"North and South Korea on the Brink of War, Russian Diplomat Warns"

[RoyBatty]

When are they not .

Surprisingly enough things were OK'ish until the current South Korean "hard man" Presidente got elected. Since then relations nosedived. The current South Korean / USA strategy appears to be one of provoking North Korea endlessly and as a result the current situation is very hostile.

The NATO countries eagerly cite the example of the sunken South Korean ship as a "North Korean provocation" but even if North Korea did sink that ship, how could one possibly prove it? The NATO countries are hardly going to be impartial parties, they could present any "evidence" they liked since they had the luxury and opportunity to tamper with the site etc.

As far as "nice South Koreans" are concerned, this simply isn't the case. There are no "nice guys" in this mess. South Korea itself can be a fairly repressive and corrupt state.

The Koreas and their various backers really ought to tone down the rhetoric on both sides but unfortunately this doesn't appear to be in the USA's script. They want a confrontation.

[Vasconcelos]

I think that technically they are still at war.

[Albion]

An even more interesting question would be, what kind of difficulties will the South have integrating the North? I think that the average North Korean is something like half a foot shorter than the average South Korean. This shows the huge economic, social, and psychological disparities between the two peoples, North Koreans having lived under an impoverished, cultlike regime, South Koreans having lived under an industrialized country.

Who cares, reuniting a people under a nation state is more important than economics, if the West Germans worried about that Germany would still be pointlessly divided (some would say it still is - Austria, German Switzerland, South Tyrol, Lichtenstein, Alsace, Luxembourg...)

[Smaland]

The situation might be resolved in a peaceful manner, if the major powers involved would put quiet diplomatic pressure on their clients. The U.S. would talk to South Korea, and China and Russia would talk to North Korea. The last thing anyone needs is a "small-scale" nuclear war in East Asia.

[Germanicus]

America would love to see South Korea fight a war using their supplied weaponry against a modern army, it was unable to fight conventional warfare in Iraq or Afghanistan.

[The Lawspeaker]

An even more interesting question would be, what kind of difficulties will the South have integrating the North? I think that the average North Korean is something like half a foot shorter than the average South Korean. This shows the huge economic, social, and psychological disparities between the two peoples, North Koreans having lived under an impoverished, cultlike regime, South Koreans having lived under an industrialized country.

It will be even more difficult then integrating the GDR (it's still a mess !) into West Germany but it will lead to the same kind of stuff: the South Koreans taking over every little bit value in North Korea and leaving the North Koreans unemployed and robbed from the very few things they had and destroying some of the unique things that the North has in the process.

[Curtis24]

Who cares, reuniting a people under a nation state is more important than economics, if the West Germans worried about that Germany would still be pointlessly divided (some would say it still is - Austria, German Switzerland, South Tyrol, Lichtenstein, Alsace, Luxembourg...)

Who cares? Are you serious? This will be nowhere near what German reunification was, and even that was fraught with difficulties, as Asega pointed out.

The North Koreans and South Koreans are, culturally and psychologically, worlds apart from each other. North Koreans have been malnourished(which causes lower I.Q.), denied education, and literally brainwashed into existing in a totaliterian state. South Koreans, on the other hand, are developed, educated, well-off population who can afford to spend massive amounts of time playing Starcraft.

As Asega also pointed out, in these types of situation the advanced society tends to exploit the disadvantaged. Whether or not there is anything in NK to take remains to be seen, but the result nonetheless could be the creation of an underclass in a unified Korean government.

[Cato]

AH!

This reminds me of a map on Battlenet a few years ago, back when I was still playing Starcraft (the original!), a player-edited map called:

USA VERSUS CHINKS AND GOOKS.

Any conflict with NKorea will involve China, and any conflict with SKorea will involve the USA. If that is so, despite a huge conventional advantage, the Chinese will go down like Pompey went down to Caesar at Pharsalus- thanks to massive amount of American force projection and a world-smashing arsenal of atomics (do you softies really think that the enlightened klepto lords of the USA would hestiate to nuke someone if their dollars were in jeopardy- especially if it was a sneak attack from some kind of robotic drone plane?).

Despite being ruled by kleptocrats, if some upstart country fucks with AmeriKKKA$$$, they'll wind up like Iraq- even if it's China.

[Radojica]

Despite being ruled by kleptocrats, if some upstart country fucks with AmeriKKKA$$$, they'll wind up like Iraq- even if it's China.

You mixed something here, it was America who attacked and made all that shit in Iraq, not other way around. And if you think that you are the strongest one with the best high-tech technology and therefor you have to win, you are so wrong. Serbian army was shooting down US planes with technology from mid of '60, and I assure you that there would be tens of thousand of dead of soldiers on American and NATO side if they invaded Serbia in 1999 (same as on Serbian side too). imagine what will happen if there's China involved now. Take it easy, slow down a bit.


Remember this one "who fly high, fall very low", no ones was lighten to the end, neither will yours. America is at it's peak, now it's time for declination. You have had your 6 minutes of glory.

[Aramis]

You are overreacting now Rade. As far as high-tech weaponry goes, the USA could bomb Serbia back to the stone age again, if it had any interests in doing so.