North Korea Nuclear Standoff

[Ivanhater]

I think it is obvious we can not negotiate with the North Koreans, we tried in the Clinton administration. We had a deal with them and the whole time they were building weapons right under our noses. It all comes down to the carrot and the stick...the carrot has not worked so far.

[feederband]

Some eye-opening pictures from inside North Korea, I find these fascinating.

http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/sh ... hp?t=82755

Very nice...

[Derek Ortt]

Did not expect to see N Korea like that, with a well-developed city and infrastructure. Their stories of plight made it seem that everything was falling apart in the "famine" of the late 90's

[Brent]

Did not expect to see N Korea like that, with a well-developed city and infrastructure. Their stories of plight made it seem that everything was falling apart in the "famine" of the late 90's

What astounded me the most was the pictures with all those old houses right next to one another surrounded by newer skyscrapers. Amazing.

[cycloneye]

U.S Deploys Destroyer to Japan



Interesting news here about this deployment of the USS Mustin to Japan.

[Aquawind]

Did not expect to see N Korea like that, with a well-developed city and infrastructure. Their stories of plight made it seem that everything was falling apart in the "famine" of the late 90's

What astounded me the most was the pictures with all those old houses right next to one another surrounded by newer skyscrapers. Amazing.

Ditto all of that..

Amazing how deserted the streets were with so very few vehicles. That was a great set of pitctures with some additional links and comments.

The area looks like it did a major rebuilding long ago and not much since they stopped building that wicked looking hotel when it looks 3/4 done.

That was interesting the comment about the houses next to the downtown skyscrappers. They just said the old people didn't wanna move.. plain and simple. Nice concept..lol

[nystate]

PLease people...this is not armageddon. In ten years North Korea will still be firing test missiles and we still won't be doing anything about it because it isn't that big of a deal! Bombing North Korea over this would be like shooting someone over launching fireworks because there is a one in a billion chance that they could impact your house...

[Janice]

CNN has a guy on talking about the US ship going to Japanese waters, a missle warship.
This person is saying that there is nothing really to be concerned about with this mission.

My question is the timing. Why didn't they do it earlier, before NK shot off the missles? Something sounds fishy to me... why are they downplaying the warships?

[Stephanie]

CNN has a guy on talking about the US ship going to Japanese waters, a missle warship.
This person is saying that there is nothing really to be concerned about with this mission.

My question is the timing. Why didn't they do it earlier, before NK shot off the missles? Something sounds fishy to me... why are they downplaying the warships?

I think that the ship is being sent in now because of the threats of more missiles being fired. Kim is just looking for a reason to begin a war and if we sent a warship in before he even set off the first missiles, it could've been worse. We're being cautious now.

[cycloneye]

Oh boy,Japan considers a strike against North Korea.


TOKYO (AP) - Japan said Monday it was considering whether a pre-emptive strike on the North's missile bases would violate its constitution, signaling a hardening stance ahead of a possible U.N. Security Council vote on Tokyo's proposal for sanctions against the regime.

Japan was badly rattled by North Korea's missile tests last week and several government officials openly discussed whether the country ought to take steps to better defend itself, including setting up the legal framework to allow Tokyo to launch a pre-emptive strike against Northern missile sites.

"If we accept that there is no other option to prevent an attack ... there is the view that attacking the launch base of the guided missiles is within the constitutional right of self-defense. We need to deepen discussion," Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said.





http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060710/D8IP4UC81.html

[bvigal]

CNN has a guy on talking about the US ship going to Japanese waters, a missle warship.
This person is saying that there is nothing really to be concerned about with this mission.

My question is the timing. Why didn't they do it earlier, before NK shot off the missles? Something sounds fishy to me... why are they downplaying the warships?

I think that the ship is being sent in now because of the threats of more missiles being fired. Kim is just looking for a reason to begin a war and if we sent a warship in before he even set off the first missiles, it could've been worse. We're being cautious now.

And soon another ship. According to Associated Press on Saturday:

The USS Mustin arrived Saturday at Yokosuka, homeport to the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet, with its crew of 300 sailors for permanent assignment to the region, said 7th Fleet spokeswoman Hanako Tomizuka.

