North Korea Attacks South Korea - Page 3

US and South Korean officials have discussed plans for a united Korea, should North Korea collapse.
The US ambassador to Seoul said South Korea would consider offering commercial incentives to China to "help salve" Beijing "concerns about living with a reunified Korea".

North Korea's Kim Jong-il is a "flabby old chap" suffering from trauma from a stroke, while Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is referred to as "Hitler".

The origins of the attack can be traced to a sea border drawn at the close of the Korean War, nearly 60 years ago.
As the conflict ended in a truce, the U.S.-led U.N. Command divided the Yellow Sea without Pyongyang's consent, cutting North Korea off from rich fishing waters and boxing in a crucial deep-water port, a move that clearly favored the South.
North Korea has bitterly contested the line ever since, arguing that it should run farther south. But for Seoul, accepting such a line would endanger fishing around five South Korean islands and hamper access to its port at Incheon.

.Lee took office in 2008 vowing to end the decade-long "sunshine policy" of his two predecessors, which increased political and economic ties with North Korea as a way of reducing military tension on the Korean peninsula. But Lee found the Korean public deeply divided, with little appetite among many for a return to a more confrontational approach......
The split largely reflected what analysts and average Koreans agreed was a generational divide. Older Koreans, especially those who fought in the Korean War or had a living memory of it, were vastly more inclined to view North Korea as a hostile enemy to be confronted. Young people, particularly those in their 20s who came of age during the sunshine policy, had no interest in a conflict and were just as inclined to disbelieve their own political leaders as to blame North Korea.
But North Korea's Nov. 23 attack on Yeonpyeong island, which killed two civilians as well as two soldiers, might be narrowing that divide....

South Koreas President Lee Myung-bak, in an address to the nation Monday, denounced North Koreas attack on a remote island in the Yellow Sea nearly one week ago as a crime against humanity.....
While the war of words raged between North and South Korea, the flotilla, led by the aircraft carrier George Washington, conducted what a South Korean military spokesman said were high intensity war games featuring mock attacks and target practice on a 24-hour basis.
The exercises are to wind up Wednesday, but concerns about the will of the South Koreans and the Americans to defend the South effectively were sure to persist. Its just rhetoric, says Chang Ki-tak, a retired businessman, after listening to Lees speech. It was a hard-line speech, but anybody can say those things.

The cables about North Korea some emanating from Seoul, some from Beijing, many based on interviews with government officials, and others with scholars, defectors and other experts are long on educated guesses and short on facts, illustrating why their subject is known as the Black Hole of Asia. Because they are State Department documents, not intelligence reports, they do not include the most secret American assessments, or the American militarys plans in case North Korea disintegrates or lashes out.

They contain loose talk and confident predictions of the end of the family dynasty that has ruled North Korea for 65 years. Those discussions were fueled by a rash of previously undisclosed defections of ranking North Korean diplomats, who secretly sought refuge in the South.

But they were also influenced by a remarkable period of turmoil inside North Korea, including an economic crisis set off by the governments failed effort to revalue its currency and sketchy intelligence suggesting that the North Korean military might not abide the rise of Mr. Kims inexperienced young son, Kim Jong-un, who was recently made a four-star general despite having no military experience.

The cables reveal that in private, the Chinese, long seen as North Koreas last protectors against the West, occasionally provide the Obama administration with colorful assessments of the state of play in North Korea. Chinese officials themselves sometimes even laugh about the frustrations of dealing with North Korean paranoia.......

The cables also show that almost as soon as the Obama administration came to office, it started raising alarms that the North was buying up components to enrich uranium, opening a second route for it to build nuclear weapons. (Until now, the Norths arsenal has been based on its production of plutonium, but its production capacity has been halted.)

In June 2009, at a lunch in Beijing shortly after the North Korean nuclear test, two senior Chinese Foreign Ministry officials reported that Chinas experts believed the enrichment was only in its initial phases. In fact, based on what the North Koreans revealed this month, an industrial-scale enrichment plant was already under construction. It was apparently missed by both American and Chinese intelligence services.

The cables make it clear that the South Koreans believe that internal tensions in the North have reached a boiling point. In January of this year, South Koreas foreign minister, who later resigned, reported to a visiting American official that the South Koreans saw an increasingly chaotic situation in the North.......

New documents posted on the websites of the Guardian and The New York Times suggest Chinese officials are losing patience with long-time ally North Korea. Senior figures in Beijing have even described the regime in the North as behaving like a "spoiled child."

