Well we shouldn’t bite the hand that feeds us. We’re indebted to China, thanks to the Bush administration.

Besides, why would president Torture care about China’s human rights record anyway?

Bush defends decision to attend Olympics opening

TOYAKO, Japan (AP) — President Bush spoke out Sunday on the Beijing Olympics and North Korea’s abduction of Japanese citizens, two sensitive issues in Asia, before turning attention to global talks on the Earth’s rising temperature and oil prices.

He defended his decision to attend the opening ceremonies next month despite boycott plans by other leaders over China’s human rights record. “The Chinese people are watching very carefully about the decisions by world leaders, and I happen to believe that not going to the opening ceremony for the games would be an affront to the Chinese people, which may make it more difficult to be able to speak frankly with the Chinese leadership,” the president said.

The Bush administration has stated that North Korea was in kahoots with Syria in an effort to build a nuclear reactor in Syria. (although they won’t comment on it) They have pictures to prove it. (Where have we heard that before?) Israel, who destroyed the facility last September, was upset that the CIA was going to provide information regarding the claims to the U.S. congress this week, fearing “top secrets” may be divulged. Here’s something that’s not so top secret. In bombing the facility, Israel has pissed off the IAEA and in not providing the video and images to the IAEA until yesterday, the U.S. has pissed them off, too.

Some democrats in congress aren’t too happy it took so long to present this inforamtion, and there is widespread skeptism of the claims the U.S. has laid out. Being that the facility has been destroyed, the IAEA cannot see for itself if there were nuclear activities taking place there. Syria denies the claims, saying this fabrication is proof of what a failure the CIA and this U.S. administration is. They have nothing to hide and will fully cooperate with the IAEA investigation.

Glenn Greenwald takes a look at the situation, questioning it’s validity, also.

Aren’t you just sick of this shit?

By Arshad Mohammed
Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. pointman on North Korea on Wednesday left open the possibility Pyongyang could be removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism before it completely gives up its nuclear programs.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill was speaking ahead of weekend talks with North Korean officials in Geneva that are expected to focus on how North Korea will carry out its commitments to abandon all its nuclear programs.

North Korea, which tested a nuclear device in October, must disable its nuclear facilities and give a complete declaration of all nuclear programs under a February 13 “six-party” agreement by the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

Hill said it was possible that North Korea, which U.S. officials believe may have enough nuclear fuel to make more than eight or nine atomic weapons, could begin to disable some nuclear facilities before it provides a full accounting.

The weekend talks, in which Hill is expected to meet North Korea’s top nuclear negotiator Kim Gye-gwan, are technically about normalizing relations between the two countries, which fought on opposite sides of the 1950-1953 Korean War.

Under the February 13 deal, Washington agreed to start the process of removing Pyongyang from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. Being on the list subjects North Korea to a ban on arms-related sales, prohibitions on some types of U.S. aid and U.S. opposition to it receiving World Bank and other loans.

read more HERE

from The Huffington Post

SEOUL, South Korea - Floods that swept across North Korea earlier this month killed at least 600 people, double the previously known toll, the country’s official news agency said Saturday.

Citing North Korea’s Central Statistics Bureau, the Korean Central News Agency reported at least 600 people were dead or missing and thousands were injured. The report was the first in North Korean media to specify a precise death toll from the disaster.

Earlier, international aid groups estimated about 300 were dead or missing.

KCNA said the heavy rains caused “huge material losses” to the country, “creating unprecedented difficulties in people’s living and economic construction.”

At least 100,000 people were left homeless and more than 8,000 public buildings were totally or partially destroyed, it said.

More than 1,000 factory or mining buildings were damaged or submerged by the torrential rains, and “lots” of arable land was washed away, the report said.

The rains also flooded four railroad tunnels and triggered landslides that buried at least 200 sections of track, it said. Thousands of sections of roads and bridges also were destroyed, KCNA said.

The week of severe rainstorms was the country’s heaviest rainfall in 40 years.

Impoverished North Korea has been widely publicizing the damage while openly seeking outside help _ an unusual move seen as a sign of desperation for a country often reluctant to acknowledge any internal problems.

Jo Yong Nam, head of North Korea’s recovery efforts, said the flood damage, when calculated in financial terms, was 10 times worse than floods last year, a pro-North Korean newspaper in Japan reported Thursday.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 4, 2007 - North Korea appears to have made preparations for another nuclear test, according to U.S. defense officials.

