US pulling troops out of DMZ

[JR]

Originally posted by PornoDoggy@Jun 6 2003, 12:02 PM
Huge numbers of South Koreans would be in grave danger in the event of any kind of hostilities - and you'd have to be pretty cold-blooded to risk the destruction of the capital of an ally for such a purpose.

Huge numbers of South Koreans are not in danger now? they have been in danger since the 1950's.

The choices seem to be really ugly PD and i dont think that there are any good solutions to solve the problem there. Nuclear blackmail is an ugly thing. Stalinist regimes killing their own people is an ugly thing. Facing the problem is always a lose/lose situation politically no matter who is in power unless the N Korean government decides to do a 180. Had Clinton bombed the reactors in 93/94 the world would have been screaming about that too.


Japan has made some pretty strong statements recently and so has S Korea and China. It seems that the preferred course of action is going to be steady and consistent pressure combined with continued isolation.

It seems pretty hopeless on the diplomatic front since there is not exactly a North Korean opposition party favoring a democratic transition. instead, there is a long list of generals commanding the 4th largest army in the world in what looks very much to be a do or die situation.

the question in my mind is ... "do we want them to have nuclear weapons"
i think we all agree on the answer

preventing it from happening is certainly going to be dangerous and scary.
not preventing it from happening can be much worse.

if the situation is dangerous now... it will be much more dangerous when they finish processing 8000 spent fuel rods for nuclear bombs.