[Kiariitf]

Arrested


The interesting thing about this story is the response of the normally frightened-into-submission North Korean people: they rioted!

[usacomm]

Wow, authoritarians everywhere might finally have to grasp the concept that markets represent freedom and that government can't crush and suppress everything by force, no matter how all-powerful you make them.

[retyopj]

Arrested


The interesting thing about this story is the response of the normally frightened-into-submission North Korean people: they rioted!

Very similar to your link except a bit about how we should handle it, just let the N Korean government collapse.

Let the Kim Regime Collapse in North Korea - WSJ.com

[Kiariitf]

I'd tend to go for a middle path; I think the current regime will collapse regardless of what we do (short of an all-out invasion), but we need to avoid the humanitarian catastrophe that would doubtless occur if we cut off aide.

This is fundamentally a Stalinist regime; the ruling elite don't care how many people die so long as they remain in power.

[usacomm]

Very similar to your link except a bit about how we should handle it, just let the N Korean government collapse.

Let the Kim Regime Collapse in North Korea - WSJ.com

Compelling, but the part about "loose nukes" is more than just a little problem. Especially in light of the fact that North Korea is a rogue state selling all kind of weapons all over the world:

Thailand intercepts plane with weapons from North Korea / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com

FT.com / Asia-Pacific - ?N Korean arms for Iran? seized by UAE

[retyopj]

Compelling, but the part about "loose nukes" is more than just a little problem. Especially in light of the fact that North Korea is a rogue state selling all kind of weapons all over the world:

Thailand intercepts plane with weapons from North Korea / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com

FT.com / Asia-Pacific - ?N Korean arms for Iran? seized by UAE

The North Koreans have been selling arms for many years and we now seem to being doing a reasonably good job of limiting sales and this may be accelerating their demise. I think that between China and the US we could secure the nuclear weapons without creating an incident. China for a long time has been Korea's only semi friend and a stable Korea would be in their best interest. This seems to be a very fluid situation and I am sure China would carry more weight than us. There probably is no easy answer but in the long run a collapse may be the best option.

[Coellacag]

There probably is no easy answer but in the long run a collapse may be the best option.

Much like Pakistan, there are many things that could happen, none of which are good.
If the KFR indeed falls, you can expect somewhere in the order of 5 million NorKs flooding across both the Yangtze River and the DMZ.
And these won't be shiny eyed, supllicant, refugees. These are going to be crazed, violent, paranoid, hordes intent on raping and sacking anything they can find.
I don't know what would be worse: the NorK hordes or the KFR unleashing their artillery on Seoul.

[Coellacag]

Compelling, but the part about "loose nukes" is more than just a little problem.

While the NorKs are one of the most dangerous threats today, keep in mind that they don't possess Nuclear Weapons. They've detonated several Devices (with reportedly about 10% of the expected detonation), but these are far different than Weapons.