North Korea Ramps Up Threats
An increase in counter-proliferation activities in its immediate region is a very real cause of concern for Pyongyang, given its reliance on black market weapons and technology sales for income and its recent history of exporting nuclear technology (as recently seen in the nuclear reactor complex in Syria, which was built with North Korean assistance and destroyed by Israeli aircraft in 2007).
Further action to prevent North Korea from aiding other states and non-state actors in their pursuit of nuclear weapons is necessary to maintain some semblance of international stability and domestic security. However, as (or if) steps are taken to that effect, Pyongyang will continue to ratchet up its threatening rhetoric and activities — something that will make U.S. President Barack Obama’s position incredibly uncomfortable.
Unfortunately, if Obama’s response to Pyongyang’s recent missile and nuclear tests are any indication, the administration’s answer to such aggression will be to dial back the pressure on the North Korean regime, not keep the heat on the rogue state to comply with international will.
Thirty-thousand U.S. soldiers and airmen are currently stationed in South Korea as a guarantor of American military intervention should Pyongyang decide to withdraw from the 1953 armistice and resume open war with the South. If the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea continues ratcheting up its level of belligerence — especially if that includes taking up arms in an effort to take back what it views as the other half of its personal territory — the foreign policy neophyte currently serving as commander in chief of the U.S. military will have some very difficult decisions to make.
Based on his actions to date, Obama appears to have little idea how to deal with such a difficult situation beyond making speeches and appealing to the United Nations, which is incapable of taking any action other than issuing sternly-worded statements in response to flagrant violations of international law and sovereignty. North Korea’s persistence in openly flaunting its defiance of Obama’s reasonable words and the UN’s toothless resolutions has stumped the American executive, whose entire worldview is based in a belief that kind words, conciliatory outreach, and appeals to Turtle Bay are the only tools necessary for dealing with international crises.
As President Obama is hopefully beginning to learn, stern words, helpless pleas, and concessions aren’t particularly effective problem-solving tactics in the real world. Whether this dovish, rigidly-ideological president will absorb (and act on) that lesson in time to make a difference is an open question, and one on which a significant portion of Obama’s legacy will depend. Far more than that, though, whether or not such a lesson is learned in time may be the question on which the safety of civilians around the world, both on the Korean peninsula and elsewhere — including within the U.S. homeland — comes to depend.
“Based on his actions to date, Obama appears to have little idea…”
And that’s the number one reason why North Korea is becoming more dangerous. The world’s dictators, especially if they are “persons of color,” realize that Barack Obama instinctively blames his own country for their misbehavior. He has not a clue on what to do. Obama is existentially committed to so-called soft power solutions. Harder responses will presumably only get Kim Jong il angrier.
Well, Obama is dealing with this difficult situation by proposing cuts to Missile Defense. North Korea firing rockets and exploding a nuclear bomb … U.S. cutting missile defense. Comrades, Barack Hussein Obama is truly a genius.
Mr President? Hello? You in today?
..er, no, President Training Pants is out on the campaign trail. He’s kinda like Major Major [Major] Major in Heller’s Catch-22: “He avoids all his duties by forging false names to correspondence requiring his signature, and he enters his office by scooting along a ditch, then jumping through a window.”
What a pathetic piece of crap. (Our POTUS, not Major Major Major.)
I know this is probably wishful thinking but if the N. Koreans are ever brazen enough to try again and invade the South I kind of think that once they see Seoul they will immediately realize and understand they’ve been taken by their own “Dear Leader”. They’ll instantly put down their weapons or better still turn their tanks and artillery around and head toward Pyongyang and oust the little pot bellied dictator who has ruined their lives and their country. Seoul is a vividly brilliant and alive metropolis filled with the latest electronics, clothing and other trappings of a successful society. Pyongyang is…well…Pyongyang. Empty, deserted, desolate, sorry, sad, and in desperate need of liberation.
when will the activists from acorn be dispatched?
TO: All
RE: Oh Well….
….Looks Like…. we’re in a state of war with North Korea.
Just like Noreiga was stupid enough to declare war on US over 20 years ago. This cretin has made the same mistake.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
P.S. We can accommodate this character in a cell next to Noreigas…..
Give hans blix another shot…. o wait this is what happened the last time we sent hans…shame really good guy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b49Iwfp8U-U&feature=related
The lowest form of stupidity is weakness… OR maybe we can send BHO to Pyongyang to apologize to Kim Jong Il, and give him lots of free stuff…maybe that will work.