According to cables obtained by WikiLeaks, South Korea's then vice foreign minister, Chun Yung-woo, said earlier this year that senior Chinese officials (whose names are redacted in the cables) had told him they believed Korea should be reunified under Seoul's control, and that this view was gaining ground with the leadership in Beijing.......

Chun, who has since become South Korea's National Security Adviser, dismissed the prospect of China's military intervention in the event of a North Korean collapse, noting that "China's strategic economic interests now lie with the United States, Japan, and South Korea -- not North Korea."

Originally Posted by SDW2001

We absolutely should not have.

Originally Posted by FloorJack

Cut and run. Isolate ourselves. Head in sand.

Originally Posted by SDW2001

That might be the biggest strawman in the history of AI.

Originally Posted by SDW2001

I wasn't addressing our troop presence in South Korea. I wasn't addressing our questionable role as policemen of the world (questionable as to whether or not that's what we should be).

Originally Posted by SDW2001

No, I was only addressing the current situation. We have to deal with the situation as we find it, not as we'd like it to be. We DO have troops there, and we DO have a military presence in the region. Given that, we had a highly provocative act by DPRK (some would say multiple acts of war). We need to send a message of strength and show our solidarity with the ROK. We need to demonstrate that if KJI goes too far, there will be a strong military response.

Originally Posted by SDW2001

He should have no doubt that restarting the war with the South would lead to the decimation of his country and him losing power.

In response to the North Korean moves and apparent Chinese acquiescence, Washington is moving to redefine its relationship with South Korea and Japan, potentially creating an anti-China bloc in Northeast Asia that officials say they don't want but may need.....

The US, South Korea and Japan are to hold talks in Washington shortly on ways to deal with North Korea.
China's president earlier warned US President Barack Obama that tensions on the Korean peninsula could get out of control if not properly handled.

China has a "unique responsibility" to tackle the issue of North Korea, the top US military commander has said.

The US has hit upon a strategy of mingling diplomatic appeals with military tough talk in attempts to restrain North Korea from staging attacks on South Korean targets.

That much appears clear from the latest pronouncement of Washingtons two top representatives in South Korea, the US ambassador and the commander of US forces, although how theyre thinking of following through on this approach remains unclear.

Ambassador Kathleen Stephens, in line with a US diplomatic offensive ongoing since the North Korean artillery barrage on an island in the Yellow Sea on Nov. 23, clearly believes China holds the cards when it comes to getting North Korea to refrain from future episodes.

North Korea has threatened violent retaliation if the South goes through with a live-fire artillery drill this weekend. The South is planning to hold the training exercise on Yeonpyeong Island, the scene of the North Korean bombardment on Nov. 23 that left four South Koreans dead.

With tensions on the Korean peninsula at a peak, the Souths persistence in conducting the drill is being seen as a show of force to the North, but also as needlessly provocative given the tense state of affairs.

Russia has summoned the South Korean and US envoys to express "deep concern" about upcoming live-fire military exercises on an island shelled by North Korea last month.

Japan has unveiled sweeping changes to its national defence polices, boosting its southern forces in response to neighbouring China's military rise.

An unofficial US envoy visiting North Korea has warned that the situation on the peninsula is a "tinderbox".
The envoy, Bill Richardson, made the comments after talks with officials in Pyongyang, whom he asked to exercise "extreme restraint".
He said he had urged them to let South Korea go ahead with planned live-firing exercises on an island which was shelled by the North last month.
Pyongyang has been threatening to strike back if the drill goes ahead.

China today said it was deeply worried over the deteriorating security situation on the Korean peninsula and called for immediate resumption of talks between North Korea and South Korea to de-escalate tensions.
China is deeply worried about the situation on the Korean Peninsula, which is extremely precarious, highly complicated and sensitive, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun said in a statement here......

Originally Posted by FloorJack

The saber rattling of the Obama regime will force North Korea into a defensive first strike.

Originally Posted by FloorJack

Yea great. Right when things get tricky the US cuts and runs. If the US wanted out it should have been working on that for the past 50 years. To do it last minute weakens the US.

Originally Posted by SpamSandwich

Who cares? "Weakens the US"? Ridiculous. Having military personnel everywhere on the planet draining the resources of our country... THAT weakens the US!

North Korea says it will not retaliate despite "reckless provocations" from the South, which held live-fire drills on the flashpoint island of Yeonpyeong.

PYONGYANG, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Monday that it did not "feel any need" to react against the South Korea's artillery drill off the west coast of the Korean Peninsula, state media reported.

