I didn’t miss the point. Your statement was poorly phrased. It was unquestionably an provocative act, but not what you called it, which was an “act of war.” Japan did not have offensive capabilities at the time of the Korean War and still doesn’t, at least nominally, and did not contribute forces to the UN war effort. North Korea has never “technically” been at war with anyone except South Korea (and the official DPRK position is that South Korea is part of North Korea anyway).
And in the current environment, they probably won’t change that. The only thing I can see changing that is if they really think the US won’t back them up 100% and they are on their own. In that case, I’d say that regardless of public opinion they won’t have any choice…and that public opinion is likely to change in any case. It’s changed a bit since North Korea (and China, frankly) have started getting more aggressive anyway, and while nukes are certainly a huge issue for the Japanese (for obvious reasons), it’s a clear progression from where they were to where they are today…to, potentially, where they might be in 10 or 20 years, especially if the US continues down the Trump path of scaring the shit out of our allies and making them think we don’t have their back.
Lets see. In the armistice accord there are 3 signers. One American representing the UN forces; one Chinese representing China .
If they were at war with only SK, 1)Why wasn’t SK a signator of the Armistice and 2)Why were the UN?
I’m not blaming Trump for things that happened before his presidency, so kindly don’t misdirect things there. I’m pointing out that during his presidency, Trump has responded to every NK provocation with maniacally irresponsible threats, followed by no action. How much leeway do you think Kim has to let Trump’s taunts go without a response? A powerful head of state like POTUS could shrug off the insult and say “what an asshole, let’s ignore him”. Not so with an autocratic dictator whose entire power base is founded on standing up to external threats and insults.
Japanese contributions to the Korean War effort are largely unknown and only now coming to light.
And if Kimmy v3.0 were just blowing hot air I’d totally agree with you and say, yeah, let’s just ignore this idiot. But he isn’t nor has he been. He’s done more nuclear and missile tests than his monstrous grandpa and daddy combined and ratcheted this situation up to the breaking point. The fact that he’s doing it because he’s a murderous dictator who has no choice to keep his power base and foot on the throat of the North Korean people isn’t an excuse I’m good with.
Perhaps this is the deeper game. To humiliate and marginalize Kim with the NK elite and have them overthrow him. This is just a guess however.
Depending on factors like altitude and size, it could cause an EMP that damages some Japanese infrastructure. That’d be bad. Like, possibly go-to-war bad.
could you lay off with the baby talk here about “Kimmy” and “baby” and “daddy”? Not sure what you think it’s achieving, but I don’t feel like wading through all the cuteness to figure out what you’re on about.
You can pretend all you want that Kim’s public image doesn’t factor into the calculus of his military actions, but you’re ignoring reality. It’s frankly baffling that you’re pretending domestic politics don’t exist, and that it’s a perfectly good idea for Trump to keep poking the bee’s nest when there’s zero gain from doing so.
If they mess it up, sure. And they could mess it up. But they’ve performed that kind of launch twice already. They’re probably fairly confident about getting it right, at least by NK standards.
I’m sure there will be more nuke tests.
But I think in order to intimidate Trump and whomever else may think of standing up to North Korea, they may target Trump personally. Probably not an assassination but hacking into his bank accounts, hacking into his phone or Mar a Lago, etc and stealing funds or releasing embarrassing info. Third party funding of terror attacks on trump properties too. Maybe even kidnappings of family members.
I personally feel North Korea wants to send a message to the international community, and nuke tests alone won’t do it. I think they want to make the world think no matter how powerful you are as an individual, that the world won’t fight a war to protect you. The North has tried to assassinate South Korean presidents before and faced no repercussions.
North Korea knows there is a line, and there really isn’t anything they can do to an individual that crosses it.
I don’t know what the answer is. I wish trump luck in the North Korea situation, but I have no faith in him to fix it.
I think you underestimate the extent to which an above-ground nuke test would be enormously provocative.
It certainly would be vastly provocative…but what actual reaction would it provoke? What reaction can there be?
Sanctions won’t work; they’ll just leave the common workers and peasants worse off (if possible.) And going to war will leave Seoul devastated…and possibly hit with a nuclear weapon. (Or possibly Japan, or even Anchorage.)
What in the world can the U.S. really do?