“I find that I get farther with a kind word and a gun then a kind word alone.”
Alphonse Capone
It seems that Kim understands this legendary Chicago figure much more then the erstwhile Chicagoan who now inhabits the White House.
North Korea launches a missile & detonates a nuclear bomb. Obama golfs.
President Obama has real priorities. Who cares about a mad Communist dictator?
4. kenny komodo:
You may have a point, the thing that stopped the German 1918 Offensive wasn’t the Allied armies, it was that the starving Germans had overrun the Allied supply dumps and found tons of food. The hungry troops simply sat down and gorged themselves, giving time for the Allied commanders to react.
Perhaps the best thing to do would be to pull out our troops and pile consumer products and canned goods along the border instead!
6. Chuck Pelto
Too bad we have Obama as POTUS now….I fear that this provocation will go unanswered.
The One’s most likely responses to this are;
1. Blame America
2. Blame Israel
3. Blame America and Israel
4. Blame Bush
5. Blame all of the above
6. Remind everyone that “I won”
7. Ask Biden what to do- and then do anything else but. (Ditto Hillary.)
8. Call for UN sanctions- then demand they not be imposed for “humanitarian reasons”
9. Make another speech reminding everyone what a transformational figure he is
10. Start writing the third volume of his autobiography.
At no point will he do anything that makes the slightest bit of sense. Because he is incapable of making sense.
If he takes any “action” at all, I predict he will try to remove all U.S. forces from South Korea, framing it as an “economy effort to fund foreign contingency operations”- that he doesn’t want to be doing anyway. What he will actually be hoping is that sacrificing South Korea will placate Lil’ Kim. Both South Korea and Japan could pay a very heavy price if he takes this course.
Not that he’ll care. His ego will be preserved. Who cares about anything else?
In case no one has noticed, we’ve elected Zaphod Beeblebrox President. And unlike the version in Douglas Adams’ books, there is absolutely nothing funny about this rendition.
clear ether
eon
“President Obama?”
“Present”.
Please, please, don’t let him beg at the U.N. altar for 4 years. Hopefully his teleprompter can talk some sense into him (because Hillary and Biden surely won’t).
The liberals voted for a weak international policy and they got it. Guess N. Korea wants to to take Obama out for a test spin. God help us when they decide to kick his tires. We’re toast.
The first question to ask after the laughter is weither NK and Kim Jong are mentally and physically capable of starting a major confrontation. What do they have to lose? What do they have to gain? And if it is a psychotic adventure, when does he trigger?
On the larger theater, why is the US responsible for the Pacific Rim countries who should be capable of defending themselves? I suggest that Kim is “the little big man” who thinks that he can take on the world, including exporting WMD. He apparently does not have much longer to live with his health and maybe planning his legacy.
We are leaderless.
Bozo has the attention span of a first grader, allowing only 1 day with time for brunch and breakout groups for each major governing dilemma: 1 day for health care, 1 day for the credit card companies, 1 day for the automobile manufacturers, 1 day for the terrorists at Gitmo, 1 day for North Korea (so that WILL be solved by tomorrow morning, you see), 1 day for Israel.
Because in a couple of days, well, shoot, that bizzy little boy is going to be in Cairo, Egypt, speaking at the University there (to solve the middle east thing).
Of course a longer attention span doesn’t help anyway when the person in charge is brainless.
But we are, in fact, leaderless. Not dictatorless. But leaderless.
God bless the memory of the United States of America.
He’s going to nuke Tokyo, and that will be the end of North Korea. (Or maybe not; Kimmy will say we did it, and are trying to pin it on him. The One will form a Truth Commission to determine if the U.S. was really behind the nuking of Tokyo.)
And nothing will happen. Except we won’t be able to visit Tokyo for a long, long, time.
The first question to ask after the laughter is weither NK and Kim Jong are mentally and physically capable of starting a major confrontation. What do they have to lose? What do they have to gain? And if it is a psychotic adventure, when does he trigger?
On the larger theater, why is the US responsible for the Pacific Rim countries who should be capable of defending themselves? I suggest that Kim is “the little big man” who thinks that he can take on the world, including exporting WMD. He apparently does not have much longer to live with his health and maybe planning his legacy.–JED (#16)
Jed, The United States is the world power because we have vast resources & LEAD; unfortunately, the current Commander-in-Chief, President Obama is NOT a leader, as Meryl has stated in (#17).
