Targeting North Korea: Let’s Think Like a Kim
On Monday, the United States and South Korea began the 11-day Ulchi Freedom Guardian exercise. The ongoing drill, “one of the largest joint staff-directed theatre exercises in the world,” is an annual event. This year it involves 86,000 troops. It is, not coincidentally, taking place at the same time 400,000 of the South’s officials and government employees are participating in an anti-terrorism exercise.
Moreover, it has only been a week since Seoul wrapped up its most extensive anti-submarine drill and 19 days after the end of joint naval maneuvers in the Sea of Japan by the American and South Korean navies. The two allies, obviously, are intensifying their preparations for war.
As they should. The North Koreans, in March, torpedoed the Cheonan and killed 46 South Korean sailors on the frigate. Since then, Pyongyang has snatched a South Korean fishing boat with its crew of seven and been hurling invective toward the South. For instance, on Sunday the North Korean military promised to inflict the “severest punishment no one has ever met in the world” for the Ulchi Freedom Guardian drill.
Of course, we know the North Koreans have no intention of initiating hostilities at this moment. For one thing, they always issue bellicose statements whenever the Americans and South Koreans participate in military drills, even though they are defensive in nature. And, as a shrewd aggressor, Kim Jong Il, the North’s wily leader, would not think of committing an act of violence when his adversaries have deployed so many military assets on or near the Korean peninsula.
Yet we also know that, in the near future, Chairman Kim will order his forces to kill South Koreans — and possibly Americans as well. Why? First, he and his dad, Kim Il Sung, have established a pattern of wanton events. Among other things, they grabbed the Navy’s Pueblo in international waters and tortured the crew, shot down an unarmed Navy reconnaissance plane and killed 31 aviators — the largest loss of U.S. servicemen in a single incident in the Cold War — bombed the South Korean cabinet in Burma, shot down a South Korean civilian airliner, and regularly attacked targets in the South.
Moreover, creating incidents is good politics at home — it rallies members of the regime and demonstrates Kim’s power to ordinary citizens. And murder — let’s call Kim’s acts by their proper name — has convinced weak American and South Korean leaders to provide assistance to the regime. Washington and Seoul have, if the truth be told, paid Mr. Kim to refrain from slaughtering their citizens and soldiers.
Just call the idiots bluff for christ sakes.. Get this over with and if he really does something stupid then put him out of his misery… for good…
Why anyone would cringe when this freakin toad speaks is beyond me….
Toppling Kim Jung Il is not as easy as you seem to think.
The border between North and South Korea is only around 20 kilometers – roughly 15 miles – north of Seoul, the capital of South Korea. Seoul is a city of several million people. North Korea’s conventional artillery alone could kill very large numbers of South Koreans and, as I understand it, large quantities of North Korean artillery is deployed along the border in ways that make it very hard to knock out. (I believe a lot of the North Korean artillery is sheltered under huge rock outcroppings or something along that line.)
That’s not the entire strategic picture by any means but the point is that no one can simply drop a few bombs and neutralize the North Korean threat; they can do a lot of damage to South Korea before a US/South Korean effort could hope to end the North Korean regime.
As desireable as it would be for all concerned – except the top figures in the North Korean regime of course – to see North Korea freed and reunited with the South in a democracy, getting there is not going to be a simple. In addition to all the artillery along the border, the North Koreans have a very large standing army and appear to have at least some nuclear capability although no one seems to be sure how much.
The real tragedy, of course, is the horrible lives the North Koreans lead in their Stalinist dictatorship. Just getting enough to eat is a major challenge there much of the time and even young children can find themselves in the North Korean gulag over minor offenses. I read an interview with a man who had been arrested, with his entire family, when he was just 8 years old. They were sentenced to one of the gulag’s camps for 10 years. (I don’t remember what pretense the regime used to arrest them but I believe it was just a minor criticism of the government.) Eventually, after completing his sentence, this man managed to sneak out of the country by crossing its border with China and then managed to make his way to South Korea where he could finally tell his story. The part of the story that really struck in my mind was his description of the conversations in the camps among the inmates. Do you know that they constantly asked themselves why the Americans weren’t invading? They longed for an invasion: they felt it was the only chance that they had to be freed of their appalling Marxist regime.
