What do you mean, "what do I want"? Like I said, I want this threat ended. (In an ideal world, I'd love to see the communist regime be just a distant, unhappy memory for the people of North Korea, but that's an entirely different story.) I honestly don't want things to resort to war, if there's any way to avoid it. If sanctions do the job, if diplomacy (somehow) works, then that's fantastic, and huge international kudos to whoever pulls it off. But one thing I don't want to do is completely rule out the possibility that some sort of military action may be a sad necessity if everything goes to hell in a handbasket.
You've still not said what sort of action would satisfy you. What UN action do you want? What falls under 'what needs to be done, whatever that may be'? How do you define 'needs'?
It seem that you're damning the UN already - implying there is some clear solution (which they will be subsequently damned for missing) whilst failing to state what that might be. You want the military option on the table - what option? Under what circumstances? How far? What about the collateral civillian damage and destabilisation, how much is 'ok' by you? What sort of non-military sanctions are acceptable?
It's all very nice saying 'if the UN does not remove this threat then it's failed' (to paraphrase), but you have to define
how that threat could be removed, to show that is a realistic demand. Glassing Pyongyang might remove that threat - is that a success in your eyes? Is the death of, say, a few million Koreans acceptable if it 'needs to be done'?
Let me put it this way: if things come down to the North creating a fully-functioning missile (of whatever yield), pointing it straight at the center of Seoul, and threatening to fire it off in a week's time unless some sort of ridiculous demands were met...would you be opposed to taking out the missile platform? God forbid we come to a scenario like that, but I think it's something that everyone has to keep in the back of their minds.
No, but that's rather a strawman argument in any case, and far removed from the reality of the situation, placing both ease of action (implying it is easy to find the missile platform), exaggerating the threat (most analysts believe NK is far from actually being able to fire this as a warhead), and providing simple justification (ridiculous demands).
If a crazy dictator has acquired the means to deliver nuclear ordnance to several of our allies in the region (and perhaps even our own shores, eventually), I think it's well within our rights to nip the issue in the bud before it comes back to haunt us all. Last time I checked, self-defense is a valid reason for taking physical action, within reasonable boundaries.
That's the same pretext as North Korea is using to justify developing nuclear weapons, I note. And they probably have more grounds at this point in time.
So, let me get this straight...what you're saying is that we should wait until North Korea actually fires a nuke at the South, or Japan, or China, or wherever, until potentially tens of thousands are people are killed by said nuke, to do anything about it? Is that pretty much the gist of your argument? Just want to make sure.
If saving lives means being the agressor...then, by all means, I want to be called an agressor.
But what motivation could NK actually have for
provoking a war? The country can barely survive in peacetime, and even if it had the will to, it's far from having the capacity to deploy any sort of nuclear warhead within a missile (and it'll be several years before it can).
Sure, Jong-Il is a loony... but lets' look at other famous despots with nuclear or other WMD. The one overriding characteristic they have is
self preservation. KJ-L is playing brinksmanship, sure - but he's not going to commit suicide. If he did believe his propaganda, then we'd have seen a war with the South long ago. Remember, a despot is characterised by the desire for personal power, not public glory; they're not going to risk a war unless it's to a) save their own ass or b) is an easy and glorious war to win.
