North Korea vows nuke attack if provoked by US

Article Here:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...

I do not profess to be well learned in the foreign policy of any country, including my own sweet Canada. In fact more often then not I can be found lethargically situated in font of my TV, cuddling a controller while blissfully ignorant of world affairs. That being said, the first impression I received upon reading this article was that a good old fashioned saber rattling competition was underway.

Am I alone in this belief? If so, feel free to demolish my ignorance.

North Korea is crazy and most of their recent showing off is mostly to try to get some credibility on the international stage. That said, they are also highly unpredictable so this might be a real threat. Either way its something that should not be dismissed.

Old news is old.

"I don't even know how to respond to that. It's silliness," said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell."For what and with what?"

My view on NK.

When I heard the NPR anchor say "North Korea stated that they would wipe the United States off the map." I actually laughed. Out loud. By myself. In my car. Yeah. And for what? Following one of their ships too closely because we suspect it of shipping illegal weapons. I'm not sure how this is supposed to build credibility on the world stage unless acting like a half-starved chihuaha that's itching to attack a rhino builds credibility.

Hmm. Let's see. So far they have demonstrated the inability to send a softball sized satellite into orbit or accurately control a multistage rocket launch well enough deliver a payload of any appreciable capacity beyond their immediate borders. They have also failed to demonstrate that they have an atomic weapon capable of complete detonation. They have nothing approaching the miniaturization technology necessary to get their likely school bus sized atomic device into the nose cone of a rocket they are capable of building and just about every vehicle coming in or out of the country is so closely monitored that cigarette butts tossed overboard are fully accounted for.

How, exactly, are they going to harm the US?

How, exactly, are they going to harm the US?

The terrible pain of side-splitting laughter?

JoeBedurndurn wrote:
How, exactly, are they going to harm the US?

The terrible pain of side-splitting laughter?

They gave us their worst with Jong-il's bad perm and jumpsuit. We shrugged it off. I think we're out of the woods.

They could sure as hell f*ck up South Korea though. With conventional weapons.

If I lived in Seoul right now I wouldn't be feeling so good.

It _is_ a rediculous statement that NK would wipe the US off the face of the earth but that doesn't mean they couldn't threaten the lives of millions of people.

It isn't the nukes to worry about, it's the crapload of artillery pointed at South Korea and the 30,000 soldiers we have stationed there.

Laughing in someone's face is never good diplomacy. You never know when you might get slapped.

~Taos

They gave us their worst with Jong-il's bad perm and jumpsuit. We shrugged it off. I think we're out of the woods.

The 442th Fighting "Stunna" Shades are poised to strike our celebrity's eyes.

If they ever did get the capability to get one nuke onto US soil, the only just response would be to nuke the entire country into ~20 very large craters. This would be the only way to guarantee that it never happens again and go along with a true MAD strategy.

Unfortunately I am afraid that someone would go for a "proportional" response, which would just embolden some other crazy to do it in the future.

Maybe I should reconsider that trip to Hawaii in early July.

Rat Boy wrote:

Maybe I should reconsider that trip to Hawaii in early July.

Just think of the awesome new super powers you could get if you were close to the blast. You could hit. it. with twice the power!

Dezlen wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:

Maybe I should reconsider that trip to Hawaii in early July.

Just think of the awesome new super powers you could get if you were close to the blast. You could hit. it. with twice the power!

It's such a crap shoot with the super powers. Family Guy taught me you have a chance of getting super strength, shape-changing abilities, fire-breathing, telekensis, finger nail growing, or cancer when exposed to radiation.

Not so much saber rattling as swiss-army-knife-rattling.

Can we blame Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson's deaths on North Korea so we can preemptively nuke them before my Hawaii trip?

Rat Boy wrote:

Can we blame Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson's deaths on North Korea so we can preemptively nuke them before my Hawaii trip?

Nothing like radioactive rain to make that vacation unforgettable, eh?

Can we blame Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson's deaths on North Korea so we can preemptively nuke them before my Hawaii trip?

NK's taking out our irrelevant terminally ill celebrity's, we need to put the Secret Service on Patrick Swayze.

Too bad Bush isn't your president anymore, his response would have been even more 'hilarious'.

TheArtOfScience wrote:

They could sure as hell f*ck up South Korea though. With conventional weapons.

If I lived in Seoul right now I wouldn't be feeling so good.

It _is_ a rediculous statement that NK would wipe the US off the face of the earth but that doesn't mean they couldn't threaten the lives of millions of people.

It isn't the nukes to worry about, it's the crapload of artillery pointed at South Korea and the 30,000 soldiers we have stationed there.

Laughing in someone's face is never good diplomacy. You never know when you might get slapped.

~Taos

My wife is from SK and her mom is visiting right now. Neither seem terribly concerned with this whole situation and seem to think it is little more than political theatre. Younger Koreans tend to think of this as an issue between the US, NK, and Japan anyway. There is a whole lot of "meh" there regarding a hardline policy.

In short, Koreans are used to getting dicked around by colonial interests and really view what is going on as a continuation of getting dicked around by the Japanese.

dejanzie wrote:

Too bad Bush isn't your president anymore, his response would have been even more 'hilarious'.

Oh man. Don't even joke about that type of thing. That's just mean.

Paleocon, would you care to elaborate on why south Koreans feel it is still "a continuation of getting dicked around by the Japanese." If you know. I am curious, and I find that part of the world interesting.

Kier wrote:

Paleocon, would you care to elaborate on why south Koreans feel it is still "a continuation of getting dicked around by the Japanese." If you know. I am curious, and I find that part of the world interesting.

I'd be interested too. I was always under the impression they felt like it was the US that was meddling in their affairs and trying to play colonial power. While I thought Japan and NK were just kind of mutually annoying to each other what with random kidnappings and fierce scowlings being exchanged.