Try to picture a world in which you HOPED for an invasion by foreigners – who had been constantly demonized in your media – as the only hope of overthrowing your miserable government and having a normal life….
Call his bluff? OBAMA?!!!!
Bwahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahaha ha ha *gasp*
*wheeze*
*fall down*
spasm *gasp*
“Medic!”
I don’t speak for anyone, but I’ve had enough of getting taunted, bad mouthed by half pint ‘leaders’ of 3rd World/near 3rd World-condition countries.
Kim, Chavez, Ahmadinejad, Mugabe for starters (the entire U N body to round it out..). If it weren’t for PC/limp wristed responses by our ‘leaders’ (Sanctions? Seriously?), I’m not hinting or insinuating to introduce violence or war – but having a stiffer upper lip when it comes to these despot leaders.
ah….remember how ‘Godfather I’ ended? Don Corleone makes a clean sweep of all his enemies. I’m just sayin……
While I totally agree in general tommyd, the 15000 +\- artillery tubes in range of and pointed at Seoul are an issue to be dealt with and to this point in history a safe answer has not been found since the 50′s. It would not be and is not just something that can be ignored when he controls those tubes.
DO NOT doubt a Götterdämmerung would be an option that was out of the question with this unstable regime.
It is a situation that has to be nuanced sadly, and he knows it. If unleashed that artillery would DESTROY a vibrant modern city of 9.8 million in 2005. We cant have that obviously. While my considered opinion is VERY similar to your stated its just not a feasible option at this time. Which is of course why its NOT been done yet.
Regards.
Don’t forget this horrific axe murder of two US soldiers in 1976
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axe_murder_incident
This is pure crap. Let South Korea take care of it’s own border. We have an invasion here on the southern border.
Well said Leatherneck!
We need a big stick on the border to show we can take care of our own affairs – South Korea can take of theirs. Unfortunately, we will have war soon enough on the peninsula as it is only a matter of time. In any event, we should as a super power be able to knock some heads around to make a point and still maintain peace. Peace comes from force in this world and that’s a fact!
The “Targeting North Korea” article has inspired me to spend several hours reading various accounts from North Korean refugees who managed to escape their disaster of a country. Each is interesting and worthwhile in its own way but I’ll just post one example here; I know people have busy lives and don’t have the time to read dozens of articles.
This article tells about a young man who was BORN in a labor camp in North Korea and describes his life until the point where he was finally able to escape the camp – as an adult – and then the country: http://www.northkoreanrefugees.com/2007-09-atbirth.htm.
If you ever think your life is miserable or even unendurable, read what THIS guy had to go through. It will make you grateful that your problems aren’t much MUCH worse, like his…..
The artillery targeting Seoul could be eliminated in a few minutes with well placed nukes. Why are we afraid to use them? We would rather see thousands of civillian deaths? The use of nuclear weapons against Japan helped keep the Soviets at bay, they knew we would use them. Nowadays the Chinese are not so sure. We have become a paper tiger due to Liberal Progressive goo goo ism. It is only a matter of time before our enemies call our bluff.
The only country other than the United States POTUS Obama Barack H. AKA Barry Sortero (D) (PBUH) is Israel.
He will NOT bomb a communist or muslim country.
He will not bomb anybody.
Anonymous
[.......The artillery targeting Seoul could be eliminated in a few minutes with well placed nukes. ..........]
The Nork HARTs (Hardened Artillery sites) are a indeed a hard nut to crack but are by on means invincible/impregnable. I have every confidence that the US military and/or Sork military have had a solution (probably non-nuclear)in place for decades to netralize/destroy these Harts on short notice…..likely inevitable when the first HART tube fires…and the Norks know that.
It is unreasonable that such a large city would be under a virtual sword of Damocles without a shield in place…..we did have men walk on the moon
doncha know.