North Korea Fires on South Korea

[jonjonk]

they can hit the car companies, but leave Samsung alone!! Damn it, I'm still waiting for the Nexus S.

[flipfire]

This.

[nobodyshero]

Completely disagree with most of the assesments here. North Korea is afraid to use nuclear weapons, its playing a game to lighten the economic sanctions imposed on the country and get a bigger bargaining chip.

At risk of exposing the thread to too much political thought, but being its important; North Korea has always been taking orders from China, the majority of the soldiers and weaponry in the "Korean War" in the latter stages were coming almost entirely from China.

China is too closely linked to Israel and the United States economically to let them use nuclear warfare, it would be a suicide pact between the Korea's, the East and the West. To think somehow Kim Jong Il has so much power (and that he is insane) is naive at best, hes mostly a figurehead endowed with largely petty dictator powers with China as his grand advisor and final say of word.

[H.A.L. 9000]

This.

LOL. I need to play Crysis.

[Pai]

I know it's a little off topic but for those who hasn't watch the documentary on North Korean on Netflix should watch it. It is amazing how much brain washing was done to its people.

I agreed with MidNightSun, if North Korea's intention was to start a war then it wouldn't have only assault a little island, it's a way to get attention.

[DRSR]

Its the Aliens... I just hope those Nanosuits are developed and funtional already...

[TofuTurkey]

The big countries won't fight directly, it's always via the smaller countries. In exchange for this support, the small countries mustn't do things in such a way that is politically or obviously wrong. In today's incident, North Korea can blame the attack on South Korea, as a response to South Korea's training exercise. As long as there is an excuse to use force, North Korea will do it, China will support it. China doesn't have to care about winning wars, it's survived multiple conflicts in the past, it's important economically now. What China cares about is 'face', what it cares about is what goes into the history books. China wants to be right.

What's different with this case is that North Korea's response is significantly more devastating than ever before. It goes beyond the normal harassment of South Korea to get world attention. North Korea can't immediately launch a nuclear missile, because if China wants to support that, it would look totally inappropriate as a response to a training exercise. But, North Korea's response is significant enough to cause other countries to seriously consider using military force. Because of this, I believe that North Korea has sufficient strength to win any ensuing war. I believe that North Korea is a nuclear power.

Once military force continues, whether from South Korea or its allies, North Korea will then have the 'political right' to launch the nuclear missile. China will be justified in its support of North Korea.

And frankly speaking, when I heard the news this morning, I thought a nuclear missile would be launched by the end of today.

Edit: What does North Korea stand to gain? It can unify the Korean peninsula. It doesn't matter if it doesn't have the resources, it has China. Rebuilding a unified, Communist Korea takes a tiny portion of China's vast wealth. The funny thing will be that US taxpayers' wealth will then be indirectly paying for that. What does China stand to gain? It gets to say socialism is the way to go. It gets to say that it stands by its friends through thick and thin, doing what it thinks is right rather than bowing to Western powers. It will beat the West morally, economically, and militarily.

[nobodyshero]

Edit: What does North Korea stand to gain? It can unify the Korean peninsula. It doesn't matter if it doesn't have the resources, it has China. Rebuilding a unified, Communist Korea takes a tiny portion of China's vast wealth. The funny thing will be that US taxpayers' wealth will then be indirectly paying for that. What does China stand to gain? It gets to say socialism is the way to go. It gets to say that it stands by its friends through thick and thin, doing what it thinks is right rather than bowing to Western powers. It will beat the West morally, economically, and militarily.

I answered it above... The international western sanctions against the N. Korean economy are crippling them, restricted from the liberal and unbounded market favoritism toward China, the West treats N. Korea as minor player in the world economy (and probably seeks to intentionally cripple them). What they gain by showing a big stick is a bigger bargaining chip in negotiations.

You could think of it on terms of what Mexico is to the United States, while we possess the collective worlds largest GDP we could not fully support Mexico based purely on our own without crippling our massive economy. How safe do you think we would feel if tomorrow Mexico was overtaken by China? While the N. Korean economy is of vastly less significance then Mexico is to us, it would be impossible to let Mexico go to eastern influences. In a similar fashion North Korea is China's direct border state and one of its strongest allies, I highly doubt China would EVER let go of North Korea to western influences for its own security.

[Sphinx]

I think the problem is that Kim doesn't really care one way or another. He is pretty unstable. He is on his way out, and before he dies, he may want either peace or full war. I doubt there is an line in between for him.

It seems to me he wants the latter one, probably thinking that he didn't amass such a great army without putting it to use before he's gone. He wants to leave his mark in history I'm sure.

The guy is totally out of touch with reality.

Basically what I was saying. He isnt the healthiest person in the world and has always been out to prove something. He has little man syndrome, is close to death and has nukes. Not exactly a good thing.

[Mr.Mischief]

Saber rattling now that they have an enrichment facility. An effective strategy to get more concessions from the West at the next round of talks.

Exactly what my dad said.