North Korea Mega Thread

[Santander]

Sanctions alone do nothing but increase the suffering of the North Korean people.

[Santander]

As much as I disagree with Beet on most things, he does understand the Chinese and North Koreans, culturally, more than the vast majority of the people here. People would do well to listen to him.

[Santander]

Does anyone actually believe North Korea would attack us?

A rational power wouldn't attack.  Kim is irrational enough to inject some doubt.

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

[Santander]

Reading the comments from the State Department presser on DPRK, Trump loyalists love the fiery rhetoric. 

Which is the entire point of poking North Korea.

[Santander]

I'm not a Trumpist, but I love the fiery rhetoric, I only wish we would actually act on it and unleash dragon fire on North Korea.

If you want to burn people alive, you are a complete failure as a human being.

[Santander]

North Korea only exists because of China. I wish China were more anti-North Korea, but if they were, they would have enforced sanctions against North Korea more harshly a long time ago. Fact is, the Chinese believe if they didn't protect North Korea in event of an attack, they'd be throwing away the hard-won sacrifices they made during the Korean War (1950-53), and the PLA wouldn't find that tolerable.

Thinking China will just walk away from North Korea over sanctions or a few political flames is just pure bourgeois decadence. Most people on Atlas (and for that matter, our Western leaders) cannot even comprehend China's geopolitical motivations.

[Santander]

Annexation of any part of Korea is off the table from a Chinese perspective. Without even getting into the obvious practical concerns, a not-insignificant part of Han self-esteem, at least from a political and cultural perspective, comes from the (not inaccurate) perception that Koreans admire and emulate them.

[Santander]

I can imagine some Chinese demands for a re-unified Korea:

1. No military alliance with Japan, Taiwan, or the USA.
2. Favorable trade treatment with China.
3. Legalization of Communist Parties other than the Korean Workers' Party (which would be outlawed much like the Nazis in Germany and Austria).
4. NUCLEAR FREE Korea.

Korea can still have a democracy and free enterprise.

The #1 rule of any negotiation is that your starting offer shouldn't get you laughed out of the room.

[Santander]

This is not an appropriate response.

[Santander]

Chinese and Macanese banks will quietly start doing business with North Korea again, and even without them, North Korea can continue to do business in Singapore and other willfully ignorant countries in Southeast Asia (which is really a wild west of money laundering), although in retrospect, angering Malaysia looks worse and worse for Kim as time goes on. Getting too cute with Japan and basically losing Chongryon was a massive loss, too, possibly bigger than the token sanctions imposed by China.

[Santander]

North Korea actually has pretty good scientists and they were considered strong in rocket technology dating back to the days when they did the infamous tech swap with Bhutto's Pakistan...

[Santander]

Honestly, I think China should just annex North Korea.

I heard this summer when the North Korea stuff really started to heat up, that if any military action did happen, it would mostly consist of decapitation strikes by the USA, after which Chinese sleeper agents would gain control of the North Korean government and end any conflict with the promise of dismantling the nuclear program.

How realistic does that sound?

It sounds like a Tom Clancy novel.

A particularly bad one, at that.

[Santander]

I think Trump's ideology dictates that he may use swift and severe force against North Korea. As mentioned before, enough kicking cans down the road.

Easy for you to say, no one cares enough to nuke Ohio.

Hey, I like Ohio.