Paleocon wrote:

My wife is from SK and her mom is visiting right now. Neither seem terribly concerned with this whole situation and seem to think it is little more than political theatre. Younger Koreans tend to think of this as an issue between the US, NK, and Japan anyway. There is a whole lot of "meh" there regarding a hardline policy.

In short, Koreans are used to getting dicked around by colonial interests and really view what is going on as a continuation of getting dicked around by the Japanese.

I'm not sure I follow this logic, given that polls regularly show South Korean's want US Troops to remain in the country. I know there was a more recent one but this gallup poll from a few years back show that 71% of the population wants US Troops to stay. That doesn't sound to me like a people who think the US is "dicking" them around.

I do agree that most Koreans probably feel indifferent to all of the North's endless blabbering and posturing. 50 years of blowing hot air and you tend to not care anymore what they say.

Kier wrote:

Paleocon, would you care to elaborate on why south Koreans feel it is still "a continuation of getting dicked around by the Japanese." If you know. I am curious, and I find that part of the world interesting.

When your country is invaded and occupied for more than three decades by a foriegn army who used your men as slave labor and your women as f*ck toys, you tend to carry a grudge.

That and the bad blood goes back centuries, with the Japanese periodically invading Korea.

On the flip side, the odds are pretty good that the Koreans actually founded Japan, something which the wonderfully non-xenophobic Japanese just love to talk about.

Copingsaw wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

My wife is from SK and her mom is visiting right now. Neither seem terribly concerned with this whole situation and seem to think it is little more than political theatre. Younger Koreans tend to think of this as an issue between the US, NK, and Japan anyway. There is a whole lot of "meh" there regarding a hardline policy.

In short, Koreans are used to getting dicked around by colonial interests and really view what is going on as a continuation of getting dicked around by the Japanese.

I'm not sure I follow this logic, given that polls regularly show South Korean's want US Troops to remain in the country. I know there was a more recent one but this gallup poll from a few years back show that 71% of the population wants US Troops to stay. That doesn't sound to me like a people who think the US is "dicking" them around.

I do agree that most Koreans probably feel indifferent to all of the North's endless blabbering and posturing. 50 years of blowing hot air and you tend to not care anymore what they say.

Older Koreans like American troops being there because they remember the war. Younger Koreans are more likely to see them as child-raping murderers who are virtually immune from prosecution under Korean law.

From the article:

This generational difference is a notable finding: 56% of people between the ages of 15 and 19 are in favor of withdrawal of U.S. troops, while more than 80% of people aged 50 and older are opposed to the idea.

I can't comment for Paleocon, but he's probably referring to the occupation of Korea by Japan. DPRK was initially formed because of the Japanese occupation of Korea prior to and during WWII. They have never really had great relations with each other. Around the late 70's ago DPRK detained/kidnapped around 10-15 Japanese citizens and it was a huge mess which still hasn't been fully resolved. Recently Japan has warned DPRK that they will shoot down any missile in range that the DPRK fires for testing. Japan really wants the DPRK to dissolve it just won't admit it publicly. South Korea is just unfortunately in the middle.

Edit: Whoops, OG beat me to it *shakes fist*

In addition to all of what has already been said, the US employed the Korean administrators of Japanese colonial rule as their chosen government of South Korea in the 1950's. This, as I've said before on numerous occasions, was the moral equivalent of putting Nazi war criminals in charge of the newly established country of Israel. What followed was 40 years of repressive government, atrocities, and torture in the name of "freedom". Anyone who spoke of the Japanese colonial connection was arrested and silenced. Even foreign nationals who spoke out against the South Korean government were kidnapped and rendered to South Korea where they were tortured or simply assassinated.

So when Koreans, in general, hear Americans weeping over the plight of Iranians or have to endure their righteous hand wringing about North Korean starvation, they tend to roll their eyes. We Americans only care about such things when it is politically convenient.

We humans only care about such things when it is politically convenient.

Fixed for cynicism

Paleo, how do the Koreans look at China? They were very involved in the Korean War, and if I remember my history lessons in Sinology well, Korea has been a vazal state of China for centuries.

dejanzie wrote:
We humans only care about such things when it is politically convenient.

Fixed for cynicism

Paleo, how do the Koreans look at China? They were very involved in the Korean War, and if I remember my history lessons in Sinology well, Korea has been a vazal state of China for centuries.

Koreans generally view the Chinese with the same sort of suspicion I imagine Belgians view the French and Germans. That is to say, they have at times enjoyed very amicable relationships, but have also, historically, had to worry about them marching armies or rolling tanks across their borders. In general though, they feel more comfortable with that historical relationship than they do with the arrogance and cruelty characterized by the Japanese and the pedantic, yet ignorant, moral superiority of the Americans. The Chinese, after all, did fight alongside Koreans against the Japanese in WW2 and didn't switch sides once the war was over.

TheArtOfScience wrote:

They could sure as hell f*ck up South Korea though. With conventional weapons.

If I lived in Seoul right now I wouldn't be feeling so good.

It _is_ a rediculous statement that NK would wipe the US off the face of the earth but that doesn't mean they couldn't threaten the lives of millions of people.

It isn't the nukes to worry about, it's the crapload of artillery pointed at South Korea and the 30,000 soldiers we have stationed there.

Laughing in someone's face is never good diplomacy. You never know when you might get slapped.

~Taos

Unconventional weapons as well. They've got more chemical, and biological artillery rounds, than they can cram into those ~27,000 artillery pieces sittting at the border.

I knew that Korea and japan were friendly, I was just ignorant of the history of North Korea and how it factored into the Japanese.