North Korea missile showdown!

[BeBMan]

Has anybody been nuked yet? You know, we have a football wc going on so I really can't care about everything right now /stupid

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Sava
what happens if we try to shoot down their missile and we fail?

The world laughs (more).

[DanS]

Originally posted by Colon™
Cut off the aid lines and watch them crumble. Whether it by design or by accident, they've managed to sustain their regime by behaving irrationally.

I wish it were possible. Unfortunately, the Chinese and South Koreans are willing and able to prop up the sick man.

[Kontiki]

The US should just push Japan to develop nukes. It would make the whole regional dynamic much more interesting.

[Arrian]

I really don't think "interesting" is what we're looking for here...

-Arrian

[Arrian]

I do find S. Korea's willingness to "prop up the sick man" a bit depressing, but I do understand their position. What happens if/when N. Korea falls apart? Consequences for the South?

I think the South's Sunshine policy is a mistake (at least the bits where large sums of money go north... the idea of competing together in the Olympics and generally trying to play nice is fine), but I understand where it comes from, and hey, maybe S.Korea is right and I'm wrong.

-Arrian

[DaShi]

Originally posted by Vince278


Sounds like a good description of the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76.

I was thinking of more recent events.

[Kuciwalker]

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Kontiki
The US should just push Japan to develop nukes. It would make the whole regional dynamic much more interesting.

I doubt we'll have to. The DPRK seems intent on doing that themselves.

[Colon™]

Originally posted by DanS


I wish it were possible. Unfortunately, the Chinese and South Koreans are willing and able to prop up the sick man.

I fear their motivations are largely similar. China doesn't want to deal with a refugee crisis and SK doesn't want to endanger chances of rapprochment so they abet the regime. The result of this is that NK doesn't really have really has an incentive to meaningfully improve its act. We get situations in which
Like Arrian, I understand they don't want to take any chances, but in the meantime we're not making progress and NK keeps on behaving badly. It worries me that at some point in the future people may come to regret they hadn't just bitten the bullet.

[GePap]

Why should SK take the chances? If NK collapese, they bear the cost of that collapse, not the US or Japan. SK is in a no win situation.

I think the sad fact is that SK cares less about a nuclear NK than a nuclear Japan. After all, its the Japanese they hate.

[Vince278]

The South has a government ministry solely for reunification affairs.

[Colon™]

Originally posted by GePap
Why should SK take the chances? If NK collapese, they bear the cost of that collapse, not the US or Japan. SK is in a no win situation.

Is it better then that they collapse in a decade or 2 instead, having to deal with all sorts of troublemaking, crises or even worse in the intervening period? All world leaders may be doing is postponing the inevitable (though I suppose the inevitable may be more suitable when the US doesn't have its hands full with Iraq and Iran).

[GePap]

Originally posted by Colon™


Is it better then that they collapse in a decade or 2 instead, having to deal with all sorts of troublemaking, crises or even worse in the intervening period? All world leaders may be doing is postponing the inevitable (though I suppose the inevitable may be more suitable when the US doesn't have its hands full with Iraq and Iran).

What crisises thought? I am sorry, but this is the same **** as with Iraq. Deterrence works. If there is a crisis right now, its that NK might build up some deterrence of its own, if it does not have any already, but the idea that NK can really blackmail anyone is to me idiotic. NK would be wiped out in any war. SK is militarilly much stronger conventionally than NK, and any use of nukes by NK vs. SK or Japan would bring US nuclear attack.

The point is, if NK begin to totally collapse, than under that circumstance there would be no reaosn not to go to war for the NK leadership. What SK spends now keeping NK afloat, and ditto China, is a lot cheaper than any war would be, and in the end, it costs less North Korean lives as well.

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by GePap


What crisises thought? I am sorry, but this is the same **** as with Iraq. Deterrence works. If there is a crisis right now, its that NK might build up some deterrence of its own, if it does not have any already, but the idea that NK can really blackmail anyone is to me idiotic. NK would be wiped out in any war. SK is militarilly much stronger conventionally than NK, and any use of nukes by NK vs. SK or Japan would bring US nuclear attack.

The point is, if NK begin to totally collapse, than under that circumstance there would be no reaosn not to go to war for the NK leadership. What SK spends now keeping NK afloat, and ditto China, is a lot cheaper than any war would be, and in the end, it costs less North Korean lives as well.

I suspect there is fear that north korea which has pursued such bizarre economic strategies as mass counterfeiting of the US dollar or kidnapping entertainment talent to create a domestic film industry and which has also sold missle technology to the highest bidder would be perfectly likely to sell weapons grade plutonium to terrorist organizations.


That can't be allowed. at all. Almost nothing would be worse than that short of a world war.