North Korea sentences U.S Student to 15 years hard labor

yeah but this case still stands out as odd. NK usually detains known activists, journalist or people who wants to spread religion. A lot of them were also American of Korean ancestry.

I don't remember the last time a white American this young and with no connections at all to NK activism/journalism was detained like this. I wonder why they did this, could be because of the poster, but I don't really believe anything NK says.

 

If you trek to the Alaskan wilderness looking for a trophy and a bear eats you, is it the bear's fault?

 

In some ways, no, but the response is usually for the locals to attempt to wipe out the bear population (or whatever predator species attacks a human) once they attack.....so not sure it matters.

 

As much as we sometimes tell each other otherwise, the people in North Korea's government are not animals. They are human beings and should be accorded both the dignity and the accountability we demand of people. They are culpable in ways that animals cannot be held culpable.

 

I don't know about the last guy, but this president is game for hunting. At least he says he is.

Fair response, though I think you'd have a better time successfully negotiating with a wild animal than an NK government official.

 

Not really possible anymore since we let them get nuclear weapons. In another 10 years or so we'll be saying the same about Iran.

 

It was never possible unless you were okay with turning Seoul into a spent munitions dump.

 

Without the threat of nuclear weapons the US could absolutely roll over North Korea, not with the forces on the ground already, but with those that could be in the area VERY quickly. Nuclear weapons are essentially the ONLY thing keeping the US away because we know that if we went in they'd use them.

 

Agreed. A "Korean War" would easily be won by the United States and would be over quickly. Surprising that it never happened. Chinese wouldn't have stepped in.

 

I don't think there has been any dispute over the US "winning" a heads up war with N. Korea.

Even if you leave out China's role, the concern has always been irreplacable collateral damage to S. Korea and Japan.

Then there's the consequences of rebuilding a failed state without any tradable industry.

 

If this follows typical American revenge responses . . . . .that would mean we would have to kill about 100 Koreans to make up for this

Rocket River

 

The Vietnam war would easily be won by the US also, if it was not for the US not winning it.

 

I wonder if you realized I was being sarcastic

 

absolutely

 

Actually, don't underestimate the mass number of soldiers (even if ill equipped) that N Korea could quickly march on Seoul and create havoc. Even when pushed back the damage could be done. Additionally, N. Korea has thousands of artillery units within close proximity of millions of S. Koreans. Even though it would be a losing effort, tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of lives in S. Korea could be lost without the use of nukes before they were pushed back.

 

North Korea is a hold-over of Imperial Japan. They have a living god, militarism, and racial theories just like the Japanese. And their propaganda is just...well, you decide:

 

Well that's assuming that they would keep pushing forward and not break and retreat as they were hit. Also it assumes that they are the attacking force and not the defending force against an American invasion.

For sure the North Koreans would do some damage, but they'd be overrun pretty quickly, even with their numbers. If they were the defending force, I'm not sure they could do all that much to South Korea assuming they didn't have nukes.....and also assuming China didn't get involved.

 

I don't really get why Seoul has continued to grow as the preeminent city of South Korea over the last half-century despite being vulnerable to North Korean attack. I'm sure there's a good reason that I'm ignorant of. But, wouldn't it have been nice if the government decided way back in 1960 that Daegu or Busan would be their capital city and metropolitan center, well away from North Korean artillery.