Do you think what's going on between North Korea and South Korea is scary?

Yes it scary. But not because the US is constantly interfering in other countries. Its scary because people are threatening to bomb each other.

On the other hand, if you are saying that the US is antagonizing the situation, then I’m not sure… its hard as hell to know what influences North Korea.

Compared to the Cold War, the NK situation is about as scary as pulling up at the platform at the end of the roller-coaster ride.

Saying that, I don’t know if we’re gonna be going ‘round agaaah-ah-aaain!!!!!!-

I could be wrong but I don’t think the North Koreans could fight a real war. They’re all pretty much starving to death there.

The North Koreans are mostly starving, but their military is pretty well fed. The country’s “economy” is almost completely based on the military. They are nuclear capable, but as far as I know, they don’t have adequate delivery systems for their weapons. They have a ton of artillery that is all mostly pointed at Seoul. Almost all of it is super outdated Cold-War era stuff and there is no telling how much of it is actually still functional or how well it has been maintained. Despite what many people think, I don’t think that China would back the Norks over the US. A lot has changed since Korean War Uno, and China has pretty much referred to Kim Jong Il as a “spoiled brat.”

The South Korean military is massive and incredibly capable. With US backing, they would probably steamroll through North Korea. In the end, part of North Korea would probably be ceded to China after the peninsula was mostly unified. Seoul, however, would probably be leveled by artillery. That’s shitty, but it’s how war works.

My conclusion: I’m not really scared. War is hell and it sucks, but it happens, and I’m pretty sure North Korea would get stomped. It would be ugly, but the world would be better without the crazy ass Juche regime, or whatever he calls himself now.

A few years ago I went to Panmunjom “village” in the DMZ between NK and SK. You have to sign waivers that you are entering a hostile territory. There are land mines on both sides of the road. No sudden moves, no reaching, no…. Blah, blah, blah. I stopped listening at the mention of land mines. You go into the room that straddles the border and healthy looking NK soldiers with red cheeks stand just outside the windows and look in at you like they’re watching fish in an aquarium. The military is well fed while the people starve.
It boggles the mind that this mess had been going on for almost 60 years. Something tragic will need to happen before it ever gets better.
So far, SK showed very noble restraint. That will not last.

(I still have the UN lapel pin I got there.)

No it does not scare me. I am concerned though for those in the region who may lose their lives in the dirty skirmishes over the next couple of years.

I think all the leaders get together and have a big turkey ham banquette to discuss how they can stir shit up in order to distract the general population from the real problems at hand.

lillycoyote’s scenario reads plausable at first, but the north has a gun. Northers blow south this time of year. That is my worst case scenario. Wile the big seven are rich and powerfull, as you wrote, the north is starving. The same holds true for africa. We express our trade sanctions on others too. Such as Iran and Cuba. If the south bombs the north, millions might die, including us.
Why? Because some sub commander witnessed a distroyer impose on it’s territorial waters and buy the time he cought up to the fast distroyer and put torpedos into it it was back in it’s home waters. Because the “Brat” went on vacation and put his son in charge (whom will lead the country anyway one day) . His “brat” son has no doubt hurd their generals brag about how they would win a war against the south.
Our one sided oppinions last time caused us to take down Saddam. A murder and former hit man we promoted to political power. Here we go again incurraging the south..this time against a nucliar power.
Will we imagion a country won’t comit suicide before it falls? I don’t want to do harm here, but the question itself is harmfull under the worst scenerio.

are you misspelling all those words for affect @Tex88?

What do you mean by “the question itself is harmful”?

Welcome to Fluther.

What is scary about North Korea is that it verges on being a failed state. Their economy is in rather poor shape. The Chinese are very worried about the regime collapsing and having refugees crossing the border. China is on record as saying that it would prefer to have a unified Korea under control by Seoul than have NK implode. The real question is how long it is going to take the North Korean population to realize how much better life is in China and South Korea.

It would be scary if I lived in North or South Korea. Maybe if I lived in Japan or China, too.

I’m concerned, as I’m always concerned when a psychotic ‘world leader’ breaks away from ‘simple posturing’ and starts lobbing artillery shells or worse on a neighbor, or on ‘disputed territory’ between itself and a neighbor (as Pakistan and India do over Jammu and Kashmir, and as Israel and several of its neighbors do from time to time, and as others do on occasion). And yes, I was disappointed that the United States chose to invade Iraq on the expectation of discovering ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’, because now we seem to have legitimized—or at least attempted to legitimize—that as a reason to declare war on a sovereign nation.

@lillycoyote you could be wrong, i read an interesting article about their capabilities, for example they manufacture their own weapons, they have one million standing army, they have highly motivated special forces, they have amply stocked, sprawling tunnel networks systems that aren’t affected by EMP pulse, several airbases all underground, entrances facing North to avoid a direct hit. They have tank regiments, the entire adult population has rudimentary weapons training. They have missile systems that are potentially nuclear, they have decent submarines, that we do know. and a modest navy, but no aircraft carrier. They have been preparing for war for years and are dug in like an Alabama tick, and last but by no means least they have China :) so i’m assuming they aren’t going to roll over.