(I confess to sufficient dislike for the oik in the White House to envision a personal attack on his property and business holdings as quietly amusing. That’s unrealistic, I know: it’d be pretty serious. But…)
I would tend to agree, except Kim did say “tame him with fire”. Given the unprecedented nature of Kim making a direct threat to Trump, in person, on live TV, I have to think there will be actual fire involved. Moving on…
Those would be acts of war, though. I think we all agree Kim doesn’t really want to go to war. And he can’t do it covertly… whatever he does, he needs everyone to know it was him.
You and me both. I do wish Trump luck in this. I’d feel better if he weren’t actively stomping on what little luck he had.
If it hurts your delicate sensibilities and really makes it hard to understand my point, sure…anything for you.
Obviously, my cuteness has caused you to be unable to understand since I never said it wouldn’t hurt his public image or that it’s not a factor…for him. I am also not pretending that his domestic politics don’t exist, nor did I say that it’s a great idea for Trump to poke at him. Basically, your thoughts on what I posted are pretty much opposite of anything I’ve said. I blame the use of daddy, kimmy and grandpa, which has obviously thrown you completely off stride. It happens.
What I actually said was Kim Jong-un (Chosŏn’gŭl) the Chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) and supreme leader is to blame for the straights North Korea is in (obviously leaving aside the mess he inherited from his father and grandfather before him of course). He’s the sole reason for the ratcheting up of tension, he’s the one who has pushed this situation to its max, doing more nuclear tests and more missile tests than either his father or his grandfather. Trump is only responsible for a war of words, thus far, but the reason Trump has even noticed North Korea or Kim Jong-un is that of the actions of Kim and his nation. Trump’s main fault is he’s an idiot who has allowed Kim Jong-un to troll him, basically and get into a shouting match with a monster. Hopefully, my use of ‘troll’ and ‘monster’ here aren’t taken for cuteness…they weren’t meant to be.
As for political reasons for Kim doing what he’s doing, well, that’s true enough. Hitler, Stalin and Mao (and Trump for that matter) also have political reasons for doing what they did. It excuses nothing.
When I wrote my OP, I was thinking of all the stuff North Korea has done to the rest of the world in the last 60 years and faced no consequences for. This includes:
[ul]
[li]Selling nuclear material and nuclear technology to Syria, Myanmar, Libya, Iran[/li][li]Selling chemical weapons to Syria that they used on their own people[/li][li]Attempting to assassinate the president of South Korea, killing and maiming a lot of people in the process[/li][li]Manufacturing and selling large amounts of drugs (mostly meth) and selling it overseas. [/li][li]Kidnapping hundreds of Japanese and South Korean civilians (supposedly they kidnapped European civilians too) and kept them in North Korea[/li][li]Sank the ROKS Cheonan, killing 46 South Korean military personnel[/li][li]Killed some US military personnel over a tree blocking a view of the UN.[/li][li]Hacked into Sony, a major company. The group that did this also threatened terrorists attacks against any theater that released the film The Interview.[/li][/ul]
Knowing all this, do you really think funding a terror attack against a Trump property would be the breaking point?
There’s also a broader context that needs to be addressed and understood by people who want to point the finger squarely at Kim’s regime. There was an energy agreement reached with the Clinton administration in the 1990s, which congressional Republicans who took every opportunity to criticize any foreign policy that didn’t propose obliterating countries with brute force, ‘appeasement.’ There was also ‘axis of evil’, the invasion and overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime. At that same time, the Bush administration began banging on the UN table for economic sanctions against North Korea – this was well before the first nuke test in 2006. We can rightly and fairly criticize the North Korean regime for its barbaric treatment of people, but the regime itself could be forgiven for assuming that it is being threatened by aggressive American foreign policy dating back years.
Really? See the post above yours. Appeasement of despicible regimes is despicable.
The question is, do we want a major war with thousands - perhaps tens or even hundreds of thousands - of casualties and major economic losses?
Haven’t we learned ANYTHING from our experiences in trying to manage the Middle East over the past 15 years?
There are other ways to topple the Kim’s than war. We can try brokering a deal with China as part of a peace treaty that would officially end the Korean War. Reunify Korea under the S Koreans. Withdraw US forces from the Penninsula. Negotiate a free trade zone that will benefit the Chinese.
The first step might be encouraging a coup by the military to overthrow Kim. As part of negotiations with the new government offer blanket amnesty in exchange for a reintegration of the North.