N. Korea threatens 'sea of fire' if war breaks out

[54anickel]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050204.wkore0204/BNStory/International/

Seoul — North Korea will turn U.S. military bases in the region into a “sea of fire” if war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula, North Korean media on Friday quoted an officer as saying.

The North's state-run news media highlighted the comment hours after South Korea released a new defence policy paper that revealed a U.S. reinforcement plan to dispatch 690,000 troops and 2,000 warplanes if war breaks out in Korea.

The comment comes as the isolated North is urging its military to prepare for what it calls a U.S. plan to invade. Washington and its allies say they are trying to end the North's nuclear-weapons programs through multinational disarmament talks.

“If the U.S. imperialists ignite flames of war, we will first of all strike all bases of U.S. imperialist aggressors and turn them into a sea of fire,” North Korea's Central Radio quoted officer Hur Ryong as saying, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap.

...

[Renew Deal]

1. Where are we going to get 690,000 troops?

Aren't there only about 1,000,000 active duty troops?

I think NK is probably right about the sea of fire. I also think that there would be nothing left of NK by the time we were done.

[AndyTiedye]

6. It's Getting SOOO DRAFTY Around Here!!

"Where are we going to get 690,000 troops

I'm sure I feel a DRAFT

[mulethree]

12. 1.5 mm

1.5mm active duty military, 700,000 are army and marines.

http://web1.whs.osd.mil/mmid/military/miltop.htm

I could see 100,000 navy and air force getting involved.

590,000 ground troops? No way, and why? S. Korea is a little bit
larger than Indiana. Putting that many ground troops in there makes for some large, slow moving, targets


650,000 is about the right number to represent the active duty S. Korean military. Add 40,000 US stationed there and you get 690,000?

[Renew Deal]

13. NK would have more troops than us on the ground.

It would be a much more traditional military campaign.

[atreides1]

18. Just One Reminder

The US Army 2nd ID is being used in Iraq and Afghanistan, and have been part of the deployment for almost a year now, along with the 25th ID out of Hawaii which is the back up Army division for the 2nd ID.

So the number of US troops in South Korea, is a little less then 40,000 and most are ground combat troops.

[seriousstan]

2. If only they would threaten their own people with a "sea of rice".

[txaslftist]

9. LOL

[uppityperson]

3. 15,000 coming back fro Iraq

And what with all the advanced technology the USA has, that must equal at least, oh 15,000.

[mordarlar]

5. lol

[YellowRubberDuckie]

4. If Bush attacks, the US deserves it.

But I doubt anyone will follow through with this. Bush seems to come out smelling like roses no matter what to some people in this country. Bush getting us attacked (again) just doesn't seem likely. We haven't been lucky enough for him to look bad to them yet.
Duckie

[AndyTiedye]

7. NK's Missiles Can Only Hit the BLUE STATES on the Coast

North Korea's Missiles Can Only Hit the BLUE STATES on the Coast
All those red states are out of range. That's why all the bravado by the Boosh** regime.

WE DO NOT DESERVE TO GET :nuke::nuke: just so Boosh**ler
can have an excuse to start up the draft and launch 4 more wars.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

8. I don't see anything about them attacking us with nukes in the article.

There are other ways of causing seas of fire.
Also, if Bush attacks, as I said, he deserves it for his hypocritical policies about nukes. We can have them but no one else can? It's bullshit.
Duckie

[txaslftist]

10. "He deserves it." WTF!?!?!?!?

He's not the one who'll be on the receiving end!

[YellowRubberDuckie]

11. I'm talking in abstract.

I want him to fail so horribly that people see what a fuck up he is. I don't think anyone but him and the idiots who put him in the white house deserve what they get. I'm not conveying that appropriately.

Duckie

[txaslftist]

17. there's nothing abstract about a "sea of fire"...

Google Hiroshima and remember that whatever happens, Crawford friggin' Texas ain't gonna get nuked.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

21. I explained myself badly, and chose my words poorly.

I apologize.
Duckie

[Megahurtz]

14. I have no doubt that

North Korea would shoot missles towards the West Coast if Bush attacked:scared: Most countries are tired of his bullshit.

[AndyTiedye]

27. HE Might Deserve It, But WE Do Not!

Also, if Bush attacks, as I said, he deserves it for his hypocritical policies about nukes

If Boosh** attacks NK, the worst NK can do is rain down nukes on the very blue West Coast.
They haven't got the range to hit Texas yet, so Boosh** doesn't care.
:scared::nuke:

[despairing optimist]

26. Gov. Arnold is their ace in the hole

Rather than seeing the blue states on the Left Coast nuked, * would put boots on their yung'uns. A terrorist attack on California could flip the state into the red zone. One red California is worth maybe ten Oklahomas or Alabamas, no?

