North Korea attempts but fails to launch missile: South Korea
reuters.com
reuters.com
How? The parade happened as part of the "Day of the Sun," their most important holiday and when they usually hold a military parade and showcase new weapons.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/04/15/north-ko...
They know their tests are being watched by the world. They know that if they get to a point where they are an believable imminent threat there might be preemptive action taken against them.
Given that, it would be in their interest to make sure the rest of the world underestimates their progress.
One way that could help with that would be when doing a test to test X make it so it looks like it is actually testing Y, and make sure that the Y test prominently fails.
There's no end-game in a spontaneous lashing out at anybody in the region. It's not a winnable situation for North Korea to attack anybody. They don't get anything from actual violent belligerence.
They're basically a bee hive. They've got their territory, and there's not much else happening, except maybe them screwing around on the internet for kicks, and their science projects like their ICBM program.
At some point, his wife will bear a son. He'll have an heir, and life goes on.
But what if war cracked the country open, and he got taken out. What would a re-integration of North Korean society look like?
In fact, re-read that comment, because what was said pretty much advocated policing absolutely nobody.
But, okay, let's all argue. You're right. North Korea isn't isolated from the world at all, and its citizens pretty much go anywhere they want, do whatever they want, and come back home whenever they're done doing as they please.
But I wonder: if the typical North Korean citizen were unhappy (and we know they aren't), where would they go, and what would they do, if this hypothetical repressive lid (which doesn't exist) were suddenly lifted, and the pressure of a (normal) subculture were relaxed?
You do know that Korea was artificially split in half due to the ongoing war, don't you?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_of_Korea
Germany was also split, and was reunited. I don't believe it's necessary to explain why.
Totally agree. In fact having a sense of security can help him and his people have a better life and help American taxpayers avoid another needless war.
I am not saying USA is at fault here but I think actually trying to increase trade with NK and letter NK be involved in world affairs littler more might help Kim actually do something better for his people. If USA polish bottoms of Saudi Arabia it can probably be little more nice to North Korea too. It might actually help the world peace.
I think China will use NK as a borrowed knife eventually or USA might attack its own soil and blame it on NK to start a war.
I doubt there is going to be any attack on NK. The strike group maneuver is merely ment to discourage Kim and show South Korea and Japan that the US is still a reliable ally.
The common sentiment is "Shit, our allies and enemies are led by idiots. (Not to mention our own country, for the time being.) Let's hope nobody's crazy enough to do something stupid..."
> So the US will never increase trade with NK to appease its sociopathic dictator
Well USA has very good trade relationship with China and Saudi both countries that would come second and third in terms of human rights abuses. In fact Saudi is a close ally.
It appears to me that USA wants a war and not to de-escalate the tensions and bring peace. All this eventually will come a a huge cost for South Koreans and US taxpayers.
When was the last time sanctions really worked ? India and Pakistan have very good nuclear arsenals and continue to build advance weapons despite all the threats and sanctions. Russia did not return the Crimea because of sanctions. Iran did not abandon its nuclear program because of sanctions.