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Sometimes The War Not Worth Fighting is Worth Fighting


It's Time To Get Rid Of This Abomination

 

This is the continuation of a story begun on our January 2015 Home Page. To go to an archived version of that page, click here: February 2015 Home Page Archive. To return to this month's actual Home Page, click on the Signal Corps orange Home Page menu item in the upper left corner of this page.

Look at the depth of the problem:

A Socialits Worker's Paradise• North Korea's leaders entertain themselves with prostitutes and fine foods from around the world, while their people dig through trash heaps to find ways to cloth themselves. Click to read more...

• The North Korean regime finances itself through drug trafficking and what is nothing less than international organized crime, debasing other societies in the process, in order to gain riches for the regime’s leaders. Click to read more...

• People throughout the country have reverted to cannibalism to survive. Every citizen of North Korea knows that meat should not be bought or eaten if you don’t know its origin, as it is likely the flesh of someone who died of starvation and was them sliced up and sold; a state of affairs brought on by the central government itself. Click to read more...

• With nothing to do, no employment, no recreation, and no food, alcohol and hard drug use has become pandemic. In some parts of the country virtually 50% of the people are addicted to methamphetamines or harder substances. The profits from this go to the regime's leaders. Click to read more... and... Click to read more...

• Culture, true education, access to knowledge, events integral to human flourishing… these things don’t exist in North Korea. Instead, this is a country where everyone grows up in constant fear. To suppress dissidence Kim Jong-un’s henchmen maintain a nationwide detention system centered around four vast prisons, each used solely to hold political, social, and societal dissidents. At the present these four prisons alone are known to have between 80,000 and 120,000 people detained in them. Click to read more...

• Then there are the regular prisons. These are full of people who have violated the Dear Leader’s idea of how one should act in North Korea… not laws mind you, but preferences. Complain about the government, be a Christian, participate in the black market, or do anything else of this nature in your bid to survive and you’ll find yourself in one of these prisons. But that’s not the end…

• To supplement the Dear Leader’s political and non-political prisons there are concentration camps. North Korea practices a system of collective punishment based on a Chinese practice used thousands of years ago. Under that practice, and as applied in North Korea today, if one person is found guilty of an offense then three generations of their family are sent off to a concentration camp. Those in these camps in North Korea today are there simply because they are family members of others in either the political or non-political prisons… most of whom were interred without trial. What age group is housed in these concentration camps? Every level from babies to the elderly… children, mothers, sisters, grandparents, all… if you are one of the three generations of relatives of an interred person, you are living in a concentration camp. What do the people in these camps do? From the age of six until they die, they work at hard labor for the state. We ask you, if regular citizens are without food and starving in North Korea, what is your guess as to the caloric intake of the people living in these camps? Click to read more...

How do you explain a country like North Korea? Here’s our bid: North Korea is the epitome of dynastic primogeniture expressed as one family’s continued megalomaniacal effort to systematically rape and defile the nation they rule... the entire nation... for their own benefit. From its inception to today, the country is and has been run by evil men who have refined their method for subjugating their own people to the point that the world pays it no matter. It is humanity at its most perverse.

North Korean PropagandaWhy do we allow this to continue? With great satisfaction and smugness, we sit back and speak of how, having learned from the past, we will never let another Holocaust happen. Yet it is happening before our eyes in North Korea and we are doing absolutely nothing about it.

Where were you when the world became evil? When the Holocaust took place? Did you avert your eyes so that you would not have to feel guilt? What did you do about stopping the killing of the Jews? Stopping the killing of the gays… the gypsies… the misshapen… the sick… the deformed? Or in more recent times, what did you do to stop the persecution of blacks? Stop racism? Are you one of those that blathers excuses for your lack of action… “you don't understand, it's much more complicated than you make it out to be."

What will be your excuse this time? What excuse will you give your grandchildren for having allowed an entire nation of people to be tortured… for 69 long, miserable years? 

Clearly, there is a moral imperative to change the regime in North Korea. For America, taking on such a task is doable. We say then: we think such a war... one that everyone says is not worth fighting... is worth fighting.

