Hey, remember North Korea?

[Joe]

First saber-rattling from them for a while

North Korea urged the United Nations yesterday to dissolve the UN Command on the tense peninsula and press for the withdrawal of US troops based in South Korea.

In a rare letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, North Korea's representative at the Korean War truce village called on the United Nations to dissolve the 50-year-old UN Command.

"It is our view that a war in Korea is almost unavoidable as long as the US hostile policy toward the DPRK goes on," said the 1,100-word letter, which the official KCNA news agency said was written by Colonel-General Ri Chan-bok. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Ri is the long-serving North Korean representative at the Panmunjom truce village, which lies in the middle of the Demilitarized Zone that has separated the South from the North since the Korean War. North Korea remains technically at war with the US-led UN forces in the South because the conflict ended in an armed truce that has not been replaced by a peace treaty.

It was not immediately clear whether Annan received Li's letter, which was dated July 22 and published yesterday, the 51st anniversary of the armistice which stopped fighting in the Korean War. The US military in Seoul had no immediate comment.

Ri's letter reiterated North Korean war threats and demands for a US pullout and voiced alarm at recent American moves to upgrade military readiness while cutting forces. The US announced last month that it planned to withdraw a third of its 37,500 troops from South Korea as part of a long-term global force realignment. It also plans to move forward deployed troops away from the border with the North.

To assuage South Korean concerns that the move would weaken defenses against the North's 1.1 million-strong army, the Pentagon said last year it would spend US$11 billion on advanced weaponry.

[Death from the Sea]

"It is our view that a war in Korea is almost unavoidable as long as the US hostile policy toward the DPRK goes on," said the 1,100-word letter, which the official KCNA news agency said was written by Colonel-General Ri Chan-bok. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Do they really expect us to just belly up and give int to their demands? Just because they say their view is war is almost unavoidable.....

[Sokar]

"It is our view that a war in Korea is almost unavoidable as long as the US hostile policy toward the DPRK goes on," said the 1,100-word letter, which the official KCNA news agency said was written by Colonel-General Ri Chan-bok. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Do they really expect us to just belly up and give int to their demands? Just because they say their view is war is almost unavoidable.....

Yes, yes they in some weird way do think that if they keep asking the same question at some point we'll give in and say yes. That and their 'Dear Leader' is batshit crazy........not stupid or a fool , but stone cold crazy none the less.......

[Vohu Manah]

They want a full withdrawal of US forces from an ongoing war, and insist on making threats rather than trying to press for a peace treaty? Yeah... I see this happening.

If they believed sincerely that they could militarily force the US off the peninsula, they'd have attacked already. This smacks of a propaganda piece, timed with the US's not-so-secret force deployment realignment. Of course, that is just my opinion, I'm probably wrong.

[CJvR]

The South is quite capable of defending itself so the US troops are not needed from a strict military point of view. Their presence is a political statement, any Northern adventurism will lead to war with the US. I seriously doubt that adventurism is on the agenda up North but if the paranoia over externa enemies is the only thing keeping your state from collapse then you have to generate a certain hostility on a regular basis.

[MKSheppard]

This is so ironic considering Carter's speech before the DNC:

Elsewhere, North Korea's nuclear menace, a threat far more real and immediate than any posed by Saddam Hussein, has been allowed to advance unheeded, with potentially ominous consequences for peace and stability in Northeast Asia.

Now now, Jimmy, aren't we forgetting what you did, the Food for Oil
programme to stop the KORCOMS from building the bomb, and it
turns out they were violating it all along?

[Howedar]

Do we know that the NK nuclear program was active at that time?

[Joe]

This is so ironic considering Carter's speech before the DNC:

Elsewhere, North Korea's nuclear menace, a threat far more real and immediate than any posed by Saddam Hussein, has been allowed to advance unheeded, with potentially ominous consequences for peace and stability in Northeast Asia.

Now now, Jimmy, aren't we forgetting what you did, the Food for Oil
programme to stop the KORCOMS from building the bomb, and it
turns out they were violating it all along?

You know, I find this hilarious. Bush just can't catch a break, his approach to North Korea has been to use multilateral diplomacy, the same thing leftists think he should have used for Iraq, but he still gets slammed for "ignoring North Korea."

[Darth Wong]

You know, I find this hilarious. Bush just can't catch a break, his approach to North Korea has been to use multilateral diplomacy, the same thing leftists think he should have used for Iraq, but he still gets slammed for "ignoring North Korea."

That's because of Iraq. When you run around saying that anything but invasion is useless, people are going to call you to task on it.

[Uraniun235]

Do they really expect us to just belly up and give int to their demands?

It's pretty clear their general worldview is unrealistic, given how they seem to think they can intimidate the nations around them. I have to wonder if they actively try to promote a reputation of being a little unhinged, with the hope that we'll be afraid they're crazy enough to actually try something.

[Illuminatus Primus]

You know, I find this hilarious. Bush just can't catch a break, his approach to North Korea has been to use multilateral diplomacy, the same thing leftists think he should have used for Iraq, but he still gets slammed for "ignoring North Korea."

BECAUSE HE APPLIED IT TO IRAQ INSTEAD OF A COUNTRY AT LEAST MORALLY MORE DESERVING, THE DPRK.

