politics

U.S., Japan, S Korea vow tough response to N Korea

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By FOSTER KLUG and HYUNG-JIN KIM

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16 Comments
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Just a big pile of dynamite.

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RE: The United States, Japan and South Korea on Thursday agreed to launch a “united and strong” international response to North Korea’s claim of a successful hydrogen bomb test, as experts scrambled to find more details about the detonation that drew worldwide skepticism and condemnation.

It may take weeks or longer to confirm or contradict the North’s claim, but a successful test would mark a major and unanticipated advance for its still-limited nuclear arsenal and push its scientists and engineers closer to their goal of building a warhead small enough to place on a missile that can reach the U.S. mainland

Really this has been repeated how many times, and then China and Russia counter with " go ahead but any provocation will be dealing with China and Russia o which NK knows full well. Nothing will happen and their program will continue advancing until oneday luck will be on their side and too late for the so called experts. Japan will be left to fend for itself...

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If NK have really been successful at building an H-bomb, they need to be dealt with but what is the "tough response" going to be? More sanctions? We're already doing that. A military response would probably be a disaster!

The only true tough response is to work together and get China onboard, everything else is nothing more than posturing, a thing that NK is very familiar with.

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First CN A-bomb(1964)20ktons,first CN H-bomb(1967)3000ktons

Nagasaki A-bomb21ktons

Since close to 20 years now the only country exploding nuclear devices is NK. We really have the worlds most terrible diplomacy here in East Asia.

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Its about time we started calling a spade a spade, seriously.....a person can't tell me that I have no right to own a car when he himself has one, what in the world makes him so much better than I am that he deserves to possess one and I don't. This is the case for the fact that the U.N doesn't discriminate against the so called 'powerful nations' from possessing a H-Bomb but would discriminate against what they would term 'aggressive states' rebutting the idea of their creation of such bombs. If these powerful nations suddenly lose control of their arsenal and fire at the weaker nations, in the end the stronger nations would still remain at the top because they supressed the technology of their arsenals. In my own opinion, if the world wants peace, then there should be no exceptions for any one nation, PERIOD!

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You get enough people together is a confine underground bunka and feed them nothing but kimchi for a week and light a match. There your North Korean H Bomb

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Stuart haywardJan. 07, 2016 - 05:47PM JST If NK have really been successful at building an H-bomb, they need to be dealt with but what is the "tough response" >going to be? More sanctions? We're already doing that. A military response would probably be a disaster! The only true tough response is to work together and get China onboard, everything else is nothing more than >posturing, a thing that NK is very familiar with.

The only reason that North Korea is not afraid of the United States or the UN, or for that matter even continues to exist is because China coddles this country as it serves China's quiet expansionist role just fine. Get China onboard? LOL. Let's see China abrogate their 1961 defense agreement guaranteeing North Korea's security. Pretending to be "concerned" about North Korea is part of China's game of deception.

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@Ossan

That's one way to look at it. Here's another:

North Korea is China's buffer from America's expansionism and the Yank's troops on the peninsula.

If the Koreas reunite, where would the U.S. troops go? If you think they would pack up and go home, you're being naive.

That's right, the troops will move up north, right up to the border with China.

Can you blame China for tolerating NK in order to keep the Yanks honest?

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There isn't a thing the U.S., S. Korea or Japan can do that will affect the regime at this point except an air and sea blockade, which N. Korea would construe as an act of war and start shooting.

As I commented in a related story yesterday, N. Korea does not have nuclear weapons, but they have lots of rockets and artillery that can strike everywhere in Japan and S. Korea and they'd have little compunction in using these if they felt cornered. Think of it as a national suicide pact.

You don't want them to be shooting first even if it then became a "green light" to destroy the N. Korean military's offensive capability (45-minutes tops) because you couldn't be assured of being "quick enough on the draw" to destroy everything they have on the ground (or the even riskier air intercept) before something was launched at S. Korea and/or Japan.

Then there are the effing Chinese . . .

