Regular South Korean commercial traffic has to go out of its way to fly around North Korean airspace.
The sovereignty of airspace is pretty well established. Opinions may vary on a lot of things, but illegally entering North Korean airspace in order to conduct illegal acts on North Korean citizens is a big no-no. That opens up the idea you can do anything you want if you have the power. We’re supposed to be better than that now.
Actually, probably not. The Berlin airlift cost the equivalent of billions in current dollars. A similar operation over North Korea would be at least as expensive, especially since you can’t land cargo planes as most planes aren’t set up to drop stuff from the sky.
Right now, the types of planes used for humanitarian airdrops are military cargo planes. Flying military aircraft, no matter the purpose, illegally over another country really is a huge no-no.
Would the US actually strike back with a nuclear weapon on all those poor defenseless brainwashed people? All that collateral damage? Even if we DID take a direct hit from one of their nukes (which would take a miracle, all things considered) would we really nuke Pyongyang as a matter of principal?
I mean, the nukes we have at our disposal these days make the ones we dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki look like cherry bombs. And 70 years later, don’t most Americans still feel guilty about all those Japanese people killed (let’s not forget the ones that died later - very unpleasant way to go, radiation poisoning)… could we REALLY do that again? It just seems like such a bad idea.
What would the rest of the world think about us? They already think we’re the United Thugs of America with the Iraq/Afghanistan war that’s been dragging on.
“But THEY started it!!” is not going to impress many people for very long.
China has apparently felt that having a semi-lunatic but semi-controlled regime on its border is preferable to having a well-armed capitalist ally on its border. But if Kim keeps going off the reservation, they may rethink this position.
No they won’t. Back in the 90s something like 10% of the country starved to death. Almost everyone had family and friends starve, and from stories I’ve heard schools closed down, businesses closed, etc. Society as a whole pretty much came to a stop. Even when people did go to school the teachers would be so starved and so would the students that people just sat in silence. Fewer and fewer kids came to class as the famine went on.
And the regime still stands. So it isn’t going to work.
Part of the documents released by Wikileaks showed China is more open to seeing the fall of the Kim regime and a reuinified Korea under South Korea’s control (as long as the US stays south of the DMZ) since they are becoming too much of a nuisance.
I think we probably do. Obama is many things, but a candy ass ain’t one of them. I don’t see him letting anybody start lobbing nukes at our allies without retaliation.
If China and/or Russia object to us using missiles, we have the ability to deliver smaller nukes by airplane.
It’s not just a matter of principle, it’s self-defense. If they nuke someone, you have to stop them from doing it again. It doesn’t matter if that involves nuclear weapons or a different kind; a lot of people would die regardless. It’s not something to be wished for, but what else would any government do?
In answer to the question “where does North Korea get its money?”, ironically a substantial portion comes from Japan. There is a very large North Korean population in the country, and it raises money through both legal (pachinko) and illegal (drugs, counterfeit coins and bills) means, and then sends it on to North Korea.
Jong-un is the Supreme Leader, Jong-Il was the Dear Leader, and Il-Sung was the Great Leader.
China would join in with the attack, if for no other reason so secure themselves a role in administering the former territory of NK after the government collapses.
I’ll also venture that a group of Chinese officials have been having some backroom talks with the US and other imterested UN members on exactly how NK is going to go down and what’s going to happen in the aftermath.
Pretty much all that remains right now is to make your picks for the dead pool timeline.
ETA
Also a possibility. My thoughts were more that they would remain non-hostile until [Whatever] Leader and cabinet requested asylumn and then made them disappear.
Are they just saying they will scrap peace pacts, close crossings etc, or have they actually done it? Talk is definitely cheap with those clowns. Let’s see what really happens.
Gotta call BS on this one. Think about it. Japan got nuked twice. Is it some mutant zombie wasteland? Heck, the US, Soviets, British, French, Chinese did HUNDREDS of above ground atomic tests. Many of which make the early bombs look like minor farts.
Nukes are bad. Very bad if you get too close to them when they go off. And awhile after the blast that ain’t exactly the healthiest place to be. But it does not in general turn the place into an area where most of the population dies of cancer a short time later.