Blockade North Korea
 

They're pretty isolated to begin with. How long could that regime last with a full blown blockade?

I wouldn't call a country that shares a border with China "isolated."

Knowing the DANKs (Dumb-Assed North Koreans) proclivity to threaten to go to war whenever the Dear Leader sneezes, I dunno if it'll make much sense. Plus it'll scare the bejeezus outta the Japanese and get the Chinese and Rooshians all riled up.

Bet yer ass Pyongyang and other strategic military and industrial targets are already planned in the SIOP (Single Integrated Operational Plan), the US nuclear attack options playbook.

Kim Jong Il can swing his "nu-cu-lar" Norbecker all he wants, as long as he doesn't carry through with any of his dire threats. I would certainly hope full well that he realizes should he do so, a radioactive 'rain or ruin' (using a quote by the late President Harry S. Truman) will befall his Socialist Worker's Paradise.

They are if China goes along with it.

China doesn't allow DPRK's citizens to cross without strong check-points (think checkpoint Charlie), and China is frustrated with DPRK's refusal toward any international cooperation.

Oh and as for a blockade: I'm pretty sure when we get to a stand-off of "Give us aid or Tokyo gets blown up" that the international community would be like "let's have some talks and we'll give you aid" and back down on the blockade.

They've used blackmail before, and they've always backed off of any promises that they've made. If the relevant nations stay strong, I think that they will crumble. We could follow up that any military action on the part of North Korea will result in a nuclear device being detonated on Pyongyang.

Coolest 4th of July display EVAR.

Better mushroom than at any Dead concert.

Hell, you only need one Trident D-5 submarine-launched ballistic missile to waste Pyongyang.

24 missile tubes empty, lotsa mushroom clouds... and now, it's Miller time!

That's if they don't toast Seoul and several major cities in South Korea first, if the swaggering boasts of the Head DANK (aka Kim Jong-Il) prove to be true.

I doubt that they would nuke Seoul. Too much fallout would make its way into North Korea, and they don't want to kill themselves. They have threatened in the past, however, to wreak as much destruction, with conventional weapons, on Seoul, as possible if a conflict should break out.

When I first saw this I thought it said blockade North Dakota. I'm like WTF!? What the hell did North Dakota do to be blockaded?

Somebody wants to keep all the Gateway Computers up there.

But seriously, blockading North Korea would be a pretty drastic move -- particulary with the adjacency to China -- no matter which side of the bed the Chinese decide to get up on any given morning.

'Cause North Dakota is the world's third largest "nu-cu-lar" power! Or at least it used to be with the 91st and 321st Missile Wings (I refuse to call 'em 'Space Wings', the current term) at Minot and Grand Forks AFB. All those Minuteman ICBM silos gotta count for something... :D

(The 321st at "El Forko Grande" was deactivated a few years ago; the silos were emptied and then imploded to comply with the START treaty. It still is an active Air Force base for 'tanker toads'. The 3 independently-targetable nuclear warheads on the missiles at Minot were reduced to a single one. )

Gov. of North Dakota to the world: "Don't f*ck with our farmland... or we'll nuke you!" ;) :) :D

True story about N. Korea. I have a friend who was part of a delegation from South Africa that visited North Korea. There were only a total of 10 visitors (not including diplomats and UN officials) in the whole country when he visited North Korea. Every time he wakes up, his "tour guide" was in front of his door waiting for him. Every time he goes to the hotel's bar (out of over 100 rooms, there were only 10 occupants), there were the 10 visitors plus 20 Korean "tour guides."

That country is one crazy country. I don't know how they would react to anything.