North Korea Threatens US With Preemptive Nuclear Strike 727
jppiiroinen writes "North Korea threatened the United States on Thursday with a preemptive nuclear strike, raising the level of rhetoric while the U.N. Security Council considers new sanctions against the reclusive country."
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Why is it always the little guys? (Score:5, Insightful)
Dear Glorious Whatever,
Look, little fella, I know you have something to prove and all, but really hope you didn't buy into your father's bullshit. Believe it or not the U.S. has absolutely no interest in restarting the Korean War. Frankly, we're kind of warred out right now. So please stick to playing basketball with Dennis Rodman and leave us out of your grandstanding and dick waving. We've already got enough of that at home.
We'll be happy to keep sending you D-list celebrities if you'll just STFU.
Yours truly,
The American People
P.S. I would point out the obvious fact that the U.S. will bomb your country back to the stone age if you try to attack anyone with nukes. But, looking at a satellite photo [newscientist.com] of the Korean peninsula at night, I'm not sure that would amount to much of a threat.
Re:Ignore them (Score:5, Insightful)
How many children do you know bear a racial hatred for Western culture that is bred and drilled into them, or are armed with nuclear warheads?
It's exactly that arrogance that they are standing up against, however misplaced their aggressions are.
There's no easy solution here; disarming them is impossible, making peace with them is impossible, talking sense into them is impossible, treading lightly and carrying a big stick seems to be the only safe alternative that doesn't cause us to descend into full military operation against them.
Re:Nope (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, they said that SINCE the US is about to start a nuclear war, they ARE going to make a preemptive strike. That sounds like a threat of action to me, regardless of the fact they make such statements every week or so.
Re:Well That Escalated Quickly (Score:5, Insightful)
Wow, that's so easy! I hope you become general!
Yeah, that's a great idea. Attack them only when they're threatening with words so they have an excuse to say "YOU ATTACKED FIRST".
Snap out of video game world and think about real life logic, please, when it comes to war.
Re:How long before.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Only as long as it takes to convince China that they need our purchasing power more than they need to protect the twerps in Pyongyang.
Iraq for less (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Well That Escalated Quickly (Score:5, Insightful)
I assume by "you guys" you mean the United States.
1) The USA was not the one that invaded in 1950, the North did.
2) The USA ain't the one that is maintaining tensions. We've had lots of problems with countries since 1950 and most of them haven't lasted this long.
I know you think its chic to be critical of the USA for everything. But given that neither South Korea nor China can bring North Korea up to even basic levels of decency like feeding their own population, maybe this isn't the best example case. By and large North Korea has acted provocatively trying to create military conflict in the years since the Korean war, to which the USA has not responded forcibly. North Korea is a good example of what the world would look like when the USA does not "bomb everyone".
Re:How long before.. (Score:5, Insightful)
China knows that....allies is a stretch...China would jettison N Korea in a heart beat if they could.
Right, China needs the USA for economic strength. However, if North Korea was attacked, or some other disaster happened there; China would be inundated with millions of Korean refugees, which would also hurt China's economy.
Re:Nope (Score:5, Insightful)
"Defending" yourself by striking first whenever you fabricate arbitrary threats is not defense, that is offense.
how ironic that NK has adopted the Bush Doctrine.
Re:Ignore them (Score:4, Insightful)
Anything can be a race; it's a purely social construct.
Re:First strike! (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem is that NK has an army of mostly soldiers, even HORSES still. That means they will be spread all over the field, so bombs and drones won't be very effective.
They don't stand a chance of WINNING, but they will make a terrible mess of the South because the South has 100x more value of factories, industry, business, people than the North does. Any war is just going to be a slugfest the North trying to break as much as they can, while the South defends and bombs "dirt" because that's all the Norths got.
The biggest problem is that the North will assuredly try to provoke China... That could put US and China troops accidentally shooting at each other...
Re:How long before.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Iraq for less - Whatever (Score:4, Insightful)
Seems the FUD on oil and the Iraq war has proven to be quite sticky. Fact is, there are many other oil-rich countries that would have been a hell of a lot easier and convenient to take over than Iraq. Seeing as how the accusation is that the U.S. fabricated a case, it would have been just as easy to fabricate a case against any of them. If I had to plan such a thing, Venezuela would be the first to come to mind, but it's not the only one I would consider.
The war in Iraq was about one thing; Iran. Stabilizing the Middle East by reducing the amount of megalomaniacs by one. By calling Saddam's bluff (which was aimed more at Iran than the U.S.) the coalition slowed down a Middle-East arms race that was just getting started, but was going to speed up quickly once Iraq rebuilt its military capacity. One of the stated goals of the first Gulf War was to reduce their military capability for 10 years. Did the U.S. go about it the right time? Not optimal, but necessary, since it had been roughly 10 years since the first Gulf War. Did the U.S. go about it the right way? Definitely not. Rumsfeld screwed up the war strategy big time, starting with using half the troops that would have been needed for securing the borders. Nation-building and long-term occupation? No thanks; trying to quit.
