North Korea

[FishingRick04]

Man very disturbing.

What do people think is going to happen?

I have a gut feeling it isn't going to be good IMO, I know they are full of idle threats, but this doesn't appear to be idle. War makes Rick saddddd.

 

[Macca19]

The equivalent of this. North Korea = ratboy. America = Casey.

 

[Asgardian]

What capacity do they have to wage a prolonged conflict?

Surely a country as poor as North Korea would be out of sophisticated weaponry in a very short order.

I hope.

 

[Forzaport]

I think this is more about Kim Jong Whatever showing strength to sure up his position as leader.

 

[Alberton Proud]

 

[BIG MATTY T]

It depends on what china does...now their millitary is scarey...well sk is töö simply because its controlled by a lunitic

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

They are probably running out of food or oil or something else and this is a way to get some basic essentials - we wont fire our rockets, but you have to give us some food. They do it all the time since grandpa Kim died.

 

[Stromageddon]

It's just horrible, terrible, damning stuff. Quotes like the following just make you feel sick.

"The moment of explosion is approaching fast,'' the North Korean military said, warning that war could break out "today or tomorrow''.

Why can't they be more like South Korea and create YouTube pop sensations like Psy?

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

....

Why can't they be more like South Korea and create YouTube pop sensations like Psy?

My mate was guest twitter on Lateline on Tuesday night. He had a similar thought.

1. Tim Harcourt ‏@TimHarcourt 2 Apr
   South Korea have psy
   
   North Korea have spy

 

[spookism]

Personally I cannot wait for the new series of M*A*S*H,

These guys would still rock it

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Where's Frank Burns and Hotlips???????

 

[Portia]

China will invade with western consent.

 

[Asgardian]

Where's Frank Burns and Hotlips???????

Larry Linville died in April 2000
McLean Stevenson died in February 1996
Harry Morgan died December 2011
Loretta Swit hasn't been on film since 1998, but does stage work I understand and from reports is an absolute bitch

Gary Burghoff is also missing from that picture, which has to be over 1 1/2 years old

 

[Janus]

What a surprise that as soon as the US government signs sequestration into law, which is simply a reduction in the annual rise in budget for the US military, a potential armed conflict comes along to strike fear in the hearts of the US people. Not to mention the fact that the only thing North Korea has ever wanted (and for a long time now) is to be treated the same way as every other nation on the planet - but they don't have the population base nor the outside investment opportunities to force the issue. So they resort to tactics like this.

You know the whole thing is bullshit when you have the Pentagon talking it up by saying "we're taking this very seriously". Remember how they talked up Hussein's WMD's and army? Yeah, it's just like that...

 

[philthy05]

lol yeah dont trust the american government at all but this is totally driven by north korea. part of it you have to wonder if kim jong un is just putting on a show for the people to built his cult of fame but it has just started to spill over and he is quickly looking every part the spoiled brat in a bubble that has no idea of the consequences that can come.

the reason why america havent pushed to invade or depose north korea in the past and will hesitate is their nuclear capabilities. even if the north cannot possibly reach american soil (i doubt they can reach anywhere remotely close) if they can hit the south or japan it would be an unprecedented catastrophe. the loss of life would be massive, the affect globally on markets and the such would hurt as well.

in the past china has been a concern but i think they have moved forward even if they still hold onto alot of communist principles they are far too entrenched in the world now to take a side with north korea. have far too much to lose.

by the way anyone else here a big fan of south korean cinema? they have some damn good films going around.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

China will pull them into line. They don't want 50m refugees crossing the border.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

From

 

[ClintEastwood]

Im in Aus right now but I'll be back in JP in a couple of weeks. Not AT ALL happy about being a short hop across the Sea of Japan.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

Kim Jong Un is probably trying to impress the NK military leadership. And with the latest round of economic restrictions, NK is trying to sabre rattle a bit harder to get some negotiations happening in its favour. It's like the bratty kid, and even now there would be discussions going on behind the scenes. I can't imagine it would be stupid enough to actually launch something unless it hopes the Americans will go in blow a few things up then follow up with reparations. Even My Bodyguard China can't control the NKs right now or know it's all talk and will offer a solution favourable to NK to scale down the rhetoric.

