REFERENCE STORY: North Korea Threatens to Build Tactical Nukes [Yahoo! AP]

DEBATE QUESTIONS:

1.) Is the Bush administration doing enough to prevent North Korea from following thier ambitions as a nuclear power?

2.) Is it a good idea to strike North Korea now or wait until they dig themselves deeper?

3.) Is the media's lack of highlighting this very dangerous threat dictating why Pyongyang is of little concern to the White House?

HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION:
You are the Chinese government. Do you support an attack on North Korea? If so, do you support logistically, militarily, economically? Would you let the U.S. launch attacks from Chinese air space?

Explain your positioning.

Not really. But i think letting North Korea cool their pants down a little before talking to them is logical



Strike them later while they dig themselves deeper and the UN actually acts on the situation by telling them to disarm or face military force. And if that doesn't work, go to NATO. France and Germany, after seeing how far a Nodong missile can go, will certainly not refuse to help



Militarly, I would support an American airstrike from China because China is in the path of these missiles of Northt Korea's so it's our butt on the line

I don't think so. Like goamerica said, letting them cool off would be a good idea. That is a good idea, but we can't wait too long. This isn't a situation where if we just ignore Kim Jong Il, he'll go away. We need to start talking now. IMO, we need to get the UN in there to investigate the Yongbyon nuclear facility (it might be helpful if they didn't use Hans Blix's team ). I think we also need to at least provide them a little bit of aid. Maybe it would appease them until the UN could get in there and assess the nuclear situation, and until we could get somewhere in our talks. I know that will make some people mad... "What? Give them what they want? NEVER!" I, however, think it would be a good idea to just keep KJI happy for now. We cut the 500,000 tons of fuel oil we were delivering to them annually in November, we could use that or a similar aid. So in conclusion, no Washington is not doing enough with the N. Korean situation.



I think striking NK at all is a bad idea; we would be opening a Pandora's Box if we did. Millions of lives would be lost on the Korean peninsula alone. We would be facing a possible nuclear strike on Japan, China, S. Korea, possibly the U.S. coast. If the U.S. jumped into the fray (that's a given anyway), we would be looking at a major loss of life. As unabomber (I think that's who it was) has pointed out numerous times, the NK army is capable of launching 300,000 shells an hour, enough to level Seoul prettttty quickly. Striking NK should be a last resort... and that's after every conceivable measure has failed (or if we're attacked).



To some degree it might be, but I don't really think it's an issue. I think the White House is pretty much focused on Iraq right now and NK is just an annoyance. But that article you linked to shows that maybe Washington is starting to pay a bit more attention to what's occurring over there.



Well, considering China isn't really a big fan of America, and since they are a possible target of a N. Korean nuke, I think that they would probably only support us logistically if they weren't attacked. I think that if they were attacked, they might support us militarily, but not otherwise. But do they support an attack to begin with? I don't know about the situation in Beijing, but I'd say that they won't support an attack unless they're attacked or there is sufficient evidence to prove that KJI has nukes, and has them aimed at China.


Edited to change "Han" to "Hans"

'Scuse.........am I reading this right........
Are you saying those totally useless organisations, U.N., NATO and that horrid 'anti-american' bunch France and Germany should intervene???

YOU JUST GOTTA BE JOKING

The Nodong missiles are not pointed at them they are pointed at American interests.
The rest of the world will continue to use the American military for it's own ends.

Regards..........Alan

We don't know where he is pointing his missiles. He may be pointing them at Japan and Seoul for all we know.

Technically, if they bug out of the 1953 treaty, it's the UN's problem because the UN fought in the first war and the treaty was signed with UN approval & supervision.

Remember, nobody signed a treaty in 1953. It was a cease fire agreement, we have been still technically at a state of war with North Korea.

And if they go on the offensive, I don't believe the UN will get involved militarily. It would not be able to field a force in time to do any good. The burden will fall on the US, ROK, and possibly Japan.