North and South Korea Briefly Exchange Fire

[Thoth]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
BTW, we've detected Krypton 35 over North Korea.

No, it has nothing to do with Superman.

?? Pardon my ignorance, but I'm unclear on the signifigance of this. Please explain.

[Defiant]

Monkey Boy is being funny because the USA is using the WMD reason for attacking Iraq so if we find some other chemical in NK, it will give us reason to invade NK.

[Alexander's Horse]

More significant was the thing you guys didn't notice a week or so agao - the US is withdrawing its troops from the DMZ i.e. out of range of nuclear artillery

Bad luck if you live in Seoul.

[DinoDoc]

Wasn't that kind of the point of the move?

[Defiant]

I believe we should pull all 37,000 troops out of SK and redeploy as replacements in Iraq to let the 3rd Infantry get a well deserved rest. The SK President was elected on the platform of being stronger against the US so apparently they don't need us. The SK should love the idea that we are finally leaving their country.

[Thoth]

Originally posted by Defiant
Monkey Boy is being funny because the USA is using the WMD reason for attacking Iraq so if we find some other chemical in NK, it will give us reason to invade NK.

I see, but I'm still drawing a blank on Krypton 35.

(Bear with me I'm still working on my second cup of coffee...)

[Q Classic]

why does this shootout surprise anybody? little flares like this pop up all the time. at least my cousin's all right. he gets out end of august, and that's all i'm looking forward to. (well, if there is a war, he'd be called up since he'd still be in the reserves, but.)

IIRC, the current SKorean president got elected on a unification platform.

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no, he didn't. he got elected by appealing to the younger generation which favors continuing to buy off nkorea and taking a less aggressive stance. that's what the "sunshine policy" (which goes under a different name these days) boils down to--buying off nkorea so it doesn't ruin skorea. there was a very big split between the older generation which favored LEE hoichang instead of ROH moohyun; the older people generally wanted more accountability/assurance from the north as they are buying them off.
there was no "unification" about it in the platform.
if you must know, every skorean government has a ministry of unification. it's a cabinet-level position; lee would have had one, just like the kims before him, this roh and the other one, the chun, park, and rhee. nkorea also has a ministry of unification as well.

As long as Dubya doesn't fall asleep and bang his head on the red button, nobody will be glowing in the dark.

i must say, i have great respect for dubya's foreign idiocy in east asia. not only has he done a complete 360 with regards to nkorea, flipping to the opposite of clinton before flipping pretty much right back, he and his advisors have got their heads so far up their collective asses that they've got no coherent policy towards the north. ignoring the north won't make it go away, boys.

and i love how cavalier everyone is about nuking the peninsula. it's great, really. it's only a bunch of zipperheads that live there, so no worries.

Apparently, the North Koreans are so paranoid about the internet that they run their official site out of Singapore.

or it could be that they don't really have servers in that hellhole of theirs.

2. More bombs: Those wacky NKs keep extracting Plutonium, and they are said to be making smaller bombs so they can stick them on their rockets. Supposedly they have enough for 8 right now.

currently, none of the weapons they have are small enough to fit on a rocket. let's hope they don't develop anything like that soon.

All the tracking/guiding systems in these weapons are of antiquated nature, and probably will end up in the ocean if fired.

can you guarantee that? no? then it's better to be safe than sorry, don't you think?

More significant was the thing you guys didn't notice a week or so agao - the US is withdrawing its troops from the DMZ i.e. out of range of nuclear artillery.

so they're no longer the speed bump. really, those american troops wouldn't have done much had the nkoreans come pouring down from the north. "speed bump" was an apt description.

The SK President was elected on the platform of being stronger against the US so apparently they don't need us. The SK should love the idea that we are finally leaving their country.

if you actually look at how people feel there, it's not that they feel like they don't need you. it's that they don't feel respected. there's a world of difference there.
they want americans to stay (by and large). they just want the downtown seoul prime real estate that the main us base rests on because it's good development property. they don't want to feel shafted when some **** goes down with a bad soldier (as in the case of those two girls getting smushed).
the sk president was elected on that platform--and once he got into office, he promptly turned around and said he wanted the amis to stay.
btw, the sk president is quite unpopular now. the sunshine policy of his isn't quite popular at home.

and kr-35, i believe, is a radioactive byproduct of some purification processes.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Q Cubed
btw, the sk president is quite unpopular now. the sunshine policy of his isn't quite popular at home.

What changed?

[TCO]

Well, I love how you **** all over us and then expect us to do something about it, Q. you frigging weasel.

[Giancarlo]

can you guarantee that? no? then it's better to be safe than sorry, don't you think?

I can't guarantee that.. I just read information provided at:

http://www.fas.org

It doesn't say everything. I am always trying to urge caution on assuming when it comes to the DPRK's secretive nature.

[DinoDoc]

if you actually look at how people feel there, it's not that they feel like they don't need you. it's that they don't feel respected. there's a world of difference there.

If thier feelings were actually based on something real they would get more attention from us.

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by TCO
Well, I love how you **** all over us and then expect us to do something about it, Q. you frigging weasel.

no doubt

launch some sub nukes on his azz

[PLATO]

Originally posted by Thoth


I see, but I'm still drawing a blank on Krypton 35.

(Bear with me I'm still working on my second cup of coffee...)

Krypton 35 is a by-product of plutonium reprocessing. Whatever their intentions for the things, the DPRK is preparing a nuclear arsenal. These WMD's are not in question...they ARE doing it.

[Q Classic]

What changed?

well, a) they found out that roh was a weenie and couldn't even stand up to the unions, b) the entire nuke thing is slowing the economy, which isn't quite good, and c) although the young aren't that afraid of war or the north, they're starting to get antsy about how things are turning out.

Well, I love how you **** all over us and then expect us to do something about it, Q. you frigging weasel.

how do i **** all over you guys and expect you to do something about it? if this is a troll, i honestly don't understand the point of it.
if anything, i'm in support of keeping america in skorea, with at least the dressing of accomodating their gripes. the blanket of liberalism which hid our realist ambitions in the past worked. that's all we need to pacify those younger skoreans.
it's still very true that the 37k american troops wouldn't be able to do that much in the event of a war. facing around a million nkoreans, the americans would not only be outnumbered, but they'd be forced to pass off most of the fighting to the rok army--which is in many ways how it should be. which is one reason why i'm glad the americans pulled back from the dmz to a better place for them, one where they won't be wasted in the first few hours of a war. americans in the peninsula are a psychological deterrent: nkorea knows that if one drop of american blood is shed, they will see the might of america brought down upon them alongside the growing hammer of skorea's military. that's one reason, i suppose, they're looking to build nukes: to equalize it, at least in their minds.
if you're talking about my disdain for bush, it's because i want bush to come up with a very clear policy on how to deal with the north. this ignoring them bit obviously isn't working. i don't think acting belligerent to the north will help matters either. i don't think we should cave into their demands for more aid unless it's coupled with a very clear reciprocation on their part which can be independently--and rigorously--verified. i think this interdiction is a good idea. and i think bush should send an envoy for bilateral talks, with multilateral observers.
of course, he's not doing that last one anymore. ignoring it is not going to make the problem go away--it looks to me like buring one's head in the sand.

so i fail to see, tco, how exactly i'm ****ting all over you. would you care to elucidate on that and explain why you think i have it in for the americans?

[TCO]

Whose gripes do you want to address? Ours? We are the ones staying there.