CNN.com - North�Korea claims�nuclear weapons - Feb 10, 2005

Well, crap.

CNN.com - North�Korea claims�nuclear weapons - Feb 10, 2005

This does not bode well.

Interestingly, the North Korean government claims that it is statements by George W. Bush and his staff which has led them to believe that there's no point in returning to the six-nation summit meetings.

I'm not gonna draw the obvious comparisons between different areas of Bush's foreign policy. I'm just...I don't know, this is seriously screwed up.

The best we can hope for is that North Korea is merely posturing and puffing themselves up, as they have been known to do before.

Yeesh.

Rob

Edited to add: Japan beat North Korea 2-1 in the first round of the Asian qualifier for the World Cup. On the news last night, they showed a number of South Koreans, and South Korean residents of Japan, who were cheering for the North Korean side, because they believed that Japan needs to be taken down a peg or two, and they'd like to see the Korean people -- any Korean people -- be the ones to do it.

Hmm.

How does Japan view George W. Bush? Let's ask NHK

Here is the lead-in to the NHK story on the state of the union address.

W: "The state of the union is confident...and strong."

JUMP CUT TO footage of Kim Jong-Il reviewing his troops, and photos of North Korea's weapons development.

NHK is asking questions about why, after proactively going after Hussein in Iraq, is Bush and the US taking a much softer stance on North Korea and its weapons of mass destruction -- which, unlike Iraq's WMD program, definitely exists. No definite answers so far. Meanwhile, we in Japan live under this growing shadow....