North Korea

[Gorth]

North Korea nuclear test: No radiation detected

 

I don't remember if I shared my suspicion here or elsewhere a few years ago, but I can't help but think that all the posturing and playing with explosives is "Smoke and Mirrors". Does anybody actually, honestly, believe North Korea was ever in possession of anything but a truck load of TNT and a long fuse?

 

Look up articles about Messines Ridge in 1917 for similar effects (largest man made explosion at the time).

[AGX-17]

North Korea is the paper-est of tigers. An emaciated paper tiger that's starving despite receiving frequent food aid from its mortal enemy, the USA. It's still comically insulting that there are people who think the idea of a North Korean "invasion" of the US is a legitimate threat. I know that that game Homefront and the Red Dawn remake were both originally meant to have China as the invaders but changed their respective invaders/occupiers so as not to offend China, our future overlords, but even so, it seems to bolster the ludicrous notion in the minds of certain people.

 

Anyway, Best Korea with nukes isn't any more a threat than Best Korea without nukes, since MAD doesn't apply to a country with maybe a couple nuclear weapons, even if they had the capability to hit the US, given the fact that the US still posses about 7000x as many nuclear warheads (still the world's largest nuclear arsenal, USA, USA, USA! OOOOOH-RAH!) and the ability to strike them with precision.

Edited February 14, 2013 by AGX-17

[Agiel]

The problem is that North Korea's conventional power is still enough for them to ostensibly hold the world economy hostage. While the KPA hasn't a hope or a prayer of pushing the combined forces of the US and the ROK back down to the Pusan perimeter like they did in '53 without Chinese help (the Chinese are more liable to oust Kim Jong-un themselves before letting that happen), the North Koreans have enough tube and rocket artillery pieces lined up on their side of the DMZ to devastate Seoul, one of the main economic hubs of the world. It's an attitude of "If we can't have it, no one can" which is downright reckless and monomaniacal, not to mention childish, that makes their antics worthy of more attention from the world. 

[Zoraptor]

They also have subs that can apparently sink modern western asw frigates on active manoeuvres without being detected and metric asterisktons of chemical weapons let alone potential bioweapons. They're basically the guy with a deadman switch, a bomb and some hostages; demanding a chopper while hoping for some KFC.

[pmp10]

North Korea is the paper-est of tigers. An emaciated paper tiger that's starving despite receiving frequent food aid from its mortal enemy, the USA. It's still comically insulting that there are people who think the idea of a North Korean "invasion" of the US is a legitimate threat. I know that that game Homefront and the Red Dawn remake were both originally meant to have China as the invaders but changed their respective invaders/occupiers so as not to offend China, our future overlords, but even so, it seems to bolster the ludicrous notion in the minds of certain people.

 

Anyway, Best Korea with nukes isn't any more a threat than Best Korea without nukes, since MAD doesn't apply to a country with maybe a couple nuclear weapons, even if they had the capability to hit the US, given the fact that the US still posses about 7000x as many nuclear warheads (still the world's largest nuclear arsenal, USA, USA, USA! OOOOOH-RAH!) and the ability to strike them with precision.

It's not NK ability to hit US that is at stake here.

It's their ability to hit 10 million people in Seoul.

And nukes could make quite a bit of difference in that.

[HoonDing]

Or Japan.

[obyknven]

North Korea is cool. Tiny socialistic state without resources, surrounded by enemies, blockaded by sanctions, but can into space (in nuclear reaction too) and have one of best armies in world.

 

Anyway don't understand wester paranoia. Technology of Nuclear weapon is very simple, actually any country can have this. You can't stop progress anyway.

[NOK222]

North Korea is cool. Tiny socialistic state without resources, surrounded by enemies, blockaded by sanctions, but can into space (in nuclear reaction too) and have one of best armies in world.

 

Anyway don't understand wester paranoia. Technology of Nuclear weapon is very simple, actually any country can have this. You can't stop progress anyway.

