At 09:35 13-8-01 -0500, Ronn Blankenship wrote:
>>(1) The North Korean leaders are very aware of the superior firepower of
>>the US and therefore the stupidity of even *attempting* an invasion.
>
>
>It didn't stop them 50 years ago, when they and everyone else in the world
>knew the US had the ultimate in "superior firepower" and could have used
>it to stop the invasion . . .
But did the US have all that superior firepower already lined up at border
the between North and South Korea 50 years ago, *before* the invasion? Or
did the US only start sending troops and weapons *after* the invasion? All
that "superior firepower" isn't much of a threat to an invading country if
all that firepower is still in storage in a place thousands of miles away,
and will take weeks to arrive.
Further, there is a major difference between the situation now and the
situation 50 years ago. Back then, North Korea got the support from the
Soviet Union -- one of the superpowers of that era. With the fall of
communism in Eastern Europe, North Korea has lost a very powerful ally.
Most (if not all) of the North Korean leaders of 50 years ago have died by
now. Their successors may be just as dictatorial, but that doesn't mean
they're stupid; they know very well that you'll need a lot of support from
some very powerful friends if you decide to fight American forces. Right
now, North Korea's only "powerful friend" is the People's Republic of
China, but now that the PRC is gradually opening up to the West (and
welcoming all that hard western currency), it's very unlikely that it will
risk all that just to support an invasion of South Korea. Just like the
North Korean leaders, the PRC leaders may be dictatorial, but they aren't
stupid.
Jeroen
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