Idiotwatch
I know, I shouldn't and its not a good solution but a tiny bit of me can't help wishing that the North Koreans wouldn't hurry up and make good on their threat to pick a fight with South Korea. You see, although this would be unpleasant, noticeably more so than the Iraq fiasco, it would at least get it over and done with.
These people are undoubtedly the most dangerous collection of rogue military knocking around in the world at the moment. They maintain their position by receiving large quantities of foreign aid from the South and the Yanks of all people and spend most of this and whatever else they can get maintaining a formidable military machine with which to threaten the same said SK and USA whilst not being especially concerned about most of their population living off grass and earthworms. And if that population complains then a little starvation will be the least of their worries. If you want a simple proof of what a mess their country is, look for any satellite picture of their part of the world at night. You can draw the borders by where the lights go out.
Now, a fight with this lot would be bad, but at least it would allow the removal of what I would suggest is the nastiest regime left in the world at the moment. Only the Afghan Taliban have really got close in the recent past, and, rather like being sick after too many beers, it would clear the problem out and allow a start on the road to improvement. Nobody will do it as the military cost is too high, they have no oil and the world no longer has the stomach for this sort of stuff anyway, but about 23 million NK citizens would be better off if someone did, and it would remove permanently a regime which is intent on becoming nuclear but is probably not there meaningfully. Yet.
These people are undoubtedly the most dangerous collection of rogue military knocking around in the world at the moment. They maintain their position by receiving large quantities of foreign aid from the South and the Yanks of all people and spend most of this and whatever else they can get maintaining a formidable military machine with which to threaten the same said SK and USA whilst not being especially concerned about most of their population living off grass and earthworms. And if that population complains then a little starvation will be the least of their worries. If you want a simple proof of what a mess their country is, look for any satellite picture of their part of the world at night. You can draw the borders by where the lights go out.
Now, a fight with this lot would be bad, but at least it would allow the removal of what I would suggest is the nastiest regime left in the world at the moment. Only the Afghan Taliban have really got close in the recent past, and, rather like being sick after too many beers, it would clear the problem out and allow a start on the road to improvement. Nobody will do it as the military cost is too high, they have no oil and the world no longer has the stomach for this sort of stuff anyway, but about 23 million NK citizens would be better off if someone did, and it would remove permanently a regime which is intent on becoming nuclear but is probably not there meaningfully. Yet.