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New Sanctions Imposed on North Korea as it Warns of Pre-emptive Nuclear Attack

nytimes.com

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Re: New Sanctions Imposed on North Korea as it Warns of Pre-emptive Nuclear Attack

#62
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing to gain? For North Korea threatening with war is a time-proven way to get aid, both economic and food.

To be honest, dismantling their military regime, opening their borders and requesting help would be more effective.

For everyone except the people in power.

Re: New Sanctions Imposed on North Korea as it Warns of Pre-emptive Nuclear Attack

#63
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing to gain? For North Korea threatening with war is a time-proven way to get aid, both economic and food.

To be honest, dismantling their military regime, opening their borders and requesting help would be more effective.

Not if the aim is retaining permanent power for Kim Jong-un and the military junta that actually runs North Korea.

Re: New Sanctions Imposed on North Korea as it Warns of Pre-emptive Nuclear Attack

#64

Wow. More juvenile posturing, or the beginning of the end for North Korea? Depends on whether anyone takes them seriously. And with a growing nuclear capability, they can't be taken not-seriously. This is suicide for them.

Joel Skousen has an interesting analysis. North Korea attacks South Korea, the US defends South with tactical nukes. Then there is a nuclear strike on the US from Russia and China in retaliation, which might explain why the US gov is building super bunkers in the Ozarks .

Re: New Sanctions Imposed on North Korea as it Warns of Pre-emptive Nuclear Attack

#65

Will someone excuse my excessive ignorance and be so kind to explain me why the DPRK is so pissed with the US? Thanks

The Koreas are effectively a proxy war between the US and China.

Absolutely. China could dismantle North Korea in a heartbeat, by pulling all support at a minimum or telling the military junta it's over and if they want to survive at all they have to play ball. Kim would be served up on a platter the next day. North Korea is nothing but a way for China to poke the US constantly.

Re: New Sanctions Imposed on North Korea as it Warns of Pre-emptive Nuclear Attack

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Couldn't Seoul protect itself like Isreal did with the Iron Dome?

The "Iron Dome" is an anti-missile system. Artillery shells are a lot harder to shoot down. Last I heard, the US military was working on a laser-based system to heat the shells mid-flight and cause them to detonate prematurely. I don't know if this technology is mature enough for actual use, or if it's likely to be deployed to SK.

How would non-explosive artillery shells detonate prematurely?

Re: New Sanctions Imposed on North Korea as it Warns of Pre-emptive Nuclear Attack

#67

Wow. More juvenile posturing, or the beginning of the end for North Korea? Depends on whether anyone takes them seriously. And with a growing nuclear capability, they can't be taken not-seriously. This is suicide for them.

Joel Skousen has an interesting analysis. North Korea attacks South Korea, the US defends South with tactical nukes. Then there is a nuclear strike on the US from Russia and China in retaliation, which might explain why the US gov is building super bunkers in the Ozarks .

I find it shocking to think that China and Russia will begin WWIII over North Korea (or will move their military in unison. You don't exactly see Chinese/Russian war games going on. They're both positioning for regional control against one another, not as best friends).

If China and Russia launch against the US, we know it in seconds and launch against both them. Which means that within an hour, China Russia and the US are basically no longer major international players.

They know it's suicide. They know we can respond and do as much or more damage. They won't do it, neither will we.

Re: New Sanctions Imposed on North Korea as it Warns of Pre-emptive Nuclear Attack

#68

Wow. More juvenile posturing, or the beginning of the end for North Korea? Depends on whether anyone takes them seriously. And with a growing nuclear capability, they can't be taken not-seriously. This is suicide for them.

Joel Skousen has an interesting analysis. North Korea attacks South Korea, the US defends South with tactical nukes. Then there is a nuclear strike on the US from Russia and China in retaliation, which might explain why the US gov is building super bunkers in the Ozarks .

That's about the most silly analysis I've ever seen.

There isn't a chance in hell Russia and China end their entire existence just to defend a war against North Korea that the North also happened to start.

How do I know that? Tons of historical evidence says it would never happen. Vietnam, Cuba, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, the original Korean War. There have been countless proxy skirmishes over the decades. None of the majors are even remotely interested in committing suicide for a proxy.

We invaded Korea with hundreds of thousands of troops, and fought a real war with massive casualties. We even fought a war with China at that time. Nobody launched any nukes at the US. Nobody is going to launch nukes at the US in the parent scenario either.

This isn't a video game. You launch nukes, everyone dies, and your civilization and culture is erased for all time. Russia would see a thousand nukes rain down on it, obliterating every relevant city. Ditto China. North Korea is not even remotely worth it, and they know it.

Re: New Sanctions Imposed on North Korea as it Warns of Pre-emptive Nuclear Attack

#69

I like these sanctions, the one aimed at Iraq starting from 1990's. Really helped for everyone living there. Who would not love a dying child from hunger on his arms, it is like a Easter present.

There's a pretty easy way for the government to avoid situations like that. If your people are at the mercy of foreign governments in order to survive, it really is in your best interest to not continuously piss them off.

The DPRK has been taught over the years that if they rattle their sabers and then back down, they get foreign aid. As far as they're concerned, it's a winning strategy.

Is it a sane strategy? Decidedly not -- one day the foreign aid won't come, or it won't be enough, and their only option is to escalate. When they become a credible & real threat (which they are very quickly becoming), other nations will have no choice but to act out of self-preservation.

Re: New Sanctions Imposed on North Korea as it Warns of Pre-emptive Nuclear Attack

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If North Korea ever decides to uses their nuclear weapons, South Korea will be just as badly off. Actual use of nuclear weapons is a lose-lose scenario for all parties involved (and, indeed, all parties not involved). Threatening use of nuclear weapons is another matter altogether. It is probably also worth noting that every single western nuclear power reserves the right to first use of nuclear weapons. In fact, the…

The Soviets actually considered a first strike in November 1983 during the epic mix up that was the NATO Able Archer 83 exercise. The Soviets had always believed that the Americans wanted to attack them, perhaps understandably given that in the 1950s and early 1960s there were senior US military leaders who actually wanted to initiate a full nuclear war with the Soviets while the latter were still strategically weak.…

Not quite. Due to the tensions and an error in a Soviet early-warning system, it looked like the US had indeed launched a couple of rockets in a first strike. If not for Petrov's level-headed reaction, nuclear war might have started by error.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm...

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