katzendogs wrote: 
Call Chuck Norris.

 Monkeysdad wrote: 
Sounds like a fun place to visit!

 katzendogs wrote: 

They're already a hungry nation in more than just food, they'd be hamstrung if China denied them all but the staples.


exo's salivating, I'm sure.

 Monkeysdad wrote: 
Yeah. But lil Kim's focus is on S.Korea and the US.
wonders if exo's reelin'

 katzendogs wrote: 

From what I can tell China supplies them 70-80% of everything, shut down all but the foodstuffs and their attention will be 'gotten'.

 Monkeysdad wrote: 
thars a key phrase.

 katzendogs wrote: 

eyup!
It's going to be interesting to see what transpires. It should be fairly easy to shut KJI down but...who's gonna do it?

katzendogs wrote:
trying NOT to think about it...

 katzendogs wrote: 
Yup, but filed under "Hello Mr Barack! Yoo-hoo! Here we are, over here!!"
 
See also: Iran, Israel and Pakistan &tc.

So. Is this on anyone's mind?

 Xeric wrote: 
Yeah...well...that's pretty much my point.

If Kim is so obviously not capable of rational thought, then it's completely and totally up to us to be the voice of reason.

Given Kim's past shenanigans, it is just not reasonable or rational to say "OK, Kim has come to his senses, let's drop our guard right away" every time that Kim makes a promise.  This holds especially true after Kim has fooled us once already.

IMHO the reasonable thing to do is to take a "wait and see" attitude, and see if Kim can "stay on his meds" for more than a couple of weeks at a time, BEFORE giving N. Korea the Big Reward.

 Servo wrote: 
Yeah, well, me, too—but Kim Jong Il's definition of "reasonable" is, uhm, well, hell—do they even have that word in (North) Korean?

 MusicIsMotion wrote: 
Not so awesome when you consider that N. Korea has already agreed to inspections, been removed from the terrorist state list, and then went back on its word and fired up its plutonium factory once again.

If we keep falling for this "bait and switch" tactic, N. Korea could produce a LOT of weapons grade plutonium while Loyal Bushies pat themselves on the back and declare "mission accomplished".

IMHO we should set realistic standards, and not offer instant gratification for a declaration from a nut-case foreign leader.  If they keep their word for a year, then we take them off the list.  Seems reasonable to me.

U.S. removes N. Korea from terror list

AP: Decision made after North Korea agrees to allow nuke inspections
Awesome news.  It's said that things happen for a reason.  There may have been a time when a war caused the economy to thrive, but there's no money in it anymore.  If we see more good things like this happen in the wake of global economic disaster it will only serve to show how greed, anger and pride have shaped the way things were and show us a new path to more of how things should be.  Any less hope for it and any more cynicism will sentence us all to self destruction as a species.