North Korea threatens war against Japan

[Miulang]

It's not bad enough that the world's attention is already focused on the Middle East. Now it looks like Pyongyang might be flexing its muscles by declaring that if Japan imposes economic sanctions against it, that would be tantamount to a declaration of war. The incidents that concern the Japanese government are the purported kidnapping of Japanese citizens in the 1950s and 1960s by North Korea who were then used to train Korean spies in the Japanese language and culture.

Since North Korea has nuclear weapon capability and is threatening to use physical force against Japan, and since Japan doesn't have an armed force, per se (they don't really have an army), does that mean that the US has to head over there to help Japan, too??? :eek: After all, Japan is one of our trading partners and a coalition member.

Miulang

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1504&ncid=1504&e=4&u=/afp/20041214/ts_afp/nkoreajapansanctions_041214201658

[Linkmeister]

Actually, Japan has a reasonably impressive army, but it's not called that. It's called the Japanese Military Self-Defense Force, so dubbed because McArthur's constitution-writers stipulated Japan couldn't have an Army.

I'm not sure whether we have a mutual defense treaty with Japan; it's not like our "agreement" with Taiwan.

[pzarquon]

No doubt about it, Asia is getting warmer and we haven't even put out the fire in the Middle East yet. North Korea is a loose cannon waiting to go off. China wants out of an arms embargo in order to, allegedly, put the finishing touches on a military poised for an overwhelming takeover of Taiwan, which the U.S. is expected to defend. India and Pakistan, even with thawing relations, remain two nuclear powers just waiting for the other to make the wrong move.

A nuclear conflict would rattle the world. India, Pakistan, China, and maybe North Korea have nuclear arms, or at least the capability of creating "dirty bombs." China's conventional military is already nothing to sneeze at (I read somewhere that it could rival the U.S. in a decade), and as Link noted, Japan's "self defense force" - while limited in principle - is no cripple. Their forces are now being deployed overseas, after all, something they originally weren't supposed to be able to do. And despite Japan's peaceful image, Japan's military has a $42.6 billion annual budget -- the fourth largest level of investment in the world.

Scary. Someone on MetaFilter commented recently, "What the hell... we could use a new war, 'cause the current one sucks!"

[Miulang]

Historically, these "five cent wars" have been good for the US economy. So how come our involvement in Iraq hasn't stimulated our economy? How come our balance of trade payments suck? How come we're still reading about large corporations planning massive job layoffs in the 1st Q of next year?

Miulang

[Linkmeister]

Scary. Someone on MetaFilter commented recently, "What the hell... we could use a new war, 'cause the current one sucks!"

That level of bitterness even exceeds mine. Thanks for finding it, Ryan.