More rubbish. Absolutely nothing on the list of atrocities committed by North Korea has anything to do with its supposed lack of a security guarantee. After all, it already has a security guarantee; it just doesn’t want to play by the rules it agreed to already.
Well, soon the US will have nuclear weapons and the conventional weapons needed to take on the massive might of North Korea! To this point in history, of course, there was nothing the US could do, unlike in Iraq. Like Iran, the clock is ticking down so they NEED nuclear weapons to continue to ensure their shining way of life, liberty and the pursuit of tree bark and grass as the Kim’s have granted. I can’t even imagine what could happen if North Korea or Iran doesn’t get nukes before the US is ready to strike. :eek:
Agreed.
Countries frequently break rules, especially when they believe that the dynamics change after the rules have been made. Or, having considered it further, they could simply decide that they made the wrong decision to agree to them in the first place. It doesn’t really matter. The fact of the matter is, Kim doesn’t stand to gain anything by going to war with his neighbors. But he (and his core of military/party leadership) stand a lot to lose if NK doesn’t have some way of making Kim’s potential ouster a painful one, regardless of whoever his adversaries may be.
Either this was written by a propagandist for the WP or you, like coremelt, have no idea of what you’re talking about.
Look, whenever and however the current governmental regime falls in the DPRK, it will be painful for those who ran it. There’s no way that there won’t be an accounting for all the atrocities committed. KJE may not be the sharpest dictator on the planet; however, he certainly knows what will happen to him if he loses his country. “Going out with a bang” as you seem to think he would do will only make things worse for him and his.
This is like the endless debate about Japan and the atomic bomb. If the US would have taken seriously the quasi-peace overtures funneled through the USSR for Japan to stop fighting and go back to the status quo ante then we wouldn’t have had to drop the atomic bombs on Japan! Yeah, that would probably work…for Japan. And Japan certainly was trying backdoor methods to get this point across, that at least some in the Japanese government were willing to have the US et al bend over backwards for that, to be sure. But they didn’t have any serious expectations that the US et al would actually go along, at least not until (in their minds) it became so bloody and costly that the US was willing to negotiate.
In Kim’s case he can toss out such a proposal knowing full well that the US and South Korea won’t take it. He can look like he’s the reasonable one then (at least to his own people who don’t have a clue what’s actually going on) knowing full well it makes no difference.
Serious question for you: Do you not realize that you’re contradicting yourself in this thread?
Jong il did it, and now Jong un continues the same ‘diplomacy’. Threaten. Allow the NK citizens to suffer. Wait for aid. Finally get aid. Steal most of it for the elite, and keep the army barely on it’s feet. Rinse and repeat.
A million man army is still a threat but spells catastrophe without a support structure for it.
Same with the ageing artillery. Though with thousands of guns so close to Seoul, they don’t even need to aim to cause calamity. I don’t think anyone really knows just how many of those artillery pieces are serviceable. I bet we know where 99% of them are though.
I’m sure there are multiple plans on ways to destroy NK’s artillery emplacements. Fuel-Air Explosives come to mind.
I won’t address NK’s Air Force or Navy. It’s a joke.
Nukes are another chapter of the same book. Nukes are going to be the new threat that will replace the artillery. Rinse and repeat.
Unless he is the guy who shoots Fat Ass Kim and liberates the North Koreans, who are joyfully fed by their friends in South Korea. :dubious:
Is there some reason he should care about that? He’ll die. His will die. What could make it worse?
Why in the world do you think that Kim would be restrained by worries about what would happen after him? Such an attitude is not unprecedented.
Ummm… What?
Jong Un and his Father Jong Il are considered to be Gods in NK. They themselves may believe it. I’ve known people that believe their own lies. Gods don’t whimper and fade away.
But.
Jong Un could retain his God like adoration by listening to the international community and making some concessions so that NK does not suffer another famine.
I think I misread your last sentence Frank. The double negative.
It is kind of interesting that Jong un does not yet have a successor. A child. Though I suppose that they can always say that the next ‘Kim’ was shot out of a volcano.
Descended from Heaven, his arms held by after life Kims.
I’m not sure what your point is, but you seem pretty confident of your take on North Korea. Maybe you should work for the Foreign Service.
Maybe the decade I spent living there, along with my involvement with South Korea over the last 39 years, have taught me a thing or two about that particular peninsula and what’s happening there.
On rereading my post this morning, I’m not quite certain what I meant. 
My point, I think, is that there have been (and are) people who just don’t care about what happens after they’re dead. There have been (and are) people who’d be perfectly happy to take the world with them. I hesitate to say it, but. . . Hitler, for one.
I think that Kim is most likely one of these people, and that he is not concerned about what happens to his family or his nation after his demise.
The problem being that NK can’t get a security guarantee because it does stuff like you and Monty describe.
“The beatings will continue until morale improves”. Likewise “we are going to keep attacking you until you guarantee that you won’t attack us”. That’s kind of crazy, which is much of the point - Kimmie wants to impress his own people and generals with how scared the West is of what his might can do, and impress the West with how crazy he is and what he might do. IYSWIM. Now he is just doing it with China.
Regards,
Shodan -
[Jon Lovitz]That’s the ticket![/JL]
One hell of a long gestation period. The baby will probably weigh over a hundred pounds. That is to be expected in a family of gods.