Strike on North Korea

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

The guy is intent on creating weapons of mass destruction and vowed to use them.

He has vowed to use them in a retaliatory manner IF the US attacks his country.

[Jimbuna]

I'm no supporter of Trump but I've a lot more confidence in the checks and balances he is subject to than that little fella over in NK.

[u crank]

Originally Posted by Platapus

He has vowed to use them in a retaliatory manner IF the US attacks his country.

I would have to ask, at what point does that change? If he is allowed to improve his capabilities there may be a time when he feels, in his twisted way of thinking that striking first is his best option. He has shown a reckless disregard in testing missiles. He may have the same reckless attitude in using them. Lets hope not.

[Rockstar]

From what I've read the North Korean conventional armed forces aren't as devoted to the regime as it once was in decades past. Maybe the build up of a nuclear arsenal has very little to do with the propaganda fed to their public concerning threats of imminent invasion. Maybe instead as the group of devoted dwindle they see the only way to remain in control of their own wealth is by holding the keys to a nuclear arsenal. I just don't think their build up of nukes has jack squat to with any noble cause of defending their country and citizenry against invasion. Which makes them having nukes all the more dangerous

[Mr Quatro]

North Korea uses fear to rule their country keeping the people off of the internet to hide the rest of the world from them and by using the threat of nuclear weapons ...

they wish to extend that fear to South Korea and Japan and the USA to leave their country alone.

They don't want freedom of religion, they don't want anyone to worship anything or anyone except Kim Jong-un

Supreme leader

[Jimbuna]

'Time is of the essence,' UN official says after North Korea visit

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/10/as...ons/index.html

An interesting video on the issue.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by u crank

He has shown a reckless disregard in testing missiles. He may have the same reckless attitude in using them. Lets hope not.

Can you give me an example of how North Korea has been reckless in testing their missiles? North Korea has a disregard to UNSC resolution 1718, but to be honest, I don't blame North Korea. It is an unreasonable resolution. We would not stand for any remotely close to this resolution levied against the US, claiming it is a violation of our sovereignty.

It is true that North Korea does not always issue NOTAMS and similar warnings when testing missiles in international waters and that is bad. But there is no indication that North Korea does not clear the entry area.

But to date, North Korea has not violated anyone's airspace and a lot of their flight paths seem to minimize the time over Japan.

[u crank]

Originally Posted by Platapus

Can you give me an example of how North Korea has been reckless in testing their missiles?

On August 29, 2017, at 5:57 am KST, North Korea launched a Hwasong-12 ballistic missile that passed over Hokkaido, the second largest island of Japan.

Japanese citizens living beneath the missile’s flight path received a J-Alert message on their cellphones at 6:02 a.m., just four minutes after the projectile was launched, rousing some from sleep.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called this test "a reckless act of launching a missile that flies over our country is an unprecedented, serious and important threat."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_N..._missile_tests

[Platapus]

what was reckless about it, other than someone in Japan said it was reckless.

[u crank]

Originally Posted by Platapus

what was reckless about it, other than someone in Japan said it was reckless.

Really? It was a test. There was the distinct possibility that it may have failed. It could have landed in Japan. There was the possibility that Japan would interpret that as an attack. Anyway you slice it, it was reckless.

[Reece]

I don't think it's right to fly ICBM's over another country, they could atleast have informed Japan of the test.

[Jimbuna]

Charles Jenkins, a US soldier who defected to North Korea and later married a Japanese victim of the regime’s cold war abductions, has died in Japan aged 77.

Jenkins, a native of North Carolina, became an unlikely celebrity in Japan after his wife, Hitomi Soga, was freed by North Korea in 2002 and returned to her native country. Two years later, he and the couple’s two daughters, Mika and Brinda, joined Soga and settled in her hometown on the remote Sea of Japan island of Sado.


North Korea fortifies part of border where defector escaped
Read more
In the US, however, some regarded Jenkins as a traitor after details emerged of his defection to the communist North in 1965, at the height of the cold war.

He was accused of deserting his unit while on patrol in South Korea and fleeing to North Korea, where he taught English and occasionally played sinister Americans in propaganda films.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-defected-dies

Probably big news in the US at the time but I'd never heard of this.

[Jimbuna]

China is planning to build refugee camps on its border with North Korea in what is being seen as an indication that Beijing is preparing for a potential conflict.

Five locations in China’s north-eastern Jilin province have been identified as potential sites for refugees.

The sites were listed in a document that was apparently leaked from China’s biggest telecommunications company, China Mobile, and then posted on social media.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017...fears-nuclear/

Are the Chinese better informed than the western media?

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-defected-dies

Probably big news in the US at the time but I'd never heard of this.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42319115

In 1965, while stationed with the US Army in South Korea by the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), Mr Jenkins decided to abandon his unit and defect to the North, fearing he would be killed in patrols or sent to fight in the Vietnam War.

He said he thought that once in North Korea, he could seek asylum with the Russian embassy, and eventually return to the US in a prisoner swap.

"Thinking back now, I was a fool." (...) said Mr. Jenkins in a 2005 interview...

A deserter. Only his foolishness in assuming he would be swapped after seeking asylum in Russia can be attributed to his youth then.

Did they have drafting in the US back then? Or did it come later in the Vietnam war?

[u crank]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Did they have drafting in the US back then? Or did it come later in the Vietnam war?

At the time of his desertion, yes, the Viet Nam war was in full swing.

According to his Wikipedia page Jenkins was not drafted, but..

He joined the regular army in 1958 and was assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division. He served in South Korea from 1960 to 1961, in West Germany from 1962 to 1964, and in South Korea again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Robert_Jenkins