I expect Obama to ignore North Korea by passing the buck to the toothless United Nations. Obama will go onto other things until Kim Jong Il will not be ignored. What will Obama do? Go back to the United Nations.
We have other allies such as South Korea & China to a degree. President Obama has to work with South Korea & China to pull in North Korea.
President Obama must show North Korea he is more than simple slogans, puffy speeches, & banality.
Will he live up to the challenge? No. It all comes back to Obama being a follower & not a true leader. Leaders lead. Followers follow the polls.
JED @16 – I’d say Kim is both mentally and physically capable of starting an incredibly destructive (albeit short-lived) confrontation. Mentally – the willingness of dictators to self-immolate while taking millions down with them is pretty well known (think Hitler or Tojo), and no one in NK seemed to blink an eyelash when large swaths of the population were reduced to eating grass or dying of starvation….As for capable – NK has enough heavy artillery and ammunition located within 35 miles of Seoul to lay down a barrage of 300K-500K rounds of high explosive *per hour* onto a densely packed poulation of close to 20 million. That artillery is deeply embedded in the mountains just north of the DMZ; the US can’t use nukes to clean them out without likely killing a large portion of the population of Seoul in the process. That means they’d have to use (probably) thousands of heavy conventional bombs. How fast can the US deliver them? Does it even have enough? I don’t know. I do know it is unfortunate for everyone that Obama politically leans far more towards Neville Chamberlain than Winston Churchill.
And just what is it that you folks suggest the US do? Specifically? Nuke the Norks? Invade NK with conventional forces? Blockade their ports? And just what do you believe the Chinese will do if we do any of those things? The Norks get away with what they do because the Chinese like them and like what they do. War with China, is that what you want? I am looking for concrete suggestions here people.
#21 RKV:
Valid questions. Answer: Neutron bomb Kim Jong Il’s location. No mess, no dictator.
We have a bunch of jokers leading this country. How can anyone be fearful of them when they show more concern for the actions of the Bush administration than the actions of potential mass murderers. Obama’s words are totally hollow. Gates has proven himself to be Obama’s puppy. I cannot see any of our enemies fretting about whatever Gates has to say. Obama’s hopes are worthless. Hope is something people use when they cannot control the outcome. Hope is not a good thing when planning and intestinal fortitude are necessary to resolve issues. Empty words mean nothing to the midget of North Korea. The midget knows Obama has little resolve. Obama needs resolve but he’s too busy about angst over waterboarding. The midget is laughing out loud. Unfortunately the Obama’s of the world bring more war than peace because they emit a sense of fear. Obama needs a good psychiatrist. He’s suffering from many mental problems that a President should not be suffering from. One of them is guilt. Somehow he feels guilty about what the previous administration supposedly did wrong. THEY DID NOTHING WRONG! The only problem is in Obama’s mind. He is unfit to lead this country. He wants to undue everything the past administration did. This is totally preposterous. Obama will leave us defenseless because of his suffering. They are lining up now and the challenges will accelerate. If Obama suffers so dearly about the past how can he handle current and future threats? He can’t. Reservations about the past has an affect on present and future action. The statements he makes publicly are digested by our enemies. They then create plans based on that. Obama is showing weakness and unwillingness to get tough and down and dirty. Cheney slapped Obama silly but it’s nothing compared to what the midget has in store.
Well Banned, that was direct. And what pray tell, do we expect the Chicoms to do after that? And if we’re lucky enough not to precipitate WW3, what happens to the rest of Norkland? I believe in the you break it, you pay for it approach most of the time.
Uh, oh…looks like someone won’t be getting an engraved iPod if they keep up these antics.
Post 21:
How? REGIME CHANGE.
Either the Chinese get on board or they will find themselves with another pro-western government to contend with. We threaten to allow the Japanese to build a nuclear arsenal and a full standing army.
If the Chinese cannot offer assistance we must find willing partners to create regime change. If China is indeed an obstacle then we make good on our threat. Russia is already talking nuclear war. We have no conlficts with Russia vis-a-vis North Korea so we may be able to plan a solution that doesn’t step on their toes. Perhaps a strike on North Korea’s nuclear sites that cripples them for years. At least until the midget turns to dust. Government has got to stop talking and prepare for action or else all talk is empty. Right now Obama is nothing but talk. Preparing for action means that when you strike North Korea you have the troops ready for any counter attacks. South Korea and Japan must first raise troop levels. This will take several months maybe a couple of years. It has to be now because we are way behind. North Korea has shown that it can create stronger bombs and longer missile ranges. How much further along will they get in another two years? Japan is already under severe threat and is in near panic. What are they waiting for? Meanwhile Obama raises issues about EIT’s done several years ago and no longer in use. I can only shake my head in disbelief.
