North Korea Says it has The Bomb. Now what?

[Avder]

I'm sure everyone has read something in the last couple of days about North Korea pulling out of multilateral nuclear talks and saying quite vocally that it has nuclear weaponry and that its justification for having such armaments is to defend itself against the United States.

Such a revelation, if true, stands to completely destabilize that region. China, Japan, and South Korea are all immediately at risk of imminent nuclear attack at any time. Its the cuban missile crisis for that part of the world.

Obviously North Korea will probably not stop developing weapons until it has the capabilities to launch missiles directly at the United States. so the question is, what should we be doing about this problem? As much as I dislike giving credibility to anything George Bush says, I have to admit his labling N.Korea as a member of the "axis of evil" was very well justified. However, what does he intend to do about the problem?

Currently, if the administration were going on the same grounds for justification of an invasion that it used to attack Iraq, it would have all the justification it needs. A nation gone rogue, a dictator gone mad, and a very real threat of weapons of mass destruction. We have done no finger pointing this time, which would spare us from any humilitating "intelligence failures" such as what the administration has endured over the past several months because of the faulty Iraq intelligence, no, we have the rogue nation itself saying that it indeed DOES have weapons. And if they are lying and we were to invade, well, they shouldnt have cried wolf, because somehow I doubt any of the neighboring countries would be condeming any action we would be to take, unlike Iraqs muslim neighbors.

What I believe is required now is an extremely hard line stance against North Korea. We must form a multilateral coalition in that region with the objective of containing North Korea if at all possible, or if nessecary, a multilateral, multi front invasion in order to depose its current regime and install a less hostile, and preferably democratic one (altho I would wager that China would have otherwise, but at this point I think I could tolerate a less renegade new communist regime in north korea that doesnt have the bomb).

This threat is quite real, unlike all the doubts that surrounded the iraq "threat". What this administration and indeed the entire world should be doing is dealing with it properly. Isolate and contain. Embargos, blocakdes, complete isolation. We need to let North Korea know that there will be consequences for trying to threaten the world with nukes. What do the rest of you think?

[Lothar]

Such a revelation, if true, stands to completely destabilize that region.

Except that it's not news to anybody. The only surprise is that NK actually admitted it...

We must form a multilateral coalition in that region...

I'm glad John "we need to have bilateral talks" Kerry didn't get elected. There's already a multilateral coalition in place, and while I haven't heard anything about military agreements between them, don't be surprised if they exist. China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the US are all working together on this.

Pretty much everything you suggest -- isolate and contain, embargo, etc. -- is already being done. The only thing that hasn't been publicly done is the actual assembly of an invasion force.

One big difference between NK and Iraq: NK doesn't have the natural resources to keep their regime active under international pressure. They also don't have corrupt UN officials making deals (like oil-for-food.) This means that a lot of the strategies people suggested for Iraq will actually work here -- contain, pressure, and wait for collapse.

[bash]

Kim's looking for another bailout of his dying (dead) regime. He knows his neighbors won't send any checks so he's demanding *negotiations* with the US Treasury. Heh. Let 'im rot. It may be time to establish a coup d'etat lottery. He's isolated and broke. His gamble to make NK frontpage news and escalate the *crisis* to where we have to engage him is failing due to our distraction on Iraq. Ironic.

Sadly, there's nothing to *save* in NK. The people have been trained and programmed so deeply for so long to die for the Dear Leader that any attempts at liberation would likely be met by armed confrontation, even from the folks suffering the worst under Kim. NK might not have a pot to pizz in but it sure has a massive military behind that human shield of irregulars. It's best to think of NK as one giant hostage situation and going in guns blazing would destroy much of that which was meant to be saved. Casualties would be so high that it's not even worth saber-rattling lest one has to follow through with such threats.

With any luck we can wait him out and for the moment hope the next tyrant can be reasoned with.

[KlubMarcus]

Kim's looking for another bailout of his dying (dead) regime. He knows his neighbors won't send any checks so he's demanding *negotiations* with the US Treasury. Heh. Let 'im rot.

He's another Fidel Castro. Another laughingstock for the USA to point at.

NK might not have a pot to pizz in but it sure has a massive military behind that human shield of irregulars.

The North Korean military will collapse in two weeks of exposure to the US military. They don't have enough fuel to sustain a defense. Kim Jong Il's regime is totally sorrounded by water and the US Navy, and China knows it will lose billion$ in trade with the USA if war breaks out next door so they won't send help by land. President "Dubya" Bush should challenge Kimmy-boy to invade. North Korea is north of the equator, so it's winter right now. We can fight better in the cold and in the dark than the sissy North Korean "military".

[fliptw]

The only sane option is to replace Kim with a more sane lackey.

The only problem with that no such lackey exists in NK. If one did, they got out a long time ago.

We'd be lucky for collapse, NK is more like a cornered wounded tiger with nukes - a drunk tiger, but with nukes none-the-less.

Its basically sign a cheque worth millions or sign millions of death certs.

The real question is: Can the US defend taiwan and take out NK at the same time?

[woodchip]

Lest we get too concerned, NK has yet to test detonate a nuke. Perhaps Kim the Dim is saying he has nukes just to scare some of the worlds children.

[Tetrad]

1) Make demands
2) Don't get demands
3) Pull out of talks
4) Make outrageous unverifiable claims (you are here)
5) Get concessions, re-enter talks
6) Repeat

[Lothar]

To break the cycle: don't give concessions. This means, don't send Jimmy Carter.

[KlubMarcus]

Lest we get too concerned, NK has yet to test detonate a nuke. Perhaps Kim the Dim is saying he has nukes just to scare some of the worlds children.

I'm glad North Korea has nukes! Why? Chances are, they're going to blow themselves up! Those incompetent commmunist "scientists" don't have the brains or the money to put a Nuke together like the good 'ole USA.

Headline: North Korean capital showered by fallout due to botched ICBM launch. Hehe, what a scenario!