I read a post on ROK Drop this morning that made me think of my time in South Korea. It was about the fact that most South Koreans don't seem to be concerned that the North is going to do another nuclear test. According to the article cited the government, media, and some politicians are concerned but your average South Korean isn't.
The blogger finishes up by purporting;
"When Koreans have lived under threat of artillery and chemical weapons barrage for decades it is hard to get to excited about nuclear weapons. Especially when most Koreans know the nuclear weapons are being used by the North to extort the international community."
I believe it goes deeper than that. It is due in large part to the whole "pure blood" and "we are all brothers" theory. They use that in order to bury their head in the sand and ignore the antics of The NorKs. Or to divert it into anti-USA crap.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
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The combination of Koreans and nuclear weapons chills me to the bone.
ReplyDeleteThese fervent nationalists and 'pure-blood' fanatics would not hesitate to use these weapons on you or I just in a fir of pique more than anything else.
I think the U.S. should take a page out of Israel's book and bomb their nuclear facility.
Unfortunately they waited too long. They have the weapons already.
ReplyDeleteChaps, you may well be right and any discussion of the cousins to the North is very much 'looking through a glass darkly' but there is the consideration that the test was more for a domestic North Korean audience if at all for the international community.
ReplyDeleteKim Jong Un needing the support of the military. Perhaps a factor. Nuclear weapons don't rebel also. Perhaps a factor.
A cheap way of levelling the playing field? Instead of upgrading all their vintage planes and tanks and half starved soldiers, get a few nukes?
Perhaps a factor?
Something else. There are also doubts about whether tests 1 and 2 were actually nuclear tests at all.
And then we have this third with no isotope evidence. (From what I've been able to discern from open sources.)
It does occur to me that....Making it very obvious to an international audience that all the tests were actually nuclear tests (and not just large conventional explosions) would surely have greater publicity value.
Why keep it secret and equivocal if the purpose is to intimidate? Why leave doubt?
But then again, looking for logic in the North is an exercise in futility.
I agree that the North having such weapons is scary but, even if these tests have been successful, they still have a long ways to go. Putting said device on a missile which can hit what you want it to hit is by no means easy and by no means easy. And keep in mind North Korea struggles to produce nail clippers.
Is it really a threat?
There is the final point, even if they did succeed in hitting an enemy city, the blowback would utterly wipe out Kim jong Un and his ghastly family completely.
Anyway, good to see some more posts here!
Thanks for the comments anonymous above.
DeleteMy post was more about the reasons why South Koreans ignore when the NorKs act out.
You make some great points about why they act out in a nuclear fashion, if they really have them.
When they act out it reminds me of the separatists in Quebec. They act out, get something for it and quiet down. Until they want something else then separation becomes an issue for them again and they start acting out. No matter what they get they will always want more.
off yourself moron
ReplyDeleteElderberries.
DeleteYour father smelt of them.