North Korea presents a decent enough military threat overall, only because they've starved their people in order to pay for their military capability and have thoroughly indoctrinated them into fighting to the death to stay enslaved, but their tension with Japan and South Korea still does not amount to megalomaniac A vs megalomaniac B.
the wtc was taken out with box cutters (Score:5, Insightful)
do not underestimate the motivation, determination and creativity of those who intend you harm
false alarmism is a well understood concept here on slashdot
unfortunately, false complacency, equally dangerous, is not
Re:Blame your government (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, you mean 70 years ago, five years before North Korea started the Korean War?
Please tell the Germans they'd better announce the right for pre-emptive strikes on France in case that pesky Napoleon comes over the border again.
Re:The president should do an address (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't know many Asians or do you mean to escalate? Ignoring them is good enough.
For decades now, the US troops in the DMZ have been there to keep the south from going north. As someone else pointed out, N.Korea is a fucking mess.
This could take another 40 years to work itself out without nuking anybody. N. Korea will eventually return to sanity.
Re:First strike! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How long before.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Only as long as it takes to convince China that they need our purchasing power
China's buyers aren't going anywhere soon. NK could nuke Seattle and we'd still be salivating for the latest iPhone, big-screen TV and salad shooter.
Re:First strike! (Score:5, Insightful)
MAD also only works when both sides can actually destroy eachother. A NK nuclear strike could at best kill a few million people, after which their entire nation would go up in smoke(or by invaded on every front at the very least, nuking NK might not be a very popular option as fallout would drift out over japan(ironic isn't it that everything nuclear somehow end up affecting japan) and south korea.
Re:Well That Escalated Quickly (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm the troll and you're insightful for anonymously advocating mass murder? Oh my...
Re:Well That Escalated Quickly (Score:3, Insightful)
I can't really respond to hyperbole. Not when You get modded insightful and I get modded troll.
Not when you accuse me of wanting to be fashion by criticizing USA and later telling me that if USA did not bomb everyone the entire world would look like North Korea. There's so many fallacious and emotional statements I really can't do anything about it.
I just wish you realize that it's not good vs evil and that warmongering rhetoric comes in huge troves from USA and a bit from smaller countries but actions mostly come from USA in the way of military aggression and sanctions that are borderline criminal acts causing famine in many parts of the world.
It's hard to try and look at it from a neutral perspective, I get it. But if you just didn't buy every "we are the victims and we need to fight back and police the world" maybe we would be much better and you would be able to face the increasing encroachment on civil liberties and other social aspects at home that are largely ignored.
I'm not saying it's easy (And each country has it's own problems with demagogic governments) but I'd love to see more Americans (I know a lot already) with a less violent and war apologist mindset.
Re:First strike! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:First strike! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How long before.. (Score:5, Insightful)
China voted for the U.N. sanctions today. So apparently they are okay with at some messing. NK pissing in the oatmeal with their nukes means SK and Japan might decide they need nukes as well. The Chinese do not want to see that because it make it more difficult to swing their dicks around the S. China sea, now that they have claimed all of it.
They aren't crazy (Score:4, Insightful)
The North Korean regime is based on several odd pillars.
One is that the Korean people are racially superior to others; their naturally superior, child-like nature is why they've been repeatedly conquered in the past. Kim is their mother-protector who gently guides them while sheltering them from the evil, corrupt world outside. They are encouraged from a young age not to think about things, merely to embrace their instincts and emotional reactions; as the naturally most superior race, their instincts are pure and right and thinking too much can lead them astray.
A corellary to that is Americans are inferior half-breeds who can't help but be aggressive war-mongers and Korean baby-killers. Not even American women and children can be spared or trusted because their nature precludes it. Korean mothers are told if they leave their kids alone with American children, the American children will attack or kill theirs because of their nature. That isn't treated as a weakness by the way... Merely a result of the natural state of Korean innocence. In fact the Chinese, Europeans, Africans, et al are all inferior races, naturally untrustworthy, and beneath contempt.
Second is that the NK population is well aware they have a reduced standard of living, but it is a sacrifice they must all make to ensure they aren't conquered by a foreign power again... Necessary to preserve the superior race of the Korean people. It's the military first policy. The information firewall has been down for some time - that's why they came up with the military first policy as a way to explain the discrepancy. Think Germany in January 1945. They've obviously lost the war, yet they fight on... Some even fanatically so. Why? Why bother showing up to build tanks? Why volunteer for suicide missions? To protect the homeland (and what else can you do anyway?)
So without an ever-present enemy threatening to massacre the Korean people in a genocidal rage, an enemy that can't be reasoned or negotiated with, the reason for the NK's existence is removed.
Remember: they have been repeatedly promising that when the US is vanquished from the penninsula, the one true master race will finally be united.
When you understand these things, NK's actions make plenty of sense.