Manbird wrote: 
Well, kinda, yeah.

 cc_rider wrote: 
Kill them with kindness! 

Y'know, here's a thought. What if South Korea and other allies organized an airlift to send supplies (food, mostly) into North Korea? It's well-known North Koreans are starving. Use the death of Dear Nutjob to shake things up, you know? Those poor people have been so beaten down for so long, I don't expect anything like the Arab Spring. But the military is huge, right? And who is IN the military? Soldiers: regular people, with families too.

Engaging in dialogue with the NK 'leadership' is 100% wasted effort. They are all as batshit crazy as KJI. But if the people could see that the world has compassion for their lot, who knows what could happen?

It's just food and blankets, delivered through an international agreement. Of course the leadership will call it an act of aggression and propaganda (okay, it is kind of propaganda), but if ten, fifteen countries are involved, it's a lot harder to make those lies stick. Package it with leaflets, carefully vetted by native speakers (using the North Korean vernacular), stating the simple aims of easing the suffering of the North Korean people, nothing else.

It's just hard to sit around and wait for the next lunatic to take over the joint. Those poor people have suffered immeasurably. Maybe if they discovered somebody out there cared about them, who knows?

This might instead belong in the "South Korea" thread.  I mean, the man was pretty darned old.  But still . . .

Hwang Jang-yop found dead.

 

 jadewahoo wrote: 

the circumstances that I believe warrant sending US Troops to our Southern Border should pass Congress...the violence that has plagued the other side of that border, with thousands senselessly slaughtered, is spilling North...the smoke of that violence is curling and should not leave us acting too late after a raging fire of violence is claiming ever more lives in the US.

To your son

 musik_knut wrote: While I may agree with your sentiment regarding the bringing home of our troops (my own son being a Capt. in the Marines), the second part of your statement is in direct conflict with our Constitution.

Under the Posse Comitatus Act, federal troops are prohibited from engaging directly in domestic law enforcement “except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress.”  The current plan to deploy National Guard troops along the Arizona border is in accord with a built in exemption, that being that under federal statutes, and the Constitution, the National Guard is not actually part of the Army or Air Force unless “in actual federal service". The Posse Comitatus Act doesn't apply to troops deployed to the border (or anywhere in a State jurisdiction) in the capacity of meeting the needs of a State. To send US Federal troops to the border would be an action that is unprecedented, and would require an act of Congress. Whether that is a good or bad idea is certainly a matter of consideration.

35,000 US Troops would serve as a speed bump if N. Korea sent its 1,000,000 man Army over the DMZ...bring the troops home along with the 75,000 or so in Europe...we would save tens of billions and some of those troops could be better used...such as in a real war zone along the US-Mexico border.

 winter wrote: 
B, the bomb was mentioned as soon as North Korea  invaded South Korea in 1950. It wasn't necessary then, and it won't be be necessary now, unless China intervenes again, which is a possibility not to be ruled out.  On their own, the North Koreans, despite their huge  milltary establishment, don't have the resources to sustain anything more than an initial showing, and I doubt they would even try, unless their leaders have already capitulated to their inability to sustain their own people and are looking to be absorbed into a united Korea.  Sort of a face saving way out. 

 oldslabsides wrote:  Maybe, maybe not. Given the size of their military, it would probably take nukes to keep them from overrunning the peninsula. (They almost did it back in the Fifties - and that was before they had their own nukes) And Obama's no more eager than any other President to be the second guy to drop the bomb - especially that close to China, who might well still back the North in another war. They've seen the rest of the world back down plenty of times, so there's no reason to think it won't happen again.

Besides, they'd take a hell of a lot of people with them on their way down. Never underestimate that whole "blaze of glory" thing, especially with unpredictable megalomaniac despots.

 oldslabsides wrote: 
 
So you're the Supreme Leader, son of the original Supreme Leader and what you say goes, and perhaps you're gravely ill.
 
Helluva a way to go. And a guaranteed full-page full-colour entry in the book of history.
 
Just a thought. Not a nice one, nor a likely one, but a thought all the same.

They're full of shit.  War would be suicide for them and they know it.

 hippiechick wrote: 

sounds like the standard bluster N. Korea has been uttering since 1952...

 hippiechick wrote: 
It all hinges on Beijing's response. If they side with North Korea, then China's worldwide image is tarnished and they're not seen as being quite the world player they're aiming to be. If they side with the rest of the world, then there'll be a flood of Korean refugees pouring into an already-troubled province of theirs. Without China to hide behind, North Korea is completely dead in the water.

 hippiechick wrote: 

This doesn't look good:

North Korea: We're Heading To 'The Brink Of War'

 fidget wrote: 
nothing wrong in being more innerwebs savvy than others

 NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote: 
Oh I read the interwebs occasionally

 
Edit: seeing all the other comments - obviously not enough

 hobiejoe wrote: 

Me too!

 fidget wrote: 
oh.  Doh

when did you get so internet savvy on me ?

BTW the Bild I believe is not yet in His Master's hands, is it?

 hobiejoe wrote: 
Ooops