It’s Time To Invade North Korea

Any military action is dangerous. One might say this one could be more dangerous by a factor of four than those wars we have recently fought. Why? Because 1) North Korea has nukes, 2) it has a sizeable and one presumes strong and well armed military, with countless artillery pieces trained on Seoul and South Korea, 3) China wants it left alone, and 4) South Korea would rather close their eyes to the problem and ignore it than actually do something about it. A potentially tough opponent, an ally that holds their eyes tightly shut and hopes the problem will go away, and a neighbor who just might get in our face if we try something… are we sure this is a good thing to do?

Yes, is the answer. Getting rid of the regime in North Korea is a moral imperative. And fortunately, doing so won’t be as tough as it might seem. If we take these four points one at a time, you’ll see what we mean.

On the military front, it is clear that any attempt at regime change in North Korea must include a plan whose purpose it is to destroy their offensive capabilities in one strike. While we are not privy to it, we are sure the DoD must have a plan to do so sitting on a shelf somewhere in the Pentagon. If they don’t, then someone should tell them to dig out MacArthur’s old plan. While it might prove short on tactics, it will at least show the brass in Washington what kind of balls they should be sporting if they are going to take on North Korea. MacArthur wasn’t afraid of the North Koreans, or the Chinese to their north. Why should we be?

Chutzpah aside, the truth is we have the capabilities we need to mount such an action. American forces have proven nothing if not that they are good at launching enormous numbers of rockets and bombs at enemies, thereby decimating their ability to respond. Remember Operation Shock and Awe? How about Colin Powell’s military doctrine based on the use of overwhelming power? Or on the land side of the equation, how about the Battle of 73 Easting in Iraq, or Operation Nasr?

Precision Guided Mortar XM-3951If properly planned and executed, an American attack on North Korea should be able to destroy all of the North's vaunted artillery pieces in one strike. We know this to be true, because with 3 - 5 inch satellite object resolution and the pinpoint targeting capabilities of JDAMs, HELLFIRE II Missiles, Cruise Missiles, Precision Guided Mortar Munitions (PGMM), laser guided bombs, and all the other pieces that make up our arsenal of meticulously guidable bombs and rounds, we should be able to not only identify every significant artillery position the North Koreans have, but be able to clear them from the field of battle in the first strike.

The same is true for the North’s command and control capabilities, and their air force. Given America’s overwhelming technological advantage in the sky, dominating it should not be difficult. In an attack on North Korea it should be our air force’s job to instantly attain air dominance. They have the men and materials to achieve this goal. It should sit at the top of their list.

As for the element of surprise, it would be nice to have it, but not necessary. After all of these years of military spending and training to fight a conventional war, if we can’t win this one against North Korea on the first day, with a few days of heavy mopping up then being required before the heavy troops move in to take control of the ground, then there is something seriously wrong with our military. One day to defeat North Korea and take the fight out of her; three days to mop up operations and take control of border and island areas; followed by a month or two of moving men into the country to occupy every city, town, village, road junction, hospital, school, and government building… and all should be well.

Do not mistake our comments here for military hubris. We are not thrusting our chest out, saying that fighting and defeating North Korea will be a cake walk. It won’t be. But it also won’t be a long, hard slog either. We say this because fighting a war with North Korea will be a conventional war… not one of those Iraq–ISIS–Afghanistan–Taliban–insurgencies that drive us traditional military types crazy. This one we trained for. This one we know how to fight. This one will be our kind of war. If we can’t knock these jackasses out in 48 hours or so, we deserve to lose.

From a military standpoint then, it’s not the conventional aspects of the war that we have to worry about, it’s the unconventional elements… like North Korea's nuclear weapons. Surprisingly, while many know little about North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, there are a few that know quite a lot about it, and what they know is available in the public domain. One of those is Ms. Duyeon Kim, a Senior Non-Proliferation Fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. The information she has gathered about the Hermit Kingdom’s nuclear weapons stock is impressive. A summary of it follows below. We can only imagine that if people like Ms. Kim know so much, the CIA and Pentagon must know far more… or at least they had better.[1]

As best we can understand, North Korea has:

•  Between four and eight nuclear weapons. It has carried out three nuclear tests since 2006.

•  A number of short- and medium-range missiles that have been fully developed and tested. At this point however North Korea has not yet successfully tested a long-range missile or ICBM.

•  More importantly, while North Korea has both nuclear weapons and missiles, they have not yet miniaturized their nuclear device such that it can be delivered by a missile. But watch out, they are getting closer to it every day.

