Interesting article but maybe it shoukd have included reference to the "framework agreement" that Clinton made with North Korea back in 1994 but then reneged on.

I think Kim is trying to get his country back to the same bargaining position they were in at that time.

Themistocles -

I'm interested to see your reference to the term "Islamofascist" as if the two words are somehow unified.

Do you really understand what "fascism" is?

There are certain warning signs that indicate when a country is drifting toward fascism.

Look at this link and then decide who the fascists really are and where the world is heading.

http://www.oldamericancentury.org/14pts.htm

Interesting reading.

So who is right?

Mirko’s article sounds eminently sensible. But then so does every post, across the wide spectrum of views.

I don’t mind admitting that I just don’t know what to think.

There are always two sides to any argument as you quite rightly say but to add another saying, people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Israel secretly developed hundreds of nuclear weapons. This is well known and yet they still deny it to this day. To its credit N.Korea has not denied its intentions and has quite legally withdrawn from the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Anmerica cannot keep threatening sanctions against countries such as India, Iran, Pakistan and N.Korea while continuing to turn a blind eye to Israel's devious actions. It is only because of a mid-level technician bravely leaking the information to the press that Israel's arsenal was even discovered. This guy was lured by a female mossad agent into a trap and kidnapped.
http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Israel/

It is believed that Israel has already conducted several nuclear weapons tests. When is America going to demand sanctions on Israel? It is a double standard to impose starvation on one nation and then sell weapons to another.

I know this is a loony suggestion, but then, it is North Korea we're talking about...

...I'd be a little surprised if one of the intelligence scenarios for this whole situation is that the nuclear test is just an elaborate bluff.

I mean, if Kim Jong Il had stuffed a couple tons of TNT down that mine shaft, and a batch of plutonium, and detonated the whole mess, how would it be detectably different from an actual nuclear test? Would the ratios of radio isotopes be different or something?

Or even if the best he could manage was a 'dirty bomb' - again, how could we, with our seismographs and air-sample tests, tell the difference?

Let's not forget that Saddam fooled every intelligence team in the world for a decade with his charade and bluff over WMD. If Kim doesn't have nukes, he'd still want us to think he does, right? And if it keeps the rest of the world from messing with him, well, that's what he wants, isn't it?

Are there no journalists with enough gumption to investigate this scenario?

Just wondering...

Alex, Gekko, Neocommie and Leigh -> I agree
Mirko has lost touch with reality.

His main thesis is that George Bush forced Kim-Jong-il's hand into getting Nuclear weapons. What a load of crap. You do not develop your first nuclear weapons in 5 years. The north korean's were working on them well before George Bush became an international motivator.

This sentence says it all
"Nearly every commentary on the North Korea nuclear issue in the increasingly parochial western press has applied the same herd mentality. United States good; North Korea evil - let’s get the bad guy for wanting to get stronger. The media has swallowed the George W. “good versus evil” folly, hook, line and distasteful sinker."

Please Mirko, North Korea is a lot more evil than the US. Simply pointing out that the US has used more violence (which may be used in a good cause or a bad cause) is irrelevant rhetorical nonsense. It is sheer stupidity to deride the international community for wanting to stop an evil and unpredictable regime from getting nuclear weapons. Just as it isn't hypocrisy for the police to try and stop criminals from getting the same weapons the police have access to, it isn't hypocrisy for the US to want to stop North Korea from getting nuclear weapons.

Mirko's anti-american and anti-rational screed is just another example of the pathetic education many people are receiving in our 'free' universities where anti-western lecturers ensure that people like Mirko continue to be fed marxist propaganda.

I alway's find it funny that in the "two" part states many of us live in, we complain that there is little difference between the two parties, and worst still many of our ideas are not reflected in either. Yet we use our ability to make a choice between two parties we don't like, as a rod to beat one party states.

it's like saying you can have beans with your meat or meat with your beans. The people have not been able to effect major change even when we wanted to without major civil unrest.