[Chip Douglass]

Quote: Originally Posted by Burns11

Ha, OK. S Korea wouldn't be their first target, Japan would be. There's a reason why NK's ballistic missile tests go across the sea of Japan.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapc...korea.missile/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2564241.stm

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North Korea test-fired a long-range missile and five shorter-range rockets early Wednesday, but the closely watched long-range test failed within a minute, U.S. officials said.

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However, this missile [Nodong missile] is only thought to have been tested twice and it is not accurate. A March 2006 report, by the US Center for Non-proliferation Studies, said it had a 'circular error probable' of 2km to 4km, meaning that half of the missiles fired would fall outside a circle of that radius. The Nodong has the range to strike most of Japan but not with any accuracy. If it were fired on a military target, its inaccuracy could lead to high levels of civilian ******ties.

Again, you're overrating the power projection of a 3rd world country. I also have no idea why they wouldn't target South Korea immediately considering their missiles are accurate enough to hit South Korean targets and they could devastate South Korea's capital, rather than roll the dice on Japanese targets. Everything I've read on the subject tells me that Japan shouldn't worry too much about North Korea's amateur missile program.

Not to mention, it would only make sense for North Korea to immediately target the country with the largest standing armed forces in the world, which they're technically in a state of war with. The fact that there are two Koreas is a reason why the Korean peninsula is a geopolitical hotspot in the first place.

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China has more to lose than some refugees and they know it. There's zero chance they let the US get away with shooting a weapon out of the air, never mind outright invasion of NK and toppling that regime.

And they have a hell of a lot more to lose if they decided to engage the United States and its Asian allies. Again, it's geopolitical suicide for a country whose stated foreign policy aim is to "rise peacefully" to superpower status.

They'd lodge a formal complaint at the UN Security Council and that's all they'll be limited to, both by choice and circumstance.