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wouldn't that be interesting. i doubt that we would worry about our debt while we're blasting their asses back to the great wall of china.
WWIII about to go down. N. Korea will be no joke. They have nuclear weapons and 2 million soldiers ready to go, not to mention China's help. I think they are intentionally starting .
South Korea looks scared less and they should be. Poor bas s.
wouldn't that be interesting. i doubt that we would worry about our debt while we're blasting their asses back to the great wall of china.
China wants no part of Korea or WWIII. Beyond decimating their manufacturing economy, they'd never recoup what we owe them. And even Kim Jong Ill isn't stupid enough to start war... he's just a limp- rattling the sabers to keep the poor North Koreans in awe of their "powerful" leader.
Perfect opportunity for the US to clean House in NK and bomb them back into the stone ages.
Milktoast condemnation on the part of the ROK president.
War on the part of NK is very unlikely. China will jerk their leash hard long before that happens.
Some face-saving arrangement will be undertaken, however ham-handed, and NK will limp on for another few years, as the NK asshole-in-chage looms towards his eventual demise to be replaced by an even less-competant jackass.
Iran sees how nobody messes with NK because of NK's nukes, even Big Badass America, and Iran, surprise, wants nukes, too.
NK has no industrial base to wage a war, just like Russia's absence of an industrial base, caused it to collapse.
Nobody messes with NK because of China. Simple as that.
There will be no World War III, at least not with North Korea starting it. You'd be a fool to think otherwise.
It comes down to a simple thing...food. North Korea can't even feed it's own people, let alone start a war. If they started a war, their troops would be starving in 30 days because NK has horrible agricultural policies.
If any country starts WWIII, it will be one that can at least feed it's people and it's troops. Once you can't do either, the war machine collapses.
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/24...rcises/?hpt=T2
U.S. and S. Korea to do anti-sub exercises
The United States and South Korea will conduct both anti-submarine and maritime interdiction training exercises in the future, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.
Whitman would not discuss details or timelines on the two exercises, but noted that they are being planned in response to the March 26 sinking.The South Korean government has said its probe of the incident concluded that North Korea fired a torpedo responsible for sinking the vessel. Forty-six South Korean sailors were killed as a result.
Whitman said the maritime interdiction exercise will be conducted as part of the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), which is designed to prevent the trafficking of weapons of mass destruction and related technologies. North Korea is suspected of moving such material by sea.
The submarine exercises, Whitman noted, are designed to hone overall naval skills while testing South Korea's anti-submarine capability.
The Pentagon announcement came on the heels of a statement from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday that the U.S. government backs the conclusion of the South Korean probe into the incident. Clinton urged North Korea to reveal what it knows about the "act of aggression." She also said the United States' "support for South Korea's defense is unequivocal" and that North Korea should "stop its belligerence and threatening behavior."
President Barack Obama on Monday directed U.S. military commanders to work with South Korean troops "to ensure readiness and to deter future aggression" from North Korea, according to a White House statement.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, meanwhile, announced Monday that his country was suspending trade with North Korea, closing its waters to North Korean ships and adopting a more aggressive military posture toward its neighbor.
Lee said his country was adopting a posture of "proactive deterrence" toward the North. He promised that "combat capabilities will be reinforced drastically" and that he will focus on improving national security readiness and military discipline.
"If our territorial waters, airspace or territory are violated, we will immediately exercise our right of self-defense," Lee said.
Lee said the alleged attack violated the armistice and nonaggression agreements between the two countries, and stated that he will refer the incident to the United Nations Security Council "so that the international community can join us in holding the North accountable."
North Korea's government has emphatically denied any responsibility for the incident. Last Friday, Pyongyang threatened to back out of the nonaggression pact with the South after Lee vowed "resolute countermeasures" against the North. On Monday, the North Korean government threatened to fire at South Korean loudspeakers if they resume broadcasting along the heavily armed border between the new nations, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.
"Firstly, from now on (North Korea) will regard the present situation as the phase of a war ..." North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said Friday, according to Yonhap.
Should South Korea take steps to retaliate, North Korea will "strongly react to them with such merciless punishment as the total freeze of the inter-Korean relations, the complete abrogation of the north-south agreement on nonaggression and a total halt to the inter-Korean cooperation undertakings," the committee's statement said, Yonhap reported.
My personal thoughts on this..... If war does happen with North Korea, China will continue to distance themselves from the North. They have already basically condemned them for the alleged torpedo attack.
I doubt China help us or the South out if it comes to war, but they certainly wont step in on North Korea's behalf over this incident.
oh China will help N Korea no doubt, if there is a war. China has plenty of food + money to spare, N Korea wouldn't starve.
