Patterico's Pontifications

10/14/2006

North Korea and South Korea at Night

Filed under: General,International — Patterico @ 8:48 am



Here is a picture showing North Korea and South Korea at night. The difference is quite stark. (Via Pejman.)

21 Responses to “North Korea and South Korea at Night”

  1. That particular photo may be new, but I’d seen something very similar a few years ago.
    It just proves that North Korea is doing its part to conserve energy and save the planet!

    Eric Wilner (3936fd)

  2. If they keep messing up their nuclear tests they may well glow in the next photo.

    tom scott (7479b7)

  3. Looks like its from the Earth at Night Astronomy Picture of The Day. Click on the picture for a HUGE version.

    actus (10527e)

  4. North Korea should promote tourism by calling itself an astronomer’s delight. Nothing but dark skies!

    Steverino (b48c8d)

  5. Bill Clinton give the Nork’s several nuclear powered electrical generating plants. Where the heck is all that electricity, or do they only turn on the lights during the daytime?

    Black Jack (211e83)

  6. Hey, running those calutrons takes a lot of electricity!

    Eric Wilner (3936fd)

  7. Bill Clinton give the Nork’s several nuclear powered electrical generating plants. – Black Jack

    Two reactors, not “several plants.” And they’re still in crates waiting to be shipped.

    Bush thought the deal was pretty peachy:

    Wednesday, 3 April, 2002 – The US Government has announced that it will release $95m to North Korea as part of an agreement to replace the Stalinist country’s own nuclear programme, which the US suspected was being misused.

    Under the 1994 Agreed Framework an international consortium is building two proliferation-proof nuclear reactors and providing fuel oil for North Korea while the reactors are being built.

    In releasing the funding, President George W Bush waived the Framework’s requirement that North Korea allow inspectors to ensure it has not hidden away any weapons-grade plutonium from the original reactors.

    President Bush argued that the decision was “vital to the national security interests of the United States”.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1908571.stm

    steve (8f3e6c)

  8. A lot depends on what time the photo was taken. I’ve read they turn off all lights excpt in Eraserhead’s palace at 9 PM. If it was before 9, it would be a significant item.

    Mike K (dfe6aa)

  9. Funny, steve. So, Bush was abiding by the ’94 Agreed Framework?

    Didn’t he abrogate it?

    No? Then, how, exactly, is it Bush’s fault that the NKs decided to break the treaty, when in 2002, he was sending the money that the agreement called for?

    Bush sends them fuel oil as per the agreement in early ’02, and the NKs withdraw from the treaty in December ’02, and this is all Bush’s fault?

    I suppose it was because of the ’03 war in Iraq, right? Taught the NKs that they needed nukes? So, they went back in time, and warned their earlier selves of what Bush was going to do?

    Is that it, steve?

    Lurking Observer (0a710c)

  10. Then, how, exactly, is it Bush’s fault that the NKs decided to break the treaty, when in 2002, he was sending the money that the agreement called for? – Lurking Observer

    Didn’t say it was.

    Although the indication that he “waived the Framework’s requirement that North Korea allow inspectors to ensure it has not hidden away any weapons-grade plutonium from the original reactors” could be judged optional.

    steve (8f3e6c)

  11. I’ve seen that picture before. Can it really be true?

    Patricia (2cc180)

  12. Oh come on, everyone knows the nuclear stuff is just a smoke screen. The Nork’s are upset at GWB because of Hurricane Katrina, stem cell research, and his lack of respect for Cindy Sheehan.

    Kim Jong-il’s got the hots for our Peace Mom, and since the Tom Foley scandal, nobody really much cares about gay marriage anymore. That’s like, so yesterday.

    Black Jack (211e83)

  13. North Korea is nothing more than a sick cockroach that America can squash anytime it wants without barely lifting its heel. But that would upset China the largest holder of our national debt. And our largest supplier of cheaps#$t consumer products. It might even put WalMart out of business.

    nk (d7a872)

  14. Yup, Dubya did the same thing in 2002 that Bill Clinton did on June 29, 2000. Waived certifying that North Korea had been hiding plutonium. Funny, why would Bill do that, when he signed the original agreement?

    Bush probably did the wrong thing, in the hopes of keeping the treaty alive. As did Bill, right steve?

    Of course, if Bush didn’t waive said certification, then he’d have to declare the NKs not in compliance. And then you’d have to face the possibility of war.

    So, let’s hear it, stevie-boy. You advocated going to war, back in 2002, right? Few hundred thousand dead civilians in Seoul, that would be acceptable, correct?

    B/c, after all, if keeping the treaty alive wasn’t peachy, if Bush should’ve held the NorK’s feet to the fire, that’s what we’re talking about.

    You with me on this, steve?

    Surely you’re not suggesting, are you steve, that Dubya should have given more to the NorKs are you? I mean, giving ’em the $95M worth of fuel oil under the terms of the ’94 Agreement, that was “optional,” right?

    Lurking Observer (0a710c)

  15. I gotta say, it’s funny how steve and his ilk are able to reverse course so quickly.

    TODAY, it’s Bush’s fault for waiving a compliance stricture back in 2002.

    But how was that act portrayed at the time? See here.

    And when you read Madeleine Albright and Wendy Sherman talking about how everything was hunky-dory, consider the following from the same article:

    The administration insists the North must immediately begin full cooperation with the IAEA on inspections to determine how many nuclear weapons or material Pyongyang produced.

    Former Clinton aides argue Pyongyang does not need to begin those inspections until KEDO is ready to install the nuclear components in the reactors.

    Guess those inspections were less than “optional” to some folks, eh, steve?

    Lurking Observer (0a710c)

  16. Of course, if Bush didn’t waive said certification, then he’d have to declare the NKs not in compliance. And then you’d have to face the possibility of war. – Lurking Observer

    We’re *really* vamping now, aren’t we?

    Bush had also given formal notice that the United States would withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty and refused to support ratification of the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

    I offer no judgment about Bush’s PDRK waiver, other than he probably got bad advice. Pakistan was a major supplier of critical equipment to North Korea’s newly-revealed enrichment program.

    steve (341bd7)

  17. To correct my Comment #14: China is the second largest foreign holder of our national debt. Japan is the largest.

    nk (5a2f98)

  18. Alexander Downer, the Australian Foreign Minister, showed a similar picture to the Kim Family Regime’s Ambassador to Canberra while “tearing strips off” him last week. See this front-page news item from The Australian. (Warning: link will expire soon). Here’s the start of the item:

    As Alexander Downer ended his carpeting of North Korea’s ambassador to Australia yesterday he remembered a prop – one he keeps in his Canberra office – that would ram home his message.

    He thrust at Chon Jae-hong a satellite map of the Korean peninsula taken at night, asking him to note that South Korea was bathed in light while the North was in total darkness.

    “I pointed to this photo and I said the policies of his Government had led to this shameful situation where the people of South Korea lived in relative prosperity and the people of North Korea lived in poverty,” the Foreign Minister said.

    The disparity, so obvious in the satellite image, shows up in the countries’ economic performance since North Korea embarked on its process of self-isolation.

    I’m really glad to be an Australian.

    Chris[topher] Chittleborough (b26b65)

  19. Hoo-yah, Chris. I’d love to be one day too.

    Christoph (9824e6)

  20. We need more pictures now that China is building a fence.

    (Apparently China didn’t get the memo about how wrong, cruel, expensive and unfair it is to build a border fence.)

    DRJ (ccb97e)


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