State Implosion -- A New Twist In North Korea

[Velociryx]

....and by "go nuclear" I'm guessin' the article didn't mean that they'd be the ones decorated with pretty mushroom clouds above their cities, eh?

-=Vel=-

[DanS]

Not sure if I understand the question. By "go nuclear" I mean that they would openly acquire nuclear weapons.

[Velociryx]

I knew what you meant...

-=Vel=-

[Arrian]

That would consitute openly forsaking non-proliferation. That's fighting fire with fire. Or Mushrooms with Mushrooms, as it were.

-Arrian

[Velociryx]

Arrian!

-=Vel=-

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by DanS
It's also ripe for reunification, which we should do everything in our power to encourage on a swift basis, under the able administration of SK.

Consider the German reunification and what it did to Germany. More than a decade later the country is just recovering from the huge burden of pulling up the East. Now, East Germany was a lot more affluent than DPRK now, and West Germany was on par with the ROK now if not better economically.

That's why the RoK rightfully wants the DPRK to develop further economically before entertaining reunification.

[DanS]

Here's another article about China's apparent inaction on this issue...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42280-2003Feb7.html

The US is becoming very direct in its criticism of China's "schizophrenia" on this issue. Bush, Powell, and Armitage have talked about it publically. China needs to decide whether or not it wants a nuclearized (and missile shielded) SK and Japan and then act accordingly wrt NK.

Powell noted that Jiang has said Chinese policy is not to accept the nuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. "If that is the Chinese position -- and it is -- then they have something of a responsibility and obligation to play a role in finding a way forward and not simply saying the United States has to solve this by talking directly," Powell said.

One official said China appears incapable of thinking or acting strategically, since it has no equivalent of the National Security Council and an extremely cumbersome bureaucracy. Second, he said, the Chinese want to keep North Korea propped up to prevent a refugee crisis or reunification, but at the same time do not want to harm its relationship with the United States. The result, he said, is inaction.

And here's another article suggesting that total cash payments for the Kim - Kim meeting inaugurating the sunshine policy was $1 billion.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42232-2003Feb7.html

[Urban Ranger]

Just read something in the local newspapers but couldn't find any cite on the Web so far. The gist of it is the younger generation in RoK thinks it is more dangerous to let DPRK to implode than to let it having nuclear weapons.