Lil' Kim regrets nuclear test

[Lao Tzu]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061020/ap_on_re_as/nkorea_kim_nuclear

Report: N. Korean leader regrets test 12 minutes ago


SEOUL, South Korea - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il expressed regret about his country's nuclear test to a Chinese delegation and said Pyongyang would return to international nuclear talks if Washington backs off a campaign to financially isolate the country, a South Korean newspaper reported Friday.

"If the U.S. makes a concession to some degree, we will also make a concession to some degree, whether it be bilateral talks or six-party talks," Kim was quoted as telling a Chinese envoy, the mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo reported, citing a diplomatic source in China.

Kim told the Chinese delegation that "he is sorry about the nuclear test," the newspaper reported.

The delegation led by State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan met Kim on Thursday and returned to Beijing later that day — ahead of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's arrival in the Chinese capital Friday. China is viewed as a key nation in efforts to persuade the North to disarm, as it is the isolated communist nation's main trading partner.

North Korea has long insisted that the U.S. desist from a campaign to sever its ties to the international financial system. Washington accuses Pyongyang of complicity in counterfeiting and money laundering to sell weapons of mass destruction.

The North has refused since last November to return to the nuclear talks, which also include China, Japan, Russia and South Korea. Pyongyang has sought bolster its negotiating position by a series of provocative actions, test-firing a barrage of missiles in July and performing its first-ever nuclear test Oct. 9.



This is interesting. SO what do we do now? Do we jump for joy that a dictator has agreed to stop violating international law or what? That seems weak. I say make the sanctions harsher, and make them hit the leadership instead of the people. Then after a few years dangle a 6 party talk in front of him, and see what he does.

I bet I get 0 replies to this.

 

[Lao Tzu]

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/10/20/apworld/20061020125105&sec=apworld

Chinese banks stop financial transfers to North Korea

BEIJING (AP): Chinese banks have stopped financial transfers to North Korea under government orders as part of sanctions imposed for Pyongyang's nuclear test, bank employees said Friday, in a possibly serious blow to the country's frail economy.

China is North Korea's main trading partner and aid donor, and the disruption of financial transfers is a forceful expression of Beijing's anger at the Oct. 9 nuclear test by its isolated ally. It is a break with China's earlier reluctance to use economic pressure against the North for fear its ally's government might collapse.

All four major Chinese state-owned banks and British-owned HSBC Corp. have stopped financial transfers to the North, according to bank employees in Beijing and the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang.

"We received a circular recently that banned services from China to North Korea because of the sanctions imposed as a result of the nuclear test,'' said an employee of the international business department of the Agricultural Bank of China Ltd., in Shenyang. She would give only her surname, Song.

Employees of the Bank of China Ltd., the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., China Construction Bank Ltd. and HSBC said they received similar orders and stopped transfers.

"The ban started this week,'' said a Bank of China employee in Dandong, a Chinese city on the North Korean border. She would give only her surname, Zhang. "We have to wait for notice from higher levels about when to resume these operations.''

The bank employees said the orders didn't say how long the suspension would remain in effect.

Spokespeople for the banks' headquarters in Beijing and for China's central bank said they couldn't confirm such an order was issued and had no information on the scale of Chinese transfers to the North.

China also has stepped up inspections of cargo being trucked across the border into North Korea since the U.N. Security Council approved sanctions on the country last Saturday.

China is believed to be North Korea's main link to the world financial system. China's importance increased after Washington imposed sanctions on a Macau bank that served North Korean companies, making other financial institutions uneasy about dealing with Pyongyang.

Washington has long pressured Beijing to use its leverage as the North's main economic partner to compel Pyongyang to return to six-nation talks aimed at ending its nuclear ambitions.

But Beijing has been reluctant to use economic pressure for fear the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il might collapse, setting off a flood of refugees into China's northeast and upsetting Northeast Asia's complex military balance.

But China's anger has grown as Kim's government defied appeals not to conduct its nuclear test and an earlier plea in July not to test-fire ballistic missiles.




Bitch shoulda known we was steady mobbin.

 

[Rabid_Goose]

Well, I'm glad China is stepping into this, I was afraid they would use a Boys would be Boys type of attitude, you know?

Also, I bet some murderer's and rapist might regret the crime 12 minutes afterwards, but too late. I think Kim still needs to be punished but not to harsh as to scare China away from being on our side and going back to backing Kim up.

What does that country sell anyways to have ANY KIND of money flow into the economy? They just counterfit all year long or what?

 

[mwm5]

guarantee china is in its plotting state of how its gonna attack us

 

[mrplunkey]

I sure hope we told China if they don't play ball with us over NK, we'll help Tawain with their *own* nuclear program

 

[bloodinbloodout]

The only thing he was sorry about was his pathetic nuclear program that amounted to nothing but Duds.

 

[Delinquent]

guarantee china is in its plotting state of how its gonna attack us

That's what I'm afraid of. China saying "hey, now's not the time young padawan"

 

[mrplunkey]

That's what I'm afraid of. China saying "hey, now's not the time young padawan"

Didn't Notra Damus (or whatever his name is) predict a fight originating in the "East" about now?

 

[jackangel]

lol at lil kim

you had me going, moose head. nothing would be better than her sharing an opinion on global politics.

 

[Dial_tone]

I think he regrets that the test was a fizzle fo shizzle.