North Korea

[F-ck Casey]

South Korea has reported underground activity along the DMZ border. North Korea has removed spent fuel rods from their nuclear plants, which is a key to making nuclear bombs.

What are your thoughts on North Korea? We know they can make nukes, and possibly launch one to strike Japan or South Korea.

It kinda reminds me of the Cold War, you know? Russia had the technology to make nuclear bombs, and we knew this. Everyone feared an atomic winter would come along but... it never did. I think (and hope) this is the case with North Korea.

Is this the second Cold War? World War III?

Thoughts?

[Omar A]

North Korea is a sleeping gaint. I think one day they'll flip out.

[USAF.07]

Hope not either, that would be a very ugly war and we simply don't have the manpower to deal with it right now, especially if China got involved. A lot of people would die if this were to happen, someday though if they go too far they will need to be blasted into oblivion and I would support as many nuke strikes on them as possible if they used a WMD first on anyone.

[Mark]

What we must realize is that South and North Korea aren't nearly as civilized as Russia and the US were when they disarmed. I don't see anything positive coming out of this. Watch out.

[F-ck Casey]

Originally posted by Mark@May 12 2005, 04:47 PM
What we must realize is that South and North Korea aren't nearly as civilized as Russia and the US were when they disarmed. I don't see anything positive coming out of this. Watch out.
North Korea don't have long range missles, ala the ICBMs like the US and Russia has.

They couldn't strike us with a nuclear missle or bomb, no, but if they attack Japan or South Korea, it's basically the same thing. Especially SK since we have soldiers stationed there. And they'd be slaughtered.

Then the beginning stages of what would/could be World War III begins.

[Mark]

Originally posted by Casey+May 12 2005, 07:50 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Casey @ May 12 2005, 07:50 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--Mark@May 12 2005, 04:47 PM
What we must realize is that South and North Korea aren&#39;t nearly as civilized as Russia and the US were when they disarmed. I don&#39;t see anything positive coming out of this. Watch out.
North Korea don&#39;t have long range missles, ala the ICBMs like the US and Russia has.

They couldn&#39;t strike us with a nuclear missle or bomb, no, but if they attack Japan or South Korea, it&#39;s basically the same thing. Especially SK since we have soldiers stationed there. And they&#39;d be slaughtered.

Then the beginning stages of what would/could be World War III begins. [/b][/quote]
Yeah, I&#39;m well aware of that. But I wasn&#39;t comparing them in that way. I don&#39;t think either side wants to compromise and they will risk a war because of it. The US and Russia were terrified of one another, so that scared both into disarming. The problem with the Southern and Northern Korean governments is that they are immensely proud and many are not afraid to die for what they believe in. That&#39;s what makes them different from the previous Cold War. You had the Americans and Russians who had common sense, and you&#39;ve got extremist countries like North Korea threatening their sworn enemies.

[Melonman64]

My look on how the situation with North Korea is this:
N. Korea is capable of striking us, we are capable of striking them.
If they send missles/nukes, we instantly know and either retaliate, destroy their missles, or both. Kim Jung-Il knows it wouldn&#39;t acheive anything and would make him look bad if he attacked us, so he is biding his time. Eventually, however, he may attack us. If we had attacked him instead of Iraq, the world might be better off. Iraq should have happened probably a bit later than it did (Bush only needed to wait 30 more days before the info from the U.N. came back)

[F-ck Casey]

You realize if the US had attacked North Korea, Kim Jong-il might have ordered the launch of nuclear bombs to Japan or South Korea, yeah?

And North Korea doesn&#39;t have the technology to make their weapons reach our side of the planet.

[Melonman64]

I&#39;m saying if they attacked us first, but even so, both S. Korea and Japan are our allies, so if they were attacked, we would respond.

[Aaron]

Time to commence Operation: Rice Eater Snake.

If only life were that easy and we had a Solid Snake.

North Korea is &#39;G1&#39; in terms of super powers to me.

&#39;G1&#39; meaning &#39;great one&#39;.

[I Don't Need No Accuser]

Correct me if I&#39;m wrong but the only thing that leads us to believe they have them now is Kim Jong Il (A crazy dictator) saying he has them. He&#39;s trying to scare us with the threat of nuclear bombs just like Saddam Hussein did. And the same thing is going to happen, instead of scaring us which he thinks will work, we&#39;re going to panic. I don&#39;t think this will lead to another WWIII at all. This will be the same thing as Iraq. And if they launched a nuclear bomb, I couldn&#39;t imagine what we would do. Then again this whole North Korea thing is Clinton&#39;s fault so we can&#39;t really say it&#39;s not our fault.

[Mark]

Originally posted by Melonman64@May 12 2005, 10:11 PM
I&#39;m saying if they attacked us first, but even so, both S. Korea and Japan are our allies, so if they were attacked, we would respond.
I don&#39;t think you have any idea what you&#39;re talking about.