Nuclear Weapon Objectives

In terms of North Korea’s nuclear weapons, their claimed objective is to deter a U.S. invasion as well as our mounting any hostile "policies" against them.

From our perspective, they seem to have succeeded.

Pyongyang believes that the United States desires regime change, and while this does not appear to be anything more than wishful thinking on the part of our current President and those who run our country, such a plan is exactly what we are proposing in this article. Further to all of this, from Kim Jong-un’s perspective, his goal is not just to survive but to gain recognition as a nuclear power. This latter point is important to him because only by having the world know he holds nuclear weapons can he assure himself that countries like the U.S. will hesitate to try and topple him. When seen from this viewpoint, all of the blustering, blathering and name calling he does serves a purpose. Its purpose is to gain attention and focus the spotlight on his nuclear weapons. By constantly reminding the world that he has them, he feels he can keep America at bay. Nuclear weapons, and an aggressive ballistic missile program, he believes enhance his security and diplomatic position.

Say, doesn’t this sound to you a bit like Iran?

Having nuclear weapons helps Kim Jong-un at home too. At home it boosts his image by demonstrating his strength against hostile America.

But it’s in the international arena where he gains his greatest benefit. Internationally his nuclear weapons give him a bargaining chip that few countries have. Or at least he thinks so… in our view America’s lack of effort to do anything of consequence about his nuclear ambition does more to give him bargaining room than anything he is doing on his own. Either way, having nuclear weapons means he is one of the club… a club of nine. Nine nations that possess some 16,300 nuclear weapons, in total. The fact that he has only four means nothing. He is an equal within the order of nuclear weapon states, regardless of what others may think.

Think this whole idea of his to tout his nuclear membership to the world is not important? Then look to North Korea’s constitution… which it recently revised so that it states in no uncertain terms within it that North Korea is a nuclear weapon state. Considering that back in 1968 only five states possessed nuclear weapons, back when the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was opened for signatures, Pyongyang has come a long way.

Food for the family in North KoreaA long way in terms of possessing nuclear weapons, but it has gone backwards when it comes to meeting the needs of its own citizens.

In terms of where North Korea’s nuclear weapons and capabilities can be found—an important thing to know if you are going to attack a country—we know that plutonium facilities exist at the Yongbyon nuclear complex; in North Hamgyong Province (Chungjinsi, Kiljugun, Pungyre); in Chagangdo Province (Kanggyesi); in North Pyongan Province (Yongbyonsi, Kusungsi, Taechongun); and in South Pyongan Province (Pyongsungsi).

Among all of these places North Korea is suspected to have stockpiled between 30 kg and 50 kg of nuclear bomb making material, with a portion of the stockpile having actually been used in North Korea’s nuclear tests.

Uranium enrichment takes place at:

Suspected – Pyongyang; Pakchon; Taechon; Chonmasan; Hagap; Yongjori; and 

Confirmed – the original Yongbyon (pilot plant).

Other sites are believed to be hidden. Ms. Kim reports that the total amount of the stockpile is not known.

In terms of Ballistic Missiles, again, although North Korea has hundreds of operational short- and medium-range ballistic missiles. Despite this, there is no evidence that it has achieved the miniaturization of a nuclear device necessary for placing a nuclear weapon on top of one of these missiles. Chemical weapons, yes. But nuclear, not yet.

Still, a missile is a missile, and we are sure that in the event of an assault on North Korea Kim Jong-un would fire as many of them as he can at us. The following tells you what we (in the civilian sector) know about North Korea's missile capabilities:

Ballistic Missile Capabilities

North Korea’s primary ballistic missile objective is to improve its conventional warfare capabilities. Secondarily, it is to develop missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads targeted at regional adversaries and the continental U.S. They also appear to be working on development of an inter-continental ballistic missile capable of delivering chemical, biological, or nuclear warheads onto the U.S. mainland.

North Korea is known to have ballistic missile facilities at Musudan-ri; Yongjo-ri; Sangnam-ri; Tongchang-ri, Chiha-ri. In an attack on the country, these would have to be taken out.

Their delivery systems include the whole gamut, from short range missiles to intermediate range, with speculative claims to intercontinental and space launch vehicles too. Taking these one at a time:

Short-Range

• KN-01 – short-range anti-ship cruise missile. Range estimated at 160 km. Believed to be an improved version of the Soviet Termit missile (“Styx”).

