Slashdot Mirror
North Korea Kills Phone Line, 1953 Armistice; Kim Jong Un's Funds Found In China
eldavojohn writes "Last week, North Korea promised a "preemptive nuclear strike" prior to a UN vote on new sanctions. Despite the threat, the sanctions were unanimously approved. North Korea has responded by killing a Red Cross hotline with Seoul and claims that it has canceled the 1953 Armistice although the UN notes this cannot be done unilaterally (North Korea attempted the same thing in 2003 and 2009). While everyone thought that Kim Jong Un would ride out the sanctions on slush funds, the United States claims to have found his funds in Shanghai and other parts of China totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. Beijing has reportedly refused to confiscate these funds despite voting for the very UN resolutions sanctioning North Korea that read: 'More specifically, States are directed to prevent the provision of financial services or the transfer of any financial or other assets or resources, including 'bulk cash,' which might be used to evade the sanctions.'"
The regime is composed of military and party aristocrats who only care about money and power. If the end was nigh in all likelihood they'd use the _threat_ of a "blaze of glory" to secure themselves a nice retirement in China.
The real issue is that if the government were to collapse there'd be nobody at the border to stop the flood of refugees. China would be stuck having to mow people down at the border rather than the NK military. And China would also lose face as the South Koreans and Americans moved in to restore order.
I don't understand why we don't offer China a simple bargain--withdraw support from the regime and assist in a transition, and we'll promise to leave the peninsula forever. On balance I think it would be be a good trade. It'd piss off the S. Koreans, Japanese, and make us look like wimps to ASEAN countries, but at least we'd get that thorn out of our side, and then dealing with Iran or Pakistan would instantly become much easier because they'd look a whole lot worse w/ the worst guy on the block gone.
And they know we can keep our promises. We've abstained from direct intervention in Cuba for over half a century on the word of a long dead president.