 

[Relativity]

China will pull them into line. They don't want 50m refugees crossing the border.

Exactly. This is just a continuation in a long line of empty rhetoric from North Korea. When they overstep the line China slap them down. Without Chinese support Kim Jong Un wouldn't last a week and, as REH suggests, China would have to deal with the refuge fallout.

 

[Andre]

What capacity do they have to wage a prolonged conflict?

Surely a country as poor as North Korea would be out of sophisticated weaponry in a very short order.

I hope.

There's no doubt NK would lose the war. Most of their equipment is from the 50's through 70's. The first Iraq War showed what happens when you put up two armies that can field numbers not massively out of whack with each other and one is a generation of technology ahead of the other. And the North Korean's equipment versus the US's is a bigger gap than that.

The problem is it doesn't take modern equipment to flatten Seoul via artillery or load up those shells with Chemical or biological weapons. Let alone adding a nuclear device lobbed over the short distance from the border to Seoul. NK would lose any war, but SK could suffer from the 10's to 100's of thousands of casualties. And being callous with SK a major technology supplier / manufacturer the flow on effects almost certainly guarantees a world wide depression - or at 'best' a bad prolonged recession. It's in everyone's interest to not have a war, but NK's to provoke a step short of it to get concessions. The new SK president isn't going to take as many kicks to the groin (figuratively since it's a woman ) before responding, as her predecessors did. It'll then come down to will NK back down or commit suicide, taking as much of SK (and at that point they'd probably figure nothing to lose so start firing on Japan to boot) with it in spite.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

There's no doubt NK would lose the war. Most of their equipment is from the 50's through 70's. The first Iraq War showed what happens when you put up two armies that can field numbers not massively out of whack with each other and one is a generation of technology ahead of the other. And the North Korean's equipment versus the US's is a bigger gap than that.

The problem is it doesn't take modern equipment to flatten Seoul via artillery or load up those shells with Chemical or biological weapons. Let alone adding a nuclear device lobbed over the short distance from the border to Seoul. NK would lose any war, but SK could suffer from the 10's to 100's of thousands of casualties. And being callous with SK a major technology supplier / manufacturer the flow on effects almost certainly guarantees a world wide depression - or at 'best' a bad prolonged recession. It's in everyone's interest to not have a war, but NK's to provoke a step short of it to get concessions. The new SK president isn't going to take as many kicks to the groin (figuratively since it's a woman ) before responding, as her predecessors did. It'll then come down to will NK back down or commit suicide, taking as much of SK (and at that point they'd probably figure nothing to lose so start firing on Japan to boot) with it in spite.

Yep South Korea are the ones that have to really worry about this. And the disruption/destruction of SK technology suppliers to the west will be the biggest impact we feel in the west.

Realistically if NK use chemical or nuclear weapons on SK, they are one decent bomb away from being obliterated.

 

[_Christoh_]

All of this seems childish to me.

 

[Asgardian]

What a surprise that as soon as the US government signs sequestration into law, which is simply a reduction in the annual rise in budget for the US military, a potential armed conflict comes along to strike fear in the hearts of the US people. Not to mention the fact that the only thing North Korea has ever wanted (and for a long time now) is to be treated the same way as every other nation on the planet - but they don't have the population base nor the outside investment opportunities to force the issue. So they resort to tactics like this.

You know the whole thing is bullshit when you have the Pentagon talking it up by saying "we're taking this very seriously". Remember how they talked up Hussein's WMD's and army? Yeah, it's just like that...

There's so much about the above post that frankly I hate ... but to discuss it would go nowhere other than a heated series of posts.

Suffice to say Janus I disagree in the strongest way possible.

 

[Janus]

There's so much about the above post that frankly I hate ... but to discuss it would go nowhere other than a heated series of posts.

Suffice to say Janus I disagree in the strongest way possible.

You can disagree, Asgardian. I'm dispassionate about such things, so it doesn't bother me at all. I'm interested to hear your opinion as to why you would think NK would threaten war against a country that it knew could and would wipe it off the face of the earth? Even the US is now downplaying the threat saying it's just rhetoric because people are starting to take it more seriously than they should.

Please don't think that I agree with how NK runs things. I didn't agree with the way the USSR ran things either - the only difference between the two was their population/resource base, which was the point of the post.