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N.Korea Sabre Rattling or Genuine Threat?
N Korea are saying they are ready for all out war, and intend to scrap all treaties with the South after UN put sanctions in place.
Hope they are just flexing their muscles and do not proceed with any acts of war.
http://t.news.uk.msn.com/world/north-korea-steps-up-nuke-threats
Hope they are just flexing their muscles and do not proceed with any acts of war.
http://t.news.uk.msn.com/world/north-korea-steps-up-nuke-threats
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Can't happen soon enough.
sure they do. put it on a plane and fly it to seoul.
it's true that they have a bomb and probably no traditional delivery mechanism. but they don't really need one. they still do damage when not attached to an icbm.
and they are just crazy enough to do it.
what makes you say china has had enough?
Haha WW2-style. How....quaint.
I don't think North Korea have the ability as yet in which to launch a nuclear attack, evidence suggests they haven't managed to weaponise a nuclear warhead. I suspect it is all very much sabre rattling. The North knows it wouldn't dare launch any large scale attack, should China pull the plug then the whole political system in the DPRK would implode and collapse with no external support.
Because of it's recent demeanour at the Security Council.
China only has 2 reasons to keep the show afloat. As a buffer zone to keep the Yanks off their border, and to prevent millions of starving North Koreans from pouring over the border into a still very poor region of China.
DPRK is like a naughty child forever throwing tantrums to attract attention. A lot of it is for domestic use anyhow, to keep the 1984-style threat of invasion at boiling point and the people paranoid.
It's perfectly feasible there may come a time when China says "enough is enough" - which is the only scenario in which the regime will crumble.
I don't have the access or the skills to interpret the body language of a chinese diplomat. but in terms of their actions they always vote in favour of sanctions and talk tough and then ignore them. i see no reason to believe the chinese have changed their minds.
those are the reasons why china supports the DPRK. and i see no reason for that to change.
While putting a nuclear device on a plane sounds old-fashioned, Seoul is just 30 miles, or a four-minute flight, from the North Korean border.
The North is in its economic death throes and it's quite possible the regime will want to go out with a bang rather than a whimper.
it does not surprise me.
You would not even need to land a plane - I wonder if N. Korea has any UAVs? - or a pilot willing enough to fly a light plane on a one way trip. Stick a bomb on one of those and when it is over Seoul push the button. A cloud burst could cause more extensive damage as well.
OK, try "action" instead of "demeanour". China supported the very sanctions that has kicked off Pyongyang's latest strop - and for the first time too.
I'd say that is a sign their patience is wearing thin, wouldn't you?
Seoul is in range on the DPRK's fixed and mobile artillery positions at the border. there are something like 8,000 of them in range of seoul.
so the conventional wisdom is that they could level seoul very quickly. there are some alternative theories as to why it might not work as well as planned. but it would not be pretty.
Oh, I would put nothing past them at all. One of the aspects that makes DPRK so unpredictable is the regime's complete and total disregard for it's population. They are merely expendable work units.
It's why the US should be putting as much pressure as possible on Beijing to pull the rug from under it. If China stopped shipping in the oil, it would be game over in no time.
It would not be like the falling of the Berlin Wall, however. 24 million brainwashed people in need of severe therapy. Even the trickle who manage to escape and find their way to the South rarely settle successfully. They have no conception of the things we take for granted - like money, for example.
china has voted for sanctions before. and then ignored them.
you are never going to be able to work out what the chinese are doing. they may be perfectly happy with what the DPRK but realise that their interests are best served by condemning it in public.
i realise i'm disagreeing with everything suggested. but i think there is no certainty. the situation is so much more complex and unpredictable when certain players are simply not rational, and others motives are unclear.