Come on. I've seen you post, certainly you don't think that I think getting rid of the DMZ does not include the clear of mines and sundry ordnance? Come on...
That's not exactly an easy or timely process, and even if it was, it doesn't mean that the Northern border into China is any less tempting.
But either way, getting back to the bigger picture, everything being discussed goes to show why the region doesn't want a war with North Korea. Everything we're debating is a quagmire for the entire region. There needs to be a solution to the Kim Regime, but the surrounding countries don't want one that either literally and/or figuratively blows up in their faces.
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Vive, vale. Siquid novisti rectius istis,
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
~~~~~
You think they would rather risk North Korea having nukes?
I'm going to have to ask how much you know about North Korea because North Korea already has nukes.
What they don't have is the missile projectiles to launch them long distances, but even then, we're not certain how far they could get a device that can detonate. That's why the phrase "Seoul will glow" has been tossed around in this thread. While there's little chance that a nuclear devise could cross the Pacific to reach the United States (or Australia because they stepped in this as well for some reason), the chances are much, much higher to South Korea, China, and Japan.
So to answer your question, the answer is that the time to worry about acquisition has passed; North Korea has the technology. They don't want to risk them using it, which means they want to avoid a war.
Also as Blinking Spirit mentioned, China doesn't want the the United States to have strong ties along the entire Korean Peninsula. It would not be in China's political interests, which is one of the reasons why the Kim regime has lasted so long. So they don't want a war for a second reason as well.
So I disagree with what Kahedron is saying. Avoiding war with North Korea is fine if we believe the hostile regime is going to collapse on its own, but our means of avoiding war has thusfar amounted to providing them with the very money that's keeping them going, and the threat of North Korea dealing a lot of damage before it goes down has only increased with each passing day.
It's certainly better to avoid a war when a non-military solution to the problem can be found. The thing is, we've had about 64 years of dealings with North Korea since the armistice, and they're not only still around, but they're even more of a threat than they were before. Nothing about this is a solution.
From what I was reading yesterday, the issue with the US starting a war is I am pretty sure most, if not all, of the Eastern Pacific does not want a second Korean War for one reason or another. Even if the United States were to avert nuclear warfare with Korea and keep it to a conventional war, Japan and South Korea could withdraw their support of the United States and China could cut diplomatic ties. There's a bigger picture than us vs. them, and I'm not sure the diplomatic fallout is worth the risk.
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Vive, vale. Siquid novisti rectius istis,
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
~~~~~
North Korea's antics are North Korea's fault. Always.
But it's the responsibility of the US President and other world leaders to respond to those antics and keep them from boiling over into a shooting war. Trump is very capable of screwing that part up.
Blinking Spirit is right. I meant it in that way he puts it, but my partisan bias slipped a little too far. I apologize.
I'm with Kahedron on this. The escalating factor in North Korea is not just North Korea: it's Donald Trump.
First a little context. North Korea has always been reactionary in how it operates. Whenever North Korea makes headlines, it's because something else happened to provoke them. This does not excuse their horrible regime, but there's a method to North Korea's madness. This is in large part because North Korea has so little that it operates more on posturing than it operates on global influence. Part of that posturing is illustrated in the opening post. Don't be fooled by the caricature of North Korea as a cartoon villain. They present that image to the outside world because they want the outside world to leave them alone. Operating below the radar is off the table for them, so they make themselves look ridiculous, and this has led to people not taking them nearly as serious as they could be.
This is where Trump comes in. While most world leaders don't fall for North Korea's charades, Donald Trump is doing more than not being intimidated by them. He's responding, allegedly in part because his domestic agenda is not working out the way he'd hope, which is a lot like poking a bear: even a trained professional does not think it's a good idea. But then again, maybe Trump believes engaging North Korea is a bad idea after all.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Vive, vale. Siquid novisti rectius istis,
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
~~~~~
That's not exactly an easy or timely process, and even if it was, it doesn't mean that the Northern border into China is any less tempting.
But either way, getting back to the bigger picture, everything being discussed goes to show why the region doesn't want a war with North Korea. Everything we're debating is a quagmire for the entire region. There needs to be a solution to the Kim Regime, but the surrounding countries don't want one that either literally and/or figuratively blows up in their faces.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
~~~~~
I'm going to have to ask how much you know about North Korea because North Korea already has nukes.
What they don't have is the missile projectiles to launch them long distances, but even then, we're not certain how far they could get a device that can detonate. That's why the phrase "Seoul will glow" has been tossed around in this thread. While there's little chance that a nuclear devise could cross the Pacific to reach the United States (or Australia because they stepped in this as well for some reason), the chances are much, much higher to South Korea, China, and Japan.
So to answer your question, the answer is that the time to worry about acquisition has passed; North Korea has the technology. They don't want to risk them using it, which means they want to avoid a war.
Also as Blinking Spirit mentioned, China doesn't want the the United States to have strong ties along the entire Korean Peninsula. It would not be in China's political interests, which is one of the reasons why the Kim regime has lasted so long. So they don't want a war for a second reason as well.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
~~~~~
From what I was reading yesterday, the issue with the US starting a war is I am pretty sure most, if not all, of the Eastern Pacific does not want a second Korean War for one reason or another. Even if the United States were to avert nuclear warfare with Korea and keep it to a conventional war, Japan and South Korea could withdraw their support of the United States and China could cut diplomatic ties. There's a bigger picture than us vs. them, and I'm not sure the diplomatic fallout is worth the risk.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
~~~~~
Blinking Spirit is right. I meant it in that way he puts it, but my partisan bias slipped a little too far. I apologize.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
~~~~~
First a little context. North Korea has always been reactionary in how it operates. Whenever North Korea makes headlines, it's because something else happened to provoke them. This does not excuse their horrible regime, but there's a method to North Korea's madness. This is in large part because North Korea has so little that it operates more on posturing than it operates on global influence. Part of that posturing is illustrated in the opening post. Don't be fooled by the caricature of North Korea as a cartoon villain. They present that image to the outside world because they want the outside world to leave them alone. Operating below the radar is off the table for them, so they make themselves look ridiculous, and this has led to people not taking them nearly as serious as they could be.
This is where Trump comes in. While most world leaders don't fall for North Korea's charades, Donald Trump is doing more than not being intimidated by them. He's responding, allegedly in part because his domestic agenda is not working out the way he'd hope, which is a lot like poking a bear: even a trained professional does not think it's a good idea. But then again, maybe Trump believes engaging North Korea is a bad idea after all.
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
~~~~~