Monday, October 09, 2006

North Korea's Nuke

Dictators don't worry about talk talk talk. They use talk talk talk to buy time for themselves. And it's worked, time and time again--this time in Korea.

The reality is that the international nonproliferation regime has failed again, because although people are willing to talk, nobody's willing to actually do anything significant when a country appears close to going nuclear. See also Iran.


Some will blame President Bush for this. I'm sure these same people will now advocate an invasion of Iran.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Kos Kidz are already blaming Bush.

Darren said...

Anonymous: why?

I wonder whether we need to play the role of world's policeman here. Kim popped a dud bomb (I've read that the yield was about 1/20 of the yield of Little Boy in Hiroshima), and his missiles don't fly. Hell, maybe we should let the Chinese, South Koreans, and Japanese deal with this.

The Japanese have already been nuked. Twice. I don't think they're going to allow it again.

Anonymous said...

No Anon, North Korea is more paranoid than Iran.

The DPRK (aka North Korea) has spent over 50 years preparing for an invasion. It is estimated they have 10000 (yes, that is ten thousand) pieces of artillery dug in along the DMZ. The Korean People's Army has 1.2 million troops, the fourth-largest military on earth, with 37,000 of those troops the DMZ. The peninsula is a maneuver nightmare. If we’re lucky our tanks can get a 2km shot. It would be very ugly if the Korean War resumed.

What stopped the Korean War? An excellent bio of President Eisenhower, done by Dr Stephen Ambrose, makes a point. Ike let it known, through the Swiss, that he would use nukes to stop this war. The war ended approx 4 months after he assumed office. And the threat of nukes has made Kim Il-so'ng (and his son, Kim Jong Il) stay on the north side of the border.

The point is the greatest threat to us right now is Islamic Fascism, not North Korea. Unlike UBL, Kim in North Korea can we id and make pay, i.e. if necessary, level Pyongyang in minutes. And Kim knows that. But as long as he’s playing with nuke toys, he’s someone who can be ignored to a great degree. If he starts selling items like this to UBL, then other options must be considered.

Ellen K said...

North Korea scares me because although I don't like Irans President, I do think he has a small amount of realism along with a basic underpinning of morals. North Korea on the other hand has spent all its money and resources on nuclear capabilities. Even to the point of starving and killing a huge number of its own citizens. I am sure there are people within the NK hierarchy waiting for a change to off the Head Looney just as there were for Hitler. But he truly is ruthless, has no religious scruples, no moral or humanity to speak of and will sell to the highest bidder-which could be any of a number of millionaire terrorists. I think that is a very scary scenario.

Anonymous said...

Good one, especially interesting given the latest 'agreement'. It's in and you're linked, thanks!

absurd thought -
God of the Universe thinks
keep building your bombs

always threaten the world
get them to send you money
.