The DPRK Blows Another Atom Bomb

[JockBoy87]

North Korea might really be serious about developing nuclear missiles after announcing the detonation of their third weapon. Seismologists confirmed the test. Supposedly, the device was physically smaller than the previous weapons, but the same yield.

The danger now, in conjunction with their missile program, is that the DPRK will achieve a nuclear ICBM and destabilize the entire region.

The only measures now that are likely to stop them are cooperation from China and inspections of North Korean maritime trade. Neither is likely to happen.

[Telstra]

How come only 1 person is FAT in the country ?

[GiancarloC]

China is the only one that can put pressure on North Korea and I'm sure they are not all too happy about this. China trades more with South Korea than they do with North Korea, ironically. So China has a lot more to lose in this situation.

[CowboyBob]

Baby Kim wants to display his manhood to the world. For a country so isolated and impoverished you'd think they would learn not to do things like this.

[JockBoy87]

Baby Kim wants to display his manhood to the world. For a country so isolated and impoverished you'd think they would learn not to do things like this.

Whatever fortune he and his government thinks they have now through corrupt totalitarianism and aggressive isolationism, what unfathomable sum it would be through corrupt capitalism. If the country's market were reformed and opened to foreign investment, the government would still be corrupt, but the people would be better off.

[GiancarloC]

Whatever fortune he and his government thinks they have now through corrupt totalitarianism and aggressive isolationism, what unfathomable sum it would be through corrupt capitalism. If the country's market were reformed and opened to foreign investment, the government would still be corrupt, but the people would be better off.

That's a bit of the argument for South Korea. It has its corruption and certainly had its own forms of authoritarian governments, but even its most strict and brutal General Park Chung-hee dictatorship in South Korea matched what North Korea does to its people. South Korea was a military dictatorship from about the 1960s all the way to early 1990s... but it still opened up its economy.

China is an authoritarian state, not quite totalitarian but it has opened up its economy obviously.

[rareboy]

The thinking is that it is timed to coincide with the State of the Union speech.

[CowboyBob]

The thinking is that it is timed to coincide with the State of the Union speech.

I heard that too. Something about NK hoping the President will mention to the world they blew another bomb. It makes them sound tough and mean.

[Jack Springer]

Obama's equal ....

[CowboyBob]

Obama's equal ....

Springer's equal.....

[Rolyo85]

Obama's equal ....

Your posts have no class.

[Apollo]

I don't know why N. Korea keeps doing it. The more they do this stuff, the more China backs away. The thing with it though, is China doesn't want to completely cut off ties with N. Korea. Doing so and allowing the country to collapse would finally mean a unified, democratic Korea that would obviously be controlled by America. And the last thing China wants is that on one of their borders.

Interesting to see how this plays out. No doubt Obama will probably direct a carrier group back into Korean water as a show of force.

[Zu-Mendel]

It honestly wouldn't surprise me if North Korea did something monumentally stupid, and China simply annexes the whole country. Place some puppet on the throne who makes peace with South Korea, and opens up trade and travel with the rest of the world. All sides win, the west is relieved of a headache, and China no longer has to deal with the shit their sociopathic neighbor to the south keeps dragging them through while maintaining a tidy little buffer zone.

Seriously, would anybody on earth raise an objection to China taking Kimmy out behind the woodshed?

[JockBoy87]

It honestly wouldn't surprise me if North Korea did something monumentally stupid, and China simply annexes the whole country. Place some puppet on the throne who makes peace with South Korea, and opens up trade and travel with the rest of the world. All sides win, the west is relieved of a headache, and China no longer has to deal with the shit their sociopathic neighbor to the south keeps dragging them through while maintaining a tidy little buffer zone.

Seriously, would anybody on earth raise an objection to China taking Kimmy out behind the woodshed?

That would be fun to watch. A Chinese invasion would be the last thing Kim would expect since all the North Korean firepower is on the southern border aimed at Seoul. The border with China is just a stream with a few corrupt guards scattered along its banks. It's still a lot of troops and guns and whatnot involved. China would probably not go in on it without South Korea and the United States, which would never happen because a) the Chinese generals would rather eat dirt and b) the South Koreans would rather not have Seoul shelled to the ground.

[Benvolio]

The new Kim does seem even more aggressive than the last two. Still his agression will probably be passive such as selling to Iran or Al Queada.

- - - Updated - - -

The new Kim does seem even more aggressive than the last two. Still his agression will probably be passive such as selling to Iran or Al Queada.

[Kulindahr]

That would be fun to watch. A Chinese invasion would be the last thing Kim would expect since all the North Korean firepower is on the southern border aimed at Seoul. The border with China is just a stream with a few corrupt guards scattered along its banks. It's still a lot of troops and guns and whatnot involved. China would probably not go in on it without South Korea and the United States, which would never happen because a) the Chinese generals would rather eat dirt and b) the South Koreans would rather not have Seoul shelled to the ground.

Invasion? No, China would just force Kim to accept about five million "immigrants", who would steadily take over political and economic power bases until North Korea would just be absorbed.

[loki81]

It honestly wouldn't surprise me if North Korea did something monumentally stupid, and China simply annexes the whole country. Place some puppet on the throne who makes peace with South Korea, and opens up trade and travel with the rest of the world. All sides win, the west is relieved of a headache, and China no longer has to deal with the shit their sociopathic neighbor to the south keeps dragging them through while maintaining a tidy little buffer zone.

Seriously, would anybody on earth raise an objection to China taking Kimmy out behind the woodshed?

I think China's ideal is either status quo or a unified peninsula under the control of South Korea... the *last* thing they want is for NK to fall and have to deal with a flood of refugees into China (which I would also assume would apply to any kind of Chinese annexation)

[guyfromNY]

China cannot cut off North Korea for the simple reason that there are 24 million starving north koreans that will flood into china the minute that regime collapses. If this were to happen, it would completely screw up china's economy.

[Ninja108]

IT all boils down to China..and they aren't going to do squat.

[Kulindahr]

IT all boils down to China..and they aren't going to do squat.

With one exception: they're not going to allow a flaky dictator to have a weapon capable of dropping nuclear fire on the United States. North Korean leadership hardly takes a dump without getting Chinese approval, and if the North were to hit the US with a nuke, the whole world would know it was really China. They'd rather invade North Korea and impose their own government, with all the problems that would entail, than face such a situation.