[Ryan]

I heard sometihng on the news the other day that N. Korea does has the technology to reach the west coast. I mean this could just be the american government saying this to scare everyone and make them beleieve that N. Korea is a true enemy. But yha i tihnk that is N. Korea launched nuclear weapons at Japan or south Korea then yah it would either be the start of WWIII, for however long that would last until the world would end, or until the americans plant the people of N. Korea in the ground with retaliatory nuclear weapons. But I tihnk for now N. Korea is just playing a power trip because they obviously have nuclear weapons and they are doing so to scare the rest of the world.

[Anthony.]

Well, North Korea is too economically and technologically weak to wage any kind of "Cold War" with the US.

They also have too few allies to count on. However, indeed, if we add up the tensions along the DMZ to the ones in the Tawain Strait and in Iran, we may be talking about a possible widespread military conflict. World War? Not really; we&#39;re not talking about a situation nor a type of conflict like the last great confrontation : gaining territory isn&#39;t the main objective and the way wars are waged have changed.

[+ / –]

Originally posted by I Don&#39;t Need No Accuser@May 12 2005, 07:17 PM
Correct me if I&#39;m wrong but the only thing that leads us to believe they have them now is Kim Jong Il (A crazy dictator) saying he has them. He&#39;s trying to scare us with the threat of nuclear bombs just like Saddam Hussein did. And the same thing is going to happen, instead of scaring us which he thinks will work, we&#39;re going to panic. I don&#39;t think this will lead to another WWIII at all. This will be the same thing as Iraq. And if they launched a nuclear bomb, I couldn&#39;t imagine what we would do. Then again this whole North Korea thing is Clinton&#39;s fault so we can&#39;t really say it&#39;s not our fault.
It isn&#39;t that far of a stretch to believe that they do. In this day in age, everybody is arming themselves to the teeth, despite the talks of getting rid of such weapons.

We know that N.K. can launch tactical missiles over Japan... is it so hard to think they can go nuclear?

But of course, we live in a world where everyone is dependent on each other.

Remember when N. Korea started flaunting their power a month or two ago? America and Russia just stopped discussions with them and N. Korea retracted the statement.

[F-ck Casey]

America disarmed the Soviets awhile back, limiting how many warheads or something they could have to one, meanwhile the US can fit 5 warheads in one bomb.

Pretty clever.

[+ / –]

Originally posted by Casey@May 12 2005, 08:57 PM
America disarmed the Soviets awhile back, limiting how many warheads or something they could have to one, meanwhile the US can fit 5 warheads in one bomb.

Pretty clever.
Haha, as if one warhead wasn&#39;t enough.

Man, if discussions go wrong in any form or fashion, the world is fucked.

[I Don't Need No Accuser]

Yes, exactly. North Korea ONLY wants to talk to us now since we gave them a nuclear reactor and they think by telling us (again) &#39;&#39;We won&#39;t use the nuclear reactor for building nuclear bombs.&#39;&#39; Type thing. We will fall for it but we won&#39;t this time. And I also agree with Avenger, the idea that North Korea could &#39;cause WWIII is insane imo. If they ever launched a nuclear bomb, many countries would invade and bomb the shit out of them.

[Louis]

Originally posted by Mark@May 12 2005, 09:47 PM
What we must realize is that South and North Korea aren&#39;t nearly as civilized as Russia and the US were when they disarmed. I don&#39;t see anything positive coming out of this. Watch out.
Exactly.

[goso88]

What we must realize is that South and North Korea aren&#39;t nearly as civilized as Russia and the US were when they disarmed. I don&#39;t see anything positive coming out of this. Watch out.

I&#39;m just curious--what do you mean by "civilized"?

[Mark]

Originally posted by goso88@May 13 2005, 01:37 AM

What we must realize is that South and North Korea aren&#39;t nearly as civilized as Russia and the US were when they disarmed. I don&#39;t see anything positive coming out of this. Watch out.

I&#39;m just curious--what do you mean by "civilized"?
Civilized as in democratic. From what I gather North Korea is a totalitarian dictator-ruled country, meaning the strict rules are enforced with an iron fist with little personal freedoms or civil liberties for citizens. Quite savage.

[Todd]

I honestly don&#39;t think NK will be the first to attack. If they attack, it will be after Dubya decides to bomb them, and they&#39;ll be defending themselves which is understandable. I think as long as that jackass president of ours can keep his finger off the trigger, things won&#39;t turn violent. IMO, the only reason NK is building up nukes is because they worry the US will attack (We attacked Iraq for no reason....) and just want to defend themselves and hope having nukes will keep them safe.


