Good for Islamabad! It is nice to see somebody standing up to N Korea other than us and Japan. I realize that this may be a token gesture meant to mollify the US in the face Pakistan's alleged nuclear cooperation with N. Korea in the first place, but I'll take my token gestures for the camera where I can.
N Korea is one giant Mos Eisley Cantina. It is filled with the kind of scum and villainy that is partly responsible for all of the danger in the world. In N Korea you have a central government that is engaged in training terrorism and running drugs. You have a military machine being built up while its people starve to death. In other words, the mob runs N Korea and like any other mob it desires to expand and incorporate its neighbors into its domain.
That being said, neither China nor Russia really have the gumption or desire to seriously end this mob rule on the Korean penninsula just as Iran and Syria have no serious desire to aid in the ending of terrorism. In both cases, N Korean and Hezbollah, they do the dirty work of their benefactors. We all know this, or at least should know this by now. What is surprising to me here, and my whole reason for posting this, is that Pakistan, generally a nation caught between a rock and a hard place, tends not to side with the US outside of issues dealing with Afghanistan and sometimes India. While they aren't exactly saying we should nuke N Korea, the fact that they even admonished Pyongyang in the first place is surprise enough for me.
Pakistan on Wednesday urged North Korea to abandon plans to carry out a nuclear test, saying introducing atomic weapons to the Korean Peninsula would destabilize the region.
Pakistan and North Korea have long been suspected of missile cooperation and in 2004 a top Pakistani scientist confessed to leaking sensitive nuclear technology to North Korea.
"The announcement by the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea regarding its intention to conduct a nuclear weapons test is a matter of deep concern for Pakistan," the Foreign Ministry said.
"We urge the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to desist from introducing nuclear weapons in the Korean Peninsula which would be highly destabilizing for the region," said the statement.
Islamabad urged Pyongyang to "seriously engage" in efforts aimed at keeping the Korean Peninsula region free of nuclear weapons.
On Tuesday, North Korea triggered a global alarm when it said it would conduct a nuclear test sometime in the future to bolster its self-defense, saying it was compelled to because of an "extreme threat of a nuclear war and sanctions and pressure" from the United States.
In 2004, Abdul Qadeer Khan, considered to be the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program confessed to leaking nuclear technology to North Korea, as well as Iran and Libya. Pakistani officials denied any government involvement in the nuclear technology transfers.
Khan has been pardoned despite his confession because he is regarded as a national hero but he has been living under virtual house arrest at his home in Islamabad.
Last month, Khan underwent surgery for prostate cancer at a hospital in the southern city of Karachi where he is recuperating at his sister's home.
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