North Korea going nuclear?

I wrote about this earlier this week and there's a bit more information so I want to follow up. It turns out that evidence is beginning to show that North Korea may well not have sunk the South Korean warship that we--the US--has been raising heck about internationally, with the North Koreans. South Koreans themselves are coming up with "dossiers of their own scientific studies" at least showing why it's doubtful the North Koreans sank this ship. Check this out: The critics, mostly but not all from the opposition, say it is unlikely that the impoverished North Korean regime could have pulled off a perfectly executed hit against a superior military power, sneaking a submarine into the area and slipping away without detection. They also wonder whether the evidence of a torpedo attack was misinterpreted, or even fabricated. "I couldn't find the slightest sign of an explosion," said Shin Sang-chul, a former shipbuilding executive-turned-investigative journalist. "The sailors drowned to death. Their bodies were clean. We didn't even find dead fish in the sea." Shin, who was appointed to the joint investigative panel by the opposition Democratic Party, inspected the damaged ship with other experts April 30. He was removed from the panel shortly afterward, he says, because he had voiced a contrary opinion: that the Cheonan hit ground in the shallow water off the Korean peninsula and then damaged its hull trying to get off a reef. It seems there is a politician, of all people, running for office in South Korea, who started this idea. Imagine that--a politician inciting the public with possibly untrue ideas and thoughts, in order to get elected. And this wouldn't matter a fig but for the US running with it and now preparing to have a huge naval exercise off the coast of North Korea which, in turn, is getting that same North Korea to propose that, if said exercise goes forward, as planned, that they may well "go nuclear" on somebody. In the meantime, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton keeps rattling her saber, so to speak, since we're so "in the right" on this whole thing. Could calmer heads please prevail? Link to original post: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/23/world/la-fg-korea-torpedo-20100724

Watch out for Kim Jong Il

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced further sanctions against North Korea, to punish them "to halt North Korea’s proliferation of weapons of mass destruction along with other 'illicit activities that helped fund their weapons programs.'” This on top of the fact that, next week, "The United States and South Korea announced Tuesday that the first in a series of large-scale naval exercises off Japan and the Korean Peninsula would begin next week, despite objections from China." Watch for it: Kim Jong Il is going to "go off" and start saber-rattling, at minimum. Let's hope that's as bad as it's going to get. Links to associated posts: http://www.truth-out.org/clinton-announces-north-korea-sanctions-as-part-a-diplomatic-dance-south-korea61582 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/world/asia/21military.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print And now, today, an update: NKorea warns US exercises threaten region By JIM GOMEZ, Associated Press Writer Thu Jul 22, 7:56 am ET HANOI, Vietnam – North Korea warned the United States and South Korea on Thursday to call off military exercises scheduled for this weekend and to back off any new sanctions against the communist country or risk placing the entire region in danger. Link here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_asean