# If North Korea had oil... **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 6, 2006, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-north-korea-had-oil/375521 "2006-10-06T17:46:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2006, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-north-korea-had-oil/375521/1 "2006-10-06T17:46:35Z")
Would the US invade? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2006, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-north-korea-had-oil/375521/2 "2006-10-06T17:48:42Z")
Nope. Too close to China. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2006, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-north-korea-had-oil/375521/3 "2006-10-06T20:53:19Z")
Didn’t we sort of already? ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2006, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-north-korea-had-oil/375521/4 "2006-10-06T21:05:25Z")
So lets assume that the Korean peninsula is an island in the middle of the Pacific ocean. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2006, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-north-korea-had-oil/375521/5 "2006-10-06T21:06:18Z")
The President would be itchin’ to, at the very least. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2006, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-north-korea-had-oil/375521/6 "2006-10-06T21:13:29Z")
If they had oil, they’d have an export and probably wouldn’t need to do all the nuclear posturing. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2006, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-north-korea-had-oil/375521/7 "2006-10-06T21:16:33Z")
It does. Not a huge amount, but [a bit](http://www1.korea-np.co.jp/pk/072nd_issue/98120202.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2006, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-north-korea-had-oil/375521/8 "2006-10-06T21:27:57Z")
Nope, not if they have nukes. Same reason Iran wants them. ---
**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-north-korea-had-oil/375521/9 "2006-10-07T10:37:58Z")
One of the reasons why NK is messing with Nuclear is because the USA used to sell it cheap oil, then they stopped it. The similarities to Japan are alarming Personally I would just leave them alone - at present, my guess is that they feel cornered … ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-north-korea-had-oil/375521/10 "2006-10-07T21:59:44Z")
Mexico has oil. Canada has oil. Why haven’t we invaded them? Heck, back in 1991, we COULD have taken Iraq, and didn’t. If oil is the only driving force behind U.S. policy, why didn’t we conquer Iraq and take its oil then? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-north-korea-had-oil/375521/11 "2006-10-07T22:10:12Z")
[QUOTE=astorian] Mexico has oil. Canada has oil. Why haven’t we invaded them? [/quote] Because we lack the non-oil incentives to invade them, such as a strategic location and domination by non-white non-Christians. As well, both have much more powerful US lobbies than Iraq. That puts them far down the list, although I’m sure we would invade them for oil if we needed to. [QUOTE=astorian] Heck, back in 1991, we COULD have taken Iraq, and didn’t. If oil is the only driving force behind U.S. policy, why didn’t we conquer Iraq and take its oil then? [/QUOTE] Because for all his other faults, Bush I was not a gibbering idiot like his son. Like anyone with two brain cells to rub together, he forsaw something like the present disaster would occur, and refrained from sticking America’s collective hand in the meat grinder. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-north-korea-had-oil/375521/12 "2006-10-08T01:03:14Z")
[QUOTE=FRDE] One of the reasons why NK is messing with Nuclear is because the USA used to sell it cheap oil, then they stopped it. [/QUOTE] Are you talking about the fuel oil that the US taxpayers paid for that was shipped to North Korea for a total of about 5 years in the late 1990s? You are aware of exactly why those shipments stopped, aren’t you? ---
**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-north-korea-had-oil/375521/13 "2006-10-08T10:19:02Z")
[QUOTE=Ravenman] Are you talking about the fuel oil that the US taxpayers paid for that was shipped to North Korea for a total of about 5 years in the late 1990s? You are aware of exactly why those shipments stopped, aren’t you? [/QUOTE] That sounds like it. The version I heard was that the Nuclear fuss was in reaction to the oil being stopped - I would be interested to hear other variations. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-north-korea-had-oil/375521/14 "2006-10-08T13:59:44Z")
[QUOTE=FRDE] The version I heard was that the Nuclear fuss was in reaction to the oil being stopped - I would be interested to hear other variations. [/QUOTE] You’ve got it exactly backward. [http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/11/14/nkorea.fuel.oil/index.html](http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/11/14/nkorea.fuel.oil/index.html) Dateline, November 14, 2002: > [@](#): > > NEW YORK (CNN) – The international consortium charged with implementing a 1994 energy agreement with North Korea agreed Thursday to suspend fuel oil deliveries to the Communist nation **after revelations last month** it has a secret nuclear weapons program. The North Koreans boasted in talks with the US in early October 2002 that they had restarted their uranium enrichment program in direct violation of the 1994 agreement: free energy for no nukes. Five weeks later, the US delivered its last shipment of free oil for North Korea. The clean nuclear power plants being paid for by South Korea and Japan were also put on indefinate hold. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-north-korea-had-oil/375521/15 "2006-10-08T16:11:19Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] Because we lack the non-oil incentives to invade them, such as a strategic location and domination by non-white non-Christians. [/QUOTE] Didn’t you get the memo? According to the ignorant bigoted hordes who worship Bush and Jaysus, Mexican Catholics are close enough on both counts. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-north-korea-had-oil/375521/16 "2006-10-08T16:55:17Z")
[QUOTE=Steve MB] Didn’t you get the memo? According to the ignorant bigoted hordes who worship Bush and Jaysus, Mexican Catholics are close enough on both counts. :rolleyes: [/QUOTE] As I said, they have a powerful lobby. Otherwise, I expect we’d “discover” that they were a hotbed of terrorism and invade. Plus, of course, we are fortunately bogged down in Iraq. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-north-korea-had-oil/375521/17 "2006-10-08T18:09:37Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] As I said, they have a powerful lobby. Otherwise, I expect we’d “discover” that they were a hotbed of terrorism and invade. [/QUOTE] Do you know what a “just so” story is? If not, that’s one. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-north-korea-had-oil/375521/18 "2006-10-08T19:45:06Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace] Do you know what a “just so” story is? If not, that’s one. [/QUOTE] Do _you_ know what it means ? A “Just so” story is an attempt to explain something that has occured/exists with an unfalsifiable story, like, oh, God and Creation. It’s not a speculation about hypothetical alternate realities, especially not one as straighforward as "they would do in Mexico _exactly_ what they did in Iraq. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-north-korea-had-oil/375521/19 "2006-10-08T19:51:12Z")
[QUOTE=FRDE] The similarities to Japan are alarming [/QUOTE] Explain please? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-north-korea-had-oil/375521/20 "2006-10-08T20:00:16Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] Explain please? [/QUOTE] IIRC we cut off Japan from it’s oil supply, and that lead Japan into deciding that they needed to use force to get us out of their way, leading to Pearl Harbor, etc. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-north-korea-had-oil/375521.md?page=2)