NK ‘Spokesman’: We Have ICBMs!

Today’s WTF headline is this piece of work by Kim Myong Chol, North Korea’s unofficial and unmedicated spokesman in Japan. The real torment of this piece is the difficulty of deciding which of the choicest cuts to serve you:

Three factors make North Korea unique. The first is possession of a fleet of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of unleashing retaliatory nuclear strikes on the US mainland. Second, the North Koreans still torment the Americans as a result of their victory over them in the Korean War. . . .

The third is that North Korea is well geared for a nuclear exchange with the US, while the population of the US is anything but prepared for the worst-case scenario of the “day after”, despite its status as the world’s largest nuclear power. Neither is the Japanese population. Nor is South Korea. North Korea has little to lose in war. However, the US and Japan have too much to lose.

It’s tempting to give the North Koreans honors for outstanding contributions to their own undoing, but how can you possibly outdo who persistently refuse to take them at their word? Not to mention the fact that Kim’s brand of vitriolincluding its racial element – has a substantial following in South Korea.
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13 Responses

  1. Kim’s article is like KCNA propaganda.

    I read somewhere that North Korean missiles do not have good guidance systems, so they can’t hit targets accurately.

  2. Richardson can vouch that I’ve been saying for a few years now the fact NK hasn’t shot up another ICBM is a sign it understands it has limits — that it can’t afford to push China and SK further into the US sphere of influence by outlandish provocation. I think I was the only person who saw the spy plane incident of, when was it, 2002? as a positive sign.

    Now that the US is pressing hard on its illegal money flow, however, NK might decide it has less to lose.

    Given South Korea’s attitude the last few years, who knows, if NK shot off another ICBM test, SK might work with it by screaming the sky is falling and only the US can “do something about it,” by which it means end sanctions.

    China might go along enough too. It knows the US does not want to do without it, and the US has shown no stomach yet to push against China to influence the North. SK and China might decide the best thing for them to do to achieve their goals (avoiding collapse) is help NK put an end to the sanctions. And they might use a 1998 ICBM test renewal as a way to play up hysteria and that the world is coming to an end and the US must sit down and talk to NK before its too late.

  3. Mi-Hwa,

    So, they can hit California but not target LA with a nuke. That makes you feel much better?

  4. usinkorea:

    There’s a big difference between hitting a sparsely populated area versus a densely populated area. So yes, Americans can take a little comfort from that.

    Plus, North Korea would not attack America, unless it was suicidal.

  5. Kim Myong-chol is a complete nutcase. Quote him at your peril. It would be more useful to seek insights on North Korea from a team made up of Mi-Hwa, Chung Dong-young and Shelton Bumgartner.

  6. Well, it IS the workers’ paradise, so… You know, if they say they have “ICBM” (with excellent CEP too, I bet), then I guess they do.

  7. ICBM? What the hell?

    I thought you guys were discussing frozen yogurt.

    What a disappoitment.

    Now, I’m depressed.

    I need a big scoop of ice cream.

    Maybe the Norks would fill up the warhead on one of those missiles with Rocky Road and shoot it my way. My blood sugar is getting low.

    Nah, they’d probably miss and it would land in the Han River. Then the NGOs would be blaming the US for polluting their source of drinking water.

  8. Mi-Hwa,

    Taking comfort that North Korea can hit the mainland US but not target a city says volumes.

    So does for getting the Korean War when you say the North might bypass LA because it has a large Korean community.

    In fact, it is thinking like this that gives North Korea more leeway to target South Koreans.

    The North did not shoot down the US spyplane a couple of years ago, because it no longer has China and the Soviet Union to back it up, and it can’t afford to have pressure put on China and South Korea to cut it off. So, a leader who ordered the blowing up of Korean airliners and a couple of bold assassination attempts of South Korean leaders in the past, as well as the ax murder of GIs, sends his fighter planes to harass a US plane and try to tell it to fly to North Korea but does not shoot it down.

    But, in South Korea, where the Sunshine flows profusely, at the World Cup, North Korean gun boats kill 6 and wound 22. Why? Because it believes the South will not cut it off, because people like you want to desperately believe the North is a brother and friend.

  9. “Nah, they’d probably miss and it would land in the Han River. Then the NGOs would be blaming the US for polluting their source of drinking water.”

    Hahahaha, more likely they’d blame Bush, Cheney, and of course, Halliburton.

  10. “North Korea may spare LA because it has a large Koreatown.”
    Don’t be naive. Most of their artillery is aimed at Seoul.