Are we approaching war on the Korean Peninsula?

May 2010
14
0
It seems sad that North Korea takes such an aggressive stance on the South, even after they sunk their ship. Will North Korea bow to pressure from further sanctions and apologise for their attack? Or will we be seeing war?

(CNN) -- U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday directed military commanders to work with South Korean troops "to ensure readiness and to deter future aggression" from North Korea.
The White House statement came several hours after South Korean President Lee Myung-bak announced that his country was suspending trade with North Korea, closing its waters to the North's ships and adopting a newly-aggressive military posture toward its neighbor in the wake of the sinking of a South Korean warship in March.
South Korean military officials Thursday announced the results of an official investigation into the sinking of the ship, the Cheonan, which concluded that North Korea fired a torpedo that cut the vessel in half.
"We endorse President Lee's demand that North Korea immediately apologize and punish those responsible for the attack, and, most importantly, stop its belligerent and threatening behavior," the statement said.
North Korea has denied that it sunk the warship, which went down on March 26, killing 46 sailors.
"We have always tolerated North Korea's brutality, time and again," Lee said in a nationally televised speech Monday morning. "We did so because we have always had a genuine longing for peace on the Korean Peninsula. But now things are different."

"North Korea will pay a price corresponding to its provocative acts," he said, according to an English translation of the speech provided by Lee's office. "I will continue to take stern measures to hold the North accountable."
Lee said his country was adopting a posture of "proactive deterrence" toward the North, announcing that "combat capabilities will be reinforced drastically" and that he will focus on improving national security readiness and military discipline.
"If our territorial waters, airspace or territory are violated, we will immediately exercise our right of self-defense," Lee said.
Addressing the alleged attack, Lee said, "Once again, North Korea violently shattered our peace. The sinking of the Cheonan constitutes a military provocation against the Republic of Korea by North Korea."
Lee also admonished his own people, saying that until the attack "we had been forgetting the reality that the nation faces the most belligerent regime in the world."
South Korea's leader called on the North to apologize for the alleged attack and to punish those responsible.
North Korea will pay a price corresponding to its provocative acts
--South Korean President Lee Myung-bak






Lee said the alleged attack violated the armistice and nonaggression agreements between the two countries, and he said he will refer the incident to the U.N. Security Council "so that the international community can join us in holding the North accountable."
The White House said it supported bringing the issue before the council.
Tensions between the nations have escalated since the South released its report on the sinking.
On Monday, North Korea threatened it would fire at South Korean loudspeakers if they resume broadcasting along the heavily armed border between the new nations, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.
North Korea threatened Friday to back out of a nonaggression pact with the South after Lee vowed "resolute countermeasures" against the North.
"Firstly, from now on (North Korea) will regard the present situation as the phase of a war ...," the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said Friday, according to Yonhap.
Should South Korea take steps to retaliate, North Korea will "strongly react to them with such merciless punishment as the total freeze of the inter-Korean relations, the complete abrogation of the north-south agreement on nonaggression and a total halt to the inter-Korean cooperation undertakings," the committee's statement said, Yonhap reported.
Lee's speech on Monday brimmed with references to the long history of acrimony between North and South Korea. He spoke from the War Memorial of Korea, the country's main war history museum, and noted that this year marks the 60th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War.
"Permeating this War Memorial of Korea are the spirits of the soldiers of the Republic of Korea and United Nations who shed blood on this land," he said. "Also dedicated here was the monument memorializing the 46 fallen warriors of the corvette Cheonan."
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to meet with Lee and his senior advisers on Wednesday as part of her weeklong Asia trip.
At a speech Friday in Tokyo, Japan, she sharply condemned the attack.
"I think it's important to send a clear message to North Korea that provocative actions have consequences," she said. "We cannot allow the attack on South Korea to go unanswered by the international community."
 
May 2010
57
0
It seems sad that North Korea takes such an aggressive stance on the South, even after they sunk their ship. Will North Korea bow to pressure from further sanctions and apologise for their attack? Or will we be seeing war?

