When I was living and teaching in Seoul I was friends with a dude who was a Millitary Intelligence Officer. I remember after one tense weekend I think after NK shelled that SK island in 2010, he scared us by packing his bags and going south to Busan for a week. He said that was the closest the two sides had come to a hot war in his entire time there. Just talked to him on FB, and he said this is much worse.
Let the South Koreanâs handle it. Or buy the country out, itâs economic needs are just a drop in the bucket for economies the size of China and the US.
Itâs all so juvenile. Are these countries run by children?
Whatever happens I just hope we wonât get dragged into it.
Keynesian thinking is still very popular among the relatively young.
I blame brainwashing by the higher education system.
What itâs really all about?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3avjdoYY-RA
Of course, this kind of talk gets other peoplesâ panties in a bunch. I suspect The Donald simply doesnât care what they think.
Taiwan is no bargaining chip as we donât officially support Taiwan. Itâs more likely a bargaining chip against the Chinese, Trump has threatened to recognize Taiwan, and I think he should.
Trump has used NK as a bargaining chip, telling them to use their means to solve the problem, or America will solve the problem. The Chinese know that we will.
Furthermore, American action is not bound by the Chinese vote in the U.N.
Weâve already been dragged into it. Kim has threatened the US with his developing nuclear bombs. If that isnât dragging us into it, then you are too pacifist.
Your FP would be to be the proverbial bull in the china shop, and let everyone else pick up the pieces?
The best scenario would be to behead the Pyongyang government, and let the ROK go in, with allied support, and put Korea back together again.
Then that leaves the last post-war/cold war issue to be resolved. Taiwan and China.
I think you mean to say âofficially recognize the Taiwanese government as a legitimate global governmentâ as Taiwan enjoys great support in congress, to a degree. And Trump as never threatened to recognize Taiwan, and since it is not in his direct best interest to do so, I doubt he ever will. He did threaten to alter the âone Chinaâ stance, but a quick meeting with Xi put the kibosh on that. He is even quoted as saying âI will refuse any further overtures from Taiwan.â
That said, what would the US recognize? The government here has never made a formal declaration of independence, and if they did, that could drastically change the dynamic of the current situation in East Asia. This would mean the US would just be re-recognizing the ROC. It would join the 20 third world nations Taipei plays sugar daddy to.
Would anyone else have Trumpâs back? I doubt it. Lets look at the UNSC. Russia would most likely side with China on this (the enemy of my enemy), France would probably obstain, and Britain has enough going on with Brexit, it has no time to deal with Taiwanese independence. Besides, it is on the other side of the planet, who cares?
China has promised war if Taiwan ever did such a thing. If Beijing holds true to that, would the US make nice on the TRA? The US has spent the past 16 years involved in 2 wars, one of which is on going, with no real end in sight. (Seriously, the British could not tame Afghanistan. The Russians could not do it, even after another try. Even with US involvement, it is hanging on by a thread. Afghanistan has been in a state of perpetual war for 45 years. Whose idea was it to go in anyway?) So, since the Korean show is about to restart, adding another cold war leftover to the mix might be a hard sell to the public. After allâŚ
Can the US economy take a hit caused by a sudden end in manufacturing imports? Who is going to pay to get all those factories online to begin making what will be lost from China? I am not concerned with how China will weather any economic threat.
China is losing its patience with Taiwan. Since their bodyguard is pre-occupied with NK, China could use this as an opportunity to solve the âStraits issue.â and Little Trump will not do anything. He is a capitalist. He and his daughterâs clothes are made in China. That is income for him. You think he is going to put his interests above anyone elseâs, let alone Taiwan or even the US?
He definitely doesnât care what they thinkâŚ
China shop. Nice choice of metaphor.
Let China go to pieces.
Iâm thinking of all the thumbsucking angst in Europe during the Ronald Raygun era. This is part of the price you pay for leaving your destiny in the hands of others. But of course their destiny was in the hands of others because they kept having those damn World Wars.
Anyway, that all turned out fine in the end.
(Past performance is no guarantee of future results. But then, nothing is.)
Everyoneâs a Captain Kirk.
I donât know why so many of you are talking about regime change or some kind of land invasion from South Korea. I canât see ground forces getting involved in this. The US will attempt to cripple North Korean missile sites.
Not enough. Theyâll simply rebuild the sites.
You want to kill an antâs nest, you gotta kill the queen.
Forcing Beijing to choose sides, when what they had hoped for was to be one of the sides others would be forced to choose from.
Whatâs the definition of superpower again?
Before going to the military options, how about drying up the supply of luxury goods to the leader and the people in charge first?These upper-class people sustaining the system are not dumb, they know whatâs going on abroad, they know that their country is behind the rest like 50 years, many of them have studied abroad, they surely have Internet access. The Kim is relying on these people and they are only willing to play along because they can live in relative comfort/luxury and they must be afraid of getting killed once the regime falls. If there is a way of targeting these individuals close to the top around the leadership by denying them the comforts of life (where does the brandy, the luxury cars, flat screen TVâs, etc. are shipped from anyway?) and secretly encourage and support them overthrow the regime, that might be a route worth exploring.
Yep, you nuke Lilâ Kim and end it.
Itâs called an embargo.
It will provoke them into attacking. That way we probably win the argument over who started the war.
Cold comfort to those who are killed by Nork missiles. But at this point, itâs only a matter of time. They will attack some day. Better for us if they attack before theyâve had time to prepare fully, and when their calculations are clouded by petulant anger.
How about helping the people around the leadership who donât want to die by a US nuclear bomb dropped on Pyongyang? Itâs probably extremely difficult to get in there, but through some channels (defected NK embassy people, etc.) there might be ways to help to plot an assassination. Like I said, a lot of high-ranking people in North Korea must know exactly what is going on and they secretly wish to end this sooner than later. The secret services of South Korea, China, Japan, and the CIA must be working frantically to achieve anything of that kind. Unfortunately, China and the other three are most certainly not sharing the intelligence with each other.