SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
USA Today reports that under the watchful eyes of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, North Korea says it has conducted an underwater test-firing of a submarine ballistic missile. Kim called the missile a "world-level strategic weapon" and an "eye-opening success." Although American officials had suspected North Korea was developing such a missile system, the country had not previously claimed to have conducted a test launching. The test, if confirmed, would pose a new challenge to the United States and its regional allies, South Korea and Japan, which have been trying to build missile defense capabilities to guard against potential North Korean missile attacks.
The news of a successful test-fire was most likely a surprise to South Korean military officials, who have privately told reporters that they believed it would take years for the North to develop such a submarine-launched ballistic missile. "North Korea's development of a submarine-launched missile capability would eventually expand Pyongyang's threat to South Korea, Japan and U.S. bases in East Asia" says Joseph S. Bermudez Jr. "Submarines carrying land-attack missiles would be challenging to locate and track, would be mobile assets able to attack from any direction, and could operate at significant distances from the Korean peninsula."
See also: BBC, Reuters, The Guardian, Washington Post.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by gman003 on Sunday May 10 2015, @05:21AM
Iran is at least generally reasonable. They have some crazy nutjobs saying crazy things, but few of them wield any real power. They are unfortunately a theocracy, and that drives some of their foreign problems, but they are, on the whole, a sane country. If we made a deal with them, they would probably honor it.
North Korea is crazy. They have no business even being a country - if it weren't for the fact that China wants a buffer between them and South Korea (both for military reasons, and to keep democratic ideas from reaching their own populace), North Korea would have fallen apart decades ago. They're still barely holding together, even with all the "cheating" (for lack of a better word) they do, and can only get away with because they have the second-most-powerful country on the planet protecting them. They fund themselves with drugs and counterfeit money, they feed themselves with Chinese "gifts", and they avoid revolution by having a ridiculously large army and by blaming every single problem on countries that haven't touched them in decades.
If we made a deal with North Korea, they would not honor it. Their "glorious leader" barely keeps his lieutenants in line with constant executions. His lieutenants can't control their own military whenever foreign powers are involved, because of their own propaganda. They've proven they can't be trusted to respect a neutral zone without conflict. Give them a field-deployable nuke, and they'll eventually use it with or without orders.
That might be the simplest way to solve the problem - give them enough rope to hang themselves with. Eventually they'll do something that's inarguable casus belli, and South Korea will sweep them off the map, and then we can forget about all that insanity. Unfortunately, if NK gets a nuke they can actually use, even a small one, the civilian casualties will be in the millions.
I don't think that's worth the cost.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Sunday May 10 2015, @05:53AM
The main thing that keeps me from getting overwrought about the DPRK, is that it is starving. At most it can launch an attack. It does not have the backend resources to sustain an attack. It has a large army sure, but its weapons are antiquated and ineffective for any sort of sustained action. It has no ability to project power any real distance and hold on to whatever it attacks. Because it's starving.
The second thing that keeps me from being concerned, is that our government really wants us to be worried. That gives it an excuse to spend more money on the military despite our current insane levels of spending, expand surveillance, and pass laws contrary to the exercise of personal freedom.
So, fuck the DPRK and its weapons theater, and fuck the Feds for taking advantage of KJU's tired script.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 10 2015, @06:44AM
Something you left out:
To match the military might of the USA, you would have to COMBINE the #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, and #11 most powerful militaries.
...and several of those are USA allies.
The level of insanity is mind-boggling.
The only things USA manufactures any more is weapons.
USA is an empire in a death spiral.
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday May 10 2015, @10:26AM
... than the entire rest of the world COMBINED.
I learned that from a certain left-wing radical underground publication known as "The CIA World Factbook".
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday May 10 2015, @10:31AM
yes, but what an attack: Seoul isn't far at all from the DMZ. NK has a whole bunch of short-range ballastic missiles.
While it would not win a war, North Korea could easily make a smoking crater of Seoul. Millions would perish.
This leads me to believe that the South Koreans live in denial. When NK conducted its first - unsuccessful - nuclear weapon test, they passed it off with the explanation that they were using conventional explosives to dig a sports stadium. When they sunk a South Korean naval vessel, taking the lives of thirty sailors, everyone bought the idea that it must have been an accident, or anything but the North Koreans.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by rts008 on Sunday May 10 2015, @02:02PM
N. Korea may be nuts enough to jump, but their masters(China) will keep them reined in just to preserve their(China's) southern buffer zone.
Yes, that is the only reason that N. Korea still exists as a nation, IMO. They are not much more than China's side-door bell/mat.
China has always been a little 'isolationist', and does not want a 'western' influence on it's borders if they can help it.
I see N. Korea as similar to one of the neighbor's dog. When you walk past that yard, the dog runs to the fence and barks like the most ferocious beast alive. I just laugh to myself, and walk on by, no worries. But at the same time, I don't think it wise for me to taunt the mutt, or jump the fence into it's yard. :-)
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday May 10 2015, @05:58AM
Korea got it really bad from Japan for many years before WWII started. The Korean War was quite vicious. MacArthur asked to use nuclear weapons; while he wasn't granted permission to use them, we tricked NK into a ceasefire by tricking them into believing we would nuke them.
They've been starving for decades. They know very well that the US has thousands of bombs.
If you were in their position, what would you do?
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Thexalon on Sunday May 10 2015, @03:14PM
I don't think Kim Jong Un is crazy.
Kim Jong Un always makes these very public proposals of attack plans that are utterly ludicrous. Anyone with sense knows that North Korea is not capable of launching an amphibious assault on Texas, for example. His weapons and computers are state of the art for 1975. Kim Jong Un is a western-educated guy who showed no signs of being nuts prior to coming to power, so why would he do that knowing full well it makes him look like an idiot?
There's a logical answer: His government remains in power so long as the illusion of them being permanently at war with the West is maintained - otherwise, the citizens would never tolerate the starvation that's been going on for so long. In addition, Kim Jong Un puts out these kinds of plans to convince the generals that have the same kind of attitude as Buck Turgidson that he's serious while not actually attacking anybody or even threatening attack seriously enough to induce the US to pre-emptively attack North Korea. If Kim Jong Un doesn't steadfastly maintain both of those illusions, he will be killed (either by an angry mob, or by the army).
If that analysis of his situation is correct, his plan then becomes:
1. Wait for the old guard of generals who were loyal to his father and grandfather to die. They're his greatest threat. Replace them with people loyal to himself.
2. Quietly shift the focus from the military to civilian efforts. Particularly focus on how to increase the food supply. That will win him the support of the population.
3. Once he's dealt with those threats, slowly open up his country to travel, particularly with the South.
About the only assets Kim Jong Un really has in internal power struggles is his name and the fact that he's at least 30 years younger than anybody else with real power. This kind of plan uses both of them to remain alive and in power as long as possible.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday May 10 2015, @08:51PM
Nice dream, but it won't happen that way. By the time the old guard dies off Un will have grown comfortable with his total power. He put his own uncle to death for pete sake. He isn't playing some waiting game.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 10 2015, @09:43PM
You are probably right about getting comfortable if being raised the way he was has not warped him to begin with.
But you can draw precisely zero conclusions from the killing of his uncle.
We have absolutely no idea what was going on behind the scenes. For all we know Dear Uncle was in the process of staging a coup. The guy might not even be dead. Remember the ex-girlfriend who was executed nominally for making porn? Turns out she is not dead after all. [telegraph.co.uk]