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The North Koreans have no problem selling missiles to many, many states.

In 2002, the Spanish ship SS Navarra, stopped a North Korean freighter of the coast of Somalia with 43 Scud missiles bound for Yemen.

They have no concern for the impact of their proliferation of missile technology, and only want to generate cold, hard cash that the can't in any other way.

For the love of all that it holy, they smuggle narcotics into developed countries using diplomatic pouches, and sell it to local dealers.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

by ManfromMiddletown (manfrommiddletown at lycos dot com) on Tue Jan 22nd, 2008 at 09:30:08 AM EST
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ManfromMiddletown:
In 2002, the Spanish ship SS Navarra, stopped a North Korean freighter of the coast of Somalia with 43 Scud missiles bound for Yemen.
And then the US told them to let the ship go on its merry way.


We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Jan 22nd, 2008 at 09:32:43 AM EST
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Yes.

Because Yemen is offically an ally, and it wasn't the smoking gun that the Bush White House was hoping for.

Now missiles are not particularly useful without a nasty payload, and high explosive isn't that nasty.  Biological weapons are hard to disperse.  Chemical weapons have a similiar problem, and do nothing to undermine enemy infrastructures, having use in being a terror weapon or against enemy forces.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

by ManfromMiddletown (manfrommiddletown at lycos dot com) on Tue Jan 22nd, 2008 at 11:51:18 AM EST
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Or maybe because the US had authorised the deal beforehand, which would mean North Korea, while evil, still serves US policy.

We have met the enemy, and he is us — Pogo
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Jan 22nd, 2008 at 12:02:12 PM EST
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His point is well taken if you accept his premise.  I simply don't accept the premise that the North Koreans have the cajones to sell nukes.  We'd undoubtedly find out about it, and the result is easy enough to figure: No more North Korea.

In my view, it's all fear-mongering.  And, as I said, I don't believe a word any of these hawks tell me.  It's just sad that this nonsense has polluted our side of the aisle.  The Bush Doctrine has got to go, and it's absolutely shameful that Democrats are reinforcing it.  (This, more than anything else, is why I'm going to have real trouble showing up on November 4th.)  But, as Bill Maher once said, Americans would eat paint if you spent enough money on advertising.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Tue Jan 22nd, 2008 at 01:55:30 PM EST
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Now China might have something to say about the Existence of North Korea - or have we all forgotten the Korean War?

Ignoring that - the bravado about punishing North Korea for selling Nukes is simply that - unless one is willing to risk the quite likely possibility that if they have nukes to sell, they have made a certain amount of effort to safe keep nukes for a second strike.

As Sibel Edmonds as point out - forget about N. Korea when it comes to selling nuclear secrets. Pay attention to a country far closer to home - the United States.

aspiring to genteel poverty

by edwin (eeeeeeee222222rrrrreeeeeaaaaadddddd@@@@yyyyaaaaaaa) on Tue Jan 22nd, 2008 at 02:04:34 PM EST
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Missiles are a whole different beast from nukes.

And their narcotics smuggling wouldn't be an issue if we weren't so concerned about policing other people's drug use.  We could bankrupt them on that front at a moment's notice by ending just one of our many stupid wars, but I'm in the minority on that sort of thing, unfortunately, while the majority seems content to do the same things over and over expecting different results.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Tue Jan 22nd, 2008 at 10:06:28 AM EST
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What? North Korea is interfering with Europe and the US's monopoly on arms trade to evil dictatorships?

How dare they!

aspiring to genteel poverty

by edwin (eeeeeeee222222rrrrreeeeeaaaaadddddd@@@@yyyyaaaaaaa) on Tue Jan 22nd, 2008 at 10:22:19 AM EST
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