The move comes as the United States restructures its regional defenses amid growing concern about the nuclear ambitions of North Korea, which stunned northeastern Asia on Wednesday by test-firing seven missiles.

In August, Yokosuka will also welcome the USS Shiloh, which last month demonstrated its ability to shoot down missile warheads in a landmark test off the coast of Hawaii.

The Mustin, commissioned in 2003, is one of the most advanced in the fleet, but its deployment to Yokosuka was previously planned and not made in response to North Korea's latest missile shots, Tomizuka said.

[kevin]

Oh boy,Japan considers a strike against North Korea.


TOKYO (AP) - Japan said Monday it was considering whether a pre-emptive strike on the North's missile bases would violate its constitution, signaling a hardening stance ahead of a possible U.N. Security Council vote on Tokyo's proposal for sanctions against the regime.

Japan was badly rattled by North Korea's missile tests last week and several government officials openly discussed whether the country ought to take steps to better defend itself, including setting up the legal framework to allow Tokyo to launch a pre-emptive strike against Northern missile sites.

"If we accept that there is no other option to prevent an attack ... there is the view that attacking the launch base of the guided missiles is within the constitutional right of self-defense. We need to deepen discussion," Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said.





http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060710/D8IP4UC81.html

Now this would be troubling, but I have been expecting the remilitarization of Japan. It only makes sense that with an increasingly unstable world, where Japan is economically powerful but militarily weak (and a world where US power is declining in the pacific) that Japan would use its economic might to protect their security.

For years there have been murmers within the Japanese government that perhaps it would be better if they themselves have a nuclear deterrent. I do not blame them at all in this regard. Keeping Japan reliant on our military is in our interests, but times have changed since 1946 and the Japanese should not view themselves as second class in the world.

I would be extraordinarily surprised to see the Japanese act in the near term without the support, probably militarily of the United States. I would imagine that we do not enjoy the Japanese talking like this however. For one reason, the Chinese are even less likely to respond favorably to Japanese action close to their shores than they would US action.

The Chinese and Koreans have historical and justified reasons to hate the Japanese past and be suspicious of its future. Its funny how the times change.

[Brent]

Oh boy,Japan considers a strike against North Korea.


TOKYO (AP) - Japan said Monday it was considering whether a pre-emptive strike on the North's missile bases would violate its constitution, signaling a hardening stance ahead of a possible U.N. Security Council vote on Tokyo's proposal for sanctions against the regime.

Japan was badly rattled by North Korea's missile tests last week and several government officials openly discussed whether the country ought to take steps to better defend itself, including setting up the legal framework to allow Tokyo to launch a pre-emptive strike against Northern missile sites.

"If we accept that there is no other option to prevent an attack ... there is the view that attacking the launch base of the guided missiles is within the constitutional right of self-defense. We need to deepen discussion," Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said.





http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060710/D8IP4UC81.html

Lovely. Just lovely.

[Stratosphere747]

Japan will not do anything....

NK has had this ability for quite sometime now. The ICBM test was the only real issue here.

[Derek Ortt]

NK brought this upon themselves

[Stephanie]

I don't blame Japan for wanting to protect themselves. If the lunatic is shooting missiles in Japan's direction, I think that they should have the ability to shoot them down. I don't think that they should do a "preemptive" strike against NK's site's however. That's just as bad as NK - how would they know for sure that they are under attack? This is VERY ugly.

[LSU2001]

IMHO, the biggest threat here is if NK is backed into a corner (even in their own minds) and thinks that the South is gearing up for war or something and launches some type of attack across the DMZ. Any type of action could bring about a resumption of hostilites that have lain dormant since the Korean War.
Remember the North dreams of the unification of North and South under Kim's rule.
Tim

[Stephanie]

IMHO, the biggest threat here is if NK is backed into a corner (even in their own minds) and thinks that the South is gearing up for war or something and launches some type of attack across the DMZ. Any type of action could bring about a resumption of hostilites that have lain dormant since the Korean War.
Remember the North dreams of the unification of North and South under Kim's rule.
Tim

I think that they're already acting like they are backed into a corner.

[Aquawind]

I am glad Japan is speaking up. Kim is insane..

[kevin]

A person can be bad without being insane. It is not rational to label our enemies insane, it is underestimating them.