Shouldn't we now being bombing ten shades of sh*t out of them?

They sunk a warship and killed over 40 people.

Doesn't seem to be much happening about it yet we spend billions trying to kill every member of the Taliban and/or anyone who might be a bit Muslim and radical.

North Korea have biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. South Korea's capital city is well withing shelling distance of the North and they're mates with China…..

Yes but N. Korea haven't attacked us.

Shouldn't we now being bombing ten shades of sh*t out of them?

You lead and let us know how it goes.

I have just checked the foreign office and apparently you can apply online for ambassadorial/diplomacy roles. You seem to have all the skills required to repesent us abroad

come friendly bombs fall upon Swindon.

Mr Nutt – nice bit of Betjeman!

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

yeah lets start another war

that will make things much better for everyone

Doesn't seem to be much happening about it yet we spend billions trying to kill every member of the Taliban

China…

but surely someone ought to respond?

Splendid – so N Korea just gets away with it. What next? Maybe launch a sneaky nuclear attack on Seoul?

Sobriety Good point

LHS I think they are also a member of NATO

Jamie sounds like a good plan to me

and as mentioned a couple of time now china may not like it……

sneaky nuclear attack on Seoul?

A "sneaky" nuclear bomb!! – look away, nothing to see here! 😆

LHS I think they are also a member of NATO

who? bananaman?

A "sneaky" nuclear bomb!! – look away, nothing to see here!

A suggested purchase…

Maybe launch a sneaky nuclear attack on Seoul?

How exactly will they do this?
EDIT: Good recovery or genuine I am not sure

Sneaky until it detonates perhaps….

I believe the South have been calling for UN sanctions, and possibly a strongly worded letter.

That should sort it all out.

Have they got any oil?

Who is the "we" who should be bombing ten shades of sh*t out of them?

North and South Korea have a disputed border and a fractious relationship. North Korea has done a rather silly and provocative thing, not for the first time. Ultimately, what they have done is not by itself worth launching a war over. Equally, it does not appear to be the precursor to them launching a war against South Korea. The idea that they will move straight from sneakily live-testing torpedoes to sneakily live-testing nuclear missiles is just silly. Having nuclear missiles means however that they can probably get away with stupid provocations of this sort more reliably than might otherwise be the case.

No-one likes the way North Korea is. Even the Chinese would prefer the world if North Korea was saner and better governed. Equally, interfering with the place is certain to stir up a massive refugee crisis and a lot of instability. China does not want tens of millions of starving North Korean refugees trrying to get over its border.

So "we" tolerate a rather grim situation and some military posturing as the lesser of several evils. If North Korea seriously threatens its neighbours it cannot survive a serious military confrontation (not least because its army is too malnourished to train). But it is in no-one's interests to bring that on while all that is offered is irritating but ultimately non-threatening provocation.

What it really needs is china to apply a bit of pressure and tell the north to keep itself in check as they won't listen to the south and the Japanese don't hold as much clout.

There are some interesting documentaries on youtube around the relations between the two koreas.

North Korea has a standing army of a million (wo)men, and as mentioned above, all manner of WMDs. I, for one, do not wish to get involved in a pissing contest with them!

Why don't we just place nuclear bombs along the 39th parallel, detonate them and float the S Koreans off towards Japan somewhere? 🙂

I think the salient question is –

What did S Korea do to provoke N Korea into military action ?

Or should we just assume that N Korea sunk a boat because they're evil commies.

What BigDummy said… although

it cannot survive a serious military confrontation (not least because its army is too malnourished to train)

I'm sure similar would have been said about the Vietnamese.

Sorry, yes. Bombing the shit out of them would work fine in military terms. Whether someone could then establish a pleasant, sane government and spread peace, sunshine and food throughout the land is of course doubtful. 🙂

What did S Korea do to provoke N Korea into military action ?

Just trespassed into THEIR waters, they do it every now and again, blow stuff up that is. They also fire shells into the massive boarder every few months.

Kim Jong is a nut job, imagine if the wally hit a Japanese or Chinese boat, poor chap wouldn't know what hit him.

Whether someone could then establish a pleasant, sane government and spread peace, sunshine and food throughout the land is of course doubtful.

No chance South Koreans whilst very inquisitive, do not like the North Koreans.

America might be pretty poor at picking its fights, but having nearly been driven into the sea by North Korean forces (with the aid of Chinese troops and Soviet air power admittedly) in the early 50's, I doubt they have much appetite for a rerun!

Besides, with the demise of Saddam, we only have Iran and North Korea as duty sabre rattlers now – it all makes for good news 😮

How you rike me now?

N Korea sunk a boat because they're evil commies.

That's pretty much the size of it.

A suggested purchase…

A good recovery! 😉

The truth of the matter is that unless N. Korea starts all out war on S. Korea then no one will do jack s*it. And if they do, then it will probably be the ugliest thing this world has ever seen*

*after Kerry Katona

What did S Korea do to provoke N Korea into military action

Well they are technically still at war.

I can think of at least 1,078 reasons why the failure of the global community to resolve this war and create a long lasting peace remains a disgrace! 🙁

http://www.britains-smallwars.com/korea/roh-korea/roh-korea.html

we will remember!

In reality there is not much that can be done. Any military strike by South Korea and its allies would be seen by the North as a provocation to war, which would lead to major destabilization of area as well as a death toll at best not seen since the last Korean war i.e. over a million at worst since the 40’s.

The UN can not apply many more economic sanctions as they are extremely stringent as it is and the Council knows it’ll be the hoi poli who suffer the financial constraints and not the military.

The USA doesn’t want to fight as Iraq & Afghanistan is a major budget drain as well as a loss of life that the population is slowly becoming sick off.

As mentioned already the Chinese don’t want war due to the costs and the huge displacement of hungry North Koreans jumping the border causing a humanitarian crisis. I mean the Chinese can barely feed its own without having to look after millions of Koreans while attempting to have a ding dong with the US.

In reality what’ll happen? Both the North and South will carry on puffing out their chest and eventually the UN will issue the standard English complaint, i.e. a letter of unhappyness asking them not to do it again.

Of course this is my opinion I am sure others will disagree.

P.S. sorry of the long post, it only started off as a sentence and I got carried away.

North Korea has a standing army of a million (wo)men, and as mentioned above, all manner of WMDs. I, for one, do not wish to get involved in a pissing contest with them!

So did Iraq pre-GW1 and that didn't count for much. Not saying we should bomb the crap out of them or invade, just that a 1 million strong standing army counts for jackshit against the kind of technology the US military has. I'd give it 72 hours until the US had air supremacy. Although NK would probably start using tactical WMDs a lot earlier than Saddam was prepared to…

Can we join in on Xbox live? After all… if it turns nasty then all the STW armchair warriors can just start again from the last save point.

They're the annoying kid in the class. They can disrupt and throw stuff around and make life annoying for others but they the ideal solution isn't beat them round the head with dumbells shouting die die die.

They sunk a warship and killed over 40 people.

It wasn't one of our warships though, and last time I checked ROK wasn't in NATO.

Does anyone know whether China and North Korea have a formal defensive alliance?

I think not, and that China is just comparatively sympathetic to them and does not want a US-led war kicking off in its backyard. An actual "fact" would be great though if anyone's got one.

Neither the US or the UK could spare the troops to be fighting on 3 fronts at the same time, it would be state organised suicide for the limited resources. Not to mention stupid.