"They wouldn't do that unless they were convinced they could do so with impunity -- that not only would they not be punished for it, but it would help them achieve their goals in the long run.

In that sense, the sinking of the Cheonan can be viewed as a test case -- to see if they could make such a blatantly open attack without fear of repercussions. And they did."

Spot on, Jay Tea. I agree 100%.

Dear Leader and his Number One Son will share a nice laugh as they read and re-read the "sternly worded" letters from Barack Obama and the UN. And Kim Jong Il will say, "See son, I told you it was always this easy, but you just didn't believe me!"

I still believe that a good "spanking" would solve many problems when dealing with a spoiled child.

Nice artiicle, and well written.

Bet we have some liberals pop on in a moment saying that its all our fault and we just need to 'understand' the norks better and 'negotiate'.

Dear Leader and his Number One Son will share a nice laugh as they read and re-read the "sternly worded" letters from Barack Obama and the UN. And Kim Jong Il will say, "See son, I told you it was always this easy, but you just didn't believe me!"

You forgot the end of that, Michael -

"Just sink one of their ships, and they send us toilet paper!"

"The first explanation being bandied around was that they're preparing for Kim Jong Il to pass on the leadership mantle to his son, and it was a move to keep the North Korean military in line."

I was thinking about this yesterday and thought that, too, Il may have already handed sonny a try at the reins and sonny, eager to flex his muscles, went overboard.

All too often the offspring sucessor to the big chair is worse than the dad. Look at Saddam. Does anyone doubt that either of the sons would have been far worse? Hard to imagine, but true.

Jay I only disagree on 1 point, I think we should smack them across the nose but not in a deniable fashion, right out in the open. When one of the bad kids misbehaves smacking he or she in front of the others has a positive effect on the others.

My question: What's China doing on all this?

JLawson is 100% correct on this one. It is a shakedown, pure and simple. They will succeed too. Look who is in office. ww

NK is a proxy state of China and does nothing without her say so. This came about as a result of Obama's visit asking China to remove restrictions on the RMB in order to lessen the recession in the USA, but that would cause inflation in China. Option 2: The quickest route to avoid even more of a recession would be for the US to go into a full tilt conventional wartime economy against China. But they know Obama has no political capital since the elections. So they let go a warning shot across the west coast with one of her submarines (despite that the lying oil soaked media wants us to believe it was a jet contrail). Subsequently, South Korea, a US proxy was conducting (conveniently unreported) military maneuvers very close to the North Korean Border goading them. Rather than make a casus beli for all out war, but to show resolve, China had North Korea fire on the South Korean Island rather than the mainland where US troops are still stationed along the DMZ.

>>Some carefully-anonymized cruise missiles could also cause problems. Say, an oil pipeline or railroad bridge should suddenly experience a catastrophic (and explosively-aided) failure. That would also send an appropriate message.

Not like its never happened before. Question is, does current 'leadership' have the stones to do it?

(sourced from wiki-pedia, so who knows? maybe its true)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryanggang_explosion
The suspected explosion was located near the town of Yongjo-ri (41°19'47"N 127°05'02"E) in the county of Kimhyŏngjik in Ryanggang. This is in a mountainous region, about 1.5 km above sea level. The explosion was about 30 km from the border with China. The area contains several military installations, including munitions factories and a secret underground military base suspected to contain a uranium enrichment plant. The Yongjori Missile Base was 10 km northeast of the explosion.

Ed Schuster

"I still believe that a good "spanking" would solve many problems when dealing with a spoiled child.
"

Only thing is liberals believe spoiled children should have time outs as the worst punishment and they are only acting out because they are misunderstood and didnt get all the toys growing up as others so the others should give their toys to them to make them feel better about themselves. That is also known as standard operating procedure for the UN.

I also agree that we need to make NK brown their pants when they pull this crap, and like John, we have to do it openly.

Fortunately, there is something the US can attack in NK and no one can say boo about it, because it's US property: the USS Pueblo. As it's final mission in service to this country, it should be used as target practice for an impromptu cruise missile test at the next provocation.

I was under the impression that conservatives didn't believe emotional responses were appropriate. But I admit to being wrong about that.

OK folks, this discussion is moot! The UN has the solution: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/11/24/secretary-general-eyes-new-aid-north-korea/

Ya gotta be kidding, but no they are not. & why are we still in the UN?

Pedro, I personally believe in effective solutions. And should there be an emotional component to the motives behind actions such as these, only an idiot would refuse to acknowledge that and act accordingly.

J.

If a dog bit your hand every time you fed it, would you continue to feed it?

The real danger at this time is that the DPRK head of the National Defense Commission, Jo Myong Rok has died, leaving the North Korean military with unclear leadership and direction. China has both offered condolences to North Korea, while urging both restraint and calm on the Korean Peninsula.

For his part, President Obama has proven the continued resolve of the U.S. to support South Korea by sending the aircraft carrier George Washington to the area, and not canceling the planned joint South Korean-U.S. military exercises that were previously planned to start on Sunday. Hopefully this serve to send a message to North Korea to step back from conflict, however in such a tense climate, North Korea could view this as aggressive and only worsen the situation.

The U.S. continues to pressure China to use it's clout to reign in North Korea. And China wants to see this stability in the region as well. War in Korea would be bad for business for China, something China certainly does not want.

The upshot of this from the NK point of view is that, as you say, the big risk is that China eventually converts NK into the place the cheap labour gets its cheap labour.

Pretty sure North Korea = China in the different names of one country, or a military branch & a lapdog.