• KN-02 – short-range, solid-fueled, highly accurate mobile missile. Range estimated between 100-120 km. Modified copy of the Soviet OTR-21 (SS-21 Tochka; also referred to as “Scarab”); unknown number in service; believed to have been deployed in the late 1990s or early 2000s.

• Hwasong-5 (Scud-B) – short-range, initial Scud modification. Road-mobile, liquid-fueled missile. Estimated range of 300 km (can reach throughout South Korea) and capable of delivering a 900 kg payload. Tested successfully. First deployed in 1988. Delivered to Iran for Iran-Iraq war.

• Hwasong-6 (Scud-C, Scud-PIP) – Improved version of Hwasong-5. Range of 500 km, able to carry 700-800 kg payload. First deployed in 1988. Said to be the most widely deployed missile, with at least 400 in service.

Medium-Range

• Rodong (Nodong-1) – medium-range missile with an estimated range of 1,000 -1,500 km; payload of 1,000 kg. Capable of reaching across Japan; capable of carrying a simple nuclear warhead, according to analysis from ISIS. First deployed in 1998. North Korea has deployed between 175 and 200 of these missiles. Certain sources have mentioned the existence of a Rodong-2, but studies from RAND and the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies assert that it does not exist, or may be another name for the Taepodong-1.

Intermediate-Range

• Taepodong-1 (Paektusan-1) – two-stage liquid-fueled medium-range ballistic missile, modified to serve as a three-stage space launch vehicle; incapable of delivering nuclear payload to intercontinental ranges due to poor technical accuracy; estimated range of 2,000-2,900 km. Theoretically capable of delivering small 100-200 kg payloads to continental US, but that payload is far too small for a nuclear weapon, and so the Taepodong-1 cannot be considered a usable ICBM. Was tested with partial success in 1998, with the missile experiencing a third-stage failure.

• Taepodong-2 (Paektusan-2/Unha-2/Unha-3) – larger, more capable multi-stage missile; currently under development. Depending on size of payload, possible strategic capability against continental U.S; believed to be a potential intercontinental ballistic missile; exact range unknown, various government estimates of possible ranges run from 3,400-15,000 km. Was tested five times between 2006 and 2013, with its only successful flight coming in December 2012, when it was used as a space-launch vehicle. According to a 2012 report from the Department of Defense, the Taepodong-2 has yet to be deployed by the North Korean military.

• Musudan-1 (Taepodong-X, Nodong-B, BM-25) – single-stage intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM); range 2,500-4,000 km, capable of direct strikes on South Korea, Japan, and Guam, thus putting U.S. military bases at risk. Has not been tested and is not known to be operational.

Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM)

• KN08  North Korean road mobile ICBM; first presented at parade in April 2012, but many analysts argue that the missiles on display were only mock-ups. Has not been tested and no open-source evidence exists to suggest that they are operational.

Long-Range Rockets (Space Launch Vehicles)

• Unha rocket-Kwangmyongsong satellite combo  The North claims its long-range rockets are designed for peaceful scientific purposes to launch a satellite into orbit. However, the UN Security Council and international community view long-range rockets as synonymous with long-range missiles – the technology used in space launchers is essentially the same as ballistic missile technology. Global diplomats and scientists view Pyongyang’s claimed objective as veiled practice rounds to eventually launch a missile tipped with a nuclear warhead.

–  –  –

While all of this is interesting, the salient point is that the North Korean regime does not possess many warheads. Further, on the basis of where their missiles are located, their warheads cannot be stored either far away or in many locations. It stands to reason then that the U.S. intelligence community must have some idea where both the missiles and their warheads are, it being most certain they have been hard at work all of these years trying to figure out just this point. And even if they do not know for certain where North Korea’s conventional warheads are for the missiles that have been built, and where the nuclear bombs are that have been assembled, the U.S. still has the ability to hit with precision—via its much vaunted and touted pinpoint accuracy missile capabilities—every potential site, building and hen house in the country.

Remember, this is an abominable regime.. one a thousand times more injurious to humanity than Hitler’s. It’s time to dismantle and change it. It’s time to invade North Korea. Any man that would threaten to use nuclear weapons… and truly intend to use them, as opposed to leaving them on the table in some M.A.D. capacity… must be removed from a position or power... and sooner, rather than later. If Kim Jong-un is a threat to South Korea now, with only 4 nuclear weapons, imagine how much of a threat he will be when he has 50 or 100. The time to act is now. This maniacal stunted child-man, willing to blow up the world to hold onto power, must be removed.

