BD – http://www.cfr.org/publication/11097/#p1

CoffeeKing oh topical (I did like that he didn't get any prison time for that though 🙂 Sorry back to North Korea…… yes it will only amount to anything if Kim Il-sung (the second) goes nuts sorry even more nuts and launches an all out attack on the south. Failing that just a lot of noise.

Historically China has used other countries as buffers, Vietnam, N.Korea etc, it would prefer to keep "enemies" at arms length… any invasion/attack etc on these buffer zones has resulted in a response from China.

There may or maynot be an official pact between China and N.Korea but it would be far too easy to provoke a reaction that was not wanted.

An actual "fact" would be great though if anyone's got one.

A swan can break your arm.

Well well, guess who I drew in the World Cup sweepstakes!

switzerland – I had to check they were actually there

Tricky one- in a full scale war (without nuclear) North Korea would be wiped off the map.

If it went nuclear both countries would be wiped out and China would blame the US For the nuclear devastation crossing into its land and then it would escalate from there…

It's getting worse…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia_pacific/10170019.stm

North Korea would be wiped off the map

not sure how you quickly came to that conclusion, care to elaborate?

Were the N.Koreans not more worried about getting the World Cup beamed into them from the South?

I'd give it 72 hours until the US had air supremacy.

And then what?

GDR/FRG integration was hard enough when it was negotiated, in peacetime, with less disparity between the two countries, and there was no neighbour of a billion people worried about an arriving military presence on its border.

Air supremacy in Iraq was achieved quickly and since then there have been 100,000 deaths.

More importantly, the supply of Orange frames would dry up for a while due to the problem with shipping around from Taiwan?

North Korea would not by any means be a walk over from an air attack point of view. There would be huge losses to the americans if they went im.

I say just leave them to it.

switzerland – I had to check they were actually there

Switzerland are my second team out of the hat 😆

Going back to the original sinking, the warship was in an area of water possesion of which is disputed, so NK decided to really establish ownership in a forcible fashion, then get all aggressive when confronted. Typical bully tactics, provoke a reaction then act the victim.

Didn't South Korea burn a NK boat or something in a similar stretch of water?

Surf-Mat – Member

Okay so maybe WE shouldn't do anything but surely someone ought to respond?

South Korea has responded – it has cut practically all trade with North Korea. And small trickle it has allowed to continue, is only for bargaining purposes.

.

"Sorry, yes. Bombing the shit out of them would work fine in military terms"

How's that ? Is it not now generally accepted that simply bombing a country, does not win wars ? Didn't the RAF bombing and total destruction of major German cities prove that ? Didn't the US daily and incessant carpet bombing of former French Indochina prove that ?

North Korea Oil reserves = NIL

therefore

US interest in doing anything = NIL,

they may well be Red Commie bar stewrds ( to the US ) but they are not on the door step ( unlike Cuba ) and have no Oil to sell to the world ( unlike Iraq ) so they can pretty much do wtf they like and know no one will really do much more than huff n puff.

S Korea included, cos they know if they kick off then they'll get the backlash from every direction for upsetting the applecart ( so to speak )

simply bombing a country, does not win wars

Quite. Bombing a country only necessarily means that it's been bombed. If that's the only objective you've set yourself then fine. So far as I'm aware, the US/South Korea could bomb the shit out of North Korea. This would succeed in bombing the shit out of it (i.e. – in purely military as opposed to political terms). It wouldn't however solve anything, which is why I am hostile to bombing the shit out of North Korea. 🙂

US interest in doing anything = NIL

You are aware that the US forces are still stationed in korea on the boarder? Kind of in service.

The US are interested in everything from having oil to the worlds most barbie dolls.

You are aware that the US forces are still stationed in korea on the boarder?

So what is the US actually doing ? ………….concerning this latest kerfuffle

Since that after all, was fatboyslo's point.

I SOOOOO shouldn't have given into curiosity and watched Threads the other evening 🙁