North Korea - now this is scary!

North Korea has always been much more frightening to me than Iraq. In fact part of my frustration with the war in Iraq stems from the following facts: (1) the Korean government has much more dangerous weapons than Iraq that we KNOW 100% for sure that they have and (2) the Koreans make overt threats about using the weapons, and (3) the US president labeled Korea as part of the "evil empire" along with Iraq, but when push came to shove, the US government simply chose to ignore Korea and attack the weakest link on the "evil empire" chain. I don't get it! If we are willing to sacrifice the lives of our sons and daughters and of the civilians in these "evil" nations, why not go against the biggest danger rather than the weakest one? My impression is that the government folks who wanted war knew we could easily whomp Iraq but also knew that no matter how "right" we are in our concerns about North Korea, it is possible that we might not win that one. If war is the correct solution to a problem, it should be correct whether we believe we will win or not!

I was also very irritated that once the war in Iraq happened, it took WEEKS before the media made any mention of Korea. It was as if the country simply disappeared from the map. How threatening can the country be if we can ignore it for weeks on end? (I think it is very threatening, but ignored because it wasn't as exciting to the media as was the war)

Anyway...I really feel for the citizens of South Korea and Japan. I think these important allies are at great risk as are our soldiers who are stationed in these fine countries.

Ready for flames....bring it on!

I wonder if the powers to be did this because North Korea (or so I have been told) does have the capacity to reach us, whereas Iraq does not? But I am with you on this one Heidi, North Korea scares me far more than Iraq did. Maybe the United States attacked Iraq to show North Korea what might happen to them? I did hear that the U.S. only knows where part of the factory is- they do not know where the factory is where they are manufacturing the uranium only the plutonium.

if i'm not mistaken, if they were to launch a missle, it could reach the west coast.

As somebody living in the San Francisco Bay Area, it is particularly frightening. I don't think the leader of North Korea would even hesitate to send over the bomb if we attacked them.

They scare the h*** out of me!!!Ted spent a year over there they are not scared of us.They will fight to the death.

North Korea really scares me, too, because Kim Jong Il often seems irrational, and people there don't have much access to information about what's going on in the rest of the world. I personally think that Bush's "axis of evil" speech was very ill-advised, because it increased North Korea's paranoia.

yup, thats the different between a smart enemy and a "dumb" one.

Iraq is the weaker link comparing to North Korea, and I'm afraid the Koreans are more powerful and frightening. I hope things calm down there, because they seem really dangerous to me as well.

North Korea has the largest military in the world! Even combining the US, UK, Australia and Canadian troops would not ad up to their force, and that doesn't even factor in the weapons of mass destruction.

What really makes it frightening is that the country has been on the brink of collapse for awhile now, and pretty desperate. They can't feed their population, which must make South Korea look awfully tempting.

All the more reason for the missile defense shield. North Korea has to know, that if they launch a nuclear weapon at anyone, they've signed the death warrant, for their country.

With the state of technology, today, I don't believe that they'd be able to hit anyone except a very close neighbor. A missile fired any distance would be tracked and intercepted, before it could hit.

North Korea is constantly monitored, by satellite and a launch would be instantly transmitted to NORAD. There are any number of missile-equipped submarines and guided-missile frigates, in the Western Pacific and Sea of Japan, that can and will fire intercepts.

I hope they don't decide to test fire their weapons though as they are threatening to.

Even though N Korea poses a threat to the US and it's allies, we will deal with the threat successfully as they have done in the past. Our military and leadership is capable of preventing war, disarming N. Korea, or defending our homeland. Have faith. Just a few months ago, Sadaam and Iraq posed a real threat to world peace.

It's not that we choose to ignore them. I'm sure N. Korea will be delt with in time. But the fact remains, that if America sets foot on N. Korea's soil, they WILL start war with us.
That just goes to show that Bush isn't war hungry, and that he does have a plan of action and thinks things out. The last the we need is to be fighting 2 countries in different spots of the world right now, then what, a 3rd? Then what, another world war?

Ady: I'm pretty sure China has the largest force Least that's what I'm always told.

Sorry - you are correct - I thought I saw it in a world record book, but I just checked the website and China has 2.2 million people in their military.

Yeah if America were to fight with China, that's the only war we would really have to worry about, due to their sheer amount of people! So lets not go to war with them, mmmk? lol