I dunno. I'm divided in the sense that there's two conflicting ways of looking at this: the pragmatic argument and the idealogical argument.

Pragmatically, a rogue state with nukes is dangerous as all fuck. We know that Kim Jong Il is a headcase who will blow people up if he feels like it and so North Korea having these kind of weapons is obviously a bad thing.

But...idealogically, the US is arbitrarily deciding that certain countries can't have nukes, even though they and thier allies (including the UK) have their own stockpile. Who are they to police the world? It was kind of interesting to hear North Korea throwing the American rhetoric back in their face by saying that they were the dangerous enemy and they were only protecting themselves by arming.

America blew up Iraq for less reason than this, at the end of the day, so I think the West is going to find itself in a difficult situation. If the 'Coalition of the Willing' is happy to invade a country because there might be WMDs, what do they do when a similiar non-democratic rogue state (which isn't linked in the popular mind with 9/11 ) actually does have WMDs?

I know for a fact that the UK military is already overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I think the US in the same situation so a ground war is logistically unfeasible, if it's even desirable (and if you think the Iraq invasion was justified then it must be) so that puts the Bush administration in a very difficult situation.

Stick to your guns and declare a war that may be unwinnable, or risk admitting that Iraq was politically rather than idealogically motivated...

I agree that the United States has dug themselves into a corner. They've declared zero tolerance on terror and rogue states having WMDs and they've invaded one nation on suspicion of it. Now here's North Korea declaring they already have nuclear technology and we're left looking rather dumb, having wasted our resources on Bush's pet war and ignoring actual threats. I don't agree with the United States sticking their nose in other countries' business. For the one country to ever use a nuclear weapon offensively against another country to tell anyone else that they aren't trustworthy or responsible enough with nukes seems rather stupid.

Nuclear weapons aren't a large concern of mine anyway. They seem more of a checks and balances system to me. It's a way of neutralizing threats without using force, especially in that region. For North Korea to be touting a nuclear bomb that is a fraction of how powerful they say it is when surrounded by Russia, China, the U.S. and Japan who could probably have nukes in a month if they felt like it comes off to me as someone trying to bluff their way to a poker victory with nothing more than a high card.

While Kim Jon Il is definitely a nut, he's a nut who is obsessed with maintaining power. That is annoying to the rest of the world and unfortunate for his own starving citizens, but it's really the best thing that the U.S. has going for them. Il might be a nut, but he's not an idiot. He is well aware that one bomb launched from North Korea will result in him and his country being turned into a crater. Then there's the proximity to both Russia and China. One stray missile by the North Koreans into either of those countries and they're 100% fucked.

It comes off to me as a big cock measuring contest. North Korea pulls shit like this when they aren't getting enough attention or are tiring of sanctions. What have they really done? They've launched missiles that didn't work very well. Then they detonated a bomb which may or may not have been nuclear and was weak as hell if it was. Now they're saying that further sanctions would be an act of war. I'm more worried about a bird pooping on my head outside than I am about a North Korean missile landing on U.S. soil.

I read a report on their military that said their budget might be proportionately the largest in the world, but their mechanical deficit is even bigger. Hardly anything works. There are personnel carriers and other vehicles just laying on the side of the road because they don't work and no one fixes them. That's not to say they can't do damage to Japan or South Korea or that any conflict wouldn't be bloody. It would be if for no other reason than sheer numbers, but North Korea is not nearly as threatening as they try to be.

I agree with the U.S. that they shouldn't submit to bilateral talks. If this is how North Korea asks for things, like they have for years, then what will it achieve? The U.S. will look like bigger pussies than they already do and the North Koreans will know that they can make demands when backed up with threats of force.

Sanctions are the best course of action at the moment. Call North Korea's bluff.

Even if they detonated a nuke, they're still quite a ways away from having one they can use for a warhead. With what they have now, they'd need a massive detonation device. And if they ever get that far, then they're a threat to... Japan and maybe China, not the US or UK.

Gah, how did I close that?



What I was saying was that I'm not so concerned that North Korea are going to nuke me, more about the political ramifications of this. Iraq was invaded with less justification, which gives Bush three options:

- Attempt a costly and dangerous land war on foreign soil in the name of 'freedom' or whatever.

- Don't, and admit that attacking Iraq was unjustified ("We're not invading North Korea because we don't think we should")

- Don't, and admit that attacking Iraq was a mistake ("We're not invading North Korea because we can't)

Option 1 is stupid, option 2 exposes the hypocrisy and option 3 exposes the ineptitude. Fun.

Even without Iraq, a war in Korea would be devastating to both sides and is a completely ridiculous thought.

Yeah, I know. I don't think Option 1 will ever happen - invading a country when you already have a shitload of troops in the area and allies littered throughout the region as well as a bunch of oil for when your trucks need resupplying is a bit different from attempting to take out North Korea.

It's clear that the propoganda machine is concentrating on "North Korea are bad, bad people" (not nessecarily untrue) at the moment though rather than the difficult political situation, which is understandable.

Still, I expect some interesting questions to be asked sometime in the future.