What to do about North Korea?

[Sepia and Dust]

North Korea threatens nuclear strike against the US:

North Korea threatened the United States on Thursday with a preemptive nuclear strike, raising the level of rhetoric just before the U.N. Security Council approved new sanctions against the reclusive country.

How do you think the US should handle this?

North Korea has a habit of using threatening rhetoric whenever the UN sanctions them. Either they're trying to bluff and bully the world into giving them what they want or (more likely, in my opinion) they're trying to enhance an already-prevalent the world is our enemy mindset within the North Korean people, who starve and suffer while the country's political elite live in luxury.

Estimates are that one in ten North Koreans starve to death.

Of course, the threat is all bluff and bluster, and it's simply impossible for them to attack the US in any meaningful way, let alone with a nuke. If they were actually capable of doing so, China (their ally) would likely destroy them even before the US could retaliate. So... no chance of an actual attack happening.

America and the UN have decided to roll their eyes at the threats and to tighten the embargos even more.


I don't agree. Now, I don't like war; I was (and remain) strongly opposed to the war in Iraq, and I wish that we'd pull out of the war in Afghanistan. Threatening (however hollowly) to launch a "pre-emptive" nuke at the US is beyond the pale, and starving them out really only kills more and more innocent civilians.

Since we are technically still at war with North Korea, I think that a large-scale (conventional) strike against them is in order. I'm not saying Bomb them back to the stone age! or anything, but we ought to take out every single nuclear-related facility in their country, including their so-called "suicide sub", and put a stop to this stupidity once and for all.

No ground troops, no building democracy, no Korean War 2.0... just one big stream of booms, a smug "You were saying?", then back business as usual.


What do you think? Are sanctions enough?

[Walter Oobleck]

Send Dennis back...get a little one-on-one going, the tiny dictator and Dennis...have Dennis, you know, like throw the game? That or have him and what's-his-name...Kim Something...have them practice the Owen Meany shot. Probably do wonders for the little guy...all that hate headed his way...him feeling bullied, no recourse but to lob missiles around. Nanoo-nor-oo, sair-ung-hey.

[Sepia and Dust]

Thank you!

[mjs9153]

Problem is,how would that be taken by others in the world community,would it escalate into another ww if NKorea has backers?I agree with you,I think that is a ploy by the leaders to instill hate against us in their people and deflect it from themselves,the ones robbing them blind and starving them..no easy answer there.

[Lily Sawyer]

I vote we try to get them back to the table in peaceful negotiations.
One goal would be to formally end the war/truce once and for all.
Another would be to make it impossible via U.N. sanctions for the ruling regime to have access to their luxury goods of choice - racing cars, yachts, jewelry, gourmet comestibles, Western electronic equipment - should they choose to not negotiate. Make it illegal for any country to trade with them.
Another goal would be to curtail North Korea's ability to smuggle in cash via diplomatic pouches. Lean on surrounding countries to tighten their borders with North Korea and on any country who maintains diplomatic ties to them (hello, China?) to watch all diplomatic traffic and transactions.
As for their desire to continue uranium-enrichment technology, well, that's up to them, as long as they have access to uranium. Can't stop what's happening inside their borders.

I don't think taking out all North Korean nuclear facilities is the answer. China will become involved and that is far more uncool than any threat from North Korea. We owe China way too much money and they won't exactly welcome the distraction of North Korean posturing.

[Sepia and Dust]

Another would be to make it impossible via U.N. sanctions for the ruling regime to have access to their luxury goods of choice - racing cars, yachts, jewelry, gourmet comestibles, Western electronic equipment - should they choose to not negotiate.

Recently, they did just that very thing:

The resolution specifies some luxury items North Korea's elite is not allowed to import, such as yachts, racing cars, luxury automobiles and certain types of jewelry. This is intended to close a loophole that had allowed countries to decide for themselves what constitutes a luxury good.

China will become involved and that is far more uncool than any threat from North Korea. We owe China way too much money and they won't exactly welcome the distraction of North Korean posturing.

Even China is already tired of North Korea's crap.

China's U.N. Ambassador Li Baodong said Beijing wanted to see "full implementation" of the new U.N. Security Council resolution that tightens financial restrictions on Pyongyang and cracks down on its attempts to ship and receive banned cargo.

[staropeace]

I do not know what we should do. Canadian is not too happy with North Korea or the UN for that matter. They are a dangerous lot...that is for sure.

[Robert Gray]

There isn't anything more to be done with North Korea than is already being done. The United States has closed ranks with all of the Security Council and leveled new sanctions. This means China is on board and without China's veto, North Korea has nothing but a bluff. The game is over. Short of actually going to war, which we know China will not back them on, nor can they support beyond 2-3 months, all they can do is saber-rattle.

We don't need to do anything with them. The last thing we want to do is reward bad behavior. The sanctions get applied and enforced and they get ignored otherwise. When they demonstrate good behavior, then we reward them.

[PatInTheHat]

Whatta great question!
Why hell, it's been a great question for a waaayyyy loooong time, even longer then the Korean War TV show M*A*S*H aired even, and that was way longer than the actual war, but not nearly as long as the "war's" cease fire has lasted, I mean that's become a god damned military industrial complex cottage industry all of it's very own.
And so now after one whack-a-whackjob after another we got the current whack-a-whackjob still talkin' smack, 'k, oh but wait, now we have a whackjob with nuclear weapon capabilities talkin' smack, and now we're concerned.
Sure wish we were maybe a tad wee more concerned pre October 2006, and hey just for the fun of it, why not just after, but here we are, a whackjob with real deal world widely accepted to be the real deal, 'atom bombs', the 'mushroom cloud' makers, the big scary that our ol' prez, you know, what's his name, and Dead Eye Dickster liked to blather on & on, fear mongering on & on about, while these nuts were actually building them, so whatta we gonna do about it NOW?
Ya know, I'm thinkin just what we have been, basically we'll just wait, I mean really, what else can we do, especially now, outside of starting a world war, yeah okay, a nuclear holocaust, we have no control what-so-ever within those borders, we can only continually attempt to influence influence to do some influencin', and wait.
Oh jeez, remember those heady days when all ya had to offer a hype believin' despot, was a tax exempt beer distributorship & chain of liquor stores, an all fee paid condo on a beach near Disney, and maybe a Motel 6, justa stop threatening to be the next bad azz character in his latest mental Bond thriller, ahhh such good times!

[Mr.Ace]

They are a dangerous lot...that is for sure.

Dangerous? For whom? They haven't weapons and forces to attack anyone else but South Koria. And this is impossible too, because of Chine ( they don't need the War at Borderlines).