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I feel like we're inching our way toward waking up one morning to find North Korea wiped off the planet. Perhaps not as drastic but I can't imagine they're goin

by junon 5y ago

I feel like we're inching our way toward waking up one morning to find North Korea wiped off the planet. Perhaps not as drastic but I can't imagine they're going to withstand a barrage of counterattacks. But I'm not a military person whatsoever so what do I know.

sigzero 5y ago
Yeah, I don't doubt someone is going to try "regime change" there.
droptablemain 5y ago
People say things like this and then wonder why DPRK clings so tightly to its nuclear program.
- thescriptkiddie 5y ago
  Especially after what happened to Gaddafi.
  - nemo44x 5y ago
    Right. What NK is doing is rational and in their best interests to maintain their regime. At this point I’d say it’s time to forget the post WW2 world and just recognize it makes no sense today to have the types of agencies and structures we’ve built in that world. Normalize relations with them, open up trade, and try and build trust. It’s literally a pointless policy today. We do business with communists. We do business with despots.
kklisura 5y ago
Would it be moral to invest in defense/military contractor companies (Lockheed, Boing, Raytheon, etc.) to profit from such events?
SonicScrub 5y ago
The goal of North Korea is not to build a self-defense that could withstand US/NATO invasion. It's to pose a credible enough retaliation so any outside invasion attempts would never be worth the cost. Demonstrations such as this are just North Korea declaring "we can nuke Tokyo if we want, are we really worth that?". Thereby North Korea's ruling class are insulated from being externally overthrown, and can focus all their efforts on suppressing internal threats. Unless something dramatic changes, North Korea is not going to be "wiped off the planet" anytime soon.
supercanuck 5y ago
you'd think if the US was good enough to fake the moon landing and hide the fact the world is flat, they'd be able to make North Korea disappear without anyone realizing it
- junon 5y ago
  I legitimately cannot figure out your stance from this comment.
colechristensen 5y ago
We’re really not, it’s just saber rattling. A leashed NK acting aggressively is politically useful for various actors, actual action is not.
openasocket 5y ago
North Korea's military strategy is built around retribution. If South Korea and the US were to launch an attack on North Korea they would eventually win, but the costs in military and civilian (both North and South Korean) casualties would be so extreme as to make it not worthwhile. As an example: North Korea has thousands of artillery pieces positioned near the border, which are capable of striking targets fairly deep in South Korean territory. A number of them can strike into Seoul. And they are situated in tunnels in the side of mountains, well stocked with plenty of ammunition. The artillery pieces stay in the tunnels, pop out to fire a round, and roll back in to be reloaded. They can fire into high population areas and can hit a number of important military installations near the border. Plus, North Korea is able to produce chemical weapons, and is believed to have chemical artillery rounds stockpiled. Estimates are that it would take a South Korean-Japanese-US combined air force weeks to find and neutralize all those positions. You also have some fairly rough terrain in North Korea, which is not very suitable to large-scale armored and mechanized assaults. Any invasion would also have to face a population that has been indoctrinated for generations to hate and fear South Koreans, Japanese, and Americans. Long range cruise missiles like these give the North Koreans additional options for retribution against such an attack. There's even speculation that North Korea may implement nuclear landmines, essentially placing nuclear warheads near the border to be detonated if an invasion were to overrun that position. In short, any potential invasion or regime change of North Korea would be a very long and very bloody affair, unless there are some serious changes in the status quo. Which is exactly what Kim Jung Un wants. He doesn't have any real ambitions to re-unite the Korean peninsula, or to liberalize the nation and re-enter the world stage. His only goal is maintaining power, which is exactly what this is.

by junon 5y ago

sigzero 5y ago

Yeah, I don't doubt someone is going to try "regime change" there.

droptablemain 5y ago

People say things like this and then wonder why DPRK clings so tightly to its nuclear program.

thescriptkiddie 5y ago
Especially after what happened to Gaddafi.
- nemo44x 5y ago
  Right. What NK is doing is rational and in their best interests to maintain their regime. At this point I’d say it’s time to forget the post WW2 world and just recognize it makes no sense today to have the types of agencies and structures we’ve built in that world. Normalize relations with them, open up trade, and try and build trust. It’s literally a pointless policy today. We do business with communists. We do business with despots.

kklisura 5y ago

Would it be moral to invest in defense/military contractor companies (Lockheed, Boing, Raytheon, etc.) to profit from such events?

SonicScrub 5y ago

The goal of North Korea is not to build a self-defense that could withstand US/NATO invasion. It's to pose a credible enough retaliation so any outside invasion attempts would never be worth the cost. Demonstrations such as this are just North Korea declaring "we can nuke Tokyo if we want, are we really worth that?". Thereby North Korea's ruling class are insulated from being externally overthrown, and can focus all their efforts on suppressing internal threats. Unless something dramatic changes, North Korea is not going to be "wiped off the planet" anytime soon.

supercanuck 5y ago

you'd think if the US was good enough to fake the moon landing and hide the fact the world is flat, they'd be able to make North Korea disappear without anyone realizing it

junon 5y ago
I legitimately cannot figure out your stance from this comment.

colechristensen 5y ago

We’re really not, it’s just saber rattling. A leashed NK acting aggressively is politically useful for various actors, actual action is not.

openasocket 5y ago

North Korea's military strategy is built around retribution. If South Korea and the US were to launch an attack on North Korea they would eventually win, but the costs in military and civilian (both North and South Korean) casualties would be so extreme as to make it not worthwhile. As an example: North Korea has thousands of artillery pieces positioned near the border, which are capable of striking targets fairly deep in South Korean territory. A number of them can strike into Seoul. And they are situated in tunnels in the side of mountains, well stocked with plenty of ammunition. The artillery pieces stay in the tunnels, pop out to fire a round, and roll back in to be reloaded. They can fire into high population areas and can hit a number of important military installations near the border. Plus, North Korea is able to produce chemical weapons, and is believed to have chemical artillery rounds stockpiled. Estimates are that it would take a South Korean-Japanese-US combined air force weeks to find and neutralize all those positions. You also have some fairly rough terrain in North Korea, which is not very suitable to large-scale armored and mechanized assaults. Any invasion would also have to face a population that has been indoctrinated for generations to hate and fear South Koreans, Japanese, and Americans. Long range cruise missiles like these give the North Koreans additional options for retribution against such an attack. There's even speculation that North Korea may implement nuclear landmines, essentially placing nuclear warheads near the border to be detonated if an invasion were to overrun that position. In short, any potential invasion or regime change of North Korea would be a very long and very bloody affair, unless there are some serious changes in the status quo. Which is exactly what Kim Jung Un wants. He doesn't have any real ambitions to re-unite the Korean peninsula, or to liberalize the nation and re-enter the world stage. His only goal is maintaining power, which is exactly what this is.