I don't think that they would see more war in the region. They might have aggressive policies in the past but not now.
 
May 2010
14
0
It seems that North Korea has decided to take an offensive stance against the South's accusations by threatening military action. The situation seems to continue to worsen every day. Hopefully a diplomatic solution can be found to this conflict.
 
May 2010
57
0
It seems that North Korea has decided to take an offensive stance against the South's accusations by threatening military action. The situation seems to continue to worsen every day. Hopefully a diplomatic solution can be found to this conflict.

I think it would be impossible to make peace diplomatic solution between these two countries its like Pakistan and India over Kashmir issue.
 
Jul 2009
5,893
474
Port St. Lucie
Something I've noticed. If NK threatens and offers to stand down for aid, they're always bluffing. If they just threaten, they never back down if provoked. NK hasn't made any demands while building up on the DMZ, so if SK tries anything...
 
May 2010
15
0
Wow that's news....then again if I was being provoked I would probably retort the same. I hope they have what they need if they end up in a corner. That means weapons and plans.


But I really hope we're not. My father's over there for another 2 years :(.
 
Jul 2009
5,893
474
Port St. Lucie
Wow that's news....then again if I was being provoked I would probably retort the same. I hope they have what they need if they end up in a corner. That means weapons and plans.


But I really hope we're not. My father's over there for another 2 years :(.

12 million dead in about an hour if the war restarts. Oh, joy! :eek:

If the war restarts, I'm going to start worrying about nukes. The way I see it, China (treaty bound to protect NK) will intervene on NK's behalf, NK will launch a chem. and/or bio attack on Japan. The US will nuke the NK capital in retaliation, China will nuke wherever the SK gov't has set up in retaliation, the US will launch nukes at China in retaliation and China and Russia (treaty bound to protect China) will return fire. End of the world.

Thankfully I have a contingency plan, all I need to do to complete it is build a survival kit (1st aid, non-perishable food, ect.) and I'm set so long as a nuke isn't targeted for ware i live.
 
Apr 2010
105
0
It seems sad that North Korea takes such an aggressive stance on the South, even after they sunk their ship. Will North Korea bow to pressure from further sanctions and apologise for their attack? Or will we be seeing war?

I think they really need to be sent a clear message that they are not holding all the cards here. Its like that scene in fight club where the homework assignment is to start a fight with a stranger at random, and what the students find is that most people do anything to avoid a fight.

The same is true at an international level, at least the past few decades. The US under Bush had clear provocation to go into Afghanistan, and went into Iraq supposedly because they deemed it to be a threat with the WMD allegations.

But it seems that no country picks a fight without a very good reason, and North Korea knows it and is simply testing the boundaries.
 
Jun 2010
157
0
North Korea is a toothless yipping dog. They threaten war often. They have a very poor economy and many starving people. Talk is cheap. They are'nt going to do anything.
 
Jul 2009
5,893
474
Port St. Lucie
North Korea is a toothless yipping dog. They threaten war often. They have a very poor economy and many starving people. Talk is cheap. They are'nt going to do anything.

They blew away a SK warship in SK waters, have nukes, have 38k+ artillery pieces aimed at Soul and conquered the country once already. And you say toothless?!
 
Jun 2010
157
0
Oh yeah toothless. One torpedo isn’t a military threat. Over the years NK has attempted raids using subs and the things sunk without being shot it.
All those guns aren’t worth much when they don’t have the means to supply the gunners with proper training and food, nor with sufficient ammunition. Only the some American politicians say they have nukes. That’s largely BS, even the US Navy has a article that basically tells everybody to chill out. 90 percent of NK missiles tests are anti ship missiles. Not nuclear delivery systems.

Bush admin ranting about Iraq were the same deal. Talking about 45 minutes and Mushrooms clouds and naming off weapons and so forth. But analyzing a military threat is much more involved than that. What little video of North Korea that has made it out without censorship shoes massive starvation and suffering. You need a well fed and motivated nation. North Korea government is paranoid and reclusive; they fire those Anti-ship missiles into the Sea of Japan to try to scare the US Navy. The Nuke threats are blackmail to attain much needed grain and other foodstuffs.
 
