Trump’s six options for dealing with it. They’re all terrible.
16 thoughts on “Neutralizing North Korea”
The best option is the last one – smash the North Korean military and occupy the place. It’s the only option that represents a complete and permanent solution to the North Korea problem. It would also greatly help with our various China problems.
That was my first thought and viable in my opinion. It also has the advantage of bypassing our own internal treason we’d always have to deal with in a long game. The key is China’s response which I suspect would be both loud and ineffective. They aren’t ready for conflict but are hell bent on getting ready.
Were they ready the other times they fought us?
We have a battle hardened military but China can do some damage.
China has a lot of internal economic problems where an external war, provided it didn’t get out of hand, could serve as a useful distraction.
If China could weaken us to the point where others could finish the job we should avoid war at all costs. However, if our enemies are getting stronger while we get weaker then every day we delay confrontation is a mistake even with the potential of huge loss of life today.
Risk is unavoidable. No risk has a guaranteed bad result.
Invading North Korea was listed in the list of things to do (along with the invasion of Iraq) in the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) propaganda back before W was elected. You can bet that if they didn’t have to invade Afghanistan it would have already happened.
Now if for whatever reason the US decides to do a preemptive strike, remember to tell the South Koreans to buy some Iron Dome systems to stop Nork artillery shells from dropping on Seoul. Plus sell them SM-3s for their AEGIS frigates. Oh and remember NOT to cross the Yalu river this time…
The threat is not so much North Korea. The threat is China. Trump has more options than those six.
This mess is the result of treason by the Clintons far back. It doesn’t get better by letting it fester.
I suspect this could be the trigger that denuclearizes the world with announcements of “peace and security” but can’t quite see how that will play out. Possibly due to some nuclear strike that forces the world to act rather than hide in the dark.
The solution may involve both India and Russia, but again not clear how. These are both countries we need better ties with. We can get Putin to give up his near abroad ambitions if we frame it right. The Russians don’t trust anybody, but that could be changed in our favor. We have a lot our two countries could benefit from an alliance and India might be key here.
We need a much better understanding of the Chinese mind. They are not hiding their ambitions. They intend to be THE power and we shouldn’t just dismiss this (even with their internal political and structural handicaps.)
The only war nuclear disarmament works is if the major powers are willing to go to war to enforce it on the minor powers.
Agree, but we have a situation here where China believes North Korea is a useful proxy. China, not North Korea, is the key to this problem, but lacks the incentive to fix it.
Unless NK launches a warhead that hits a target, we need to force China to resolve this. It’s a delicate problem, but one we can’t avoid.
The left is making a dangerous distraction which will greatly backlash on them in some scenarios.
The U.S., Japan and South Korea could acknowledge Chinese control of the South China Sea or they could give Taiwan to China in exchange for a denuclearized North Korea.
For a price like that we should get to keep NK and not just trust them they got rid of their nukes.
4.) Return of serve. This is an operation that could support several diplomatic options. The U.S., South Korea and Japan could use their ABMs to intercept every North Korean test launch.
This one sounds better but it means our missile defense systems have to perform. The longer this went on, the better we would be at it. Sort of like how keeping Saddam in a box gave our pilots excellent training. A massive buildup of layered defense and retaliatory missiles would also be needed.
The U.S., Japan and South Korea could acknowledge Chinese control of the South China Sea or they could give Taiwan to China in exchange for a denuclearized North Korea.
Giving away someone else’s country has been tried before (see: Munich Agreement). It didn’t end well for anyone. It did buy England a year of time to strengthen their military but Germany also got stronger in that year.
How exactly would that work, anyway? Do we just say to Taiwan, “Hey guys, you belong to China now” or something like that? What is they disagree? I just visited Taiwan a couple weeks ago. While China could do a lot of damage with missiles and bombs, Taiwan is very mountainous. A ground invasion there would be very difficult and Taiwan has had almost 70 years to prepare defenses. Even if China had the ability to move a large invasion force to Taiwan (doubtful), they’d have a hard time operating land forces there.
The US battle hardened military is currently battle hardened against enemies that are relatively primitive. The last time the threat was near peer was 1991.
Problem with shooting down Kim’s missile tests is what happens when he sees a less than 100% success rate on intercepts?
What is the life of a Predator drone over NK? About the flight time of a SAM.
One thing for sure: any war will unfold in ways unforeseen by the planners.
The article goes on and on about what hasn’t been demonstrated. The only thing the Norks have to demonstrate is the range. Accuracy isn’t required. All they have to do is put a nuke with between 0.5 and 1.5 Mt yield a couple of hundred miles above CONUS (virtually anywhere), and they will wipe out a huge fraction of our electric power grid, and with it everything connected at that moment. This is serious right now, not at some indeterminate time in the future.
Fortunately, their nuclear tests have to date been in the low kiloton range. However, if they continue, they will likely succeed in making smaller yet more powerful nuclear weapons. Those low yield tests could be for a hydrogen bomb detonator.
I think we need more and/or different military bases near N Korea.
Why build island in middle of Sea of Japan.
Buy an island or build an island. If buy an sland and make larger.
We should buy landfill rock from the Chinese, even have Chinese ship to the location.
How much does cost per million tons of landfill Chinese rock, when you need billions of tonnes of it?
