Re: OT: A Nuclear North Korea
 

How can anyone not know Bob & Doug? Go rent Strange Brew, eh?

Re: OT: A Nuclear North Korea
 

http://www.amazon.com/Strange-Brew-R.../dp/B00006FDCT

Re: OT: A Nuclear North Korea
 

Do you think if we offered garanteed incentives to NK if they returned to the 6 party talks that they might do so? The object here would be to save face for all involved.

1. We would buy NK military equipment
2. We would provide humanitarn aid
3. We would give them the parts they needed in trade to fix and maintain their civilian air fleet.
4. We would trade or sell them low tech military gear such as vehicles but no arms.
5. Allow them to open an embassy in the US and recognize them in the UN.
6. Bring them into the world economy.

Some dude just won a Nobel Peace prize for his thoery that if you fight poverty in the world, you improve world peace.

What better way to end the NK problem than to tell KJI that hecan keep his power, his military, and way of life but in doing so we also get to help his people, country, and the region in general.

All he has to do is come to the six party talks and work out a deal. No more nukes and he gets to become a player.

Sure they will lie, but when they do this time, hell just buy the GD nukes from him and tell him that he is bad. ONce he gets a taste of economic success, he won't want to risk loosing it. Look at Lebenon. The ONLY reason that war ended was because they realized that it would hurt lebenon too much to continue it. Hats off to all involved there for ending the fighting.

China would want a strong economic NK because then, like they, the power would shift from might to wealth.

Re: OT: A Nuclear North Korea
 

I'm not at all optimistic. SK doesn't want NK to collapse because they inherit the mess if that happens. China doesn't want NK to collapse because hordes of starving refugees stream across their border if that happens. The US absolutely will not go to war with NK as long as they don't do something totally stupid (like nuke Japan or SK), due to lack of the necessary support from SK, China & the US citizenry. Kim knows all this, so he knows he can do whatever he wants (short of nuking Japan or SK) & the US will blah blah blah while China & SK prop him up.

Re: OT: A Nuclear North Korea
 

Nice summary, Bill.

Sort of the modern politico-economic equivalent of that old axiom that goes,

"If you owe the bank $10,000 and you can't pay, you are in trouble. If you owe the bank $10,000,000, and you can't pay, the bank is in trouble."

My own views and concerns aside, I think those of you who are predicting that the UN/US will do nothing, are right on the money.

Just goes to show you, Douglas Macarthur was right all along.

Re: OT: A Nuclear North Korea
 

Yes & no...

If you mean bombing Manchuria (conventional or nuclear), probably not. However, the current situation does stem from our failure to apply the first rule of Jacksonian warmaking back in Mac's day. We should have mobilized whatever level of force it took - even a WWII-scale effort - to push the Chinese back across the Yalu. Then all of Korea would today be like SK, and we wouldn't have this problem at all. Odds are relations with China would be the same today, too.