China likes having a N Korea to keep S Korea and US presence in check.
North Korea analysis: how scared should we be?
Over the years it has become an axiom of the North Korea story that for all the belligerent rhetoric emanating from Pyongyang, that a return to full-scale war is impossible.
Simply stated, Kim Jong-il would never start a war he knows he cannot win.
However when the US secretary of state describes the situation on the Korean Peninsular as "highly precarious" and warns of the real risk of escalation, as Hillary Clinton did yesterday, perhaps it is time to question the underlying complacency of those assumptions.
Financial analysts took heart from the carefully calibrated speech of South Korea's president who, while shutting off trade with the North, exempted the joint North-South Kaesong industrial park and avoided raising the temperature by accusing Kim Jong-il by name.
As Kwak Joong-bo, a market analyst at Hana Daetoo Securities observed, the South-North tensions are certainly "not positive" but markets will remain firm unless "a drastic" situation takes hold. "By drastic, I mean war," he said, "I do not think war is likely." That said there are good reasons why the current developments in Korea should not be taken lightly.
Seoul, with full American backing, has announced that it will no longer be passive in defending against North Korean incursions on land, sea and air.
The move to a more pro-active defensive posture by South Korea inevitably increases the risk that the next time Korea's two navies find themselves shadow-boxing over their disputed sea borders warning shots will rapidly turn into direct engagement.
"There are reasons to be concerned," said Daniel Pinkston of the International Crisis Group, "the South has indicated it has no hostile intent but clearly the risk of miscalculations by the North Korean military has now increased." But more worrying than the immediate risk of another military clash, is the growing sense that the regime of Kim Jong-il is in a more precarious position politically than at any time since the death of his father, Kim Il-sung in 1994.
North Korea's bankrupt economy, Kim's own poor health and question marks over whether his 27-year-old son Kim Jong-un has the political clout to hold the dynasty together, has significantly increased the risk of a political implosion in North Korea.
The seriousness of that risk was underscored last week when Japan agreed to keep open its controversial US airbase in Okinawa, in part because it accepted US arguments that the base was essential for deploying US Marines to secure the North's nuclear facilities in the event of collapse.
For now, an erratic peace continues to hold the on the Korean Peninsular but what happens next depends on how Kim Jong-il, the most unpredictable of all world leaders, responds to the international censure that must follow the sinking of the Cheonan.
Mrs Clinton is not exaggerating when she describe that as a "highly precarious" situation to find ourselves in.
North Korea wants to hold a cloud over South Korea like China does over Taiwan. The amount of -fighting going on over there is incredible.
North Korea threatens military action against South
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapc...ex.html?hpt=T2
The rest is just rehashed stuff we already know.(CNN) -- North Korea accused the South Korean navy of trespassing into its waters Tuesday and threatened to retaliate with military action, the Yonhap news agency said.
Tensions are high between the two neighbors since an official South Korean report which blamed the Communist North of firing a torpedo at a navy ship, killing 46 sailors.
A North Korean military official accused the South of intruding into North Korean waters in the Yellow Sea from May 14 to 24, the news agency reported.
"This is a deliberate provocation aimed to spark off another military conflict in the West Sea of Korea and thus push to a war phase the present north-south relations," the official said in a statement, according to Yonhap.
holy . what kind of a gay response from the South Koreans and Americans. They seem scared less. All I read about is they are "finding the right tone to condemn North Korea"
NK freaking torpedoed and sunk a ship and killed 40+ soldiers. and they are not sure what tone to use??????
NK 1
SK/USA 0
For those who think China will not help NK, you are delusional. NK is China's pet project, they are trying to build NK economically by all means necessary. That is the only way they would win. Because status quo, NK is going broke and might cease to exist. Chinese definitely don't want that. But they also don't want an all out war.
China will keep NK under their wing and there will be no all out war. unless the NK ruler is really that crazy.
I.H.T. Op-Ed Contributor
China's North Korean Quandary
By JAMES M. ZIMMERMAN
Published: May 25, 2010
The U.S. request for China’s support to sanction North Korea for purportedly torpedoing the Cheonan will likely be met with, at most, a lukewarm response.
China has predictably called for restraint while North Korea denies any involvement in the sinking of the South Korean vessel, although an international investigation implicates the North. But now that Seoul has cut off all trade, exchanges and aid to the North, there is significant pressure on Beijing to take concrete action.