If it wasn't for the prison camps I'd be rooting for them. 

[Luridis]

North Korea is cool. Tiny socialistic state without resources, surrounded by enemies, blockaded by sanctions, but can into space (in nuclear reaction too) and have one of best armies in world.

 

Anyway don't understand wester paranoia. Technology of Nuclear weapon is very simple, actually any country can have this. You can't stop progress anyway.

 

Probably because they're distributing videos showing a desire to send missiles this way. It's a silly goal really, lots of people have simply forgotten SDI, or believe that it was actually canceled.

 

It's also silly to ever think we'd conduct another ground war in that part of the world. China is the sole proprietor of eastern ground wars, we'd just happily lob munitions towards any target they happen to paint. Also, anyone sets off an aggressive nuke, or chemical weapon, any where in this world and life as we know it will be over.

Edited February 14, 2013 by Luridis

[rjshae]

North Korea is cool. Tiny socialistic state without resources, surrounded by enemies, blockaded by sanctions, but can into space (in nuclear reaction too) and have one of best armies in world.

 

Anyway don't understand wester paranoia. Technology of Nuclear weapon is very simple, actually any country can have this. You can't stop progress anyway.

The main concern I have is that NK is so heavily invested in their nuclear program that they will expect some sort of economic compensation. They are, after all, a complete basket case otherwise. Financially that may inevitably translate into selling nukes on the world's black market. Once that starts to happen, all bets are off. I can think of several nation states that could decide NK can't be allowed to present such a threat to their major cities, so they will initiate a first strike. Goodbye North Korea.

[Luridis]

 

North Korea is cool. Tiny socialistic state without resources, surrounded by enemies, blockaded by sanctions, but can into space (in nuclear reaction too) and have one of best armies in world.

 

Anyway don't understand wester paranoia. Technology of Nuclear weapon is very simple, actually any country can have this. You can't stop progress anyway.

The main concern I have is that NK is so heavily invested in their nuclear program that they will expect some sort of economic compensation. They are, after all, a complete basket case otherwise. Financially that may inevitably translate into selling nukes on the world's black market. Once that starts to happen, all bets are off. I can think of several nation states that could decide NK can't be allowed to present such a threat to their major cities, so they will initiate a first strike. Goodbye North Korea.

 

Please, by whatever God or morality you personally subscribe, pray or hope it doesn't come to that. You could have heard a pin-drop around the world during the Cuban Missile Crisis. If we (humanity) start launching nukes at each other we're essentially finished.

[Agiel]

North Korea is cool. Tiny socialistic state without resources, surrounded by enemies, blockaded by sanctions, but can into space (in nuclear reaction too) and have one of best armies in world.

 

Anyway don't understand wester paranoia. Technology of Nuclear weapon is very simple, actually any country can have this. You can't stop progress anyway.

 

It's relatively inaccurate to refer to North Korea as a communist state; the Juche philosophy coined by Kim Il Sung that has supplanted Communism as the country's leading ideology is as far from orthodox Marxism as can possibly be imagined, and the reality is that the current political state of country more closely resembles Korean-branded Nationalist Socialism (one of the lines fed to its populace to instill fear of "American aggression" is that black American troops stationed in South Korea are "liasoning" with their South Korean brethren and breeding "half-breed mongrels", even pregnant Korean women with their children sired by Chinese fathers are given abortions, if this isn't propagating the idea of a "master race", I don't know what does). Their current constitution at best has token references to Marx and Lenin and many won't hesitate to attribute their writings to the "Dear Leader" himself (who mind you, is still the President of North Korea despite being dead for almost two decades; as Christopher Hitchens said, a "thanotocracy, or a "necrocracy").

 

As for their economic state they also have themselves to blame. Juche, no matter what school of economic thought you abide by, is equivalent to economic suicide (remember the saying: "No man is an island"?). Rather hypocritically, they relied highly upon Soviet and Chinese investments during the Cold War, and with the collapse, those funds dried up and having built a dependency on their former allies their indigenously-built infrastructure was ill-prepared for the long agony of the nineties.

