Simple Question of International Import

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

What are the odds that this gets a LOT worse by the traditional spring time offensive season when a young general's fancy turns to invasion?

Brief timeline:

North Korea is accused of torpedoing a South Korean warship.

South Korea fires at North Korean fishing boats crossing the maritime border North Korea refuses to recognize.

North Korea is revealed to have highly modern facilities for nuclear material enrichment.

Not to mention, North Korea is facing the challenge of passing along the regime to a third generation of the Kim family.

North Korea is known for rattling its sabre and demanding to have attention paid to it when it is being ignored, but this is looking like a very different than recent years -- South Korea really has to retaliate...and half of South Korea's population lives in the Seoul metropolitan area within artillery range of the DMZ.

So a question -- is North Korea suicidal or are they betting that this behavior can get them some more winter grain shipments?

Comments

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

I hate it because it gets away with blatantly holding another country hostage and that it does so is entirely the result of *both* Cold War superpowers never trying to actually resolve the situation. North Korea by this point is beyond salvaging.

[taurus-1.livejournal.com]

What about democracy? Since 1991 there is only one superpower in the world. Russian president don't have any idea what Russia should do on Korean peninsula. Why don't USA just leave ROK alone? Why forcing NK to surrender with world trading embargo? Developing nuclear weapons? Hahaha! Ask Israel about it!

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Are you saying that what NK has now is "democracy"?

[taurus-1.livejournal.com]

What is democracy? They live the way they like using their own resources, no matter how it is called.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

They live the way Kim likes. Has anyone asked any of the remaining 24 million North Koreans?

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

There are that many left?

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

It's a miracle!

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

The thing is that Israel is the USA's friend. North Korea's so friendless *nobody* would really be bothered to break sanctions on them. In fact their actions thus far have been extorting to *keep* harsh fate from reaching them.

[taurus-1.livejournal.com]

There is nothing of "friendship" in global politics. USA closed global markets to NK so they physically cannot reach mass production efficiency. USA did it by threatning the world with their armed forces, not because some are 'bad' and others are 'good'.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

North Korea brought that on themselves by holding to Cold War-era paranoia and militant politics past the point that became economically viable for *big* societies, let alone small poor ones.