Geopolitics And North Korea

So we have made our recommendations about North Korea, but what to do about South Korea and China? What role do they play? What can we expect out of them?

In South Korea’s case, it's already clear what she would think of our idea. She wouldn't want it to happen, presumably because the fall of North Korea would throw her own nation into a tizzy and drag down her economy while she set about rebuilding the north and uniting the two countries.

Well, that's just tough. It’s time South Korea stop sniveling about how much work she would have to do to help the people of the north and realize that these people are her countrymen… yes, those up there harvesting the roots of the trees along the peaks and valleys of the Rangrim Mountains, the Hamgyong Range of mountains, the Kangnam Range, Taebaek Range, and others… those people eating tree bark are the kith and kin of South Korea, not some alien space creatures.

StarvationThe same is true for those eating the weeds and grasses growing in the flood plains of the Amnok River, Duman River, Daedong River, and the Yalu. These too are South Korea’s countrymen. They are all of the same ethnic makeup, the same culture, the same genus… the people of the north need help, and it’s time the people of South Korea set aside their quest for wealth and luxury and sacrifice a bit of what they have to free their kin. To the South Koreans we say, these are your countrymen, your brothers, your sisters. When are you going to go to their rescue?

Surely the youth of South Korea can put aside their K-Pop music for a while (excellent though it is…) and do something good for humanity? As we have already said, we have heard the rubric of South Korea not being able to handle the drag on its economy that would come from having to oversee unification, but surely, that is a poor excuse for letting people starve to death 190 kilometers from your front door. What kind of people are the South Koreans, to allow their brethren to starve on one hand, while a puny dictator profanely enriches his life off of them on the other?

As to the claim that the economic drag on South Korea is greater than she could handle, strangely, that is the same excuse China trots out when talk of the fall of North Korea begins. Between the two of them, is it not possible to find the money to handle the needs the people of North Korea would have if its half witted leader and his regime were incarcerated for crimes against humanity? We seem to recall that just last October China was bragging to the world that she had overtaken the U.S. as the world's largest economy. If that’s the case, is there not some money in this massive, global, world leading economy to help the people of North Korea… her neighbor? 

For both of these countries, it’s time for them to stop talking about what they hope to see when it comes to North Korea’s future, and start doing something about it.

Yes, we know that China views North Korea as a useful pawn, but if it persists in letting the existing regime rule in a manner that violates humanity, then it must realize that the world will persist in seeing China as an accomplice to the North Korean regime. This won’t bode well for China in her efforts, in her own backyard, to be seen as a hail fellow well met, i.e. someone that can be trusted… a neighboring country whose behavior is hearty, friendly, congenial, peaceful and in the best interest of all.

It is true what people say of China. They say she thinks that economic and military might make a superpower. It doesn’t. Being able to export cheaply manufactured products that come from a thriving economy is not what superpower status is all about. It’s about exporting morality. If China truly wants to become a superpower, chasing economic might isn’t going to do it. Exporting morality will…  and stepping forward to be the first country to call for the overthrow of the Kim regime so that North Korea's people can live a decent life would go a long way towards making the world sit up and take notice that a new China has arrived.

As for South Korea, it should simply follow suit. A little more morality and a little less chasing of the almighty Won.

That’s all nice you say, but what if China stands her ground and says that she won’t cooperate with us if we invade? What then?

To begin with, if America is going to force an overthrow of the North Korean regime, it should do just that: force it. That means not asking China if she wants to play in the game, but telling her that the game will go off, with her or without her. At the same time, there is no need to get in China’s face over this. It would be better to outline a role for her, even to the point of inviting her to station her troops along her border with North Korea to a) collect any refugees that try to escape the country and b) assure that American and South Korean troops do not cross that same border.

In terms of the North Koreans that do try to cross the border, the U.S. should offer to jointly fund (with China) the establishment of refugee centers… on the Chinese side of the border. Here North Korean civilians would be fed, clothed, housed and protected until the “war is over”, at which time they would be returned either to their villages, where additional U.N. provided food, clothing and housing would be made available to them until they can resettle and begin a new life, or placed in refugee centers within the new North Korea itself, until they can determine where they prefer to live and how they will support themselves.