RKV:
” The Norks get away with what they do because the Chinese like them and like what they do. ”
Not this time. Beijing was pretty unequivocal in criticing little pudgy boy for his nuke test.
What I’d really like is a megaton-sized underground burst beneath Pyongyang. Deep enough to keep it entirely sub-surface, but close enough to the surface of the sh!t-hole to make it into a crater…and then a nice circular lake.
You want concrete suggestions?
Here’s what NOT to do…diplomacy and sanctions and six-party negotitation bullsh1t.
Can we now at least, at long last, all affirm the fact that this crap doeasn’t work?
It didn’t work with Sadaam Hussein, It didn’t work with Kim, and it’s not going to work with Iran.
HOW many MORE times do some of you gutless turds need to have it broken off in your asses before you wake the hell up?
To 21. RKV
“War with China”
Better now when we can win then in 20 years when we will surely lose….
NK has been a problem for 50 years… they will stay a problem for who knows how much longer… sure kim may die sometime in the next 5-10. However that doesn’t mean NK with a new leader won’t be the same as NK with an old leader. China will back NK as long as its in their own interests… which pretty much any case it is…
As I said in another thread on this topic… it really comes down to what do the SK really want? If we look at ppl like UN’s Mr Moon…. it seems like they are perfectly willing to roll over and play dead. They’ve stopped caring about their country… why should we care? SK just like more of the euros and many libtards in the US need a wake up call to real life…. watching whole cities get leveled by one of the left’s greatest hero’s should do just nicely. The left and peaceniks are perfectly happy to ignore the suffering of the NKs simply because it isn’t broadcast on national TV… out of sight out of mind… they will have a much harder time ignoring the 24/7 coverage of their hero shelling towns and committing mass slaughter.
eon @ 13: Why are you dissin’ Zaphod? The 0bamanation makes Zaphod look competent by comparison.
RKV @ 21: Seal team on target to Kim Jong Il’s location. Problem solved for airfare + $0.50
Upthread someone said that the Norks would take one look at Seoul and freak. That is so true. They would loot the place for weeks and weeks. Overload on carbs would make them slow and sleepy, therefore slow targets.
I don’t see what all the fuss is about. All Obambi has to do is invite Kim Jong Il to a group hug and then he’ll feel wanted and loved everyone will be happy.
24 RKV:
Well, post Kim Jong, we could leave them alone and they can keep trying to subsist on grass; or, we could mount a massive relief effort, reunify the country, and expose them to the wonders of free enterprise.
#24 rkv – what’s to break, you idiot?
“And just what do you believe the Chinese will do if we do any of those things? ”
RKV, WHO CARES! It has been a few generations since military power was measured by the number of bodies one could bring to the battle field. You cannot hide from a CBU and JDAM’s never miss. Big Battalions no longer succor help from your favorite deity. They just increase the stock value of body bag manufacturers.
The Chi-Coms are a paper dragon. It has been several centuries since the Chinese won a war. No major battle even. Granted they don’t get in many, since they prefer to bluff fools like you.
Economically, the Chi-Coms are dependent on the USA. If hostilities were to break out between the USA and China (never happen, but that is your greatest fear so we will address it) The Chi-Coms would use the jump in nationalism to sooth the masses. After a few months of no action ( the US won’t and the PRC can’t do anything) The population will start to miss the advantages of trade with America. The PRC economy would flatline. That would mean the Peoples army would be too busy holding the people down to bother the USA.
Lets see, Military, Economic, that leaves Cultural and Moral power. As far as culture goes, the Chi-Coms destroyed Chinese culture decades ago and replaced it with…….? Dogma? Marxist dialectic? Mao’s Little Red Book? See what I’m getting at? Wh is the Chines Michael Jackson and how many CD’s have they sold? Where is the Chinese version of Hollywood? Ever seen a Chinese sit com? With 1 billion plu people, you would think a Chi-Com Idol would be a smash hit. Where is it? ‘ell, even stodgy old England does an idol thangie.
The Chi-Coms moral power declines ever time they machine gun some more protesters. Can you say Tibet? Tiananmen Square?
