Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Real Reality]

S. Korea sends relief goods to N. Korea
South Korea shipped promised flood relief aid to North Korea on Wednesday, a day after Pyongyang threatened to conduct a nuclear test. The goods, including 6,400 tons of cement, were shipped to the North Korean port of Nampo, said the Unification Ministry, which handles North Korean affairs. "As North Korea has yet to conduct a nuclear test, it is difficult to immediately halt sending flood relief aid, which is being provided on a humanitarian basis," a ministry official said on condition of anonymity, citing official policy. "However, we will decide future plans (of shipments) after monitoring the situation," the official said.
AP Via Yahoo!News (October 4, 2006)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061004/ap_on_re_as/koreas_nuclear_aid_2

Seoul continues aid for flood damage recovery in North Korea
As of Wednesday, Seoul has shipped 21,585 tons of cements to Pyongyang, about one-fifth of the 100,000 tons it promised for recovery efforts. (Yonhap News)
http://english.yna.co.kr/Engnews/20061004/410100000020061004200745E2.html

[ChuckECheese]

[Guri Guy]

I have heard that if North Korea conducts underground nuclear tests it has the potential to damage the entire water table for the Korean peninsula. Talk about cutting your own throat. Well done 대한민국.

[djsmnc]

It's great that they are helping their brothers and sisters up north!

[Demophobe]

[Homer]

The relief aid is not a bad thing at all.

The concrete...well thats called diplomacy folks....it works in mysterious ways.....

The madman up north knows how to play the regional game very well.

As I said in another thread, if he wants nukes he will build them and test them and no one can do much about it.

As for the potential to damage the entire water table of the peninsula that sounds far fetched but pretty darned bad.

Then again, China tested its nukes in underground near the Yalu for years.....perhaps we are already drinkinr radioactive mul.....

[crazylemongirl]

North Korea is the junkie in the corner with the gun. We'll just keep giving it heroin, in the hope that they'll be too doped up to fire the gun.

[jaganath69]

[Homer]

Jags,

I stand corrected man! I had confused info from a course I did for my M.A. (a couple of years ago). Your sources are correct.

At any rate if NK tests its nuke...it will most likely not be in a spot that would ruin the water table...I mean dear leader is a tyrant but he is not a complete moron....or perhaps.

[Guri Guy]

Here is the article Homer:

North Korea could conduct a nuclear weapons test without advance preparations beind detected by American intelligence.

According to an analysis by Satoshi Morimoto of Takushoku University, " ... carrying out nuclear tests inside North Korea would be an extremely sticky action. That is because this kind of nuclear testing could only be carried out underground. There is absolutely no way they could do in the air or above ground. Even with underground nuclear testing, you normally need a fifty to sixty kilometer square of desert for a nuclear test. In the U.S., this would be something like the Nevada desert. Unless you have the kind they have in India or Pakistan, you cannot do it. The reason for this is that the underground water system gets damaged. North Korea has a very abundant flow of underground water, and if you carry out an underground nuclear test in this kind of place, radioactive materials would get into the water supply for the whole of the Korean peninsula, and also flow out into the Sea of Japan. As a consequence, if there were any underground nuclear testing in the Korean peninsula, it would not be just the ecological system, but also the topography of the land that would be damaged. So, will they indeed carry out tests? I think they might somehow manage to borrow the Pakistani desert, or else carry out tests in another country. Still, this being North Korea, one can never know. If they did do that sort of nuclear test, then the U.S. would run out of patience."

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/dprk/nuke-test.htm

[Qinella]

South Korea is North Korea's bitch. S. Korea needs to cut off all aid, completely and immediately. Let the North Koreans see how great their leader is when they can't even get some white for their rice.

[Guri Guy]

I think South Korea should cut off all aid beyond emergency aid for natural diasters (like the floods) as North Korea has a policy called Juche. (Self reliance) Call them on their bluff I say.

[wylies99]

The two previous posters have it right.
South Korea is REWARDING the bad behavior of North Korea. This may not be their intention, but it is the result.

[Homer]

I think it is a little more complex than some basic psycho-dependent explanation.....

Its not reward for bad behaviour only...it goes well beyond this and is much more complex. I mean look at the regional dynamics. Look at the long term view if reunification is the goal.

[Qinella]