# There's a meteor heading toward Pyongyang, North Korea. Should we do anything? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 1, 2013, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-meteor-heading-toward-pyongyang-north-korea-should-we-do-anything/649056 "2013-02-01T18:49:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2013, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-meteor-heading-toward-pyongyang-north-korea-should-we-do-anything/649056/41 "2013-02-02T16:08:02Z")
**Prime Directive:** Let them die, because that’s what any decent Star Trek captian would do. And they’re never wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Fluffy\_PickleSniffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/77aa72/32.png) [@Fluffy\_PickleSniffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fluffy_PickleSniffer)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2013, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-meteor-heading-toward-pyongyang-north-korea-should-we-do-anything/649056/42 "2013-02-02T16:48:40Z")
**burp** The chicken fajita melt was very good - thank you! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2013, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-meteor-heading-toward-pyongyang-north-korea-should-we-do-anything/649056/43 "2013-02-02T18:27:54Z")
Here’s the point. It’s not so much that the NK are so very evil we have to let them die, it’s “Millions for defense, not one cent for tribute”. Now if it was develop the system ourselves, or buy the system, sure. But payola? Never! ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2013, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-meteor-heading-toward-pyongyang-north-korea-should-we-do-anything/649056/44 "2013-02-02T19:58:43Z")
America is at it’s very best when we pitch after all Hell breaks loose. We offered the USSR help after Chernobyl, I say we help with this. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-meteor-heading-toward-pyongyang-north-korea-should-we-do-anything/649056/45 "2013-02-03T14:23:13Z")
I voted for the bailout, but the “how is this even a question” part didn’t ring true. I went back and forth for a while. So, I guess I would be in the “do the right thing but still feel sort of tarnished about it” camp. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-meteor-heading-toward-pyongyang-north-korea-should-we-do-anything/649056/46 "2013-02-03T17:57:31Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > America is at it’s very best when we pitch after all Hell breaks loose. > We offered the USSR help after Chernobyl, I say we help with this. But it’s not _pitching in_, it’s _giving in_. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-meteor-heading-toward-pyongyang-north-korea-should-we-do-anything/649056/47 "2013-02-03T18:11:51Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > But it’s not _pitching in_, it’s _giving in_. Um… Who, exactly, are we “giving in” too? Celestial mechanics? ---
**Author:** ![Toucanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Toucanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toucanna)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-meteor-heading-toward-pyongyang-north-korea-should-we-do-anything/649056/48 "2013-02-03T20:12:41Z")
[QUOTE=Skald the Rhymer] {snip} Wait, I’m confuzzled. Given your scenario, which seems likely to me, why not pony up the Danegeld? wat [/QUOTE] Because, there is no one to whom the money can be paid in order to stop the meteor. Unless, you are positing a sentient meteor, in which case I would attempt to negotiate with it (which might include paying it to bypass the Earth). But, sentient meteors are crafty and treacherous buggers so, I’m pretty sure I’d just avoid the hassle and nuke it from orbit. ETA: I just realized that I failed Reading Comprehension 101. So, My revised statement would be, if I could trust StRE, Ltd, LLC, LP, Inc, SA, I would offer to pay to stop the meteor. We’re talking about human lives, so yeah, I would do what I can to avoid the carnage. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-meteor-heading-toward-pyongyang-north-korea-should-we-do-anything/649056/49 "2013-02-03T20:42:40Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > **Prime Directive:** Let them die, because that’s what any decent Star Trek captian would do. And they’re never wrong. Picard might have. I don’t know about Sisko; he wasn’t nearly as idealistic about the Federation as the Frenchman. Janeway was clearly nuts. But neither Kirk nor Spock would have countenanced it. In the episode with the space gypsies (Indians? Nazis? Puritans? Cowboys?) the Enterprise’s mission was explicitly to save a pre-industrial, non-Federation culture from a menacing asteroid, and I don’t imagine Starfleet Command had any reason other than “Because we can do it and because we refuse to be a bunch of raging assholes, that’s why.” It was