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| Axis of Evil |
| South Korea's Roh criticizes US for unilateral plan |
| 2003-01-01 |
| Korea Herald South Korean President-elect Roh Moo-hyun voiced skepticism yesterday about the U.S. move to apply a containment policy on North Korea, urging Washington to fully consult with Seoul before making any decisions on how to respond to Pyongyang's nuclear threat. "I'm skeptical about the effectiveness of the reported 'tailored containment' policy of the United States as a means to rein in North Korea," Roh said in a news conference. I'm skeptical about the amount of effort we should put into defending South Korea... The U.S. media recently reported that the Bush administration is working on a "tailored containment" policy of applying economic and political pressure to force North Korea to scrap its nuclear program. Roh said that the United States should give priority to South Korea's views before making any decisions on Korean issues. "If the United States makes and announces a unilateral decision, and South Korea follows it, it can't be called real cooperation between the two countries," he said. If nukes weren't involved, I'd be all for Bush just telling the SKors that the problem was theirs — let us know when they'd solved it. If North Korea happens to devastate South Korea, it's no skin off our collective fore. Since the country now appears to be populated by ingrates, Rantburg's advice to Bush would be to do whatever's best for us, and to let the South Koreans fend for themselves. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #7 Some commenters underestimate the economic consequences of what could happen here. Absolutely. The world is not populated with so many functioning democracies that we can afford to throw them away when we get annoyed with them. I can think of no reason the average SKor Joe Kwan deserves what NKor has in store for him. Hell, I wouldn't wish NKor on Charles Manson, for that matter... The crux of the matter is that SKor sees the U.S. making policy descisions that will affect them, and they will be left with the results. The reverse is also true, however. And the U.S. is the only party in this conflict that it is 'safe' to blame... as usual. |
| Posted by: Ryan Waxx 2003-01-01 22:17:53 |
| #6 Some commenters underestimate the economic consequences of what could happen here. SKor is a big part of the world economy and an even bigger part of the East Asia economy. China and Japan do not want to see an invasion. On the other hand, China does not want regime change in NK because it could give the Chinese people ideas. SK isn't even that thrilled about regime change because they don't want 5 million immigrants and don't want to have the kind of burden that W Germany took on when they absorbed E Germany. |
| Posted by: mhw 2003-01-01 21:04:07 |
| #5 The US should announce to the SKorean government we intend to withdraw. Let them beg us PUBLICLY if they want us to stay. Enough of the different public statements to their people and private statements to us. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-01-01 19:34:53 |
| #4 Flash91 is right: Show the world when we're engaged and when we're not. We shouldn't, however, hit the reactor. Instead, we should hit the adjacent reprocessing plant: less of a radiological mess, but big enough to complicate recovery efforts and use of the entire site... A couple of tomahawks, however, won't be enough: 20 to 30 for good |
| Posted by: Ptah 2003-01-01 17:54:06 |
| #3 Recommended policy: 1. Pull out 2. Tell China they have 1 month to get their little buddy to comply with its treaty obligations or we will a) bomb all suspected NK nuke targets, b) encourage Japan and Taiwan to nuke up in response, c) interdict any exports from NK until they comply and d) nuke NK if there is any detonation anywhere associated with its program. 3. Follow through. Of course, there's a good reason why I'm surfing the web in my armchair rather than making national policy. |
| Posted by: JAB 2003-01-01 16:17:42 |
| #2 I must agree. We gave the world one kind of example by crushing the taliban, lets give them another by letting the north invade the south unopposed. We can always give japan nukes and let them deal with korea. If we need an example of "why nuclear war is bad", the other side of the planet is a good place to have it. |
| Posted by: flash91 2003-01-01 14:23:34 |
| #1 tell the ingrates we're withdrawing from SKor, good luck, but the nukes are a security issue for us to handle in our own interests. ...park an Aegis between Japan and NKor, and a couple Sub-launched cruise missiles would do the trick on the reactor site. I've gotta believe we'll start a blockade on NKor shipments too...this will be dicey, but I see no reason our 37,000 troops should be wasted protecting these whiners |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-01-01 11:37:09 |