Korea goes nuclear...another Bush diplomatic failure

Overnight, North Korea claimed to have detonated a nuclear test. The BBC has the text of the N. Korean government's announcement:

"The field of scientific research in the DPRK (North Korea) successfully conducted an underground nuclear test under secure conditions on October 9, Juche 95 (2006) at a stirring time when all the people of the country are making a great leap forward in the building of a great, prosperous, powerful socialist nation.

"It has been confirmed that there was no such danger as radioactive emission in the course of the nuclear test as it was carried out under a scientific consideration and careful calculation.

What got me was the last paragraph:

"It will contribute to defending the peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and in the area around it."

Mmmmmm Kay...

Flash back to 2003, when the military and scientists were alarmed to find a little "present" from the DPRK:

The warhead of a long-range missile test-fired by North Korea was found in the U.S. state of Alaska, a report to the National Assembly revealed yesterday.

"According to a U.S. document, the last piece of a missile warhead fired by North Korea was found in Alaska," former Japanese foreign minister Taro Nakayama was quoted as saying in the report. "Washington, as well as Tokyo, has so far underrated Pyongyang's missile capabilities."

The report was the culmination of monthlong activities of the Assembly's overseas delegation to five countries over the North Korean nuclear crisis.

This is from The North Korean Times, as it's almost impossible to find U.S. mainstream media documentation of this event. The American Free Press, in a 2003 article about the Alaskan discovery, documents an all-too-familiar trend of the Bush Administration and his MSM lap dogs, referring to the previously linked article from the Korea Times:

The Bush administration is ignoring reports from South Korea and Japan that the North Koreans have test-fired a nuclear-capable, intercontinental ballistic missile, which landed in or near the state of Alaska.

The White House has not commented on a report in The Korea Times that the warhead of a “long-range missile test-fired by North Korea was found in the state of Alaska.”

The discovery of the missile warhead was reported to South Korea’s National Assembly and was culled from “a U.S. (presumably intelligence) document,” the paper said.

If the report is accurate, the warhead could be from a North Korean three-stage Taepo Dong 3 ICBM, which is, according to U.S. intelligence sources, capable of striking targets about 9,300 miles away.

If you read the N. Korean article, you can see specific quotes from members of U.S. Congress.

While scientists have assured us that the type of nuclear device they must have used in last night's test would be much too heavy to load onto a long-range missile, I must say that is small solace to an Alaskan. It will eventually be feasible.

Regarding to the overnight detonation, the BBC describes the devastating effect this step by North Korea will have on world deplomacy:

North Korea's nuclear test has thrown efforts to restrain it into further confusion, presenting particular problems for not just the United States but China as well.

The effort to halt the spread of nuclear weapons across the world has also taken a blow.

For the Bush administration, the fact that one of the countries described by the president as part of an "axis of evil" has apparently confirmed its membership of the nuclear weapons' club means that, short of military action, there is little it can really do to enforce a change of policy.

The BBC is actually being kind. What they could have said was something like, "This test is the result of 3 1/2 years of an inept U.S. Administration, with the help of the British Prime Minister, putting all of its efforts into a failed Iraqi policy and ignoring the diplomatic opportunities for peaceful solutions to other potential crises."

Of course, the Bush Administration will ignore reality (again) and try to spin this as "proof" that we need the Republicans to "defend us against the terrorists."