Battleland

NoKo Non-Nuclear Blast: A Secret Plea for Help?

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North Korea has reacted sharply to criticism over the weekend from the working G8 lunch at Camp David. “All of us agree that North Korea is violating its international obligations and that there is a path for them to rejoin the international community,” President Obama said. “But that objective will not be achieved if they continue with provocative actions that they have shown over the last several months.” In the wake of that comment, the Korean Central News Agency let rip:

We decisively denounce and totally reject the declaration of the summit held in the U.S. recently which unreasonably pulled up the DPRK over its satellite launch for peaceful purposes and nuclear deterrence for self-defence. Absolutely intolerable is G8’s reckless political provocation to violate the sacred sovereignty of the DPRK steeped in the bad habit of supporting the U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK in disregard of justice and truth.

…despite the rhetoric, former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst John McCreary says this is actually a camouflaged request for aid:

The statement “is not a threat to detonate a nuclear device; it is a plea for talks and assistance,” he writes on his NightWatch blog. “Conditions are deteriorating in North Korea, but it does not know how to ask for help. Last week three people were executed for cannibalism. The last time there were reports of cannibalism in North Korea was during the 1996 famine when millions died of starvation.”