These guys have should of been stopped before they developed Nuclear capability. But now they may have submarines capable of firing ballistic missiles and are currently building a fleet of new subs. With these they become a global menace.

I dont know what can be done now if anything. The world may have to live with the threat indefinitely.

We couldn't attack them before because their nukes were in range of South Korea. Now we aren't going to be able to attack them because their nukes will be in range of anything near water.



Could this be Obama's Rwanda?

In a long game, the biggest threat the N.K. regime represents is to themselves and developing nukes only added to this threat. Meanwhile new "Davids" pop up everyday in the country, slinging DVDs and thumb drives at the Goliath's scheme for cultural control.

Also could be that NK's biggest ally is China and they have prevented any real action from happening. However, they increasingly view the Kim regime as rogue and a potential threat to security in the East so it would not surprise me if at some point in the future the US and China collaborate on removing the Kim regime.

I dont know if they can risk attacking Kim at all now. They might have standing orders to launch if anyone tries to take Kim out. If they do attempt it though, they should do it before he completes his submarine fleet.


I think at this point the best we can do is stop provoking N.Korea by stopping making fun of Kim in popular media. The guy is legit crazy.

I'm pretty sure that somewhere, 40 years ago, someone in the Middle East made this exact OP about Israel.

How do you even know? Have you met him? Or do you get all your information about him from the media?

Isn't more accurate to say the regime provokes itself? Their entire basis for a stance of deterrence is an imaginary threat made mostly of stereotypes of foes and conflicts from the past.

Also, creating intentional provocation helps build false narratives of victory used for the regime's cult propaganda practices. They wanna be provoked and will stage provocation if not provoked.

Crazy demented, but not crazy impulsive.

I don't believe the bolded. China has definite plans to be the Superpower in the East and therefore will not allow Kim to affect that process. Add to that they are really his only ally, so the international community would likely welcome most actions against him/the regime.

While I agree he seems to be unstable, I do not think he is stupid enough to risk China completely turning against him. His main source of influence is the threat of using these weapons, not the actual use. Likely what will happen is another decade/Presidency of appeasement in the hopes that the regime collapses on its own.

That's what they said about dad and grandad too, yet they continue to rule. What Kims do makes sense within the odd world that is NK.

They've been playing the provocation game a long time. It seems to be largely for internal reasons. Something could go wrong and the regime is horrible for the civilians, but it's not mental.

I concur.

The important thing for the ruling class is that they maintain power. In this regard NK is not very different from the US.

Do you really think he will shoot a NUKE at the USA....? It is common knowledge here in China when their would be imminent danger for North Korea, North Korea will turn there nukes towards Beijing.... Yes you read that correctly, CHINA.
It's much easier for North Korea to hit China then to hit the USA, hence one of the big reasons why China keeps him in power.

Well, this thread is indeed bizarre.

NK doesn't alarm people because they are isolated and show no sign of actually doing anything. Hey have said plenty of things in the past but they've shown absolutely zero signs of going through with them. They have a very large army on their southern border, our own bases in Japan/7th Fleet in the Pacific, and China who will only allow them to do so much.

Essentially they are bluffing, and they have been for years. They have no need to play the provocation game for internal reasons, their power is absolute. If they wanted to remove people politically, they just do it.

They play the game for external reaction. They threaten war so that they continue to be granted aid.

NK has always fascinated me, I try to read up on it as much as I can. Decades from now, imo the lack of response from the western world to the NK prison camps will be seen as an enormous historical failure. It's like, as long as they don't develop nukes, none of us much care what they're doing internally.

I think it's more as long as they don't have oil. Especially considering they do have nukes and no one cares.

Considering how US foreign policy has been approached in the last 60 years, is it really much of a surprise? There are governments who have awful human rights records all across the planet. Unless our own interests are at stake, why would we bother to get involved?

What I actually wrote:

Some might think you a liar, but I know you are just lazy. Too lazy to note what was actually said, too lazy to write a relevant response, but you still insist on inserting yourself into the conversation page after page.

Oh, do I need your permission to post? I'm correcting your stupidity. Why you would point to your idiotic statement of "something could go wrong" is bizarre.

What do you think "could go wrong"? We'd love to hear your thoughts. And the below is comical.


You think they do it for internal reasons. It's absolutely incorrect, and it makes me wonder if you know absolutely anything about the topic.

lol @ internal reasons. We're talking about basic knowledge about the regime, which you obviously don't know.

If anyone should see their way out of this topic, it's you.

mmm, I think the nuclear saber rattling has a dual purpose. It keeps the internal population focused on an external enemy and thereby easier to control. It's also a way to blackmail foreign governments into chipping in aid money.

That's about right.

Coerce is probably a better term though. N Korea isn't blackmailing anyone. Except maybe Sony. heh

I'm curious as to what response you would advocate, and when. A Second Korean War?

I'm not saying I have an easy answer to the problem.

I wasn't trying to be a jerk with that post, but it seems that it would be excessively judgmental of future-people to criticize us for not doing...something... about the heavily armed, superpower-sponsored, psychotic regime located in a mountainous country in close proximity to lots of vulnerable civilian populations. Especially after we tried to do something about them once and got alarmingly close to a nuclear war.

If they want to be critical, surely the lack of action in places like the DRC would be a lot fairer to condemn.

Nuclear war, of course.

The aid you mention is a part of it. But the regime retains power by persuading the people that it protects them from imminent destruction and is a Big Player. Much of the theatrics is aimed at maintaining that drama. Since you study Korea, you know who Bruce Cumings is and should reread him.

I can't even guess what that means, please don't explain.