US warns North Korea on Missile Tests

I. US warns North Korea on Missile Tests
(author unknown)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7318864.stm

II. This article is about the United States accusing North Korea of hiding nuclear weapon developments. The same day that Korea warned the US not to “pursue its suspicions that Pyongyang has hidden some of its nuclear program,” four missiles were fired into the Yellow Sea, supposedly as some sort of protest against the Seoul government. North Korea had shut down its main atomic factory last year, but says that the United State’s demands could delay their plans to further disable nuclear facilities. The United States asks that they answer to their suspicions of them having a “a secret uranium enrichment program”. It’s also suspected that North Korea has anywhere from one to eight atomic bombs.

III. A) I think the AP World Theme this article ties with most is ‘Changes in attitudes toward states and political identities’, because North Korea is being seen as harboring weapons and not upholding their deal to disarm all of their nuclear facilities.

B) Last year, North Korea made a deal that it would shut down it’s main atomic facility, and would take certain steps in order to fully disable the establishment. However, it’s not enough for the United States, who “want North Korea to fully declare its nuclear weapons stockpile”, and to "answer US suspicions of nuclear proliferation.”

C) The name and nationality of the author is unknown, but he is probably English, as the source of the article was the BBC.

D) The author of this article was probably siding with North Korea on this issue, because the way he wrote the article made it sound as though the United States were making “unjust demands” of Korea.

E) In order to gain a full understanding of the issue, I would like to hear more about what North Korea has to say, maybe from a political leader or someone in charge of their nuclear facilities. The author talks a lot about the United States and our demands, but not a lot on how North Korea is taking the accusations, demands, etc.

F) Although the United States seems to get involved where it probably shouldn’t, I think North Korea should focus more on “denuclearisation”. North Korea has promised to shut down and disable its atomic facilities, so they should be making more of an effort to do just that. Weapons are bad in general, and if they truly are developing nuclear weapons in secret, we deserve to at least now about it. The United State’s “unjust demands” don’t seem unjust at all; we just want to know whether or not North Korea has the technology to attack other nations.