N. Korea sabre rattling again

[CaseAgainstFaith]

PYONGYANG, North Korea - North Korea's military warned Monday of imminent "special actions" that would reduce South Korea's conservative government to ashes within minutes, sharply escalating the rhetoric against its southern rival.

The threat from the North's military leadership comes amid concerns that North Korea may be plotting another provocation in the wake of an unsuccessful rocket launch condemned by the U.N. Security Council as a violation of a ban against missile activity.

North Korea characterized the April 13 rocket launch as a failed bid to send a satellite into space — not a disguised test of missile technology — but then followed up two days later by unveiling a new long-range missile at a military birthday parade for late President Kim Il Sung.

There are new concerns that North Korea may conduct a nuclear test as it did after rocket launches in 2006 and 2009. South Korean intelligence officials say recent satellite images show the North has been digging a new tunnel in what could be preparation for a third atomic test.

On Monday, the military warned in a statement carried by state media that it would launch "special actions" soon against the South Korean government and conservative media.

http://news.yahoo.com/north-koreas-military-threatens-reduce-south-koreas-leadership-144049474.html

If only we could just do a media blackout on all crazies (N Korea, Westboro, etc) until something actually happens.  It would probably do more harm than any sanctions if the world just totally blacked out their sabre rattling press releases.  Cause then the satisfaction of "all eyes on me" is gone.

[gyeonghwa]

This is North Korea:

[speshuled67]

if it wasnt for the major humanitarian crisis, north korea would be almost cute...

[Stormwarden]

It makes me wonder if it never occurs to them that while their tech has stagnated from embargoes and lack of advancement, our's keeps growing.

Still worried about North Korea doing a Belka scenario, though.

[Art Vandelay]

It makes me wonder if it never occurs to them that while their tech has stagnated from embargoes and lack of advancement, our's keeps growing.

As long as they have a nuke and a fuckton of artillery pointed at Seoul, they don't care.

[Fpqxz]

It makes me wonder if it never occurs to them that while their tech has stagnated from embargoes and lack of advancement, our's keeps growing.

Right, like Kim Jong-Un (or his father) really gives a shit about stuff like that.  He's the king.  He's got billions of dollars in wealth and command of a huge military.  He doesn't need to actually be able to fight to win, he just needs to appear that he can.

Still worried about North Korea doing a Belka scenario, though.

Not quite sure what you mean here...?

[Osama bin Bambi]

It makes me wonder if it never occurs to them that while their tech has stagnated from embargoes and lack of advancement, our's keeps growing.

As long as they have a nuke and a fuckton of artillery pointed at Seoul, they don't care.

I remember watching the VICE guide to North Korea. There's a part where, as a part of the government-run tour, our heroes visit a bar with a karaoke machine that happens to be very close to the DMZ. However, because it's a South Korean machine, it came pre-programmed with songs that would otherwise be banned in the DPRK. One of those songs was "Anarchy in the UK". One of our heroes sings this song, but the government escorts who are stalking spying on accompanying him are like "lol wtf?" because they have no cultural context for the song whatsoever. They thought he was either drunk, or making fun of a military ballad. The VICE dude later said that he realized at that moment that North Korea was like a time capsule perpetually stuck in Soviet Russia.

[Stormwarden]

Belka Scenario: Detonating Nukes on your own soil to prevent an invading army from getting through. Named for the Principality of Belka, which in Ace Combat Zero detonated seven nukes across the border between it's Northern and Southern halves (the South had already fallen). It'd have been eight if one pilot hadn't defected.

[Fpqxz]

I remember watching the VICE guide to North Korea.

Fuck, the hipsters have invaded North Korea now too?  I guess no place is safe.

Belka Scenario: Detonating Nukes on your own soil to prevent an invading army from getting through. Named for the Principality of Belka, which in Ace Combat Zero detonated seven nukes across the border between it's Northern and Southern halves (the South had already fallen). It'd have been eight if one pilot hadn't defected.

Thanks for clearing that up.  I'm not much of a gamer so I really don't know all this stuff.

[largeham]

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/envoy/north-korea-issues-unusually-specific-threat-152720861.html
I would lol, but I feel sorry for the people living in Seoul.

[Sylvana]

I am a bit conflicted.
While this does seem like a mostly impotent threat, I also realize that despite most of the people in North Korea starving, they have an unusually large military. While their military technology might be obsolete, one must never underestimate the effectiveness of sheer manpower. While they are a laughable threat to the rest of the world they are a definite threat to their neighbors. If they were to invade I have no doubt it would be lethally bad for North Korea as it would stretch their logistics and add their military to the people who are starving to death. Unfortunately they have shown that attacking South Korea is more important than any of the people.

[N. De Plume]

It makes me wonder if it never occurs to them that while their tech has stagnated from embargoes and lack of advancement, our's keeps growing.

Right, like Kim Jong-Un (or his father) really gives a shit about stuff like that.  He's the king.  He's got billions of dollars in wealth and command of a huge military.  He doesn't need to actually be able to fight to win, he just needs to appear that he can.

Yeah. As River Tam would put it, he’s a sad little king of a sad little hill. I am always amazed at how some folks just don’t care how sad their hill is as long as they are the ones on top. They could be better off than they are now by every objective measure if they weren’t so obsessed with simply being better off than those around them. Guess it’s that “Better to Reign in Hell” attitude.

[Lt. Fred]

Beating the DPRK would not be a big deal; numbers don't matter when one side has total air superiority. The trouble would be US/ROK casualties, financial expense and the massive cost in North Korean lives. Not to mention the total destabilisation of their society.

[Canadian Mojo]

Beating the DPRK would not be a big deal; numbers don't matter when one side has total air superiority. The trouble would be US/ROK casualties, financial expense and the massive cost in North Korean lives. Not to mention the total destabilisation of their society.

Isn't Vietnam considered the classic 'go to' for proving you don't have to have air superiority to win? It also proved that you don't need armor either.

You just need lots of bodies. Which North Korea has.

[gyeonghwa]

North Korea has China breathing up their neck. Unlike Vietnam where China had interest in kicking the west out (in order to start a border war with Vietnam), China now has a greater interest in keeping peace in the Korean Peninsula. For those reasons, I feel that North Korea isn't comparable to Vietnam as a threat.