Stuart haywardJAN. 07, 2016 - 05:47PM JST If NK have really been successful at building an H-bomb, they need to be dealt with but what is the "tough response" going to be? More sanctions? We're already doing that. A military response would probably be a disaster! The only true tough response is to work together and get China onboard, everything else is nothing more than posturing, a thing that NK is very familiar with.

I hold out hope that the Koreas peacefully reunite as did the Germanys, but the Chinese remain the problem. They certainly don't want re-unification, they will never put meaningful pressure on the North to be civil and they might actually come to North's defense, even in the case of the North shooting first and if it looked like the North's military would finally be destroyed.

AsianGaijinYesWeExistJAN. 07, 2016 - 10:40PM JST North Korea is China's buffer from America's expansionism and the Yank's troops on the peninsula. If the Koreas reunite, where would the U.S. troops go? If you think they would pack up and go home, you're being naive.

Once Korea is reunited and, as necessary, pacified, we will be asked to leave. Our troops are not there to protect S. Korea from China, the Pacific Fleet is sufficient for that. Our troops have been there since 1953 to assist in repelling an invasion from the north. The S. Korean public does not want us there and they count for a lot more in their society than do the Okinawans in theirs.

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I think NK is the most honest government... to the outside world. The Dear Leaders lie to their subjects, but, they have been, for eons ,telling the outside world, in a million ways but the same central message " leave us alone !!". We've been deaf. Personal opinion: All this stench in the Far East can be placed at Japan's doorstep. They made the bed, they must sleep HEAVY in it.

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You might as well count China in too (Through they are loathe to admit so).

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0 Good Bad Cogito Ergo SumJAN. 08, 2016 - 04:05AM JST I think NK is the most honest government... to the outside world. The Dear Leaders lie to their subjects, but, they have been, for eons ,telling the outside world, in a million ways but the same central message " leave us alone !!". We've been deaf. Personal opinion: All this stench in the Far East can be placed at Japan's doorstep. They made the bed, they must sleep HEAVY in it.

It irks me to say this given the way North Korea treats its people and those of other nations it captures, but I think Cogito Ergo Sum may be right about leaving them alone. How many times has the USA made matters worse at an international level, lost un-winnable wars and so on, by interfering? In time, as in Myanmar, sanity will prevail. No need to waste our time, energy, and lives by starting a war, especially in view of the doubt that they have a nuclear capability. Just maintain a defensive watching brief for now.

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How many times has the USA made matters worse at an international level, lost un-winnable wars and so on, by interfering?

When North Korea was looking for a peace treaty, the US wanted to leave it to NK's neighbors for the peace talks.

But guess who demanded the US be on the table or there would be no peace talks? It was North Korea!

North Korea views South Korea and Japan as beneath them. They view themselves as big dog, and thus would only talk to the big dog USA.

But the US said if there would be peace talks, it would have to involve NK's neighbors too especially South Korea and Japan, and thus the Six-Party Talks.

North Korea wants one-on-one talks with the US. It's the US who included South Korea and Japan.

Without the US, North Korea won't even go to the table.

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Cogito Ergo SumJan. 08, 2016 - 04:05AM JST Personal opinion: All this stench in the Far East can be placed at Japan's doorstep. They made the bed, they must sleep >HEAVY in it.

You really should read up on some history. The USSR and Chins (PRC) created North Korea, Japan was defeated and out of the picture when that happened.

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Japan and South Korea can not work tougher on anything. As for the United States and South Korea what do that have in mind? They are afraid of the North Koreans. What more can they do without going to war with North Korea and then China? The problem is China will support North Korea and the little fat man know this fact.

So I see the moves of South Korea and the USA as hot air. Again Japanese forces are not available and why are they expected? The Worlds strongest military with the Seventh largest military against a bankrupt starving nation.

So what will it be? The two having the power but too afraid to use it? Something must be done and remember the fear. It will destroy you.

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OssanAmerica: You really should read up on some history. The USSR and Chins (PRC) created North Korea, Japan was defeated and out of the picture when that happened.

Probably many in Japan would like to think that nothing that happened after Japan stomped all over east Asia is Japan's fault, as long as it happened after Japan was defeated in WWII.

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