pretty clear that Spock at least was willing to sacrifice the ship to do it. (Though presumably if the matter had been entirely hopeless he’d have gotten the ship outta there.) > [@Miller](#): > > Um… Who, exactly, are we “giving in” too? Celestial mechanics? Rhymer Enterprises, of course, which as everyone knows is actually Evil Inc. There’s only a dilemma if there’s a way to stop the meteor which is beyond North Korea’s means but available to others. (And in retrospect, if I hadn’t written the OP in 4 minutes, I’d have posited that the US had a top-secret meteor-watter of its own rather than bring RhE into it.) > [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > If he finds out that we could have prevented it but didn’t, he’s not going to thank us for getting rid of the regime at horrendous cost, he’ll rightfully brand us mass-murderers. At whom would you say the NK farmer should rightfully vent his ire? I can see blaming the owners of the meteor-swatter, but why is the United States’ responsibility for averting this regional catastrophe greater than Japan’s, China’s, or Russia’s? > [@AK84](#): > > This thread seems to show that maybe the N Korean regime has a point about what they say about the outside world. Why is this even a question. If a meteor is heading anyway near earth no matter what the impact point, it needs to be taken down. Does that include a Tunguska-sized meteor headed toward Antarctica? ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-meteor-heading-toward-pyongyang-north-korea-should-we-do-anything/649056/50 "2013-02-03T20:43:07Z")
The entry in the _Guinness Book of World Records,_ for the Tunguska meteorite, said that if it had hit 4 hours 47 minutes later, “it would have wiped out St. Petersburg […], the cockpit of Russia’s Communist revolution.” ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-meteor-heading-toward-pyongyang-north-korea-should-we-do-anything/649056/51 "2013-02-03T20:46:29Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > The entry in the _Guinness Book of World Records,_ for the Tunguska meteorite, said that if it had hit 4 hours 47 minutes later, “it would have wiped out St. Petersburg […], the cockpit of Russia’s Communist revolution.” But no matter when it hit, it wasn’t going to wipe out life on Earth, or even cause the extinction of humanity. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2013, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-meteor-heading-toward-pyongyang-north-korea-should-we-do-anything/649056/52 "2013-02-03T21:06:44Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > At whom would you say the NK farmer should rightfully vent his ire? I can see blaming the owners of the meteor-swatter, but why is the United States’ responsibility for averting this regional catastrophe greater than Japan’s, China’s, or Russia’s? I’d prefer the fund-raising to be a global effort, although it wouldn’t matter if the meteor hit. Those who would allow it do so in the expectation that it would solve North Korea’s problems with its regime. Once the meteor hits, then what? The remaining countryside, cities, towns and villages aren’t going to transform themselves into a modern nation when the regime in Pyongyang is splatted. There would need to be outside guidance - a foreign presence rebuilding the basic infrastructure. A foreign presence the average North Korean has been told all their life to mistrust - then they find out that the rest of the world watched millions of them die when they could have prevented it, just because we didn’t like their government. Would you be favourably inclined towards this foreign presence, if you were in their position? I doubt North Korea’s army - all one million of them, not including reservists, were all wiped out by the meteor either. If the goal is to save lives then the only logical choice is to prevent the natural disaster. ---
**Author:** ![yellowjacketcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yellowjacketcoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowjacketcoder)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-meteor-heading-toward-pyongyang-north-korea-should-we-do-anything/649056/53 "2013-02-04T05:08:31Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > If the goal is to save lives then the only logical choice is to prevent the natural disaster. I see it more like the old philosophy question: You’re on a runaway trolley headed down a street. If you do nothing it will kill five innocent bystanders. If you throw a switch, it kills one innocent bystander. Do you throw the switch? Except, I think with the meteor situation, the proportions of deaths are reversed. You see the meteor coming down, if you do nothing, 3M people die, plus some more in the chaos as Korea reunites. Call it 5M total. If you pay the cash, millions will still starve to death, millions will still die in work camps, and millions will still die in summary executions. Sure, not all at once. But are you willing to spend $50B to save 5 million where doing nothing will save twenty million? I’m sure willing to pay nothing to have fewer people die. I think the thing people miss here is that the 3M deaths come all at once. And that is certainly horrific. But even spread out over 20 years, 20M is a lot more deaths. And that’s why I’d let the meteor hit. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-meteor-heading-toward-pyongyang-north-korea-should-we-do-anything/649056/54 "2013-02-04T11:50:21Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Picard might have. I don’t know about Sisko; he wasn’t nearly as idealistic about the Federation as the Frenchman. Janeway was clearly nuts. But neither Kirk nor Spock would have countenanced it. In the episode with the space gypsies (Indians? Nazis? Puritans? Cowboys?) the Enterprise’s mission was explicitly to save a pre-industrial, non-Federation culture from a menacing asteroid, and I don’t imagine Starfleet Command had any reason other than “Because we can do it and because we refuse to be a bunch of raging assholes, that’s why.” It was pretty clear that Spock at least was willing to sacrifice the ship to do it. (Though presumably if the matter had been entirely hopeless he’d have gotten the ship outta there.) Hell, Kirk once deliberately destroyed a super computer that was giving the natives functional immortality and a life free from need just because he thought the resultant culture was kind of boring. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2013, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-meteor-heading-toward-pyongyang-north-korea-should-we-do-anything/649056/55 "2013-02-04T12:07:41Z")
The real question is what China is likely to do with the smoking remains of the region. We can’t necessarily assume they’re going to be fine with the South (and the US by proxy) rolling in and taking it over. If the Korean War is going to hot up again in the aftermath of an asteroid strike, better to zap the rock and leave the status quo in place. ---
**Author:** ![Doggo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/87869e/32.png) [@Doggo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doggo)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-meteor-heading-toward-pyongyang-north-korea-should-we-do-anything/649056/56 "2013-02-06T11:58:24Z")
“informed of the peril and urged to get everybody the fuck out of the city” Punish the person that told them? Prepare a big celebration, nation wide in Sth Korea and elsewhere? Send the leadership e-mails saying “the end is nigh, repent”? ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-meteor-heading-toward-pyongyang-north-korea-should-we-do-anything/649056/57 "2013-02-06T15:46:48Z")
We could make a video showing the expected destruction and borrow the graphics from a video game. That’ll make everyone happy. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-meteor-heading-toward-pyongyang-north-korea-should-we-do-anything/649056/58 "2013-02-06T16:17:05Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Rhymer Enterprises, of course, which as everyone knows is actually Evil Inc. There’s only a dilemma if there’s a way to stop the meteor which is beyond North Korea’s means but available to others. (And in retrospect, if I hadn’t written the OP in 4 minutes, I’d have posited that the US had a top-secret meteor-watter of its own rather than bring RhE into it.) Right, but due to the fact you did, my stand is “Milliosn for defense, not one cent for tribute”. No payola. Not even for an American city. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-meteor-heading-toward-pyongyang-north-korea-should-we-do-anything/649056/59 "2013-02-06T16:20:24Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Hell, Kirk once deliberately destroyed a super computer that was giving the natives functional immortality and a life free from need just because he thought the resultant culture was kind of boring. Episode? ---
**Author:** ![solosam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@solosam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solosam)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2013, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-meteor-heading-toward-pyongyang-north-korea-should-we-do-anything/649056/60 "2013-02-06T16:38:59Z")
> [@](#): > > Prime Directive: Let them die, because that’s what any decent Star Trek captian would do. And they’re never wrong. It’s worth pointing out that in most episodes the Prime Directive got about as much respect as a fire hydrant at a dog show. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-meteor-heading-toward-pyongyang-north-korea-should-we-do-anything/649056.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-a-meteor-heading-toward-pyongyang-north-korea-should-we-do-anything/649056.md?page=4)