To get the economy of the new North Korea off to a quick start, China should be invited to have priority access—along with South Korea—to this market. Both she and South Korea should be allowed to invest in and own factories, farms, and industrial complexes that employ indigenous North Koreans, provided that terms are written into the investment documents that let indigenous North Koreans acquire these same factories down the road, when the country’s economy is back on track… perhaps in 7 to 10 year's time. The business world has already created a vehicle to do this, it's called Build, Operate, and Transfer.

Either way, neither should be allowed to pillage the wealth of North Korea, as happened when the U.S.S.R. fell and Russian oligarchs and autocrats took over. Gain significant economic advantage for efforts to build a functioning North Korean industrial sector that employs people, yes… but rape and pillage that same economy, no.

North Korea After DarkThe same should be true for infrastructure development projects, both China and South Korea should be given priority access to these projects. Considering how dark the night skies are over North Korea, there must be ample demand for power line, road and bridge infrastructures to be built, not to mention telephone, sewage, water and any number of other public works projects.

What about us, you say? What about America, what do we get out of this?

Frankly, we need a stable, friendly non-nuclear North Korea more than we need the money we can make from building a functioning economy for her. Besides, the American people seem to be tired of nation building. After Iraq and Afghanistan, it is unlikely that things will change to the point that American’s begin clamoring to learn Korean and/or Chinese, so that they can win contracts in that part of the world. That being the case, we can use the idea of our stepping back from the grubby grab for money that will take place once the war is over, as a bargaining chip to get China to do what we need and want her to do.

That’s all nice you say, for the second time… but what if China really, really, really stands her ground, says that she won’t cooperate, and forbids us to go ahead with our plans? What then?

If you mean she threatens to militarily stop us from invading North Korea, our view is that you should not worry about it. As long as we assure China that we have no designs on permanent bases in North Korea, and we stay out of her territory, all should be well. More to the point, clearly, China is not going to nuke the U.S. over North Korea, nor send the 8th Route Army in to stop us.

If China has reservations about America overthrowing the North Korean regime, it will be in the area of such an event impacting her own economic and employment growth, not her security. With 1.3 billion people, finding jobs for everyone is much more important to Chinese leaders than what happens in the Hermit Kingdom… unless that causes her economy to tank. The simple fact is, as long as the youth of China can find jobs, make money, and live a good life… they could care less who runs their country. China’s youth are no different than those of South Korea… the good life is all that matters to them. In the case of China, force her youth to live in a country with 6% unemployment (unemployment is currently at 4.1 % in China, 5.9% in the U.S.) and they will take to the streets to throw the communist party out. With that point in mind, one can easily see that if China were to start a war against the U.S. over our efforts to change regimes in North Korea, such a move would prove disastrous to her economy. Yes, the youth of China might rally around the Chinese flag and bubble over with excitement for a few weeks, about fighting the U.S.—but when they realize that the good life they have been living for the past 25 years will be over if they go to war against us, they will quickly abandon their xenophobic hysteria for demands that the Central Government bring back their jobs and the good life.

At this stage in China's modern growth, she is a country full of nouveau riche enjoying luxuries not seen by common people in over two centuries. A typical two bedroom apartment in downtown Beijing sells for $500,000, stand alone houses for over two million. Most youth aged between 25 and 30 have saved in excess of $200,000 since leaving high school. Today's Chinese society is filthy rich in the big cities, and fast becoming so in many secondary cities. The people who live in China today are not interested in going back to the days of privation that existed in the early 1980s, or the abject poverty of the 70s. If war against America means losing the good life, they will vote an emphatic no to war. Besides, 64% of China's rich... i.e. those who would make the decision whether the country should go to war against America or not... would rather live in America than where they live right now.[2]

The same is true with respect to China attempting to mount a serious effort to retaliate economically or politically against the U.S., for invading North Korea. That too would hurt her economy more than it would do any good in stopping the U.S. So, while China might rail against America's hegemonic actions, in the end she would do little more than complain about it. That is, she would likely limit her complaints to histrionics… no military counter action, no bombing, and no nuclear war against America.

Given all of this, if properly approached China would quickly realize that it is better for her to join us, or at least not attempt to stymie our efforts, than to oppose us. And again, if economic incentives were offered to her, likely as not she would jump on the bandwagon before it could even stop to let her climb on.