You righties can be really sad when you want to hold grudges and play tit-for-tat games.

[Knife]

You know, I find this hilarious. Bush just can't catch a break, his approach to North Korea has been to use multilateral diplomacy, the same thing leftists think he should have used for Iraq, but he still gets slammed for "ignoring North Korea."

BECAUSE HE APPLIED IT TO IRAQ INSTEAD OF A COUNTRY AT LEAST MORALLY MORE DESERVING, THE DPRK.

You righties can be really sad when you want to hold grudges and play tit-for-tat games.

Actually the feeling was reversed, though now known to be wrong in that Iraq wasn't developing nukes.

Bush wanted to attack Iraq, among other reasons, Before they had a bunch of nukes and didn't want to play the international diplomacy game because it didn't work worth a damn in Korea.

Even though NK didn't officially admit to having nukes until about a month after the current war in Iraq started, the US has know for longer than that that Clintons attempts to contain NK's nuke program in 94? didn't work worth a damn.

[Cairber]

Well, I for one am happy that we didnt invade N. Korea no matter how deserving they might be. Attacking a country that is involved in devolpment of nukes is one thing, attacking a country who has them is quite another. I dunno if N korea's are functional yet, but their testing suggesting they are further along than the simple idea stage. It was Red who suggested to me that a standoff between two nuke ready nations can be much more beneficial. Having working nukes puts you in that standoff, and conversation can develope. I am a conservative who does not believe that because you made one mistake you should make another so that you dont look hypocritical. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. There needs to be more conversation.

[Admiral Valdemar]

I fart in their general direction. Anything more is a gross misuse of time and energy.

[Sea Skimmer]

Well, I for one am happy that we didnt invade N. Korea no matter how deserving they might be. Attacking a country that is involved in devolpment of nukes is one thing, attacking a country who has them is quite another.

Forget abut the possibul threat of nukes, simply by firing 50 SUCDs armed with nerve gas at Seoul (they have something like 700 missiles total) the South Korean military estimated that the North could kill 38% of the cities population. Seoul has over 10 million people. The city is also in range of artillery and lesser multiple rocket launchers all of which can deliver chemical weapons beside high explosives. That's a deterrent they've had for decades and one that really couldn't be overcome unless the US launched a massive surprise nuclear attack on the North. Course that would then blanket Seoul and the rest of the south and Japan in fallout. Diplomacy, or more likely waiting until the North simply dies from complete and utter economic and then political collapse are the only options on the table.

[Cao Cao]

American policy on this sort of thing amuses me:

"Iraq is a threat to it's neighbours and the world! Invade!!"

"We can't invade North Korea! It's a threat to it's neighbours and the world if we do that!"

[Admiral Valdemar]

The DPRK can fight back, that means the war isn't fairly balanced anymore and thus no amount of "moral duty" arguments will get us in there.

[tharkûn]

Attacking the DPRK is a death sentence for Seol, because they have a credible deterant. Attacking Iraq is not a death sentence for Amman, Ridyah, or Tel Aviv because they don't have a credible. The arguement for Iraq, such as I understand it, was that Iraq could be attacked because that had not aquired a detterant, but were acquiring one. While I think "diplomacy" in North Korea is pointless, invading it hasn't been practical for years.

[Cao Cao]

That's the BS the spew now, all this about "moral imperatives" and "well, they were GOING to get nukes and.. and bioweapons and.. er.. doomsday devices from Professor Farnsworth himself real soon!".

Before the invasion it was all "Saddam has got WMDs right now and is willing to use them! We have the [fabricated] evidence!".
Now Bush and his cronies try to backpeddle to justify finding bugger all in Iraq and not giving North Korea the royal pounding they deserve.
But I won't buy it

[tharkûn]

North Korea deserves a pounding, it has ever since WWII. Nobody gives it to em because they have a deterrant. I remember Powell's UN speach, it seemed to be all about the things he thought Iraq was in the process of making and acquiring (i.e. those mobile chemical plants).

[Darth Wong]

The Bush Administration claimed that Iraq was a clear and present danger, and could strike targets with WMD in 45 minutes. That claim was so far removed from any rational explanation at the time (never mind now) that it's no wonder people are simply calling it an outright lie rather than a mistake.

[Howedar]

I thought it was Blair that said that?

[JME2]

North Korea deserves a pounding, it has ever since WWII. Nobody gives it to em because they have a deterrant. I remember Powell's UN speach, it seemed to be all about the things he thought Iraq was in the process of making and acquiring (i.e. those mobile chemical plants).

Now, I'm not a defender of the Bush administration by any means (far from it), but the simple truth there is that Powell was forced by Dubya to go to the SC and say all that BS. Now, his reputation is ruined and everyone thinks he's a fool.

[White Haven]

Blair is to Bush as Clarke Kent is to Clarke Kent with glasses off. No, I'm not going to compare either to Superman
Just still waiting for them to get that operation so they can stop being attached at the hip.

[Master Arachnos]

I hope B&B (is it a coincidence that dopey double-acts are b&b's??) have private health insurance, cos if i was them I would'nt risk an operation on the brit National Health Service....