Japan threatens Korea with pre-emptive strike

[Kontiki]

Japan cetrainly can't invade Korea, but I'd be willing to wager that their navy and air force could inflict some nice damage, and short of lobbing missiles towards Japan, NK could do little to retaliate.

[Drake Tungsten]

Exactly, Kontiki. I don't know why everyone's talking about Japan's army and amphibious capability; any pre-emptive strike on North Korea is likely to be air power only. Ground forces aren't much use in preventing the launch of a nuclear-tipped missile...

[Sten Sture]

Originally posted by Kontiki
Japan cetrainly can't invade Korea, but I'd be willing to wager that their navy and air force could inflict some nice damage, and short of lobbing missiles towards Japan, NK could do little to retaliate.

Of course South Korea might be a little pissed since NK has ~100 million artilary pieces trained on Seoul. Not much anyone can do about that, except evacuate and rebuild the entire city in a year or two. SK's new government takes office at the end of next week, iirc. Lets see if this gets resolved then, NKs threat pattern has followed election timing before...

[Sava]

Yes, the rebirth of the Japanese Empire! They learned well from their American conquerers.

[Shi Huangdi]

Japan actually has a pretty good military, IIRC they are second to the USA in defense spending. The Japanese Navy would be enough to stop an invasion of the Japanese Mainland. I doubt Japan would launch a ground invasion of NK. Japan would be able to establish air superiority over NK, but could still suffer extreme damage from NK missles.

[Ned]

NK has two nukes. I bet one is pointed at Tokyo and the other at LA or SF.

If NK is going to do anything, it will be after the US is engaged in the Gulf and cannot respond effectively in Korea. They may launch an attack south and tell the US and Japan to stay out of the conflict "or else."

I don't know exactly what the US will do. However, I suspect the Japanese will insist that we take out the NK nukes or else they will do it for us.

As Vel said, the conjunction of events is becoming too much - too much to be a coincidence IMO.

[DuncanK]

Ned,

They aren't going to nuke us, relax.

[Ned]

Originally posted by DuncanK
Ned,

They aren't going to nuke us, relax.

I don't have a clue as to why you would say that. Why in the world would they develop nukes and long range missles unless they intended to use them under certain circumstances.

[Berzerker]

Sava -

Yes, the rebirth of the Japanese Empire! They learned well from their American conquerers.

Since it would be a "rebirth", then they didn't learn it from us. They did learn to build cars though. But what in the hell are you talking about? Since when does self-defense qualify as empire building?

[DuncanK]

Originally posted by Ned


I don't have a clue as to why you would say that. Why in the world would they develop nukes and long range missles unless they intended to use them under certain circumstances.

For bargaining and defense.

[Sava]

it was a troll berserker, don't get sand in your vagina now...

[Joseph]

The problem here is hunger, pure and simple. Since N. Korea spends most of his money on arms, he cannot feed his people and they are starving big time. He want us to feed them while he buys more weapons. It is backmail, feed me or else.

[orange]

Originally posted by Ned
If NK is going to do anything, it will be after the US is engaged in the Gulf and cannot respond effectively in Korea. They may launch an attack south and tell the US and Japan to stay out of the conflict "or else."

I don't know exactly what the US will do. However, I suspect the Japanese will insist that we take out the NK nukes or else they will do it for us.

As Vel said, the conjunction of events is becoming too much - too much to be a coincidence IMO.

straight out of your ass.

Have any more fairy tales for us, Neddy?

[ravagon]

Originally posted by monkspider
This is the only time that I can think of post-WW II that Japan has threatened the use of military force.
I'm sure China, as well as the rest of Asia, wouldn't react very well to Japanese forces in Korea.

The Japanese self-defense force is still restricted to operating within Japanese waters IIRC. There was a bit of a push from the US during the Gulf war to remove that part of the Japanese constitution (rather ironic given that the US military govt in post WW2 Japan was instrumental in writing it in to the new constitution in the first place) but it didn't really amount to anything.
Even if Japan does deem the NK threat as sufficiently grave to warrant such a removal, it will still take a fair while to accomplish.
Plenty of time for the PRC to try and solve this peacably before any Japanese-RoK action ... if the PRC has any intention of doing anything in the first place...

[Edan]

Originally posted by Lonestar
Hmmmm...How would Japan attack North Korea? With it's one LST?

Who needs weaponry when you've got Gamera and Godzilla?

Japan does spend 40 billion on defense, so they probably have some useful odds and ends to defend with.

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ja.html