Dealing with North Korea
The following is from CNN breaking news:
Intercepted communications in recent days indicate that North Korea could be planning to launch a mobile ballistic missile in the coming days or weeks, a U.S. official tells CNN.The news came as South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin told a parliamentary committee in Seoul that the North has moved a medium-range missile to its east coast for an imminent test firing or military drill. The missile doesn’t appear to be aimed at the U.S. mainland, Kim said, according to the semi-official South Korean news agency Yonhap.
Well, if they are moving medium-range missiles to its east coast then who do you think they are aiming at?
I think the U.S. should (and it would be nice if China assisted) took out the North Korean missiles and nuke plants.
Doug: It’s just not that simple. The only thing that could reliably diminish the NK arsenal and prevent major retaliation on SK and Japan and US bases would be a nuclear attack. The Chinese would not be happy with that. A conventional attack, even one by China and the US jointly, would not degrade the NK forces enough to prevent the devastation of SK. There are more than 3,000 artillery tubes buried in tunnels and bunkers on the northern side of the DMV. They are all within the range of Seoul, and the only thing that could take them out would be a ground invasion. It would take a week to do so, and during all of that time, hundreds of shells per minute would be falling on the people who live in Seoul and its suburbs. It would be nice to expunge this heinous regime from the Earth, but it will kill a lot of people before it goes, and we can’t take that chance, especially now that it has nukes. Clinton might could have done something in the ’90s, but at terrible cost. The NK leadership loves to take things to the brink so it can claim moral victory over the West. Let’s hope that’s what all this is about. War in Korea will be total war. Casualties for US forces will surpass Afghanistan and Iraq in the first day, and South Korea will experience a holocaust. The only thing that can prevent it is if we make clear to the NK regime that it will not survive such a conflict, but we have to be careful to neither appease them or back them into a corner.
I’m with Doug – I think the North Korean regime is well overdue for a smackdown. I honestly don’t understand why the Chinese continue to support them, where’s the upside for China?
After the 1986 raid on Libya that country ceased being an international problem, and I think it’s time for North Korea to get the same treatment. I think that modern aerial munitions – bunker busting smart bombs, etc. – would be very effective against the NK artillery and that their capability to sustain an artillery barrage against Seoul is much less than popularly believed.
Grif: Well, a nuclear attack would not exactly please Japan either, since we are right next door.
You don’t think just taking out the threatening mobile missiles would work? What would NK do in response? Start an all out war?
And what’s the safety balance here. Do we want to allow them to leave missiles pointed at Japan?
Well, the problem is there’s no knowing what NK would do in response to a strike – they’re nutball isolationists with a nutjob in charge 🙁
Here’s a really solid analysis from a CIA expert.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/04/north-korea-climbdown/