Clinton says world must respond to N. Korea
Quote:SEOUL, South Korea - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday the world must respond to the "unacceptable provocation" represented by the sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on Pyongyang, as the regime shelled out more blistering rhetoric against Seoul and Washington.
Tension on the divided Korean peninsula has risen dramatically since international investigators said last week that a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine tore apart and sank the South Korean warship Cheonan on March 26, killing 46 sailors.
Relations are at their lowest point in a decade, when South Korea began reaching out to the North with unconditional aid as part of reconciliation efforts. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has taken a harder line against Pyongyang since taking office in 2008 amid delays in the North's promised denuclearization and has suspended aid.
Let's hope this just blows over, the last thing America needs is another war.
Technically the "first" Korean War never ended, but I don't see any war breaking out. It would be suicide for North Korea. They may be loony but they aren't nuts.
Open war is a lose-lose for both sides. the north would bomb the hell out of seoul and the south would utterly destroy kim's regime. plus china might not be happy with the fact that if the north korean government collapses, they will have a ton of refugees pouring across the border.
Any war would be dirty, bloody and short. The major combat actions would be over with inside a month, maybe less, unlike the first Korean conflict. The North would lose for sure, hence why I don't see them starting any war.
I'm not concerned of a war breaking out. There's absolutely no upside for the North at all. They don't have any friends to come help them. Maybe Iran would take their side and that's it.
Leaders in the North might be crazy but they are not dumb and realize a war would end in their destruction this time around.
I honestly don't think Kim Jong Il is half as nuts as he's letting on.
I'm also sure that any order to bomb Seoul would reach South Korea & US ears before they got to the artillery gunners, and there have been plans in place for decades to where, even if the guns fire they will be neutralized after the first salvo hits.
(05-27-2010 08:55 PM)master_of_the_force Wrote: [ -> ]I honestly don't think Kim Jong Il is half as nuts as he's letting on.
He had his dead father proclaimed the eternal president. He's nuts.
(05-27-2010 08:55 PM)master_of_the_force Wrote: [ -> ]I'm also sure that any order to bomb Seoul would reach South Korea & US ears before they got to the artillery gunners, and there have been plans in place for decades to where, even if the guns fire they will be neutralized after the first salvo hits.
I heard North Korean artillery could destroy Seoul in less than two hours. I would not put it past North Korea to make a substantial portion of those rounds chemical or biological.
This could get very ugly very fast. From what I've heard about the NK soldiers is that they're itching for a fight. They have an exaggerated sense of their country's capabilities and really think they could win.
Sorry for the bump, but:
Koreas in border artillery clash
Quote:South Korea says it has returned fire after North Korea fired dozens of artillery shells at one of its border islands, killing two marines.
The South's military was placed on its highest non-wartime alert after the shells landed on Yeonpyeong island.
Pyongyang accused the South of firing first. The Southern military said it had conducted exercises but shelling was directed away from the North.
This is one of the worst clashes since the Korean War ended, analysts say.
Let's hope it blows over...
The South was conducting military exercises in and around the island. Either the North wanted to disrupt those drills, or saw it as some sort of territorial violation.
It'll blow over in a couple days. The North doesn't have the resources to do anything but rattle the South.
The North won't have the balls to do anything more than rattle the South because they'll get smacked so hard they won't know what happened to them and the South won't do anything because they know they'd have to rebuild North Korea and re-integrate millions of people who are living in a different time than we are.
it almost looks as if the north wants to provoke the south into a war. but why i don't know. it's madness.
as i've already said, any aggressive action toward the north that results in full hostilities would result in the decimation of seoul. any actions have to be weighed carefully in light of that. the north has the firepower to level seoul in a fairly short time frame if things devolve into a no-holds conflict. that's the last thing anybody wants.