 

As for their military, well, 25% of their GDP spent on defense doesn't count for much when the ROK's military budget alone is equivalent to the North's entire GDP.

Edited February 15, 2013 by Agiel

[Rostere]

You guys wouldn't believe how easy it is to assemble an (crude) atomic bomb. Making it 100% safe and reliable is a bit harder though - but the real problem is the infrastructure behind obtaining the fissile materials.

 

To be honest, I have no idea about NK's technology level or resources in that area.

 

I don't give much for NK's army either. I guess their artillery and rocket artillery pointed at SK is the only real military threat.

 

The real threat they pose to the world is the flood of refugees and the humanitarian crisis they will trigger if a war starts. The North Koreans barely have enough food as it is. In the case of war, expect hundreds of thousands of civilians to die and a flood of refugees and North Korean deserters.

 

I don't think North Korea will ever start a war though. As soon as it is started, Kim Jong Un and the rest of the NK leadership will probably have less than a week in power left. They're not suicidal.

[rjshae]

I do have much respect for the resilience of the North Korean army. But the world isn't the same as it was in the 1950s and military technology has advanced considerably, as has South Korea. I agree that an attack by North Korea would be suicidal in the present era.

[Malcador]

They'd flatten Seoul, but wonder how well they'd do afterward - well until the US and any other allies arrive in force. Heh, they'd probably run out of fuel and ammunition pretty quickly. That's an interesting thing in the last few wars, forces burning through ammo at insane rates.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I think Best Korea is too busy starving to launch an invasion.

[obyknven]

 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov ignore US Secretary of State John Kerry. Africa is more important for Russia, USA must awaiting. 

 

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130214/hanging-the-telephone-kerry-awaits-lavrov-call

[Luridis]

 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov ignore US Secretary of State John Kerry. Africa is more important for Russia, USA must awaiting. 

 

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/130214/hanging-the-telephone-kerry-awaits-lavrov-call

 

"USA must awaiting" All your base! All your base!

 

Aggregate dispatch of ultra-current, time relative events in summary interject format: Software-driven multipurpose machine-assisted homo-sapien verbal communication protocol translators frequently do not operate within the general realm of acceptability, as defined by the average layman.

 

Additionally, it is highly probable that the former congressman, presidential candidate and newly-appointed U.S. Secretary of State gives a long-tailed-rodent's gluteus maximus whether or no his attempted communication was heard or will be reciprocated.

 

Mee-sa heartsa comfounding forum postas who use-a babblyfishes!

Edited February 16, 2013 by Luridis

[Guard Dog]

And then there is this: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/19/us-nkorea-threat-idUSBRE91I0J520130219

[Walsingham]

"North Korea is cool"

 

I can't even begin to criticise this or I'll spend the whole day on it.

[Volourn]

"North Korea is cool. Tiny socialistic state without resources,
surrounded by enemies, blockaded by sanctions, but can into space (in
nuclear reaction too) and have one of best armies in world.

Anyway
don't understand wester paranoia. Technology of Nuclear weapon is very
simple, actually any country can have this. You can't stop progress
anyway"

 

L0L

[obyknven]

http://youtu.be/LLCF7vPanrY

[alanschu]

Wasn't it LOF that lauded the North Koreans for innovative prisoner handling techniques?

[Zoraptor]

"North Korea is cool"

 

I can't even begin to criticise this or I'll spend the whole day on it.

North Korea is cooler than the UK- I've seen both MASH and Casualty and they never huddle around burning drums for warmth in Casualty.

 

DPRK 1 UK 0

[Walsingham]

 

"North Korea is cool"

 

I can't even begin to criticise this or I'll spend the whole day on it.

North Korea is cooler than the UK- I've seen both MASH and Casualty and they never huddle around burning drums for warmth in Casualty.

 

DPRK 1 UK 0

To be fair, genital herpes is cooler than the UK.