But it is scary, i disagree that they would be steam rolled, but it is hard to deny American firepower, Artillery may be crude but it is manoeuvrable and effective, but the concept of civilian casualties makes me sick to the stomach. North Korea must abandon any hope of reunification on it’s terms, that is ridiculous. America should withdraw, quietly and let North Korea devolve in good time. Personally i think they need their heads banged together. North Korea should do what is best for it’s people. Cuba has had to adapt in order to feed it’s population which is more important than the military, So North Korea has to change.

Doesn’t bother me, at least not yet. Who knows, it could end up with South Korea winning and merging with North Korea to form a happy, healthy nation.
Does anybody here like North Korea?

If the US gets involved in one more war I’m moving to Mars.

I know this sounds crazy, but has anyone ever thought about making friends with our enemies?

Way too much pride in this world.

@Nullo not much but i hate American foreign policy more if that counts, nothing personal. And i hate the way America has a monopoly on violence, why can’t i kill a few million people, why does America get to have all the fun?

moving to Mars, that seems kind of ironic as a place to avoid war :)

Underground airbases? How is that possible?

North Korea’s military is well fed compared to the rest of the population but even in the military there is a pecking order of sorts and the low level soldiers are often underfed and malnourished. And their “military first” policy has left them with a generation of recruits who were malnourished as children and are smaller in stature and may have moderate or greater cognitive deficits because of it. And most of their soldiers are infantry and those things matter. Also, as some pundit pointed out somewhere, the North Koreans soldiers may be getting smaller but their weapons and what they carry into battle are not. And their reserve troops, coming from the general population are not well fed or well nourished. They do manufacture their own weapons and they have stock piles of weapons but even the U.S. ran short of bullets with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

North Korea would need to devote a significant percentage of their infrastructure, population, manufacturing capacity and energy and fuel supplies and reserves to wage an all out war, I think. In addition to raw materials, those support services all need people who are fed and willing and able to work. I’m not sure if they can support that.

I think a lot of it is just bluster on the part of North Korea. Perhaps the last ditch efforts of a dying regime. Dictators like Kim Jong-il generally have one priority and that is themselves, and perhaps their family. I think Kim Jong-il understands that it could all go very badly, very quickly. Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part, I don’t know.

Wow. @mammal with a sense of humor? Who woulda thunk it?

I stayed up monitoring the shelling as it was happening, glued to internet news sites. When my American friend teaching English in Seoul woke up, I asked him how things were going over there. He’d been up for an hour and had n’t heard of it. He asked his Korean neighbors and they didn’t care either. He summed up the overall opinion in South Korea of the shelling as “Meh”

I was a bit taken aback, actually. But I suppose I’ll have to trust their opinion, as they’re living it.

Making friends with our enemies would be nice, in a perfect world. There are some insane megalomaniacs that just don’t want to be friends, though. *cough Lil Kim Jong *cough.

send him a pie

@mammal The situation here is considerably different than Iraq and Afghanistan. Unless I’m mistaken, South Korea is an ally. Historically, one backs up his allies or else loses them.
I didn’t think that this administration had a solid foreign policy.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies I don’t think that you realize just how insane Kim Jong Il actually is. Some of the stuff that he says looks downright delusional

send him two pies

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies,

;o)
(much lurve! Ok, just 2— one for each answer!)

It’s scary, but South Korea has no choice. Innocent civilians were killed recently. Next time North Korea does something like this, as a last resort South Korean fighter jets should sink one of their warships.

Thanks for the welcome Realeyes. I didn’t use spell check, sorry. I will this time. As for why i said the question itself is harm full is because i assume the north can read this forum also and did not want to spell out why they have the total upper hand. I hinted at it when i wrote that northers blow south this time of year. They have the bomb. You can not argue with them and they could put one on the border and set if off right before a northern. Instantly the south would all die from nuclear fall out. No antagonizing or escalation from the south can help that. Now that they have read this i might also suggest that they should evacuate southern north korea to northern north korea first and this will put the world into nuclear annihilation mode as well as destroy the country they wish to conquer.

@Tex88
I wouldn’t worry to a great degree that you have a secret war strategy that the North Koreans, or al Qaeda or any other military or terrorist organization in the world isn’t aware of. We can speak freely here. At least until the CIA steps in.

Having said that, I think that you seriously overestimate the destructive and killing potential of a nuclear warhead’s fallout potential – or the ability of the South Korean military and civil defense to protect most (90%) of their population from the scenario you envision.

I think you also overestimate the intent that anyone in North Korea has on any kind of invasion scenario for South Korea. What they are doing is simply ‘business as usual’ for them. This is how they ‘open negotiations’. And that’s all they really want. Open negotiations so that their neighbors (and the US) can make various concessions to them and payments ‘so that they won’t do that again’, and things will settle down until the next time they see fit to ‘open negotiations’.