Seoul vows to bar U.S. strike at North Korea

International Herald Tribune ^ | July 8th, 2005 | Choe Sang-Hun

[Paul Ross]

SEOUL President Roh Moo Hyun declared Thursday that under no circumstances would South Korea allow the United States to resort to a military attack against North Korea.

President George W. Bush insists that he wants to resolve the nuclear crisis through diplomacy, but he has not officially ruled out a military option, which he has called a "last choice."

[MikefromOhio]

sounds like the GOP circa 1976 or so....or possibly 1992...

[LibertarianInExile]

'76 is closer--in '92, there was Newt to rally around, at least. Politics in Korea moves pretty fast, though, and I suppose more things could change the longer the 386ers live in the real world.

[deathb4dishoner]

WHY? We need to withdrawl the majority troops around the globe - put savings into military buildup, including dusting off the nukes and make sure everything works.... and push even harder for missle defense. We cannot affoard to be the global policeman anymore but we should be able to obliterate anyone that threatens us.

[LibertarianInExile]

You nailed it. Don't waste your time.

[MikefromOhio]

sounds like you know the situation pretty well....

[LibertarianInExile]

Lived there a couple years, did some contract work for the ROK gummint a bit...I'm no native like a few here, but I do have fairly current knowledge of the situation. I'm certainly not there every day or anything, but I keep up with it. It's painful knowing how poor a job we did in educating the Koreans who have come to the U.S. to learn what government should be like. Don't get me wrong--most of the Koreans I've hung out with personally I'll grab a soju with, they're good drinkers and entertaining folks. But almost every one of them had revolting politics, either they were hard leftist, or adhered to a strong 'big man' theory of government. There seemed to be no one agitating for freedom for freedom's sake--everyone had an agenda, and wanted the pie sliced their way. I don't have high hopes for Korea until that changes.

[al baby]

TODAY, begin redeployment of ALL US troops along the Korean DMZ to the US borders! 35,000 soldiers is just about right to seal 'um up tight!

Brillant and it wont cost us a cent

[sandydipper]

Last time I looked we didn't have to ask S. Korea for squat.

[Sam the Sham]

However all of these "options" presuppose a South Korea that is willing to be an American air base. Such a South Korea no longer exists.

It is true that South Korea is well able to outfight the North conventionally. I would be surprised if the North Koreans could field 100 running tanks or 50 flyable planes. A North Korean attack on the south makes me think of the German stormtroop offensive in the spring of 1918 where the advancing German troops, men who had spent the last three years eating sawdust bread, turnips, and some horsemeat stopped to pig out in British rear area depots with real food. In fact, during the Vietnam War the North Koreans sent a 'volunteer' unit of pilots to North Vietnam in 'fraternal solidarity'. They were so incompetent and crashed so many planes that the North Vietnamese 'thanked' them and sent them home.

[aquila48]

And we should vow to not defend S. Korea...

[Paul Ross]

The problem is those 10,000 WW-II Soviet artillery pieces the North Koreans have lined up along prepositioned rails behind the DMZ in caves. Even if most of them were too rusty to get more than four or five shots off, Seoul, and all the military bases in reach would be destroyed in the first few minutes of bombardment.

If we pull out, will NK feel sufficiently emboldened to "give it a go"? After all, they can always count on the PLA to back them up if things go seriously awry....and do you think South Korea can take on the PLA too?

That being said, we should not suffer these indignities anymore. We deserve much much better. And the blood of the 38,000 Americans spilled defending this rock deserved better. If they value us so little, then, perhaps it is time we let things take their course. I personally hope that a pullout announcement would result in a salutory change in their government, if not right away, at the next election. And one of the things we should make clear to the populace in South Korea...that if they are taken over by Kim Il-Jung, that there will be no export trade allowed from their country anymore. There will be no business as usual. They will share the starvation fate of their northern brethren....

[iThinkBig]

"Indeed, Kim Jong-il or whoever succeeds him will inevitably destroy South Korea's economy and her people. However, the technological leaps they'll make by milking every red penny out of the South Korean economy, along with the revitalization of their military, will make them a direct military threat to Japan, and a potential nuclear threat to everyone in the world."

They are already nuclear capable. The CIA issued a report in 1994 that they "most likely possess at least 4 atom bombs". Atom bombs are smaller then thermonuclear fission, true, but think of a repeat Hiroshima. The North now has the missle technology they need. Nukes and missles, what other real technology does a country need to destroy it's enemies?

[NJ_gent]

"The CIA issued a report in 1994 that they "most likely possess at least 4 atom bombs". Atom bombs are smaller then thermonuclear fission, true, but think of a repeat Hiroshima. The North now has the missle technology they need. Nukes and missles, what other real technology does a country need to destroy it's enemies?"

The reports have been revised based on information obtained by the IAEA and multiple intelligence agencies over the years. The strongest case seems to be that North Korea had one to two nuclear weapons leading into 2001/2002, probably constructed some time in the 90s. They have short to medium range nuclear-capable missile technology, but the technology to carry a nuclear weapon to the shores of the United States (a three-stage Tae-po Dong II) has not been successfully tested. It remains possible, from a technical standpoint, for them to hit the western shores of the United States and several key US military installations throughout the region with a nuclear weapon. However, they lack the capability to deliver a nuclear payload to any other part of the US.

To have a truly effective MAD policy in place, North Korea will require significant time and resources to continue and complete the design, construction, and testing of the Tae-po Dong III missile. It's unlikely that China is continuing to provide them with technology under the circumstances, so North Korea is really working on a shoestring budget at this point. The influx of resources from a South Korean conquest would move that program along quickly, giving North Korea everything it needs to place nuclear weapons in Washington, DC. Once that's in place, they become every bit as threatening as China or Russia, and must be dealt with with the same caution.

[BnBlFlag]

Your #1. I agree. What in the Hell are we doing with thousands of troops there defending these ingrates. Lets get the Hell out now!