It would no doubt reach Japan.

there's an option that doesn't include war...cut off their food supply.

That would result in war.

could just leave them alone,may be a wacky view but i still cant see the logic in countries with nukes telling other countries they cant have nukes

You have to factor in South Korea, they have a love /hate relationship with the North. they hate the regime but love the people(family members, fellow countrymen). A South Korean government that decides to starve the North out wont last long in a democratic system. The South also will not permit any Preemptive military action, not that i can see the US trying that either.

Would the voices on here calling for war be so loud if NK could guarantee to strike Seattle a d San Francisco with their Taepodong 2 missile? In terms of starving them out... They've already lost 2 million plus in a famine in the las decade so to some extent this tactic has already been Tried and failed.

Economic engagement and political isolation.

I think more than that could happen.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8068619.stm

They can't really have any more sanctions or become more isolated. I think North Korea wants a war. Why else do all these provocative launches and threats?

Because it has learnt that doing so gets it foreign aid.

I don't know if that will happen this time. They left the 6 party talks. It looks like the world's gonna start playing hardball with North Korea. They can't just be allowed to test nuclear weapons when they want more aid. I hope there isn't a war, but I'm not gonna pretend that I know what North Korea will do when the pressure really is on them.

This all hinges on what China will allow. Ideally, they would invade them fro mthe North and install a new regime themselves!!

North Korea is the typical persecutor as victim psychological type. Despite all their tantrums and their be4haviour causing problems, thhey nmever see it because they can;t get past the fact that they are the victim in every situaiton.

As I stood on the North Korean side of the DMZ border, I thought to myself how powerful it would be if the US and South Korean troops simply laid their weapons down, offered to shake hands with the North Korean troops and then walked away. This should be followed up by leaflet bombing of the country, informing the North Kor3ean populace that the US and South Korean governement were declaring a unilateral end to the war, and the border with the South was now open for people to cross without restriction.

Then you just sit back and watch the reaction :)

NKPA machine gunning their own starving populace as they try to move south?

I like the idea Sub, but the practicallity is a bit difficult considering how heavily mined the DMZ is.

hovercrafts draugnar you never sseen bond :p

To the one who said would I still support war if the missile could reach SF - the answer is yes. The point of invading is to take out their capability to shoot those missiles.

I hope everything between the Yalu River and the 38th parallel gets nuked.

No you don't.

Don't care about the fallout affecting the entirety of the region, including one of the most heavily populated nations on Earth (and an ally of the US)?

Dip is being tangentially provocative and trying to make this all about him... Just like NK. From now on let's refer to him as Kim Jong Il.

The point with walking away from the border is that if the govt could persuade the army to machine gun it's own civilians (and I don't know if they could) nobody could turn around afterwards and blame us.

Also don't forget that every citizen is and always remains a Member of the DPRK armed forces. I remember the day I went to Kim Il Sungs mausoleum palace and the place was full of people of all ages up to 90 all decked out in militarybuniform to pay their respects. Www.everywhereventually.blogspot.com

Walking away from the border makes no sense. You don't just pull up and leave when there is a hostile army just across the way. I mean, you really expect South Korea to give up its national defense on a hunch that it'll spook the North into changing its ways?

If your argument is that the North Korean people would try to jump the DMZ like the Berlin Wall or something, I really doubt that would happen. This is the most heavily fortified border in the world, and it can certainly keep them in.

This is what bothers me about what you said most.

"The point with walking away from the border is that if the govt could persuade the army to machine gun it's own civilians (and I don't know if they could) nobody could turn around afterwards and blame us."

First of all, they already let their people starve by spending money on these nukes and missiles which ought to be used to, you know, maintain even a 19th century level of development. Secondly, even the idea that we need to worry about being blamed for the obscene atrocities of North Korea is ridiculous. Not every problem in the world is America's fault.

Arguably the entire Korean problem is jointly the fault of the UN and the Soviet/Chinese bloc actually. Neither side was willing to give up theirs to their rival. That's why it was partitioned as I'm sure you know. So the political problems can be blamed on us (the Western states involved in Korea in WW2 and the 50s, not just the USA). I suppose the food problems can't...

Yes, we should have let the communists have all of Korea, so that way the entire population could starve!

The launches were nothing short of an act of war. If I were president, there would be 400 nukes over the Pacific, all headed for Kim Jong's house.

thank god you're not, then!

that'd be a massive waste of weaponry anyway.

i think one would suffice. :)

...with the other 4,600 on the launch pad aimed at Beijing in case China tries anything funny.

and when South koreans see the picyures of innocent korean families and children burning alive they ask for the US to leave south korea and never come back? when japanese kids cancer rates sky rocket and there cows start dying and they also ask the US to go away and never come back?

your understanding of the complexities of the issue makes GWB look like a puppet master! china would not "try anything funny" in the face of US aggresion in North Korea(unless you mean they use the incident as a propaganda coup to show that the US is an aggressive warmonger and asia could do without any US bases, a view that other nations in asian would be quite recepetive too after such an insane policy choice by the US) . sure the NK leadership area bunch of gangsters and nutcases but why do you want to murder half a million families and kids? thought you republicans were meant to be "pro family"? ;)

the missile launch an act of war? so the USA will also refrain from testing its missiles as well then? im not going to sugar coat the NK insane asshoeness but nuking is not an option.