North Korea is a Stalinist hellhole with no real economy, freedom, and of very little real importance other than what its crazy leader can generate/extort for himself by threatening the rest of the world. Kim Jong can test nukes until he is green in the face and he still isn't going to get the bilateral talks with the US.
exactly. rationally, most everyone here could agree north korea is de facto "rogue state", or forms "axis of evil" as famously stated by Bush. Personally, I strongly believe they must repent for all the atrocities they have commited since 1950. As much as I loathe american diplomacy, the Korean War would more than topple anything America did in past century or so. Don't forget they instigated armed conflicts in the western waters of Korea just few years ago, costing lives of many innocent South Korean seamen. I was actually in active duty at that time, and this act of aggression totally enraged me. Also,
as an American citizen, it is patriotic to seek for ways that maximize the benefit of America and her people, fair enough. However, Todd33 brings up an excellent point on relative equality. To be completely fair, America should rid of all her nukes before she wastes her energy to "cleanse" nations not deemed trustworthy, at least from purely ethical standpoint. Though I believe letting NK have their own way with nukes is not of the best interest to any neighboring state,
there is no way you are going to hold a high moral ground to tell others before you walk the walk yourself. Call me being overly technical, but that is what I see from a 3rd person view.
Someone mentioned America is respected looked up to, well maybe few decades ago when many countries were still striving to escape 3rd world status or going through political/economic turmoil on top of the greater evil of Soviet Union overlooking them. Do people really like America these days? Thats not exactly what I saw having spent a considerable amount of life leaving in other countries and being around with people with multinational backgrounds. There are still many individuals wishing to move to the US for better education, job opportunities, and whatnot, but not many are able to. Obviously, a bigger majority of people seem to be rather hotly anti american. I had a chance to skim through the article on anti-americanism and thought it didnt do justice to what a rampant "fad" it is now. Let's not get into why this is happening, thats a whole new can of worms. Just chipping in my 2 cents.
But I digress. What I wanted to point out was that if anyone have a clear idea of what to do once Kim is forced out of power. I hope I dont have to remind everyone of what happened to W. Germany after absorbing the East breathren, when both boasted some of the best economy in their respective camps. SK is a rather big player now in the world economy, but nowhere near where W. Germany was prior to the unification; in fact, SK has once reached an extreme condition, being placed under IMF program less than a decade ago. SK cant handle a huge influx of famine-ridden hordes any better than China could, not to mention rebuilding the ruins of what wretched nation NK is now. With the idea of reunification out of the window, what needs to be done to the staving population of 23000 people? To make matters worse, SK locals have been taught since birth to aspire unification as their national goal, so undoubtedly they will assume collapse of NK should mean reunification. Wait, thats not the end of the story! There is a serious question of how much power Kim actually wields in the NK's hegemony structure. NK military is known to be very gung-ho, filled with ranks of hawkish generals. From what I understand, SK's aim is to keep Kim power and not provoke him to do something crazier than usual, like launching all-out chemical assault or long range artillery barrage on Seoul (though this threat is allegedely addressed with newer OPLANs for preemtive strikes), officially anyway. They fear a collapse of dangerous yet quasi-stable balance of regime and ensueing power struggle more so than this infamous dictator. Interestingly, this policy dubbed as "Sunshine Policy" is at the core of heated debate among Koreans, where many argue this was the cause of inability to stop NK's nuke program. Yet many SK youngsters remain dangerously anti-american, which worries me quite a bit. Personally, I dont claim to know enough or have a clear stance on as to this is the best approach to handle NK. But the question is, do we have any concrete plan for actions to be taken after we debunk the NK government immediately. Perhaps this could be done with minimal casualties and material losses with careful planning, but whats next? Sounds kinda like the Red revolution in the sense that it lacks clear guidance after you make it happen.
Cliff notes: Fine, get rid of Kim. Then what?