Is It An Obligation Of The Civilised World To Resolve The Nk Issue?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-echochambers-25597324
Not normally one to interfere but I think the civilised world will at some point have to deal with this barbaric regime.

[anotheoldgit]

Must agree in one respect, but having said that where does one start and where does one end, since there are a multitude of barbaric regimes around the world.

[Gromit]

Did you post the right link?

It concludes that the story is unlikely to be true.

He is a despot, but there are others around the globe. People in North Korea might read of Ametican torture camps in Cuba and conclude that is a barbaric regime.

Unless North Korea genuinely becomes a threat to the west or its neighbours, then we should do nothing militarily. Sanctions, Banning trade is all we can o.

[ToraToraTora]

The link is largely irrelvant, I just think that ultimately the civilised world,by that I mean all the players, would collectively say that NK is just too dangerous and if only to rescue the NK people from tyranny will at some point in the future take action.

[jake-the-peg]

So you think it's an obligation in the civilised world to resolve an maniac dictator in a small part of the world but not to address poverty hunger and foul water which is a problem throughout the world?

Isn't this the problem with right wingers?

All very keen to get involved with military action until soldiers actually start getting killed then they start screaming 'bring the boys back home'

All very keen to justify it by the suffereing of civillians but don't want to know unless the charity is delivered by aircraft carrier

I'd suggest that North Korea should be way down our priority list of doing good in the world

Note the point in the article about China getting bored with them

Leave them alone and isolated and they'll eventually collapse just like Russia did

[ToraToraTora]

Nice tyrade jake, all I'm saying is that at some point the civilised world will have to deal with this problem.

[Hypognosis]

I fear that their population is so heavily indoctrinated that they would fight every step of the way, if anyone attempted to 'liberate' them, much as the Vietnamese did and, even then, the line between civilian and uniformed Viet Kong was (apparently) somewhat blurry.

Then again, if their own soldiers are deserting and trying to get into China unnoticed, then maybe there's hope for their sanity yet

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2013/03/22/2013032200809.html

Note: China keeps catching civilian defectors (even when they've got as far as Thailand) as well as deserting soldiers and, sad to say, just sends them back to the regime where they will, presumably be gulag-ed or killed. :-(

[jno]

not sure why you're making your point by linking to a story which basically acknowledges the whole thing's an urban myth in the making.

But the answer is that North Korea has nukes and their leaders don't mind appearing nuts enough to use them. So how would we resolve the issue?

[LazyGun]

Short of an all out war declared on NK by the rest of the world, it is difficult to see what options we would have in "dealing with this barbaric regime" apart from doing what we do now, which is diplomacy. Stuffing the mouths of the leadership with gold, basically, working on China to bring their influence to bear, and hoping against hope that the regime implodes before they send up the nukes.

Hard as they try, the days of isolationism of the regime are gradually eroding, and the more they erode, the more the foundations of the regime become eroded.

As for the man being fed to the dogs story - I suppose it is a nice ironic twist over the usual Korean/Dog story, which usually is centred on the dogs feeding the man :)

[mikey4444]

We ignore North Korea at our peril. Have people forgotten the Korean War ?

This Kim Ping Pong chap is a complete dangerous nutcase, but he is at the head of a country that may have nuclear weapons, and certainly has huge conventional weapons capability. The country is so backward and unstable, he may use them any day now. I think the West should be very observant indeed !

[LazyGun]

@mikey Who was this comment aimed at?

"We ignore North Korea at our peril. Have people forgotten the Korean War ?"

Is there a contributor here that you feel is ignoring the danger that NK represents?

[mikey4444]

It wasn't directed at anyone in particular, just making the general point LazyGun !

[LazyGun]

@ Mikey - Ahh, ok :)

The roots and first cause motivations of the Korean War are very interesting indeed.

[mikey4444]

LG...When I was a teenager, I used to work with a chap that had fought in the Korean War, and he always resented that as far as most people were concerned, it was the Forgotten War. He was in the Glosters. He told some pretty horrible stories about his time there. He is dead now but he would be pleased that the KW is now taken more seriously.

A very nasty little war it would seem, and as the two sides are still at logger-heads, not resolved even now. its easy to laugh as the antics of Ping Pong but he's a dangerous chap all the same.

By the way, i don't believe the dogs story at all....it just sounds a tad too melodramatic to me.

[LazyGun]

The details of the Gloucesters stand on what became known as Glosters Hill during the Battle of Imjin River makes for sobering reading. From all accounts, a truly heroic resistance against overwhelming forces which ultimately blunted the Chinese/NK attack on Seoul and caused it to lose impetus, allowing the UN/ROK to shore up their defensive lines.

[modeller]

Had the Chinese not intervened in the Korean War there would not now be a NK.
It was the NK who invaded the South and were pushed back by a UN force , but China then entered the war which turned it into a major conflct, and ended right back where it had started on the 38th parallel. China and to a lesser extent Russia have kept it there ever since. As long as they maintain that support nothing can be done. However should NK get the Nuke capability. I can't see Japan ( with US support ) standing back and doing nothing.
It's a similar situation in Iran and Syria . Russia and China are the key players.
I don't know who you think the civilised world is. The UN was set up in Oct '45 to prevent wars with little major success. Most of the worlds hot spots in 1945/50 are still with us today. The Korean War was the first time the 'civilised world ' intervened after being set up and the result was a stalemate, which has been the pattern ever since.

[keyplus90]

Has NK got any oil reserves?

[keyplus90]

////Nice tyrade jake, all I'm saying is that at some point the civilised world will have to deal with this problem.///

Ok, you keep an eye open and let me know when "that point" arrives and I will do something about it.

[sandyRoe]

NK is a client state of China. They would probably want a stable regime there no matter how much the people suffered.

[ichkeria]

Of course it isn't. And given we are standing idly by with respect to Syria, convinced we are doing something useful by forcing Assad to decommission chemical weapons he might not ever have used again, while he uses conventional ones to commit genocide, what earthly likelihood is there that the "civilised world" would like to start a war against an isolated nuclear power??