[54anickel]

15. Hard to understand why NK undies are in such a bundle over the

latest white paper. Sure that bit about the US reinforcement plan seems a bit over the top, but much of the other quotes seem to be toning the "evil empire" label down.

And this after SK was hopeful after * toned down the rhetoric. Did I miss something in the SOTU?

http://www.insightmag.com/news/2005/01/31/World/Seoul.Hopeful.After.Bush.Address-853065.shtml

SEOUL, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Hopes are running high in Seoul for an early resumption of long-stalled negotiations aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons drive following U.S. President George W. Bush's message this week implying his hope for a peaceful solution to the nuclear dispute.

Officials and analysts here say the absence of saber rattling by Bush on North Korea's nuclear ambitions in his State of the Union speech will help bring the reclusive state back to negotiations.

This week's State of the Union address was widely expected to be a yardstick to help gauge Washington's North Korea policy during the second-term Bush administration.

Bush has used the formal address to criticize North Korea and vow tough policies against the defiant communist regime. In his 2002 State of the Union address, the U.S. leader labeled Pyongyang part of "an axis of evil," along with Iran and pre-war Iraq.

more...

[Igel]

16. Yeah, yeah. Sea of fire.

Death. Destruction. US must stop all their hostile acts of blatant and flagrant aggression against the democratic people's republic of N. Korea or we're all doomed, they tell us, doomed. Yawn.

But seriously, the US has all sorts of plans for attacking or defending all sorts of things. They bring some out every year or two to revise them. We probably have plans for attacking Canada and defending China.

[atreides1]

19. The US has all sorts of plans

Like the missile defense shield, we all know that will work like a charm.

The fact is, short of nuclear weapons the US cannot fight a two front war with the current military. The two US Army divisions that were responsible to assist in the defense of South Korea, the 2nd ID
and the 25th ID, are now both part of the Iraqi deployment plan.

After that the closest unit would be the US Marines stationed in Okinawa, but if the North Koreans were to attack, you can bet that
Okinawa would be one of their first targets.

Yes the US comes out with plans every year, the only problem is that they have no realistic way of following through.

[Igel]

24. Agreed. n/t

[Ediacara]

20. Kim just LOVES the "sea of fire"

This is seriously like the 100th time he's threatened it.

Not that I think it's a joke, he just needs new ways to describe it...

[daleo]

23. He could try "ring of fire".

Too late to do a duet with Johnny Cash, though. :-(

[James T. Kirk]

25. "Streets of Fire" maybe

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088194/

[frankieT]

22. business as usual in the Korean (rhetoric) standoff. -eom-

[Psephos]

28. Sea of fire. Yawn. What was it last month? Rivers of blood? Whatever.

The country is run by a whacked-out freak. He needs serious meds.

There are two million people starving in North Korea. Not hungry, but starving. Their food money goes to pay for the freak's army and military/industrial complex. Meanwhile, we sit here and type on our computers.

I am not advocating military anything, so unknot your panties. But whistling and looking the other way is bullshit. Anyone have an idea what else to do? Chinese/Japanese diplomacy? Bomb them with MREs (Meals Ready to Eat)? Anything at all besides political posturing?

[cliss]

31. These guys make me nervous whenever they start up

with their hot-blooded rhetoric. They're a rogue state, so it's kind of expected that they're going to go on their journalistic rampages, like "Bush is trash", or "Cheney is sewer-fodder" and all kinds of creative stuff like that.

HOWEVER, North Korea is so unpredictable, that you just don't know what they're going to do. And that's what makes me so damn nervous about Bush and his Coterie of Clowns. They're such amateurs, that one would almost expect them to call Kim Jong Il on his bluff. That's how stupid they are in the White House.

You just never know what they might do if pushed far enough. And it's predictable: think of a huge snarling Rottweiler in the living room, moving slowly towards a little mutt, a small chihuahua.

What's the chihuahua going to do? It's going to yap and screech and snap and bite, even though it's outnumbered. That's about all it can do.

You were wondering what could be done to defuse this explosive situation. Think of the analogy of the Rottweiler above. We need to back off and not use such threatening jargon like "axis of evil", Evil Nation, rogue state, troublemaker, we'll bomb the shit out of you, etc etc.

WE are the ones that are pushing the little chihuahua to desperation. The US needs to back off and try diplomacy.

[miyazaki]

29. CIA scrapped weapon plans could have made it into a 'Sea of Love'

EOM. -peace

[hector459]

30. You know, all S. Korea has to do is offer N. Korea food and water

These people are of one blood. Food will go a lot further than bombs. You can almost get the N. Koreans to turn on their own government if they are fed by the "enemy."