“We think they’ve put everything in place to conduct a test without any notice or warning,” a senior U.S. defense official told ABC News.

The official cautions that the intelligence is inconclusive as to whether North Korea will actually go ahead with another test but said the preparations are similar to the steps taken by Pyongyang before it shocked the world by conducting its first nuclear test last Oct. 9.

Two other senior defense officials confirmed that recent intelligence suggested that the North Koreans appear to be ready to test a nuclear weapon again, but the intelligence community divides over whether another test is likely.

“That would surprise me,” a senior intelligence official said when asked if North Korea is likely to soon conduct another test.

Another official had a different view, predicting North Korea would conduct a test sometime over the next two or three months.

Read more at ABC News

You think it hasn’t been “mulled” already?

By Adrian Croft

LONDON (Reuters) - The United States or other countries will one day be forced to consider pre-emptive action if Iran and North Korea continue to seek nuclear weapons, a senior U.S. government official said on Tuesday.

The United States and its allies have accused Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian energy program and are pushing for United Nations’ sanctions. Tehran denies the accusation.

North Korea conducted an underground test of what was believed to have been a small nuclear weapon last month.

If North Korea refused to renounce its nuclear program and Iran developed a nuclear weapons capability, it would lead other countries in their regions to seek nuclear weapons, said the U.S. official, speaking on condition he was not identified.

More here

(CBS News) No sooner had an analysis of air samples taken by an Air Force plane over the Sea of Japan confirmed that the North Koreans had indeed set off a nuclear device, than U.S. intelligence picked up signs of activity at an underground test site, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin, raising the possibility that the North Koreans might test again.

“We’re watching it, obviously, and discussing it with other parties, as well,” said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. “I think it goes to say that it would further deepen the isolation of North Korea and I hope they would not take such a provocative act.”

Meanwhile, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte’s office confirmed that North Korea conducted an underground nuclear explosion. In a short statement posted on its Web site, Negroponte’s office confirmed that the size of the explosion was less than 1 kiloton, a comparatively small nuclear explosion. Each kiloton is equal to the force produced by 1,000 tons of TNT.

Full story here

H/T to Scottie for sending me this article!
Obviously, this is a much more serious threat than we’re lead to believe. As Scottie wrote:

Not sure if you-ve seen this, but here is a link to one of our papers over here. This is “piss your pants” stuff and if the U.S. don-t take their head out of their butt, we-re all gonna be “crouching under tables in schoolrooms” pretty soon.

N Korea will fight US over sanctions
Peter Alford, Seoul
October 12, 2006
THE North Korean regime’s official No 2, Kim Yong-nam, yesterday threatened to respond to sanctions with military action against the US as jitters grew about the risk of a second nuclear bomb test.
“The issue of future nuclear tests is linked to US policy toward our country,” Mr Kim, the president of North Korea’s puppet parliament, the Supreme People’s Assembly, told a delegation from Japan’s Kyodo news agency in a rare meeting for a senior regime official.

“If the United States continues to take a hostile attitude and apply pressure on us in various forms, we will have no choice but to take physical steps to deal with that,” said the 78-year-old de facto head of state.

As the UN Security Council moved towards agreeing on a package of trade, economic and security embargoes against the North, another official warned that Pyongyang would treat an international sanctions campaign “as a declaration of war”.

Read more at the Australian

Olbermann talks to Ambassador Wendy Sherman about Bush’s North Korean policy. But according to McCain (I dislike this guy more and more everyday), it’s Clinton’s fault. ha!

This guy has to have THE worst foreign policy of any President……EVER.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration rejected anew Tuesday direct talks with North Korea and said it would not be intimidated by a reported threat from Pyongyang that it could fire a nuclear-tipped missile unless the U.S. acts to resolve the standoff.

“This is the way North Korea typically negotiates by threat and intimidation,” said U.S. Ambassador John Bolton. “It’s worked for them before. It won’t work for them now.”

The White House said, meanwhile, there is a “remote possibility” that the world never will be able to fully determine whether North Korea succeeded in conducting a nuclear test Monday. While acknowledging that the action was provocative, White House press secretary Tony Snow suggested that it’s possible that the test was something less than it appeared.

“You could have something that is very old and off-the’shelf here, as well, in which case they’ve dusted off something that is old and dormant,” he said. The comment appeared to indicate that the White House was attempting to downplay the significance of the test, but Snow said later that he was merely posing a hypothetical question.

Read more at The Guardian