What would be the best way to subvert North Korea?

[The Kernel]

Okay, let's assume for a second that the Bush administration or another future administration decides they want to take out the NK leaders and occupy the country. You are the general in command and the President has promised you total commitment of resources, but you must keep allied casualties (this includes SK and Japanese civilians) to an absolute minimum. NK casualties are far more acceptable, but the President would like to keep those as low as possible as well, although he says he will leave it up to you to decide what an acceptable amount of NK casualties are.

So what do you do? Is it possible to take down the NK leadership and subvert its military without severe reprisal?

[BoredShirtless]

So what do you do?

Go to Congress and ask it to have the whole administration impeached/thrown in jail. Then nuke Hollywood for filling peoples heads with stupid unrealistic patriotic bullshit.

[Admiral Valdemar]

We could distract them by dropping thousands of nukes on top of them.

And that's it.

[BlkbrryTheGreat]

Overpower their local TV broadcasts (or just bomb their TV broadcast antennas) with TV shows showing the sheer quality and quanity of food that Capitalist Westerners enjoy everyday.

[RogueIce]

Overpower their local TV broadcasts (or just bomb their TV broadcast antennas) with TV shows showing the sheer quality and quanity of food that Capitalist Westerners enjoy everyday.

Even better... Airdrop Big Macs. Maybe McDonald's stopping the supersizing is really so they can devote their energies to this?

[Joe]

Do nothing, let the NK government fall by itself as it will eventually. It isn't worth the loss of life.

[Xenophobe3691]

Tell North Korea that we'll feed them out the ass, give them all TV's and Radios, build up their infrastructure, but the only caveat is that no one controls what they watch...And then NK becomes the 51st state or Kim Ill Mind looks like an ass in front of the whole world...

[Admiral Valdemar]

Tell North Korea that we'll feed them out the ass, give them all TV's and Radios, build up their infrastructure, but the only caveat is that no one controls what they watch...And then NK becomes the 51st state or Kim Ill Mind looks like an ass in front of the whole world...

I hope your secret Cayman Island account is big, because there's no way the US could afford to rebuild another nation from scratch.

[Raptor 597]

So what do you do? Is it possible to take down the NK leadership and subvert its military without severe reprisal?

Haha, this an easy one. Airdrop frozen or preparation needed poultry/dog of tender delicousness. The directions would simply say in Korean: "We'll airdrop the directions once Kim Jong-Il is a live effigy, hurry now and we'll ship kanines in live!!" The NK government will fall in 10-15 minutes with a side fried chicken.

[MKSheppard]

My late friend in the CIA suggested something like this:

Set up a chain of McDonalds and Burger Kings along the DMZ, and use
giant fans to blow the smells across the border into NK

[Sea Skimmer]

If the campaign absolutely must keep losses low then the only options are a blockade ontop of what is being done now, or an overwhelming damn the massive fallout nuclear strike.

Overpower their local TV broadcasts (or just bomb their TV broadcast antennas) with TV shows showing the sheer quality and quanity of food that Capitalist Westerners enjoy everyday.

Then the North Koreans will simply order all TV's destroyed and denounce the broadcasts as propaganda. The population will obey.

[Xenophobe3691]

My late friend in the CIA suggested something like this:

Set up a chain of McDonalds and Burger Kings along the DMZ, and use
giant fans to blow the smells across the border into NK

Remember to record the sound of all the food being made and set up giant speakers that'll project it into NK...

[Elfdart]

My late friend in the CIA suggested something like this:

Set up a chain of McDonalds and Burger Kings along the DMZ, and use
giant fans to blow the smells across the border into NK

That's the most sensible thing I've seen you write.

Another thing would be to smuggle satellite dishes, TVs, video players (VHS and DVD) into the country. Just like in Iran, they'll want to watch something other than local weather and PRESTO! Movies, documentaries, TV shows and hefty doses of Playboy TV and some hardcore porn, too -these people will turn on their Communist Cult masters.

Vladimir Posner said that the thing that screwed the Soviet Union and its client states in Europe wasn't any military threat from Nato, it was the insidious influence of Western movies, music and other pop culture. The typical Russian saw on a regular basis that he didn't have a standard of living even close to that of the poor people in Hollywood movies. Not only that, but Soviet diplomats and other travellers saw that not only did the US, West Germany and France enjoy higher standards of living, but Spain and Portugal, too.

[Fire Fly]

When people say "let them collapse on their own" ... just how does this even work, given that its run by a crazy lunatic? There's going to be a coup by the military? But isn't everyone or nearly everyone loyal to Kim? I don't see NK ever collapsing on its own without Kim gone.

[HemlockGrey]

Well, I'm not actually sure what happens *after* it collapses on its own. Kim dies, then what? The DMZ vanishes, strip malls and civic buildings blossom overnight and all the Koreans get together and live happily ever after?

Or do rival generals tear the nation apart in bloody struggles that simply cause it to spiral back into repression?

[Mayabird]

When people say "let them collapse on their own" ... just how does this even work, given that its run by a crazy lunatic? There's going to be a coup by the military? But isn't everyone or nearly everyone loyal to Kim? I don't see NK ever collapsing on its own without Kim gone.

They eventually run out of food since the military grabs it all, leaves nothing for anyone else, and keeps the farmers from ever improving their lot or their methods. Once the mass famine sets in followed by disease and there's no fat of the land (or even tree bark of the land) to live off of, the country collapses as people and the military start fighting in a desperate battle for food. Even lunatics have gotta eat. They attack each other or go crazy and try invading China or something.

Or just wait until the unmarried Chinese men buy all the women and the country collapses from lack of a population.

[Knife]

Pull out of South Korea completley. Force the South Koreans to up their military to compensate for our departure and show the North that they are irrelevant.

Let the North fall due to lack of basically anything except a few strategic threats. Starvation and lack of *anything* save for actual population, will do them in eventually.