No the thugs running China could give lessons to the Chicago Mob running America.
So just what will the Chi-Coms do?
Nothing. They will do nothing for two reasons. First, there is nothing they can do that won’t make things worse. Second, if they do nothing, they know America will come to them hat in hand after the Norks have been pounded to rubble.
Then the Chi-Coms can play the wise, patient elder card, which not only is the only card they have but an effective one to use against a young aggressive nation.
A final thumb on the scale is the Chi-Com’s awareness of how weak their military is. They have the problem of changing their Army from a ‘peoples army’ designed and built to control a huge population to a modern army that can win battes against other nations. Their plan for doing that involves the theft of enormous amounts of American technology. Can’t do that without good relations with the USA.
What’s to break? Millions or nork’s lives. Or I guess they don’t count to you. As to the Chicoms military weakness, it’s the political will to use force is our particular problem Typos. Doesn’t much matter how actually strong or weak they are if our leadership is incompetent. And you can skip the ad hominem.
RKV, the North Korean people are broken already thanks to Kim Jong Il’s Communism; as a result, the people are starving right now. Kim Jong Il is trying to black mail the United States again in sending “aide” (money).
A quick summation of the scenarios presented in this page says that this mess is a no-win situation. The hidden element and perhaps weakest link is Kim’s inexplicable hold on the North Korean people and military. That is one fine looking and capable military machine Kim has, tough to the core, and no one to fool with in a fair fight.
Why does the NK support that little misanthrope? Is his police state so complete that no one dare get out of line? How do the NK put up with Kim’s decreased father’s appointment of Monarch for Eternity?
Millions of NorK lives? You seem to forget that nature’s way of dealing with humanity’s ability to somewhat buck the natural order consists of the following: Pestilence, Natural Disasters, and War.
Famine is sort of in there but in the modern world where we can ship food from across the globe to feed the hungry its not as much a factor as it once was. Disease we’ve also got a bit of a handle on, at least for the last 80 or so years and still do for the time being.
That leaves natural disasters and war. We’ve seen nature make use of Tsunamis and Earthquakes a good deal. Then we have war, WWI & II took a tremendous toll on the population of Europe and Russia. Vietnam was hard on the Vietnamese, and Iraq/Iran war was pretty hard on both of those nations.
Also I’m not a fool who doesn’t value my own life over that of those that would harm me and mine. My life and that of my family & friends is more important to me than millions of NK who blindly follow a pudgy megalomaniac.
There won’t be another war on the peninsula, we don’t want one and the North Koreans (maybe not KJI but his generals at least) know they can’t survive one. The biggest problem is stopping them from exporting their weapons technology to people who can and will use it against us or our allies.
“And you can skip the ad hominem.”
No ad hominem. Just a fact that is pertinent to the conservation. An unflattering fact is till a fact.
For what it is worth, Chinese civilization had the creation and use of fools down pat thousands of years before Marx re-introduced Europeans to the concept. I’m pretty sure Rome also understood the value of useful fools.
And yes, I do see the Koreans as human and in dire need of being freed from tyranny. You are the one that is willing to condemn as many more generations of Norks to starvation and misery as are needed to keep you comfortable.
Anyone that isn’t in favor of a immediate and full scale assault on the DPRK is either a coward or a fool. I understand that thousands will die in such an attack. Do you understand that millions will die if there is no attack?
Thousands vs Millions. As us redneck farmers are wont to say; “Do the sums”
The dictator of NK feels free to rescind the 1953 armistice because there is absolutely no fear or respect of the current administration in Washington.
There is absolutely no reason to anticipate our own Dear Leader ratcheting up any effective response: my sense is that he and his buds are just sitting sipping their fizzy water and, as they rock back and forth a bit, have their hands over their ears and they are saying in a monotone, “We can’t hear you…we can’t hear you….we can’t hear you….”
And silent Democrats do nothing.
There are Democrats who are in elected office today, and who were in office probably when Mr. Hussein was in Indonesia as a small child. Their silence is horrifying. They didn’t even have to be paid off.
Can’t anybody figure it out? China wants Taiwan. China lets NorKs play all sorts of games with the US and S Korea. When everybody gets properly distracted China makes a move on Taiwan. America rolls over and plays dead, per WH script. China takes over Taiwan. To all Taiwanese: get out when there is still time.
Amazing how quiet the usual critics are.I hear crickets.