NORTH KOREA'S NUKES

Why hasn't there been a thread about this yet?

China's decision is the fulcrum in this situation. They can threaten to stop propping up the regime and exert a certain amount of control over it. But both Kim Jong Il and China know that Kim is the kind of guy to fire off a nuke if there is little chance of him living the rest of his life in opulent splendour.

If they keep on propping up it's regime undoubtedly Kim will try to maintain his leverage.

I think China should use what influence it has to integrate North Korea and China and to encourage Kim to open up his economy. China will do all the work preventing foreigners from disgruntling his military whilst Kim can make a little money on the side. The reasonning being, sure he has nukes, but he wants the same thing as everyone else. So why not show him the benefits of making his populace more valuable.

When you have a president that's made of fail...

It's hard to believe that the DoD didn't see this coming when they decided to up the US's commitment in the middle-east back in 2002, while NK was boasting about nukes. Afganistan maybe the States could have handled, and still had enough of a presence in East Asia to prevent the leadership in NK from thinking that they could push their luck without worrying about a ground or air reprisal.

Until this week, it was still an option for the Nations of Free East Asia to invade NK or launch an air strike and reheat the stalemate that was the Korean War.

It would probably have left most of South Korea in devastation, not to mention destroy most of the economic progress that SK has made in the past 30 years. No wonder the South Koreans strongly opposed any sort of invasion of North Korea during these last 5 years. It would be a difficult pill for me to swallow as well, since I have so many friends in Seoul.  But I would have put my own life on the line for the defence of South Korea and Japan and Taiwan, and may yet still end up doing so.

I could never say the same for the middle east, because there was never a free nation to save there to begin with. One of the greatest (and there are so sooo many) failings of the present United States leadership was their decision to try to expand the frontiers of freedom and democracy, while not giving due attention to the lands that already have it, and need the US's help to keep it.