North Korea

[welshbairn]

There

what evidence do you have that the North Korean military is 'hungry'?

for decades the country has been run according to the 'Songbun', or 'military first' principle. If anything people will try and access the military to have greater access to food.

There is some evidence of civilian malnourishment in DPRK and the food supplies have been for from certain there for over twenty years. There is no evidence whatever that food shortages extend to the military- which by the way is one of the largest standing armies on earth.

You're talking out of your arse.

There are different views on that:

1. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/8759125/Half-of-North-Koreas-army-starving.html (from a couple of years ago)

2. http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/24793

[welshbairn]

I thought you were in Inverness?

Have to nip abroad on Saturdays to watch the Falkirk TV livestream. Like to do my bit..

[Ivo den Bieman]

again, in my view this is largely hearsay and smoke and mirrors.

There are food shortages in DPRK and have been with regularity. The regime is not stupid though, the available food will be distributed to the military before anyone else.

I am no supporter of NK or the 'Juche' hereditary monarchy there, but calls to invade them are lunacy IMO.

[ellisdee]

I can't see this escalating into anything much.I'm sure the commie Koreans done something like this

before and pulled out.The Chinese are their main ally,so it will be them who'll do most of the work in

simmering them down.

As previous posters have said and without help from China,any conflict would be resolved within a

week in the South Koreans favour.

[Newbornbairn]

None of our business. China will make it their newest province tout-de-fucking-suite if the Norks start seriously pissing off their biggest customer.

[F_T_Y]

Another illegal war,just what the world needs.

They are all on the same side anyway.Why do you think no one bothers to do anything about the appaling human rights records in china.

They use these places as testing grounds and plan to bring in the same sort of structure across the world.

[wunfellaff]

That's actually not that impressive a statistic: Iraq had apparently the world's fourth largest army in the late 1980s, but it didn't stop the US obliterating it in Gulf War I.

Only stat that counts is - countries to have nuked a civilian population = 1.

the world needs a strong "somebody " to keep the Yanks reined in.

[DAFC]

Interesting that North Korea only started nuclear tests after it was named as part of the axis of evil.

NK may be a messed up country but I find it ironic that the only country in the World who has used nuclear weapons in anger gets to tell who can and can't have them. America like in Israel is part of the problem.

[yoda]

Interesting that North Korea only started nuclear tests after it was named as part of the axis of evil.

NK may be a messed up country but I find it ironic that the only country in the World who has used nuclear weapons in anger gets to tell who can and can't have them. America like in Israel is part of the problem.

That's not really true though, is it?

We can argue the moral justification/issues of dropping two atomic bombs but they certainly weren't dropped out of anger.

Edited for poor grammar.

[Ad Lib]

The reason we're not carpet bombing Pyongyang is because they have nuclear weapons.

The reason North Korea shouldn't be allowed nuclear weapons is because their power structures are incredibly unstable, meaning those in a position to might actually be mental enough to use them. See also why people were shitting themselves when Pakistan got nukes.

[welshbairn]

Why would we want to carpet bomb them if they didn't have nuclear weapons? The reason we aren't bombing them is their next door neighbour, China.

[fifergaz]

If America wanted to,it would wipe out n.Korea in a few days.n Koreas most advanced weapon,at the moment,is the scud missile.the number of infantry n Korea can call up is irrelevant.smart bombing and missiles would quickly negate their usefulness without even the need for a ground invasion.people who think America in the past have struggled to beat the baddies don't appreciate that America has never gone 'all out' on a country.they've tried precision bombing,tried to train people in countries to fight for themselves,been too nice imo when they could've got medieval and worried too much about civilian population deaths.n Korea has no nukes yet.they've been testing baby bombs which wouldn't get past their own borders.they can't even attack s Korea ffs.we've nothing to worry about from n Korea.n Korea has no money.they are in a really shitty geographical position.no natural resources to speak of.China wouldn't even care if It's so called ally was wiped out by America.America is Chinas biggest economical partner.it won't interfere.so,in summary,America would beat n Korea easily.if it really had to.

[~~~]

people who think America in the past have struggled to beat the baddies don't appreciate that America has never gone 'all out' on a country.

So you don't think dropping 2 nuclear bombs on Japan was "all out"?

Anyway, if a ground invasion wasn't necessary for N.Korea, why didn't they use this tactic in Afghanistan?

[fifergaz]

So you don't think dropping 2 nuclear bombs on Japan was "all out"?Anyway, if a ground invasion wasn't necessary for N.Korea, why didn't they use this tactic in Afghanistan?

I did mean to say since 2nd world war.Afghanistan has been a tippy tappy war.trying to find bin laden without doing to much damage to the country and trying to win local hearts over minds and encourage local Afghanis to rise up against their Taliban oppressors.they couldn't do this by indiscriminate bombing and wiping out the people.my point is that if they wanted to,they could.

[Mr. Brightside]

Nuking someone isn't "going all out" though.

[Enigma]

The North Korean situation saddens me greatly. I hope the regime falls from the inside in a largely bloodless 1989 Eastern European type revolution. Forming a reunified Korea wouldn't be without it's difficulties, that's for sure.

[doulikefish]

Always worth a watch when north korea is mentioned

[cracowjambo]

so, in short, you know absolutely nothing about North Korea or their military?

So what do you know that I don't? Are you a expert on North Korea? It's not hard to work out that a country with no money, very little food and that has people risking their lifes and their families to escape will seriously put up much of a fight. I don't think it will take a few days but at the same time I don't expect it to last more than a few months. I think restarting the war with the North is fully justified.

[MONKMAN]

The fat kid in charge, is supposedly a bigger lunatic than his dad. Can't see this ending well, with the Chinese and Russians getting pissed off

[doulikefish]

The new un sanctions have just taken effect with a massive joint military exercise in the south about to take place,hopefully just the usual sabre rattling from the north