China is not indifferent to what is now characterized as the worst attack since the 1953 armistice ended the Korean War. Yet China is and has been going down a path different from what the West is prepared for, and the message from Beijing is that it will stay with carrots rather than sticks.
The best the West can hope for is that the Chinese will coax Pyongyang into behaving in a responsible manner. That may be unsatisfactory for the West, but it is altogether consistent with Beijing’s long-term interests.
While the visit by North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to China in early May was driven by an immediate need for aid and investment, Kim spent much time taking lessons from the Chinese by touring the coastal cities of Dalian and Tianjin, which the hosts promoted as models of economic growth and development. The message was that what worked for China might work for North Korea.
Participating in the entourage was Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s brother-in-law and chief of foreign investment, and Kim Yang-gon, the head of Korea Taepung International Investment Group, which is an agency created this year to channel $10 billion from China to build ports, roads, railways and tourist infrastructure. This huge investment amounts to almost 70 percent of North Korea’s domestic gross product.
Later this year, it is anticipated that foreign investment (primarily from China) will be allowed in eight major cities of North Korea, and not just in state-sponsored foreign economic zones.
China hopes to use its economic power to encourage Pyongyang to return to the stalled six-party nuclear talks and to temper its actions. Beyond that, Beijing is not likely to publicly chastise the Kim regime. The end result is that the Kim family’s power base is strengthened.
China’s priority in its relations with North Korea is stability, since the collapse of the North could result in a flood of refugees into China. China is also wary that an abrupt change of regime would improve chances for unification with the South and thus enhance U.S. military power in the region. So when Kim Jong-il dies, China will likely support his chosen heirs.
China’s hope is that increased economic exchange will help moderate Pyongyang, stabilize the economy and improve the lives of some people who have lived for years well below the poverty levels. Ironically, however, many North Koreans are learning about the stagnation of their country and the relative prosperity outside their borders — and thus turning restless — through DVDs and radios smuggled in by Chinese merchants.
China is also attracted by the strategic and commercial opportunities in North Korea, namely raw materials, an even cheaper work force than its own, and access to one of Asia’s northern-most ice-free ports on the Sea of Japan.
But China should tread cautiously if it wants to avoid triggering a major regional power rivalry in Northeast Asia. Pyongyang should also understand that direct investment from a diversity of foreign sources is in its best interest, and that there is a real risk of excessive dependency if Beijing is allowed to become the near-exclusive source of investment and aid.
A multilateral regional partnership, such as the United Nations Development Program’s Greater Tumen Initiative (full disclosure: I am chairman of the business advisory council of the G.T.I.) may be the best vehicle for building stable and sustainable economic relationships with all the players in Northeast Asia. China, as the host country for the G.T.I., as well as the other members — Russia, Mongolia and South Korea — should encourage North Korea to rejoin the Initiative, from which it resigned in 2009 in response to U.N. sanctions.
China has the opportunity to play a leadership role in the development of North Korea, but it must do so in a manner that ensures open cooperation with all regional players and ins utions.
James M. Zimmerman is a Beijing-based international lawyer.
Why would N. Korea lie about sinking S. Korea's ship?
a better question. Why would N. Korea attack a S. Korean ship?
let us not forget that S. Korean president Lee Myung-bak has turned his country's policy toward N. Korea 180 degrees.
Since he was inagurated he canceled the "sunshine policy" which was a policy of mutual cooperation and extreme economic help from south to north. His policy is a lot cooler now, he has canceled many economic projects to help the north. And he has added the condition that N Korea must give up their nuclear capability.
Either N Korea felt cornered or there is something really fishy of what went on with that attack.
Either way, I doubt there will be all out war with daddies China and USA supervising. It would just be not economially a good idea for both daddies.
The S. Korean president has many political reasons to blame N Korea for all this, meanwhile he is really to blame partly.
North Korea has never fully accepted the maritime boarders set by the UN at the armistice talks. There have been outright shootouts between NK and SK in that specific area before.
The North may also have been making a point out of recent SK seizures of NK contraband shipments. (if memory serves a couple of ships carrying weapons were recently intercepted.
This may also be a form of brinksmanship on the part of Lil' Kimmy. He may be calculating that he can get something from this, and at the very least this will give him yet another chance to claim to be protecting the NK people from outside agression yet again. He is probably figuring that the US will keep SK from doing anything too drastic, and knows China won't let him do anything, and is simply angling for something.
I really really really really really doubt China is in the moon for North Korea's bull right now unless they're for some reason about to welcome in millions of refugees streaming in from Korea. China does not want a Korean war anymore than anyone else. Everyone loses if this thing eventually escalates to that point and no one loses as much as the Koreans themselves. The South "wins" any war because I promise you the Chinese won't offer the North much support but they do so at a huge cost because of how much of their population is within striking distance of the NK military.
