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Peter1469
02-09-2018, 11:31 AM
War with North Korea blocked by South Korea (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/world/asia/olympics-opening-ceremony-north-korea.html)

Watch the imagery from the Olympics with regards to the Koreas. They are united. A member of the North's ruling family is having lunch with the President of South Korea. It is rumored that she will invite him to the North.

And there is more.

What if the North and South reconcile? What will the US do?

I imagine the Neocons will blow a gasket. I would say great, try to negotiate port rights in Pusan, leave a small garrison there, and send the rest of the troops home.


The opening ceremony of the 23rd Winter Olympics unfurled in frigid temperatures and high spirits on Friday, as athletes from the two Koreas marched into the stadium together less than 50 miles from the heavily-fortified border between their nations, offering hope of a breakthrough in a tense, geopolitical standoff that has stirred fears of nuclear conflict.

The festivities started what organizers say is the largest Winter Olympics yet, with 92 countries participating. The North and South Korean delegations, marching under one flag, embodied the hopes of a peninsula divided by history and ideology.


Whereas recent Olympic Games have sought to set politics to one side, the strategic subtext of the event in Pyeongchang this year has been unavoidable.


Kim Yo-jong, the younger sister of Kim Jong-un (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/07/world/asia/kim-jong-un-sister-south-korea.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Fchoe-sang-hun&action=click&contentCollection=undefined&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=4&pgtype=collection), North Korea’s leader, was sitting at the opening ceremony closely behind Vice President Mike Pence, who led the American delegation. Also present was the father of Otto Warmbier (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/15/us/otto-warmbier-north-korea-ohio-student-home.html), the American student who was jailed in North Korea last year, returned home in a coma and died shortly afterward.

Ethereal
02-09-2018, 01:44 PM
Peace between North and South is the neocon's worst nightmare.

Not only will it take away an excuse for another disastrous and expensive war, the neocon specialty, but it will prove all their paranoid rhetoric about North Korea totally wrong.

I cannot say I am too surprised by these developments, since the South Korean president ran on a message of peace and reconciliation with the North. But I am very worried that the meddlesome, sociopathic neocons will try to derail the peace process.

jimmyz
02-09-2018, 01:52 PM
I'm all for peaceful relations between the North and South. A unified Korea will not come to be since it would not be condoned by China IMO.

MisterVeritis
02-09-2018, 05:03 PM
It means nothing, actually. If we have to destroy North Korea's emerging nuclear delivery capability we will. I am surprised a few of you appear to be willing dupes.

Peter1469
02-09-2018, 05:44 PM
It means nothing, actually. If we have to North Korea's emerging nuclear delivery capability we will. I am surprised a few of you appear to be willing dupes.

I think so too.

Tahuyaman
02-09-2018, 07:23 PM
War with North Korea blocked by South Korea (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/world/asia/olympics-opening-ceremony-north-korea.html)

Watch the imagery from the Olympics with regards to the Koreas. They are united. A member of the North's ruling family is having lunch with the President of South Korea. It is rumored that she will invite him to the North.

And there is more.

What if the North and South reconcile? What will the US do?

I imagine the Neocons will blow a gasket. I would say great, try to negotiate port rights in Pusan, leave a small garrison there, and send the rest of the troops home.


I don't think anyone woukd would blow a gasket if the two Koreas reunified under a democratic form of government.

Tahuyaman
02-09-2018, 07:32 PM
I'm all for peaceful relations between the North and South. A unified Korea will not come to be since it would not be condoned by China IMO.


I don't think China would object at all. That would end their problems with North Korea. A unified Korea would not be a threat to them in any way.

IMPress Polly
02-10-2018, 06:35 PM
I would observe that the unusual level of belligerence from the current administration appears to be bringing the Korean Peninsula together. It was certainly a major factor in the election of South Korea's current liberal, pro-reunification government this last summer, and I have observed that negotiations between the two Koreas have been stepped up in concert with the escalation of hostile rhetoric toward the North from the Trump Administration since. My country's fanatical desire for a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula seems to be, in due time, successfully convincing the two Koreas that they have more in common with each other than they do with us. Perhaps therein lies the possibility of not just avoiding war, but of, at long last, the actual reunification of Korea as one country. Personally, I hope so.

MisterVeritis
02-10-2018, 06:36 PM
People really love to kid themselves. It is kinda cute.

Peter1469
02-10-2018, 06:38 PM
I would observe that the unusual level of belligerence from the current administration appears to be bringing the Korean Peninsula together. It was certainly a major factor in the election of South Korea's current liberal, pro-reunification government this last summer, and I have observed that negotiations between the two Koreas have been stepped up in concert with the escalation of hostile rhetoric toward the North from the Trump Administration since. My country's fanatical desire for a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula seems to be, in due time, successfully convincing the two Koreas that they have more in common with each other than they do with us. Perhaps therein lies the possibility of not just avoiding war, but of, at long last, the actual reunification of Korea as one country. Personally, I hope so.
How would the current North Korean country unite with the South?

Let's assume the North gives up its crazy ideology. The South would have to spend hundreds of billions, or more to rehabilitate the North. And it would take a generation or longer to un-brainwash the citizens of the North.

IMPress Polly
02-10-2018, 06:56 PM
Peter wrote:
How would the current North Korean country unite with the South?

Let's assume the North gives up its crazy ideology. The South would have to spend hundreds of billions, or more to rehabilitate the North. And it would take a generation or longer to un-brainwash the citizens of the North.

There actually was an agreed-upon general framework for reunification established between the two Koreas back in 2000 for which their leaders at the time were both awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The basic idea was that Korea would be reunified as a loose confederation with both the North and the South retaining their existing governments and, to a lesser degree, their economies, but wherein the two militaries would be merged into one and the U.S. military would leave, and the DMZ would accordingly disappear and people would hence be free to travel across the peninsula as Koreans. In the first part of the 2000s, some of these things began to be implemented in stages. There was a special economic zone established between the two Koreas, for example, and train service was established that allowed people to cross the DMZ in 2002. They also participated in the 2006 Olympics under the same banner like they're doing this year. It all fell apart over the nuclear issue though when South Korea elected a conservative government in 2008. But that conservative government is no longer there and the nuclear issue does not appear to be hampering negotiations between the two Koreas anymore.

To be frank, reunification is only possible if the nuclear issue is set aside. Just let the North have their program. As long as the two Koreas continue to behave as they presently are around that, reunification can happen. That's where I hold out hope.

Peter1469
02-10-2018, 07:05 PM
There actually was an agreed-upon general framework for reunification established between the two Koreas back in 2000 for which their leaders at the time were both awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The basic idea was that Korea would be reunified as a loose confederation with both the North and the South retaining their existing governments and, to a lesser degree, their economies, but wherein the two militaries would be merged into one and the U.S. military would leave, and the DMZ would accordingly disappear and people would hence be free to travel across the peninsula as Koreans. In the first part of the 2000s, some of these things began to be implemented in stages. There was a special economic zone established between the two Koreas, for example, and train service was established that allowed people to cross the DMZ in 2002. They also participated in the 2006 Olympics under the same banner like they're doing this year. It all fell apart over the nuclear issue though when South Korea elected a conservative government in 2008. But that conservative government is no longer there and the nuclear issue does not appear to be hampering negotiations between the two Koreas anymore.

To be frank, reunification is only possible if the nuclear issue is set aside. Just let the North have their program. As long as the two Koreas continue to behave as they presently are around that, reunification can happen. That's where I hold out hope.
Well it is interesting. I served there twice. 1989-90 and 2000-02. The first time I did two tours on the DMZ- which was awesome.