Originally Posted by SpamSandwich

Who cares? "Weakens the US"? Ridiculous. Having military personnel everywhere on the planet draining the resources of our country... THAT weakens the US!

Originally Posted by FloorJack

It may be best to be an isolationist country but showing the world that the US gets going when the going gets tough weakens the US and encourages the despots and dictators of the world to get going.

Plus you can't just leave your friends high and dry. If leaving that part of the world is a good plan then the US should work on a 20 year plan with South Korea and Japan so they can prepare to take on their full defense without US intervention.

Originally Posted by Frank777

The problem with the Korean situation is that no-one wants it to end.

Korea's industrial sector worries about the costs of reunification, The U.S. doesn't want to lose an important military foothold in Asia, China worries that a reunified Korea will align with the U.S. and leave it exposed right on its own border.

That a dictator rules starving millions by brute force is almost forgotten in the matter.

Originally Posted by FineTunes

The problem is more how to end the armistice with a workable treaty. China might agree with a reunified Korea if Korea is more neutral. China needs to act on NK before they further develop their nuclear capabilities....otherwise they may realize too late that they have created a Frankenstein's monster.

Originally Posted by SpamSandwich

Because they are dealing with a powder keg, even China realizes their influence has limits on N Korea.

Originally Posted by SDW2001

China's another one. They are like the Soviets with more prosperity and no satellite states. Let's not forget, China is a communist country. Has anyone noticed we're not talking about that anymore? They have major military ambitions. Their goal is to have military parity with the US by 2050. At this rate, it will be more like 2020. Very concerning...not because of their rise, but because of their system.

Originally Posted by SDW2001

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101123...20101123092327

Very concerning. This would seem to be more than a "skirmish." Then again, the response from the US, China and the South itself seems to indicate the primary focus in lack of escalation. My question is...how many times is this going to happen before it triggers a full-scale war? One has to wonder about China's role as well. While they are regarded as the North's only real ally, I can't imagine they would tolerate an invasion of the South. Perhaps that is the only thing stopping it from happening.

Originally Posted by SDW2001

China's another one. They are like the Soviets with more prosperity and no satellite states. Let's not forget, China is a communist country. Has anyone noticed we're not talking about that anymore? They have major military ambitions. Their goal is to have military parity with the US by 2050. At this rate, it will be more like 2020. Very concerning...not because of their rise, but because of their system.

Originally Posted by nvidia2008

I can tell you deep down China is starting to think of North Korea as that idiotic "friend" of yours that comes out with your other friends to bars and clubs and always ends up causing problems.

North Korea needs to be sorted out once and for all. Seriously. Left-wing approach would be to extend the olive branch and say, look, time for change, we will help you usher in a new life... Surely North Korea's current path is patently unsustainable. Right-wing approach would be invasion and nuclear war, which would... suck.

But this Korea situation needs to be sorted out. South Korea is a major political, economic, social and monetary force today. North Korea is like a wooden hut on the doorstep of South Korea's skyscraper. Entropy dictates some sh*t is going to go down!

Originally Posted by nvidia2008

Right-wing approach would be invasion and nuclear war, which would... suck

Originally Posted by nvidia2008

North Korea needs to be sorted out once and for all. Seriously. Left-wing approach would be to extend the olive branch and say, look, time for change, we will help you usher in a new life... Surely North Korea's current path is patently unsustainable. Right-wing approach would be invasion and nuclear war, which would... suck.

But this Korea situation needs to be sorted out. South Korea is a major political, economic, social and monetary force today. North Korea is like a wooden hut on the doorstep of South Korea's skyscraper. Entropy dictates some sh*t is going to go down!

Originally Posted by segovius

I though Right-wing approach was to ignore it completely and scream louder and louder about Iran.

Has been so far anyway....

North Korea appears more likely now to stage another long-range missile test or underground nuclear explosion rather than attacking South Korean targets, according to security experts in South Korea

Originally Posted by nvidia2008

I can tell you deep down China is starting to think of North Korea as that idiotic "friend" of yours that comes out with your other friends to bars and clubs and always ends up causing problems.

Originally Posted by nvidia2008

North Korea needs to be sorted out once and for all. Seriously. Left-wing approach would be to extend the olive branch and say, look, time for change, we will help you usher in a new life... Surely North Korea's current path is patently unsustainable. Right-wing approach would be invasion and nuclear war, which would... suck.

Originally Posted by nvidia2008

But this Korea situation needs to be sorted out. South Korea is a major political, economic, social and monetary force today. North Korea is like a wooden hut on the doorstep of South Korea's skyscraper. Entropy dictates some sh*t is going to go down!