No P&N (Polarization and Name Calling)...go start your own thread or join one of the others if you want to whine about Bush or Clinton...solutions (and their pros and cons) only...
Here's my suggested solution - we need to dramatically and progressively "raise the stakes" without going military, basically in this order. Hopefully we don't go past #2.
1) Obviously take this to the UN for sanctions.
2) Inform China and Russia that if they veto/block any UN actions, we will retaliate by imposing extremely large tarriffs on their goods coming into the US. Russia won't care, but China sure will. Insist that China support and enforce sanctions.
2a) Inform South Korea that they've stood on the fence for too long - either they are in for the long haul, or remove all US forces from SK post haste.
3) Inform Russia and China that we will begin aggressively sharing nuclear technology with Japan if this is not resolved. Japan could create some pretty damn good stealthy nukes/weapons if they put their mind to it - some serious first strike capabilities.
4) Conduct a naval and air blockade of all goods going into/coming out of NK.
These all require North Korea to be the aggressor for anything military.
Here's my suggested solution - we need to dramatically and progressively "raise the stakes" without going military, basically in this order. Hopefully we don't go past #2.
1) Obviously take this to the UN for sanctions.
2) Inform China and Russia that if they veto/block any UN actions, we will retaliate by imposing extremely large tarriffs on their goods coming into the US. Russia won't care, but China sure will. Insist that China support and enforce sanctions.
2a) Inform South Korea that they've stood on the fence for too long - either they are in for the long haul, or remove all US forces from SK post haste.
3) Inform Russia and China that we will begin aggressively sharing nuclear technology with Japan if this is not resolved. Japan could create some pretty damn good stealthy nukes/weapons if they put their mind to it - some serious first strike capabilities.
4) Conduct a naval and air blockade of all goods going into/coming out of NK.
These all require North Korea to be the aggressor for anything military.