Money matters to China. The U.S. is a market economy. China is a market society. Anything can be bought in China, even allegiance to American goals and objectives.

Nation-building

In Iraq America struck out when it came to nation building. There are many reasons for this, one of the most important of which is that Iraq was not a nation to begin with. More an amalgam of fractious ethnic tribes that barely got along with each other, the only way the country could stay together as a country was if a strong armed dictator ran it, and held it together under an authoritarian regime. That’s not the case with North Korea. Given all of the disgusting aspects of it, the fact of the matter is that the people who live in North Korea see themselves as being part of one country… not an ethnic assemblage of tribes.

Many people think that nation building is difficult, but it is not… not when the people within a nation want to live in…well… a nation of their own... a functioning nation. That seems to be the case with the North Korean people. Because of this, once the Kim Jong-un regime is gone, it should be easy to set up a functioning government. As to how this should be done, for one… again… China should play a lead role in helping to set up a new government. She needs to do this if only to assure herself that her new neighbor is not a threat to her.

Nation BuildingCertainly, South Korea should be the leader at the table when it comes to crafting the structure of the new government. However, given South Korea’s many years of struggle to make democracy work… and her own penchant for autocrat led corruption… while she should be given the lead, she should not have veto power over what is finally decided. As for the U.S., America should round out the triad, holding the third and final seat at the table. The three then, China on one side of the table, South Korea at the head of it, and the U.S. on the other side, should work essentially as equals to outline and implement a government structure that will serve North Korea for the next thousand years.

Should North Korea be united with the South, with the two of them living under one flag? Should North Korea have its own version of a socialist government with a free enterprise economy… as China has? Should North Korea march forward with a constitution and form of government that mimics America’s? These are all questions that the triad should answer. Frankly, it matters not. Anything would be better than what exists now, and in this regard, America should not be stubborn and try to prevent some iconic form of government that South Korea and China both feel will work, just because it does not mimic our own.

Protect the people of the North. Help them learn to stand on their own, to feed their own, to improve their lives, to educate their youth. Give them civil liberties, the rule of law, and control over their own destiny. Welcome them to the world. Do these things and within short order the North Korea of today will soon be forgotten.

China is a good neighbor for a task like this. Having made a miracle transformation of her own over the past 20 years, from a cult following failure of a state to one with an economy that surpasses our own… from one where tens of thousands of people a day died from starvation to one where, while there are poor people in the country, none goes without… from a country with a literacy rate of less than 3% to one where fully 95% of her youth graduate high school, and 19% go on to college… China has come a long way and knows what steps need to be taken for a country to get there. In this regard, she would be a better tutor for North Korea than America would be, and we should not stand in her way in trying to build with the new North Korea the kind of country she likely wishes existed on her borders right now, rather than the one that does exist.

Here then is one area where America and China can work together to bring the world a bit of sanity and goodness. We repeat from our opening statement: North Korea is an abomination. It’s time America do something about it. It’s time America invade North Korea and replace its repugnant leaders. China would be a great, but not necessary, partner with which to take such action.  

 

 

 

Footnotes:

[1] To review the information Ms. Duyeon Kim, Senior Non-Proliferation Fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, has gathered about North Korea's nuclear weapons stock and other key components of its arsenal, click here. Click to read more...  - To return to your place in the text click here: Return to place in text

[2] China defines her rich as people having more than $1.6 million in assets. As to why 63% of these people want to live in the U.S., food safety, pollution, infrastructure, endemic corruption, and a joke of a legal system are just a few of the reasons. A joint report issued by China Merchants Bank and Bain & Company showed that of those business owners who possess over 100 million RMB (about $16 million) in assets, 27 percent have already left the country, while another 47 percent are trying to follow them.  - To return to your place in the text click here: Return to place in text

 

Additional Sources:

North Korea Vows to Boost 'Nuclear Power' to Prevent U.S. Invasion, NBC News, December 20, 2014.

Is China losing faith in North Korea, The Guardian, North Korea network expert panel, Friday 9 May 2014.

Should China invade North Korea?, www.Debate.Org, December 21, 2012.

North Korean Analysis, www.38North.Org, a project of the U.S.-Korea Institute at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University.Click to read more...

 

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This page originally posted 1 February 2015 


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