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So when they did this in 2006, the UN issued weapons sanctions against North Korea[1]. Then when they did it again in 2009, the UN issued more sanctions[2] that

So when they did this in 2006, the UN issued weapons sanctions against North Korea[1]. Then when they did it again in 2009, the UN issued more sanctions[2] that apparently NK considered an 'act of war'. From them, the world has intercepted a whopping 6 North Korean boats and 1 North Korean airplane. Aside from "issuing even more sanctions" what options are available to the UN? Good luck trying to send in a team of people to destroy the nuclear program, that will all but invite a warhead/attack. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1718 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1874 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council...

mjn 14y ago
For decades that's been the problem. South Korea's population centers are too close to the North for an attack to be a reasonable risk: even decades-old artillery and unguided rockets can hit Seoul, launched from hundreds of dug-in sites. So things have been organized around trying to pressure North Korea in various ways, either via China, or directly, but without force being a seriously considered option.
- plaguuuuuu 14y ago
  Yep. This is what happens when you expand too close to the enemy's base..
  - rtpg 14y ago
    I think this is more due to the fact that Seoul just happened to be next to the arbitrary 55th parallel drawn after WWII.
  - hammock 14y ago
    Is that a Starcraft reference?
  - arasmussen 14y ago
    Better throw up a few extra photon cannons just in case.
  - dba7dba 14y ago
    Seoul had been the capital of S Korea for 5+ centuries. After Korean war ended, S Korea was just too poor to even consider moving their capital. There were attempts to move capital city to central part of S Korea later but they've been a bit busy (assassination of president, industrialization, democratization, PSY, etc).
cpeterso 14y ago
What is North Korea's motivation? Given the UN's predicable past responses, North Korea must gain some political benefit from these UN responses.
- rtrunck 14y ago
  Foreign aid so citizens of North Korea can eat.
  - jasonwatkinspdx 14y ago
    The longer historical context is that in the 90's the PRNK agreed to hand over their future nuclear power infrastructure to us, in exchange for abandoning a weapons program. Domestic political winds shifted, and the USA chose not to honor the agreement by congress strangling funds. Instead we paid them oil as a substitute. Things broke down further in the Bush 'axis of evil' period. PRNK's behavior right now seems to be about pushing the USA back to something like the prior agreement, likely because they see the Obama administration as more open to this possibility. Honestly this would probably be a win for everyone, particularly if it included opening up a labor trade between north and south Korea. North Korea is impoverished, but their citizenry is actually quite well educated (if indoctrinated). If economic sanctions were weakened, there's little question that access to north Korean labor would be in high demand globally. There are a lot of challenges to making this happen. Possibly the hardest are social, and will simply take the passing of generations to ease. There are also probably important PRC PRNK relationship dimensions to all this as well, of which I'm ignorant.
- yk 14y ago
  NK argues that their regime is superior to all other regimes and prosperity would come any day now. Therefore asking for humanitarian aid would contradict their propaganda. On the other hand, as long as they are the worst of the bad, they have natural allies, like Iran, Myanmar and any other 'bad guy of the week.' In addition they can realistically only sell ballistic missiles and nuclear technology, since they do not produce much interesting stuff besides WMDs. So the NK government has the choice between pushing nuclear technology and missiles, which kind of works in the short run, or they can throw all their previous work in this areas away to start a rather complicated transition to a more long term strategy. Depending on how stable the regime is, it may survive the short term problems such a change of strategy creates.

mjn 14y ago

For decades that's been the problem. South Korea's population centers are too close to the North for an attack to be a reasonable risk: even decades-old artillery and unguided rockets can hit Seoul, launched from hundreds of dug-in sites. So things have been organized around trying to pressure North Korea in various ways, either via China, or directly, but without force being a seriously considered option.

plaguuuuuu 14y ago
Yep. This is what happens when you expand too close to the enemy's base..
- rtpg 14y ago
  I think this is more due to the fact that Seoul just happened to be next to the arbitrary 55th parallel drawn after WWII.
- hammock 14y ago
  Is that a Starcraft reference?
- arasmussen 14y ago
  Better throw up a few extra photon cannons just in case.
- dba7dba 14y ago
  Seoul had been the capital of S Korea for 5+ centuries. After Korean war ended, S Korea was just too poor to even consider moving their capital. There were attempts to move capital city to central part of S Korea later but they've been a bit busy (assassination of president, industrialization, democratization, PSY, etc).

cpeterso 14y ago

What is North Korea's motivation? Given the UN's predicable past responses, North Korea must gain some political benefit from these UN responses.

rtrunck 14y ago
Foreign aid so citizens of North Korea can eat.
- jasonwatkinspdx 14y ago
  The longer historical context is that in the 90's the PRNK agreed to hand over their future nuclear power infrastructure to us, in exchange for abandoning a weapons program. Domestic political winds shifted, and the USA chose not to honor the agreement by congress strangling funds. Instead we paid them oil as a substitute. Things broke down further in the Bush 'axis of evil' period. PRNK's behavior right now seems to be about pushing the USA back to something like the prior agreement, likely because they see the Obama administration as more open to this possibility. Honestly this would probably be a win for everyone, particularly if it included opening up a labor trade between north and south Korea. North Korea is impoverished, but their citizenry is actually quite well educated (if indoctrinated). If economic sanctions were weakened, there's little question that access to north Korean labor would be in high demand globally. There are a lot of challenges to making this happen. Possibly the hardest are social, and will simply take the passing of generations to ease. There are also probably important PRC PRNK relationship dimensions to all this as well, of which I'm ignorant.
yk 14y ago
NK argues that their regime is superior to all other regimes and prosperity would come any day now. Therefore asking for humanitarian aid would contradict their propaganda. On the other hand, as long as they are the worst of the bad, they have natural allies, like Iran, Myanmar and any other 'bad guy of the week.' In addition they can realistically only sell ballistic missiles and nuclear technology, since they do not produce much interesting stuff besides WMDs. So the NK government has the choice between pushing nuclear technology and missiles, which kind of works in the short run, or they can throw all their previous work in this areas away to start a rather complicated transition to a more long term strategy. Depending on how stable the regime is, it may survive the short term problems such a change of strategy creates.