How much is N Korea trade worth per year to Chinese?
The best option is the last one – smash the North Korean military and occupy the place. It’s the only option that represents a complete and permanent solution to the North Korea problem. It would also greatly help with our various China problems.
That was my first thought and viable in my opinion. It also has the advantage of bypassing our own internal treason we’d always have to deal with in a long game. The key is China’s response which I suspect would be both loud and ineffective. They aren’t ready for conflict but are hell bent on getting ready.
Were they ready the other times they fought us?
We have a battle hardened military but China can do some damage.
China has a lot of internal economic problems where an external war, provided it didn’t get out of hand, could serve as a useful distraction.
If China could weaken us to the point where others could finish the job we should avoid war at all costs. However, if our enemies are getting stronger while we get weaker then every day we delay confrontation is a mistake even with the potential of huge loss of life today.
Risk is unavoidable. No risk has a guaranteed bad result.
Invading North Korea was listed in the list of things to do (along with the invasion of Iraq) in the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) propaganda back before W was elected. You can bet that if they didn’t have to invade Afghanistan it would have already happened.
Now if for whatever reason the US decides to do a preemptive strike, remember to tell the South Koreans to buy some Iron Dome systems to stop Nork artillery shells from dropping on Seoul. Plus sell them SM-3s for their AEGIS frigates. Oh and remember NOT to cross the Yalu river this time…
The threat is not so much North Korea. The threat is China. Trump has more options than those six.
This mess is the result of treason by the Clintons far back. It doesn’t get better by letting it fester.
I suspect this could be the trigger that denuclearizes the world with announcements of “peace and security” but can’t quite see how that will play out. Possibly due to some nuclear strike that forces the world to act rather than hide in the dark.
The solution may involve both India and Russia, but again not clear how. These are both countries we need better ties with. We can get Putin to give up his near abroad ambitions if we frame it right. The Russians don’t trust anybody, but that could be changed in our favor. We have a lot our two countries could benefit from an alliance and India might be key here.
We need a much better understanding of the Chinese mind. They are not hiding their ambitions. They intend to be THE power and we shouldn’t just dismiss this (even with their internal political and structural handicaps.)
The only war nuclear disarmament works is if the major powers are willing to go to war to enforce it on the minor powers.
Agree, but we have a situation here where China believes North Korea is a useful proxy. China, not North Korea, is the key to this problem, but lacks the incentive to fix it.
Unless NK launches a warhead that hits a target, we need to force China to resolve this. It’s a delicate problem, but one we can’t avoid.
The left is making a dangerous distraction which will greatly backlash on them in some scenarios.
The U.S., Japan and South Korea could acknowledge Chinese control of the South China Sea or they could give Taiwan to China in exchange for a denuclearized North Korea.
For a price like that we should get to keep NK and not just trust them they got rid of their nukes.
4.) Return of serve. This is an operation that could support several diplomatic options. The U.S., South Korea and Japan could use their ABMs to intercept every North Korean test launch.
This one sounds better but it means our missile defense systems have to perform. The longer this went on, the better we would be at it. Sort of like how keeping Saddam in a box gave our pilots excellent training. A massive buildup of layered defense and retaliatory missiles would also be needed.
The U.S., Japan and South Korea could acknowledge Chinese control of the South China Sea or they could give Taiwan to China in exchange for a denuclearized North Korea.
Giving away someone else’s country has been tried before (see: Munich Agreement). It didn’t end well for anyone. It did buy England a year of time to strengthen their military but Germany also got stronger in that year.
How exactly would that work, anyway? Do we just say to Taiwan, “Hey guys, you belong to China now” or something like that? What is they disagree? I just visited Taiwan a couple weeks ago. While China could do a lot of damage with missiles and bombs, Taiwan is very mountainous. A ground invasion there would be very difficult and Taiwan has had almost 70 years to prepare defenses. Even if China had the ability to move a large invasion force to Taiwan (doubtful), they’d have a hard time operating land forces there.
The US battle hardened military is currently battle hardened against enemies that are relatively primitive. The last time the threat was near peer was 1991.
Problem with shooting down Kim’s missile tests is what happens when he sees a less than 100% success rate on intercepts?
What is the life of a Predator drone over NK? About the flight time of a SAM.
One thing for sure: any war will unfold in ways unforeseen by the planners.
Predator, no. Avenger is more like it.
The article goes on and on about what hasn’t been demonstrated. The only thing the Norks have to demonstrate is the range. Accuracy isn’t required. All they have to do is put a nuke with between 0.5 and 1.5 Mt yield a couple of hundred miles above CONUS (virtually anywhere), and they will wipe out a huge fraction of our electric power grid, and with it everything connected at that moment. This is serious right now, not at some indeterminate time in the future.
Fortunately, their nuclear tests have to date been in the low kiloton range. However, if they continue, they will likely succeed in making smaller yet more powerful nuclear weapons. Those low yield tests could be for a hydrogen bomb detonator.
I think we need more and/or different military bases near N Korea.
Why build island in middle of Sea of Japan.
Buy an island or build an island. If buy an sland and make larger.
We should buy landfill rock from the Chinese, even have Chinese ship to the location.
How much does cost per million tons of landfill Chinese rock, when you need billions of tonnes of it?
How much is N Korea trade worth per year to Chinese?