Ron-ri-er Now More Than Ever

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il reportedly told a visiting Chinese official yesterday that he regrets detonating a nuclear device and does not plan additional tests, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Oct. 19).

“We have no plans for additional nuclear tests,” Kim told Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan, an official in Beijing told the Yonhap News Agency.

Kim also said “he is sorry about the nuclear test,” according to the Chosun Ilbo newspaper.

What?

I've been studying international security at a high level for 3 full years now and I have never seen a case of the "Shit dawg. You know what--this one's on me. My bad, my bad!" defense for a military provocation before.

Also! I'll add this in as your Friday Neillster 2-Pack, without any additional comment:

Russian police detained two men during an attempt to sell 5 kg of uranium fuel pellets, Moskovskiy komsomolets reported on 13 April 2006. One of the detainees, a 38-year old employee of the Machine Building Plant in Elektrostal, Russia, later surrendered an additional 17 kg of material that he had stolen from the plant and kept in his garage. According to the report, the seized material was low-enriched uranium fuel (4% U-235).

The arrest was the result of an undercover police operation, which started after the Moscow Oblast Department of Combating Organized Crime received a tip that local residents were looking for buyers of "radioactive metal." The police officers posed as potential buyers and arranged a meeting with the sellers on the Moscow-Nizhniy Novgorod roadway.

The seller was a production supervisor at the metal construction shop at the Machine Building Plant and had access to fuel production facilities. His accomplice, previously convicted of theft, worked for a different company. No other newspaper or agency besides Moskovskiy komsomolets reported this incident.