Tiptoeing around the Taepodong
What did the North Koreans think they would accomplish by this
North Korea Tests Long-Range Missile? Did they think the world would quake in fear of their salvo-of-death
6 Missiles Fired by North Korea; Tests Protested - New York Time? Then it would have been better if the taepodong hadn't torn itself apart in under a minute from launch. Even so it seems the U S was determined not to react, and stowed away the usual rhetoric of alarm and ultimatum
Bush: U.S. Will Stick to Diplomatic Efforts With North Korea.. For myself I am tired of hearing of North Korea's negotiating acumen. All it is, is dissembling and stalling for time. If you stick to a simple tune you probably won't make many mistakes. This is not the same thing as sophistication, or great skill. I saw one report that the Navy may have recovered portions of the big missile. The Taepodongs main function for Pyongyang is as an export product and revenue source. Some of the press felt that role of the little missiles may actually have been greater here, to underscore South Korea's fragile position, with Seoul just over the border, and as a warning to any strategic decision for Japan to fully re-arm, but here it also serves as an invitation. What is the big message from all this, the message that Iran may be inclined to read. The relative impotence of the U S. That once you get the bomb they can't touch you
For US military, few options to defang North Korea | csmonitor.com. Perhaps not so much. Or that the destabilization and risk of emerging nuclear powers embedded in rabid regional rivalries, or isolated regimes, coheres international opinion and creates a consensus against proliferation by any means necessary
Quest for leverage on North Korea | csmonitor.com. Even with the acquisition of nuclear technology. A negotiating style and behavior like the North Korea's, a nation that lives closer to the edge of collapse than rationality or sustainability would allow, means that any error, any overreach - and everybody makes mistakes - will be turned back against you with increased, eventually unmatchable vigor.
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