Korean Job Discussion Forums

[The Lemon]

[Julius]

[The Lemon]

No, I'd have prefered they'd kept to their principled position of not rewarding dictators for developing and testing nuclear weapons. Tankerfuls of oil look a whole lot like a reward. Does Kim Jong Il get conjugal rights to the twins in the deal as well?

What's that Internet forum-ism we read all the time insulting France when they refused to support the great Iraqi adventure? Oh yes, now I remember.

I'll paraphrase: the current administration is a troop of burger-eating surrender monkeys. With freedom fries on the side.

[cdninkorea]

My thoughts exactly The Lemon- good posts.

[jaganath69]

I posted something similar on the marmot's site, but here goes again. Really, what was the other option, Failed state, increasingly desperate and unsure DPRK, proliferation of nuclear technology as a final means to scrape some hard currency from all of this? Let's not mention that potential US/DPRK conflict provides a strategic window of opportunity for China to attack Taiwan.

While this may seem wrong on a moral level, morality plays little part in high politics. Those who argue other miss the point that this is in the best interests of US security interests if it works out. It removes the threat of nuclear attack by divesting the North of its missiles. Moreover it lessens one of the few potentials for hostile non-state actors to acquire WMD technology. It also stabilizes a region in which the US has a massive interest.

US power is spread to thinly at the moment for this to be resolved any other way. Sanctions did little to halt Saddam Hussein's regime and even if they did work, a nuclear-armed state has options he did not. For all the bluster, the Jinjus who are merely mimicking the bomb-them-back-to-the-stone-age rhetoric of the right wing blogosphere, I want to know what alternative endgame do you see to all this.

Lemon, I especially appreciate the irony of the Clinton plan coming full circle.

[thepeel]

[thepeel]

[jaganath69]

Christ, it's late and I missquoted you badly. I'll edit it. Can I get a cookie now?

[thepeel]

[Sincinnatislink]

[quote="BJWD"]

[The Lemon]

[NAVFC]

[jinju]

[jaganath69]

[Zolt]

Am I the only one to see some interesting possibilities here? The deal as it is does not involve cash that I know of, but mostly oil and electricity. Oil can be stockpiled and resold, granted, but the electricity thing is interesting. It can hardly be stockpiled, and the whole issue about controlling distribution and use, that has plague every other form of aid, is pretty much irrelevant here.

You can't do much with electricity except distribute it do light and warm the people, and unless NK is a lot more advanced than we give them credit for, it has very few military applications.

Now NK has been in an energy crisis since the fall of USSR, if not before. Currently, it's allocated in priority to critical government services, industries and of course KJI and his goons. Now with an abundant energy supply, the use, and reliance on electricity should become much more widespread. One positive effect is that it might alleviate a bit the sufferings of the common NK citizen. Second, and more important, is what happens for some reason SK decides to cut the power inflow?

That's it, blackout for half the country, and unless they are very careful about the way they build their electrical network, even those critical services and industries might be affected. Even if they do plan for the capability to shut off noncritical part of their network to reallocate power to the others, a sudden shutdown might still strain or even damage their inside energy production facilities.

That's one very big card that's being handed to south korea, if they can use it right. People getting used to electricity and then having it cut might even cause just the kind of civil disorder that we'd all like to see in NK.

That said, I do agree with the above poster in that the US did not need do anything about the NK nuclear situation in the first place. Ignoring the north's insignifiant threats and demands was always the best solutions.