And I sure as hell hope nothing happens to South Korea. I drive a Korean car and if Hyundai&#39;s factories get blown to bits, no parts for my car :(

[Omar A]

Originally posted by Todd@May 12 2005, 11:46 PM
I honestly don&#39;t think NK will be the first to attack. If they attack, it will be after Dubya decides to bomb them, and they&#39;ll be defending themselves which is understandable. I think as long as that jackass president of ours can keep his finger off the trigger, things won&#39;t turn violent. IMO, the only reason NK is building up nukes is because they worry the US will attack (We attacked Iraq for no reason....) and just want to defend themselves and hope having nukes will keep them safe.


And I sure as hell hope nothing happens to South Korea. I drive a Korean car and if Hyundai&#39;s factories get blown to bits, no parts for my car :(
lol Real talk

[tunnelvision]

Originally posted by Mark@May 13 2005, 04:21 AM
North Korea is a totalitarian dictator-ruled country, meaning the strict rules are enforced with an iron fist with little personal freedoms or civil liberties for citizens. Quite savage.
you&#39;re not wrong. i live in new zealand and very recently some south koreans moved in next to us, having come straight from korea. the kids are 10 years old and know some english, but it&#39;s still very basic and i&#39;ve been teaching them every day for about an hour, so as you can probly guess we get chatting&#33;&#33; (very basically).i had absolutely NO IDEA about any of korea&#39;s issues at all- and i am totally ashamed to admit my naivete.these kids, these little 10 year old children, were telling me how in north korea children their age did not go to school to learn maths and history etc, they go to "special" schools to learn how to shoot guns and throw grenades. they were telling me how north korea- their neighbouring country, across a line on a map for crying out loud- is a constant threat to them and they were in constant fear for their lives because NK had things which "are big explosion, and many people die".bombs. im not sure what sort, but i was absolutely horrified. they told me how very recently the north korean army had tried to TUNNEL UNDER the border, but got caught. that just sent shivers down my spine.a country with that much power, the power to wipe out so many people in so little time and who actually wants to, with a psychopath as their leader, almost managed to penetrate such a free and democratic society filled with innocent people who only want to live- its awful, those kids were telling me all of this and it was like "ho hum, just another day, just another threat to the world as we know it". i could hardly speak.
another issue i want to raise- and please, please correct me if im wrong- but they told me of korea&#39;s history, and i seem to recall china being a firm supporter of NK somewhere in there?? well, since the only reason there&#39;s a north and south korea in the first place is because china invaded can be taken into account. like it was america helping SK and china was with NK. except my dad told me that NK told america to stop helping the south or they&#39;d get bombed. is that right?? if this is still the case, shouldn&#39;t we be a tad concerned with what the repercussions might be from CHINA if NK attacked america and america attacked back?? i mean....it is a rather large, very communist country......but thats my opinion based on my extremely limited knowledge of the matter. can anyone clear anything up for me??

[I Don't Need No Accuser]

North Korea started this nuclear bomb thing back when Clinton was president, when we gave them a nuclear reactor. And all we asked was they use it for energy purposes and not nuclear weapons, and they agreed. Only weeks after we gave it to them they shut off all the cameras. Which we had in the building to make sure they weren&#39;t doing anything shady. North Korea is purposely trying to scare us with nuclear weapons. They are screaming to the world &#39;&#39;WE HAVE NUCLEAR WEAPONS,&#39;&#39; which is really up in the air, no one knows for sure if they do or not. If you can&#39;t see that Kim Jong Il is a crazy dictator (yea, yea Bush is a crazy dictator blah blah blah) then really, you need to look more into it. Kim Jong Il is insane, he puts all of North Koreas money towards the military while the people barely have anything to eat. And they only want to talk to us because they tricked us into trusting them (Clintons a dumbass) and they know countries like China will never fall for that cause they don&#39;t mess around.

[Anthony.]

Originally posted by Casey@May 12 2005, 10:57 PM
America disarmed the Soviets awhile back, limiting how many warheads or something they could have to one, meanwhile the US can fit 5 warheads in one bomb.

Pretty clever.
START treaties (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty). They followed the SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty).

By the way, it&#39;s more about MIRV (Multiple re-entry vehicles) missiles than warheards if I remember.

[Holiday]

haha there was this thing comparing Kim and Bush. they are both spoiled little rich kids and either are, or aspire to be dictators. i wish i knew where it was, it was really funny (i suppose from a Liberalist point of view). But w/o Bush we wouldnt be in such immediate danger.


this whole Korea thing REALLY scares me. its WAY WAY more dagerous that Iraq EVER was. its just insane. hopefully it doesnt end in the end of the world.

[Weezy]

Well actually, South Korea is doing well as a nation. I wouldn&#39;t consider them "uncivilized" in any way.

NK is way too poor and unequipped to fight a war.

I don&#39;t think it&#39;ll be North Korea would starts WWIII, it will be the United States. I bet.