North Korea: Standoff with US at "brink of nuclear war"

[replicator]

Originally posted by: MAW1082
All they want is for the U.S. trade embargo to be lifted, right?

In today's industrial community it's almost impossible for a country to thrive while in complete isolation. What is the point of this? Let the Koreans be a part of the rest of the world already. Is the U.S. really this scared of the spreaed of the red shirts?

The problem is that N.Korea is a really backwards nation.

They see the leader as a deity and most seem to be willing to die for him on command. All the money the government gets its hands on is spent on weapons and military. The government is corrupt and is said to have ties with international organized crime, weapons and drugs trade even.

It is a difficult dilemma. You don't want to completely starve their nation, but the world can't afford them to have them continue what they are doing. A regime change might be an ideal idea, but there are 700,000 soldiers, 8000 artillery systems, and 2000 tanks at the DMZ that could demolish much of S.Korea and Japan very quickly.

Only thing that could make a real difference is maybe some intervention by China and Russia.