Hope they zip up their pants soon and stop with the measuring contest because the last thing the world needs is a ton of artillery raining down on Seoul and a whole bun of refugees pouring over the Chinese border.
I would say an explosively loud and booming tone should work.
From Times Online May 26, 2010
It’s risky, but this time North Korea must pay
Seoul has abandoned hope of taming its neighbour.
Its rhetoric and defences are hardeningRosemary Righter Recommend? Something has snapped in Seoul. That something is the hope, clung to against abundant evidence to the contrary for most of the past two decades, that Kim Jong Il’s iniquitous regime could somehow be tamed by South Korea’s “sunshine policy” of aid and economic co-operation. The torpedo that sank the warship Cheonan in South Korean waters and sent 46 South Korean sailors to their deaths has shaken the country more than North Korea’s nuclear bomb-making, more than its testing of long-range missiles.
It is the lack of obvious motive for this unprovoked attack that has most rattled nerves. The order almost certainly came direct from the ailing “Dear Leader”, who was later seen promoting the military unit that carried out the attack. But if Kim’s purpose was to impress the North’s immiserated citizenry by giving the South a bloody nose, it sits ill with Pyongyang’s official denial of all responsibility. If it was pique, as seems more likely, at the South’s near-destruction last year of a North Korean warship that had violated the tense maritime boundary, so destructive and unlawful a riposte is disturbingly suggestive of a regime that, reckoning it has nothing to lose, could make still greater miscalculations in the future. The sunshine policy was designed to ensure that North Korea never quite reached this danger point.
As President Lee Myung Bak grimly observed on Monday, the South has “always tolerated North Korea’s brutality” for the sake of peace, to the point of “forgetting the reality that the nation faces the most belligerent regime in the world”.
No longer, he said: this time, Pyongyang must be made to pay. To Western ears, what President Lee actually announced may not sound all that draconian: a freeze on trade, banning all North Korean shipping from the South’s territorial waters, the effective sealing of the frontier and, a literal blast from the past, the decision to resume belting out propaganda across the demilitarised zone.
Yet some of these measures will hurt. The trade freeze that President Lee announced will deprive North Korea of 13 per cent of its GDP. And they are not the end of the story; Hillary Clinton flies into Seoul today to discuss, inter alia, military exercises and resort to the UN Security Council. She will also discuss what she soberly terms a “highly precarious” situation, and has apparently little to show for her efforts to get the Chinese to bring to heel their troublesome protégés in Pyongyang.
The South’s already formidable combat capabilities are to be “reinforced drastically”.
For South Korea to be in the vanguard of a strategy of “proactive deterrence”, instead of tugging at US coat tails urging patience and restraint, is a dramatic volte face. In place of sunshine, Seoul is bringing out the storm umbrellas. President Lee has not quite uttered the taboo words “regime change”; but it cannot be that far off.
Storm umbrellas may be needed. In fine Orwellian mode, Pyongyang has declared that the publication of last week’s report that the Cheonan was sunk by a North Korean torpedo is “tantamount to an act of war”. Kim Jong Il yesterday put on “combat-ready” status his million-strong army, which, Seoul residents are well aware, includes units manning some 18,000 artillery pieces capable of hitting the South Korean capital. Pyongyang has responded in kind to the closure of its territorial waters, closed its airspace to boot and kicked South Koreans out of the Kaesong industrial zone.
The rhetoric will ratchet up from here, with the odds on further North Korean miscalculations that go well beyond rhetoric. When the joint US- South Korean anti-submarine naval exercises get under way, the North’s Navy could try to obstruct them.
The risk is not only of another military incident: squeezing a regime at the end of its tether is a risky business, and the regime built by Kim Il Sung is more embattled than at any time since the old man’s death in 1994. There are acute conflicts within the hierarchy, where the failing Kim Jong Il’s determination to secure the succession for his unprepossessing son, Kim Jong Un, has powerful opponents. Last year’s abrupt replacement of the currency destroyed not only people’s tiny businesses, but their savings — a political as well as economic disaster.
The more North Korea is “made to pay”, the more it will be tempted to behave very badly indeed. Yet pay, this time, it must.
I still don't get why N. Korea would deny sinking the ship.
well there are only 4 possible answers:
1) They did not do it (they were framed)
2) It was a up by the sub and they don't want to recognize
3) They thought it was a good idea at the time
4) It is all within the plan to with the world's head and get national support
I will go with #2
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