# War with North Korea **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 28, 2010, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-with-north-korea/541035 "2010-05-28T04:34:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-with-north-korea/541035/141 "2010-06-12T01:52:55Z")
> [@sinical\_brit](#): > > My point is that you dont hide it from NK, you just dont involve them at all and just start doing it. They would freak out ! Naturally, because freaking out North Korea is really a brilliant idea. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-with-north-korea/541035/142 "2010-06-12T02:23:28Z")
> [@Cosmic Relief](#): > > I dunno, because buying out the top leadership would be infinitely preferable to a cataclysmic military conflict? Perhaps you misunderstood my query. Allow me to rephrase it: _On what evidence do you base that incredible assertion quote below?_ > [@](#): > > I’d bet the NK political and military leadership are holding some sort of written assurance from the US that if push comes to shove, and they stand down their armies and turn over Dear Leader with little blood shed, they will never have to worry about money or North Korea for the rest of their lives. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-with-north-korea/541035/143 "2010-06-12T02:54:23Z")
Even to begin to evacuate Seoul would be tantamount to a Declaration of War, because you are removing the one primary target the NKs think they have and one can only assume that they would see this as a preparation for launching an attack in NK. Given that they’ve spent 60 years telling their people that we will do just that, it’s not like anyone is going to question their leadership saying “SK is preparing to attack us, so we start NOW”. Also, it would cost BILLIONS and take months of preparation to accomplish such an evacuation. You have to have long term food and shelter anywhere they go, and you’re talking about roughly one third of the national population that would need to be moved, sheltered and fed. Imagine if we, the USA, needed to move, shelter and feed 100 million people because say, we needed to evacuate the east coast. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-with-north-korea/541035/144 "2010-06-12T04:06:01Z")
**Chimera** : Your post above is what’s known as a logical explanation of the facts as opposed to the CT-type posts certain others have made. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-with-north-korea/541035/145 "2010-06-12T04:19:11Z")
Yeah, I have a bad habit of being too logical and sensical in some threads. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-with-north-korea/541035/146 "2010-06-12T10:53:50Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Perhaps you misunderstood my query. Allow me to rephrase it: _On what evidence do you base that incredible assertion quote below?_ Perhaps you misunderstand the difference between an assertion and a supposition. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-with-north-korea/541035/147 "2010-06-12T15:30:05Z")
Perhaps you misunderstood the concept of facts. This is General Questions, not Cafe Society. Fiction posts go in the latter. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-with-north-korea/541035/148 "2010-06-12T16:16:22Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Perhaps you misunderstood the concept of facts. This is General Questions, not Cafe Society. Fiction posts go in the latter. Oh, come off it, this entire thread is speculation based on a hypothetical scenario (except for your posts, of course, which are no doubt uncanny accurate foretellings of the future). ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-with-north-korea/541035/149 "2010-06-12T17:46:04Z")
> [@Cosmic Relief](#): > > Oh, come off it, this entire thread is speculation based on a hypothetical scenario (except for your posts, of course, which are no doubt uncanny accurate foretellings of the future). **CR, Monty** _lives there_. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-with-north-korea/541035/150 "2010-06-12T22:55:43Z")
Thanks, **FoieGrasIsEvil**. And my query still remains: _Why_ does that poster believe what I quoted from him would be unsurprising? ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-with-north-korea/541035/151 "2010-06-12T23:05:20Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > Apparently there is a power struggle going on in N.K. for Kims successor as we speak. > He favours his son obviously but one of his hard line supporters , a general who thought he should take up the reins has died very recently in a “car crash”. > > If you absaloutly demand it no doubt I can dig up a cite, but I’m pretty sure that its in the media somewhere. Can you provide a cite on the general dying, a newspaper article or somesuch? Depending on who it was, I may have gotten some points in the Dead Pool game… ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2010, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-with-north-korea/541035/152 "2010-07-08T04:02:04Z")
Nixon even considered nuking NK: [News, Politics, Sports, Mail & Latest Headlines - AOL.com](http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/declassified-papers-on-north-korea-show-us-considered-nuclear-option/19545161) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-with-north-korea/541035/153 "2010-10-19T18:18:57Z")
