There’s already a pit thread about the latest developments, but I wanted something in GD territory.
North Korea’s nuclear testing is becoming more successful, and then today this:
[QUOTE=NK foreign ministry spokesman]
Since the United States is about to ignite a nuclear war, we will be exercising our right to preemptive nuclear attack against the headquarters of the aggressor in order to protect our supreme interest
[/QUOTE]
Bravado? Serious threat?
♬How do you hold a moonbeam in your hands?♬
He’s certainly a flibbertijibbet! A will-o’-the wisp! A clown!
I’m not sure “bravado” is exactly the right word, but I’ll go with that if those are the only two choices.
As for the question in the title, I think you ignore such threats and continue to put pressure on the regime, especially via China. China has no interest in allowing NK to nuke anyone, let alone the US.
Well, that’s the million lives question, isn’t it? I don’t think anyone, including those crazy bastards running the NK government, really know. Mostly, I think stuff like this is for local consumption. The NK government has spent literally decades telling it’s people how they are the only bulwark against imperialist aggression by the US, how the US and our SK puppet are poised to strike to destroy them all and suppress the glorious revolution and put the NK workers and peasants under our collective thumbs, etc etc. Some of it is certainly meant to be threats, especially against South Korea, to pressure them and us into not going ahead with the proposed sanctions, and generally into not doing anything that would piss off the leadership of NK (such as having military exercises, or contradicting the official party line on events and reality, etc).
But, you know, part of it is that these people are nuts, and they think they can pretty much do what they want without being called on it…and are increasingly frustrated both at the disintegration of their country (why is this happening? I mean, we have a workers paradise here, why are things falling apart??), and the fact that someone defies them…not something they are used to in their isolated, totalitarian world. In addition, they just aren’t taken seriously unless they bluster and threaten…look how much press these threats have gotten them, after all. How could it be different, when these folks HAVE nukes and have stated, baldly, that they are on the brink of war and have no reservations (publicly and for the consumption of the press anyway) in using them?
How do we solve this problem? No idea. I’d say a total embargo, except that the humanitarian crisis would be incredibly ugly, and for my part I’m not keen on having millions of civilian men, women, and children starve to death while the people responsible don’t suffer at all. What we ARE doing atm, is working with China to craft the sanctions, and we have gone a long way to getting China (who is pissed off that their ‘advice’ to the NKs was ignored and they went ahead with their nuclear tests anyway…as well as a number of other things NK has pissed China off over in the last few decades) on board with at least turning up the pressure. I don’t think there is much more, realistically, that we CAN do at this point. Just wait to see how the NK tree finally topples and try and clean up the mess when it inevitably happens…and hope to the gods that those crazy bastards don’t unleash nuclear fire before they finally go down.
I think you send an ambassador so well respected by both sides that he can bring the two countries together through common interests, like maybe basketball.
The situation itself is plenty serious. The threat of a nuclear attack isn’t serious in that they can’t do it and everybody knows it, but they’re trying to develop the capability. Like I was saying in the Pit thread, the North Korean government usually says stuff like this when they are being threatened with new sanctions or other measures, and the UN just passed some new ones related to the latest nuclear test. They are either trying to make countries back off the sanctions or they’re trying to look tough in front of their own population - as if the rest of the world regards them as a real power rather than a crazy annoyance. If Kim III’s pronouncements seem more insane than usual lately, it’s because the country keeps getting less and less aid and tighter and tighter sanctions, and I don’t know if they have any idea how to get out of that situation without just capitulating to the international community.
North Korea is already a solution to a problem. China doesn’t want to be next door to a nation in the US orbit and it doesn’t want to deal with a massive amount of refugees.
You have to offer the NK officer corps a better deal than it has today. If you do that, the regime falls in an hour.
The best solution would be to secretly open up the country with increased internet access and the dissemination of technology to access the internet. Hopefully that’s already happening, but I imagine it’s not a quick or easy solution.
How difficult would it be to neutralise the mass North Korean artillery aimed at Seoul? Those seem far more dangerous than the threat of nuking D.C. with no viable delivery system and would be the first place you’d want to investigate if you want to effect meaningful change in the country without reducing the capital of one of our allies to rubble.
Not that you can’t block Internet access, but I hope you are planning to airdrop a shitload of batteries along with those devices. North Korea isn’t known for its abundant electricity.
Without an NK first strike? Nigh impossible. In many cases, we can’t know where they are until they start firing. Once they do, it’ll take at least a day and possibly more, to identify all of them and knock them out.
You can always go the OLPC route and include some hand crank power regeneration.
But you better also include some instructions and some website addresses. It’s not like these people have had any meaningful experience with modern computers or the web. Unlike OLPC or similar “tech to the boonies” initiatives, you won’t have helpful volunteers on the ground to get them started.
Also better hope satellite coverage is sufficient. There’s not any NK infrastructure to allow random internet connections. And anybody piggybacking on what’s already there is probably going to be spotted quickly.
Radios seem like a simpler alternative. You could smuggle / air drop those little wind-up kind that generate their own electricity and then broadcast messages across the border.
A ballistic missile shield could be an effective counter to NK’s ballistic missile program …
The artillery though … sorry Seoul, you’re toast.
:dubious: hmm yeah. I doubt it.
If the Chinese Ministry of State Security doesn’t take out Kim Jung-Un, can we assume they’re waiting for James Bond to do it? What are they waiting for?
Easy. Offer them all commissions in the SK army at their present ranks.
Why would the Chinese want him taken out? If it were up to them, the status quo would be maintained in perpetuity.
They prefer having a China friendly buffer state on their border vs a US friendly state.
The real problem is slightly higher up. There’s no way the military and economic elites of the country can get comparable power/positions in a SK dominated re-unified country. And they’re the ones propping up the Kim family.
I was headed more along the lines of “imagine if your entire family wasn’t in constant danger of being shipped off to a forced labor camp if you showed up 5 minutes late to the parade?”
NK seems like a fascinating example of complete ideological immersion. Inside that ideological prison a *lot *of the captives honestly believe the stream of lies that is constantly pushed on them.
It’s like talk radio with fewer fat people.