Thread: North Korea

I've always thought that Kim Jong X was a dictator who did not really believe his own propaganda; someone for whom the propaganda was a means to an end; someone who was rational enough to not do anything terminally stupid.

I am still not entirely convinced that this is not the case, but I am starting to have doubts. It almost seems like they are hell bent on escalating to a war. Now, I understand the need to rattle the old sabre. He has recently come into his power, and needs to show his underlings (and the army, lest they depose him) that he is a strong aggressive leader. I get that so far.

But he does seem to be escalating things rapidly.
The video with his dream of New York burning.
The missile launch.
The latest nuclear test.
And now the announcement that 'this is just the beginning.

It makes me wonder. He'll have to stop escalating pretty soon, or bad things will happen.
The current standoff will not end without either NK caving in, or seoul + millions of Koreans being turned to dust.
The first is unlikely, and the second would be a tragedy. I am not worried in the least about NK directly, but Seoul disappearing would be a tragedy by any measure, both in economic cost and number of lives.

Sometimes you have to just shake you head and smile




Honestly this falls squarely in China's and Iran's lap, let them deal with it..

I personally think that our next war will be either with Iran or North Korea theyre the single biggest threats to this country in the world today imho!

China will slap him on the back of the head and have him cool his heels, this is just posturing.

Originally Posted by anthogia

I personally think that our next war will be either with Iran or North Korea theyre the single biggest threats to this country in the world today imho!

It is really a stretch to think that NK is any sort of threat to the US. Threat implies a credible chance to do any real damage to the country. Today, NK can barely scrape enough uranium together to make a sizzler that has not even half the yield of the hiroshima bomb. In terms of threat, they can do diddly squat. They are also completely isolated in terms of being able to do anything undetected.

The second a missile launches targeted to the US (nevermind that their ICBM tech is nonexistent), pyongyang will be a glowing crater, seoul be damned. NK is as much a threat to the US as Justin Bieber. Annoying and loud, certainly, but not more.

Of course, the next US war might very well be with NK, but not because they are a credible threat.
Iraq wasn't a credible threat either.

Originally Posted by Str8nSharp

China will slap him on the back of the head and have him cool his heels, this is just posturing.

China was none too happy with earlier nuclear tests. They have much less control over NK than you might think.
The only reason they are nominally supportive of NK is that NK pays lip service to communism.
But contrary to NK, the Chinese are not stupid.

Originally Posted by Bruno

I've always thought that Kim Jong X was a dictator who did not really believe his own propaganda; someone for whom the propaganda was a means to an end; someone who was rational enough to not do anything terminally stupid.

I am still not entirely convinced that this is not the case, but I am starting to have doubts. It almost seems like they are hell bent on escalating to a war. Now, I understand the need to rattle the old sabre. He has recently come into his power, and needs to show his underlings (and the army, lest they depose him) that he is a strong aggressive leader. I get that so far.

But he does seem to be escalating things rapidly.
The video with his dream of New York burning.
The missile launch.
The latest nuclear test.
And now the announcement that 'this is just the beginning.

It makes me wonder. He'll have to stop escalating pretty soon, or bad things will happen.
The current standoff will not end without either NK caving in, or seoul + millions of Koreans being turned to dust.
The first is unlikely, and the second would be a tragedy. I am not worried in the least about NK directly, but Seoul disappearing would be a tragedy by any measure, both in economic cost and number of lives.

To me, it is mind boggling how is it possible that in this day of age millions of people can live their lives as one or a just a few want them to.

As far as I understand it, China is financing USA and China is NK's big brother.
It would appear that it would be in Chinas best interest to keep things cool between USA and NK, unless of course China has given up on the US economy and are using NK as a "stir stick".....
Just one of my crazy theories.
Eric

Why worry about NK or who the next war will be with. There is always a handy supply of likely candidates if boredom sets in. Don't ya just hate it when things get too peaceful, something just ain't right about that.

Bob

I am thankful that NK is not as advanced in the tech dept as many of the other Countries. Here is a quote from a Newsmax article: Obama Wants to Unilaterally Cut Nuclear Arsenal by One-Third

Obama Wants to Unilaterally Cut Nuclear Arsenal by One-ThirdTuesday, 12 Feb 2013 12:10 PM

By Lisa Barron

The White House is set to reduce the U.S. nuclear arsenal by one-third, signing off on a new internal review of the country’s nuclear weapons strategy, reports The Hill newspaper.

It says that according to a report by the Center for Public Integrity issued Friday, the recommended reductions were part of a draft version of a classified directive compiled by top defense and national security officials.

Sources told CPI that Obama, while he has not officially approved the directive, has not expressed any opposition to the findings, said the paper.

It also reports that administration officials had pushed to get the new directive finalized late last year but the White House at that point objected to the plan; Obama’s advisers did not want the directive released publicly before the November election.

Meanwhile, North Korea said it conducted its third nuclear test on Tuesday in self-defense against “U.S. hostility,” and threatened further steps if necessary.

The move drew widespread condemnation, including from Pyongyang’s ally China. Beijing summoned the North Korean ambassador to protest.

North Korea said the latest test had "greater explosive force" than the 2006 and 2009 tests it conducted.

At the same time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Iran is installing new centrifuges for its uranium enrichment program that could cut the time needed to create a nuclear bomb by a third.

Tehran announced late last month that it planned to install the new machines at its main enrichment plant.

According to the internal U.S. review, however, using a smaller arsenal to target a limited number of threats, including North Korea and Iran, rather than keeping a large ballistic arsenal, would still allow the country to maintain a viable nuclear deterrence strategy.

It’s not clear how many nuclear weapons a one-third cut would come to, said The Hill, because the total amount of nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal is classified.

The move is bound to draw criticism from Republicans, who have denounced Obama’s stance on missile defense.


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