Jul 2009
5,893
474
Port St. Lucie
Oh yeah toothless. One torpedo isn?t a military threat. Over the years NK has attempted raids using subs and the things sunk without being shot it.
All those guns aren?t worth much when they don?t have the means to supply the gunners with proper training and food, nor with sufficient ammunition. Only the some American politicians say they have nukes. That?s largely BS, even the US Navy has a article that basically tells everybody to chill out. 90 percent of NK missiles tests are anti ship missiles. Not nuclear delivery systems.

Bush admin ranting about Iraq were the same deal. Talking about 45 minutes and Mushrooms clouds and naming off weapons and so forth. But analyzing a military threat is much more involved than that. What little video of North Korea that has made it out without censorship shoes massive starvation and suffering. You need a well fed and motivated nation. North Korea government is paranoid and reclusive; they fire those Anti-ship missiles into the Sea of Japan to try to scare the US Navy. The Nuke threats are blackmail to attain much needed grain and other foodstuffs.


NK may be a poorly run nation but it is nothing if not motivated. It's people have been brainwashed into viewing the Kims as living (and in case of the 'Eternal President' dead) gods, that the West wishes it was like NK, that capitalism is as dead as stalinism really is, ect. If Il ordered an attack now, millions of NK would charge across the border unarmed if needed without a 2nd thought.
 
Jun 2010
157
0
Yes, all that proganda I am sure means very little to a guy that cant find a full plate of food. War costs money, recquires extra food and supplies that North Korea doesnt have. They are as threating as the rest of the "Axis of Evil" all paper tigers.

"The Mother of all Battles"
The Line of Death.

Talk is cheap ammo isnt.
 
Jul 2009
5,893
474
Port St. Lucie
Yes, all that proganda I am sure means very little to a guy that cant find a full plate of food. War costs money, recquires extra food and supplies that North Korea doesnt have. They are as threating as the rest of the "Axis of Evil" all paper tigers.

"The Mother of all Battles"
The Line of Death.

Talk is cheap ammo isnt.

Ammo is meaningless if you have a population willing to wage Human Wave warfare. They proved they had such a population at the start of this war.
 
Jun 2010
157
0
Meaningless? HUH??!??! Star of What War? The State of texas has ahigher population then North Korea. An entire polualtion fo antion doesnt fight.

in 1879 The British fought zulus at a 10:1 numerical DISADVANTAGE they not only one they inflicted 10 percent cassulties on a unarmed force of well fed and truly fanitic troops.

IN Mogadishu two guys and one light Helicoter killed betwenn 800 and 1000 men and hekod off more from for the Night.

ROK Army is far from imcompteent or weak. They are mean little buggers. The US and the Roks have had 50 years to prepare have there own Minefields and pre registered aritlery, Air Support and Naval Gunfire Support. To simple walk through unarmred is not fanaticism its mass sucide. There wont be any war.
 
Jul 2009
5,893
474
Port St. Lucie
Meaningless? HUH??!??! Star of What War? The State of texas has ahigher population then North Korea. An entire polualtion fo antion doesnt fight.

in 1879 The British fought zulus at a 10:1 numerical DISADVANTAGE they not only one they inflicted 10 percent cassulties on a unarmed force of well fed and truly fanitic troops.

IN Mogadishu two guys and one light Helicoter killed betwenn 800 and 1000 men and hekod off more from for the Night.

ROK Army is far from imcompteent or weak. They are mean little buggers. The US and the Roks have had 50 years to prepare have there own Minefields and pre registered aritlery, Air Support and Naval Gunfire Support. To simple walk through unarmred is not fanaticism its mass sucide. There wont be any war.

1. Any 'war' would still be the same as the last war. N/S Korea never made peace, hanse the shooting.

2. A few 1Ks and a several millions are 2 vary different situations.

3. I've no doubt SK would win. I've no doubt Sual would be a smoldering crater inside 30 min. ether.
 
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