Fareed Zakaria on a North Korean endgame: [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/17/AR2010101702608.html?referrer=emailarticle](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/17/AR2010101702608.html?referrer=emailarticle) ---
**Author:** ![ChrisBooth12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@ChrisBooth12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisBooth12)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-with-north-korea/541035/154 "2010-10-19T19:23:35Z")
How good are the US lasers that can shoot shells outta the sky? I know we have tested them many times with passing results but I doubt we could control the sheer volume ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-with-north-korea/541035/155 "2010-10-19T20:50:28Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Fareed Zakaria on a North Korean endgame: [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/17/AR2010101702608.html?referrer=emailarticle](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/17/AR2010101702608.html?referrer=emailarticle) Why does every speculative article on NK have a line that says China is afraid of refugees? Wouldn’t they simply put up roadblocks and shoot anyone who crosses? The border’s only 880 miles long. Compared to the US-Mexico border of 1969 miles, it’s less than half. And we don’t even shoot trepassers. China would have no qualms about that. Why isn’t refugees the least concern? ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-with-north-korea/541035/156 "2010-10-19T22:23:26Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > Why does every speculative article on NK have a line that says China is afraid of refugees? Wouldn’t they simply put up roadblocks and shoot anyone who crosses? The border’s only 880 miles long. Compared to the US-Mexico border of 1969 miles, it’s less than half. And we don’t even shoot trepassers. China would have no qualms about that. Most or all of the Chinese–DPRK border is a river, which supports towns and significant economic activity on both sides. So they can’t just declare the border area off-limits. There will always be lots of people on the river and on its banks carrying out legitimate activity. Therefore they don’t want to adopt a “shoot first, ask questions later” policy, or else they’ll end up killing a lot of their own citizens, plus a lot of North Korean citizens who were legitimately in the border area with no intention of illegally crossing. Or were you suggesting that China would first capture the refugees, and then shoot them, in defiance of who knows how many UN treaties on the treatment of refugees? China may be repressive, but I can’t think of any country in modern history that had an official policy of rounding up and murdering legitimate refugees. You’re probably not aware that these days lots of North Korean refugees and illegal economic migrants cross over into China. Contrary to your claims about China’s psychopathy, the People’s Liberation Army isn’t mowing them down with machine gun fire. Rather, it does much the same thing the US does: it tries to capture and deport them. The refuges and illegal migrants who evade the border patrols end up serving as cheap labour in the black market; some of them spend only enough time in China to make some money to take back home to their families. ---
**Author:** ![falcotron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3ab097/32.png) [@falcotron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/falcotron)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2010, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-with-north-korea/541035/157 "2010-10-20T02:21:15Z")
> [@DWMarch](#): > > FWIW I don’t think China would get involved militarily. They might send some APCs to the border to “discourage” a mass exodus of NK refugees. Other than that, I think they just have too much to lose by jumping in on the NK side. And too little to gain. Unless they actually want to go to war with the US for some reason, there’s really no benefit at all to China in an NK victory or even stalemate in this scenario, so why commit any resources or risk any consequences? They might have a lot to gain by using the possibility as a bargaining chip with the US and Japan. They might do even better to launch their own invasion of NK and take down the regime before we could. They could then begin negotiations to install a new government that’s more acceptable to all sides, and they’d be negotiating from a pretty good position. If they pulled it off well enough, they could even end up with the US maintaining most of the long-term pacification costs for a China-friendly government. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2010, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-with-north-korea/541035/158 "2010-10-20T02:45:08Z")
I just don’t see the likelihood of a Chinese occupation of North Korea. The North Korean government is certainly the worst sort of scum on the planet; however, they are still Koreans. It is a severe mistake to underestimate the nationalism of Koreans, either in the North or South. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/war-with-north-korea/541035.md?page=7)