Same like alot of the other urban myths spewed out by CND on nuke war.But anyway, I doubt that Nkorea is going to have all eight nukes placed neatly in one location to be bombed.Not that it is likely that their missiles are going to be able to be deployed in a war situation.As they are strategic[supposedly] missiles they require things like bunkers,launch pads,fuel sites etc.A lot more difficult to hide strategic missiles than WMDs.[Thats why the USA&USSR changed most of their nuke missiles to subs and aircraft and moveable missiles like SCUD or LANCE] All very observeable from space thesedays.So yes I guess the US could be aggroant enough to tell N Korea where their missiles are located and that they are watching them.It kind of nullifies the weapons effect.We know where you have them and if we see you arming them for flite we will strike first.So who is quicker on the draw then?Guess Bush will win that one as everyone calls him a Cowboy,and he might be quick on the draw dar pilgrim :]