Radiation From North Korea's Test Detected As U.N. Imposes Sanctions

As the UN votes to issue sanctions against North Korea and its strange leader Kim Jong-il, experts believe they now have proof - in the form of radiation detected over the Sea of Japan - of the boasted nuclear weapon test. From Walter Pincus and company at WaPo:

Initial environmental samples collected by a U.S. military aircraft detected signs of radiation over the Sea of Japan, possibly confirming North Korea's nuclear test, intelligence officials said yesterday.

Officials said the positive radiation result was consistent with an atomic test and would make it possible to rule out the possibility that Monday's test had been conducted with conventional explosives alone. But intelligence and administration officials were cautious about reaching a conclusion before reviewing all incoming data. "The intelligence community continues to analyze the data," said Frederick Jones, spokesman for the National Security Council. "When the intelligence community has a determination to present, we will make that public."

First, let me note that I have zero problem with sanctions against North Korea, especially if the United Nations can do so in a way that will not promise more harm to the many, many in N Korea who starve on a daily basis.

Second, fair is fair. Why does the U.S. get to decide who gets sanctioned (Iran, Iraq, N Korea) and who doesn't (Israel, which has possessed nuclear weapons since the 1960s when they are not supposed to have them)? As part of that, how does the U.S. get to strong-arm other nations when our country is the ONLY one to have used nuclear weapons to destroy others?

Third, who tells the U.S. that, with the Bushies approving more and more nuclear weaponry during the Bush years, that we can't have these weapons? After all, we've never proven we can use them responsibly; on the day they tested the product of the Manhattan Project, one major scenario included rapid destruction of life as we know it throughout the world. Then, for the big dessert, we dropped the crap on Japan which would have capitulated without Fat Man and Little Boy.

Hell, I won't even talk about the decades or centuries of devastation that will follow in Iraq because of the use of depleted uranium (although the glowing in the dark elephant ain't gonna be leaving that room any time soon).