[JimSEA]

The "Great Leader" is willingly starving his people and there is nothing to indicate that he thinks about deterance in any other terms than personal survival. However, he may wait a while for the left to defeat or compromise the Bush administration befor acting. All the same, you gotta be a little nervious if you live in Tokyo given the history of Japan and Korea. NK may hate us but they really are fixated on the Japanese.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Yes, NK hates the Japanese. But don't forget, we virtually obliterated every NK city worth mentioning with B-29's (flying from our bases in Japan) during the Korean War. They still nurse this old score.

[hchutch]

Right now, if I were Bush Adminsitration, I'd be seriously considering one of two options:

1. Offering the Japanese nuclear-tipped Tomahawks and SSNs (the early 688s would be ideal candidates).

2. Deploying tactical nukes on our carrier in Japan, and probably also equipping our F-16 wings in the ROK with tacticaal nukes.

Which one do we take?