Whatever changes must be made, Japan needs to become a military power again.

[Christians4LessGvt]

Tokyo presses for military response to North Korean attack

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report November 23, 2010


USS George Washington in Korean waters

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan called President Barak Obama urgently in the wake of the North Korean
artillery attack on South Korea's Yeonpyeong island near the Yellow Sea border early Tuesday, Nov. 23
and demanded a US-South Korean-Japanese military reprisal. Two South Korean marines were killed and 17
injured in the attack.

He also demanded that the UN Security Council be convened immediately on the crisis. He put the same demands
to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in another call. Naoto Kan then ordered his ministers to prepare for
"unexpected events."

Washington said it is watching the situation but is not militarily involved after strongly condemning the attack
and calling for an end to belligerence.

debkafile's military sources report that the Korean clash has prompted a special alert in the US Seventh Fleet
headquarters at Yokosuka in Japan, together with the naval forces stationed there including the USS George
Washington aircraft carrier. They are covering South Korea's massive annual military exercises involving some
70,000 troops scheduled to last from Monday through Nov. 30.

Pyongyang has called past exercises a direct military threat on the North.

The Japanese prime minister said that North Korea cannot be permitted to carry out two armed attacks on the
South in the space of eight months without facing any military counteraction. On March 26, North Korean torpedoes
sunk the South Korean Cheonan cruiser. At least 46 seamen were lost.

Obama's refusal to respond to the Japanese call, despite the presence of 28,000 US troops on the Korean a
rmistice border ? even with limited military action - would devalue the US defensive umbrella pledged South Korea
and Japan against North Korean aggression. It would also place in doubt American resolve for firm action against Iran.

Washington's avoidance of military action against Pyongyang will resonate loudly across the Middle East and the Persian Gulf.
The clash of the Koreas erupted the day after the disclosure of a new uranium enrichment facility in North Korea prompted
suspicions that Pyongyang was about to renew its production of nuclear weapons.

[Plane]

It is far better to avoid a fight entirely.

But I am not sure that this fight can be avoided.

If we become sure that we must fight , then sooner is better.

[Xavier_Onassis]

The current S. Korean President, Lee Myung-bak, is pursuing a policy of deliberate provocation. This is pretty much what North Korea has always done. This ended the "Sunshine Policy" of the previous S. Korean governments.

Lee says he wants to carry out military maneuvers near to the border. The North says it will respond. He carries out the maneuvers, and the North responds, as promised.

Had there been no training maneuvers, there would have been no attack. Both sides are to blame for this.

[Christians4LessGvt]

So the South is to blame for conducting military games on their own land?  

How dare they!

[Plane]

The current S. Korean President, Lee Myung-bak, is pursuing a policy of deliberate provocation. This is pretty much what North Korea has always done. This ended the "Sunshine Policy" of the previous S. Korean governments.

Lee says he wants to carry out military maneuvers near to the border. The North says it will respond. He carries out the maneuvers, and the North responds, as promised.

Had there been no training maneuvers, there would have been no attack. Both sides are to blame for this.

So, if Mexican soldiers march near the border we should shell them?

[Xavier_Onassis]

I would imagine that if Mexico's government was actively talking about taking over the US AND they were practicing preparations for an invasion, the US would get more than a little antsy.

Both Koreas have been playing some sort of the game of "chicken" since 1952. The South knows very well what will piss off the North and vice-versa.

North Korea is about to replace Dear Leader with his son, and the North Korean public has always needed to believe that their leaders are bigger than life. Perhaps this is just a ploy to annoy the South a bit so they can give him an impressive title like Brave Leader, Genius Leader or something equally impressive. They named him a four star general and he has apparently never led a single troop anywhere.

Again, both Koreas are to blame for this.So far, only two (South Korean) Marines have managed to get killed, which is tragic, but certainly could be worse.

Whatever the US and South Korea (and North Korea as well) do in response to prevent this from getting bigger will doubtless be done in secret and hidden behind the usual curtain of lies. Perhaps in 2030 we may learn what really went on.

[Plane]

Blame is not evenly devided here.

North Korea can and does conduct military maneuvers without having to worry that South Koreans  will panic and shell them.

South Korea has an elected government that is gradually growing more Democratic , North Korea has a thugacracy frozen near where they started .

North Korea is desprate for basic necessacitys , and is wasteing its resorces on maintaining an outsize military force. They are well armed but starveing, this is nothing like the situation of South Korea.

If North Korea dissapeared from the Earth the economys of the world would adapt to the loss in hours, South Korea is a major economic player and producer.

The origional invasion was precipitated by a foolish American policy of keeping South Korea weak on purpose , intending to have no threat that would cause South Korea to seem belegerant the US refused to supply even one tank , the weak and totally unthreatening South Korea was a tempting morsel that was almost overrun in a few weeks ,if Norh Korea had possessed a competant general it would have completed the eviction of US forces and the massicre of South Koreans before we could have responded.

Luckyly we had superior air power and were able to consolidate a defence in a small area of South Korea and soon had a lot of eager support from South Koreans who were shocked at how savagely they were being treated where they were subjected to the government of their own cousins from the north.

It was a basic mistake to make Suth Korea unthreatening and weak , this is not how an individual  wants to look to a mugger or a gazelle wants to look to a leapard , or a peacefull people wants to look to a predatory nation , the principal is exactly the same at any scale.   

[Xavier_Onassis]

The 1950 invasion was precipitated by infiltrators from the South exterminating the members of the anti-Japanese resistance, most of whom were Communists, surely done with CIA assistance. Also, the US could have made S. Korea stronger and could have been more forceful in defending it. What the US did was to form a government in the South of Koreans who had been collaborators with the Japanese puppet regime. This led to a long period of military dictatorship after the war ended in a truce. S. Korea was undemocratic until the 1990's.

China does not want an economic tiger like a unified Korea on its border. That would be likely to provoke dissent of the sort that brought down the East German government, which was the most prosperous of all the Communist states, but which still was unable to compete with West Germany in consumer appear. A Trabant is a step up from shoes and streetcars, but a BMW is far better than a Trabant. China wants a mostly successful Communist buffer state between it and South Korea.

I cannot think of anything clumsier than the Six Party talks: six countries, five languages and everyone with an interpreter. What are the odds that there is anyone there who speaks Russian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin and English? Even serving these guys lunch could be difficult. And though no one wants a nuclear war, that is the only thing they agree on.

The US would be quite happy to see a unified Korea, which could be a challenge to both China and Russia and even Japan. Hyundai and Kia have eaten rather a lot of Toyota's and Nissan's lunches of late. South Korea prefers reunification: the average Korean, because of patriotism, the business owners because of the appeal of cheap labor.

The Russians and the Japanese prefer the status quo, like the Chinese.