This means that a war plan needs to put together that allows for his capture alive...
Which allows for him to be tried, by us, for his crimes against the Korean people and hung at a gala event sometime when the weather's good.
Where are all the pin-heads that chastised Bush for including NK in the "axis of evil?" Seems like they are awfully quiet right now.
I suppose they think we should elect another democRAT president who will now give them our plans for the more sophisticated nuclear bombs, since they already have our satellite codes for missile guidance courtesy of the 'toon. (/sarc.)
North Korea now has at least two nukes, so a pre-emptive strike is very risky. An invasion would be extremely difficult.
If it were just a matter of learning to live with a nuclear-armed North Korea, that would be one thing. But these folks are certifiably nuts. Not only could they use these weapons in an unprovoked surprise attack, but they're crazy enough to sell them to other rogue states or even al-Qaida.
We don't have a lot of good or easy options.
A guy I work with retired from the Army last June, from Camp Page. He has a theory that the unification of the peninsula could be brought about by a North Korean attack on Japan, which would be applauded and supported by the majority of people in the ROK. Hatred of the Japanese is the great unifying factor, and would make a US response against the North launched from US bases in the ROK impossible.
When I was in Korea back 20 years ago Korean antipathy for Japan was understood, but muted. Have Korean-Japanese relations deteriorated significantly in the last several years?
US Forces in Korea cannot function without Host Nation Support; I'd venture to say that most American installations have more Koreans on them than Americans. If the NKs lobbed a nuke at Tokyo and the ROKs thought that was just fine with them, 2ID could wake up one morning surrounded, disarmed and interned, and there wouldn't be a heck of a lot they could do about it. Same with the Air Bases. Kinda makes ya think about our whole West Pac/Far East strategy.
Read Proud Legions by John Antal for a damn good account of what land warfare in Korea could be like this go around. It ain't 1950 anymore. This book assumes the ROKs are on our side.
They are playing with fire and don't even realize it.
Okay, so we CAN'T go into Iraq without UN approval, and we CAN'T seek UN approval to go into North Korea. Would these insipid dictators make up their minds already!
Someone set us up the bomb.
Fact is, if they nuked the DMZ and the capital of South Korea, what the heck would we do? Kinda hard to nuke back anything of value in North Korea. Plus their whole army would be in South Korea by the time we decided how to respond - so we wouldn't be able to nuke anything of military value in North Korea by then.
Maybe under the circumstance we should treat them like Pakistan. The South Koreans have kind of been jerks toward us recently anyway, so who the heck are we protecting? Maybe we should just move our current DMZ troops out of the Korean DMZ and park them on the Southern border of the US. That would stop our illegal immigration problem!
Two words...
"Neutron F***in' Bomb"! (nod to Dennis Leary).
No more pussy-footin with these cheap dictators! If it brings on calamity, then it does so.
These dictators have been building towards this day for FAR too long, and we have had too many Socialist/Liberals running the State Department and hand-wringing over "US Imperialism".
No longer. The Giant has been awakened, and heaven help the ones who awakened it, because WE won't!
Remember...
"The Avalanche has already started. It is too late for the PEBBLES to vote!"
Who do these people think they are? Their little no-dong (aptly named) missles won't even reach the continental United States.
I say we take "merciless punishment" for $200