NKorea threatens US; world anticipates missile

[rah]

Fools all.

[Patroklos]

How long is the trip from NK to Myanmar (by boat)?

edit - And do you think anyone will stop and inspect this boat when it leaves Chinese waters?

Eh, a few weeks? It depends on how fast it is traveling and I don't imagine NK keeps their gear in tip top shape. And no, I expect Obama to completely puss out on the boarding. Bush did the same thing.

[Wezil]

That is my frustration. Either we take this as a serious matter and DO SOMETHING or else we should STFU and accept that NK is free to do as they please. It's time to **** or get off the pot.

[Patroklos]

[Japher]

Kimchi Pot?

[Alinestra Covelia]

Because China doesn't want to and South Korea is too enamored with its idiotic Sunshine Policy to insist on reciprocity.

Actually, Lee Myun-bak largely discontinued the Sunshine Policy in 2008. Right now I think the South Koreans are more worried about the fallout from NK's first (and likely only) strike if they push them too far.

It's easy to be dismissive of NK's retaliatory capabilities if you're in the West. The South Koreans (despite having a military that could easily prevail in the long run) are in a much more dangerous situation in the short run.


Either way though the situation needs to change. China may be able to exert more influence on the newcomer as the last generation of leaders alive during the civil war moves out.

[Aeson]

Why is anyone providing aid to this blackmailer. (I know the people are starving, but at some point you just have to call their bluff and say no more aid for you )

I was talking to my dad about his line of work yesterday (agricultural consultant) and we ended up on the topic of NK. A few years back he was schedualed to go to NK along with several other experts to help them modernize their operations. This was through the LDS church, which was providing consultation and equipment to NK as part of their deal not to continue their nuclear program.

Just days before their flight to NK, the nuclear program was started up again and the trip was called off. My dad and the others had already met with some representatives, and had already "fixed" some of the more egregarious mistakes being made. (In one case my dad mentioned, their chickens were molting too often and not laying any eggs. A simple ventilation change to their coop designs fixed that.)

It's too bad on the timing. Even if the government is a ****ing mess, the people deserve better. I personally think we'd do better by helping regardless of preconditions. Pulling the plug on those types of programs hasn't seemed to helped us in any case I can think of.

[Alinestra Covelia]

I think I was reading the Economist where there was an op-ed piece about the NK gov't. The premise of the piece was essentially that the gov't had long exhausted the goodwill it enjoyed in the wake of the liberation from Japan, and the unsustainable overemphasis on the army and nuclear program (plus the Kim personality cult) were the only things stopping the people from stringing up the current leadership from lampposts. The op-ed writer said that the six parties' primary goal should be to continue to isolate the regime until the leadership has weakened to the point that a more progressive gov't could be put in place, which shouldn't take much longer.

[rah]

If they still get stuff no matter how hard they try to piss us off or threaten us, there is no incentive not to.

[Alinestra Covelia]

Well, if China turns off the oil flow pipes, the regime is basically dead in the water. Of course, finding an incentive for China to deny aid to its alleged client state may be challenging...

[rah]

Yeah, we could just turn our backs and wink and they could take it, but I don't think we're ready to give them SK yet. Even though personally, I probably wouldn't care that much.

[Alinestra Covelia]

Yeah, we could just turn our backs and wink and they could take it, but I don't think we're ready to give them SK yet. Even though personally, I probably wouldn't care that much.

I'm not convinced NK could take SK at this point. They have a chronic oil shortage to the point that their air force doesn't get more than a few hours of flight time practice every year, and whatever gains they'd get from a mixed arty/Zerg rush at the start would be reversed the moment the SKs got aircraft and vehicles to bear. Starting a war would be in NK's worst interests, especially as China's now so tightly woven into international trade that it doesn't want to lose SK and the US as trading partners over some pissant backwater rogue nation like NK.

[Guynemer]

I can't believe this thread has gone on this long without the obligatory Team America "I'm so ronery" joke.

[rah]

I'm not convinced NK could take SK at this point. They have a chronic oil shortage to the point that their air force doesn't get more than a few hours of flight time practice every year, and whatever gains they'd get from a mixed arty/Zerg rush at the start would be reversed the moment the SKs got aircraft and vehicles to bear. Starting a war would be in NK's worst interests, especially as China's now so tightly woven into international trade that it doesn't want to lose SK and the US as trading partners over some pissant backwater rogue nation like NK.

I don't think NK could take SK either, I was more thinking that SK still wants to reunite so if we wanted CHINA to step in, we'd have to offer both. And that's what I don't think we're ready to do yet.

[Mon River Monarch]

Death by the stench of kimchi is more horrific than any nuclear bomb threat