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Re: If North Korea invaded South Korea, what would the UN do? [FJB] [ In reply to ]
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FJB wrote:
The reason the US was withholding some of its dues was because it was protesting the fact that at the time, the US footed 25% of the entire UN budget. Seems a bit unfair given the size of the other economies in the world that one country was paying a full quarter of the UN's budget.


The reason it is so high is that the assessment is based on per capital income which is a little "fairer" than just looking at the size of other economies.[/quote]

Which would seem to imply that a country like Switzerland should pay a huge amount. Basing it on per capita income makes no sense and is in no way "fairer" than the overall size of the economy.

___________________________________________________
Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.
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Re: If North Korea invaded South Korea, what would the UN do? [aftereffector] [ In reply to ]
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aftereffector wrote:
iron_mike wrote:
a bit OT, but is this something that has much impact on daily life in the south? do schools/cities/whatever have bomb shelters, evacuation plans, etc? it's sort of like living in a tornado zone. . .

-mike


I live in Daegu, which is a lot farther south than Seoul. There is very little impact on daily life here. I would even go so far as to say that there is practically no impact. I am sure that the Korean government has plans in place, but the schoolchildren aren't out drilling air-raid contingencies every week or anything like that. Life might be a little different within artillery range of the DMZ.

I traveled to your lovely city when I was stationed there and it was like a different world from what I was used to. Its was such a pleasant change from the towns where the military had a very visible presence. Someday I will go back and it is definitely on my list.


~
"You lie!" The Prophet Joe Wilson
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Re: If North Korea invaded South Korea, what would the UN do? [PJC] [ In reply to ]
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I have been to North Korea. Those people are hard-core.

Seoul is not far from the DMZ and NK has massive artillery batteries right along the edge of the DMZ. My knowledge of artillery science and munitions is out-dated, but if NK launched a surprise attack it would be an artillery attack for sure and those shells might land in or near downtown Seoul.

If you calculate time to impact of those shells, the damage is done before anyone has time to respond.


**All of these words finding themselves together were greatly astonished and delighted for assuredly, they had never met before**
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Re: If North Korea invaded South Korea, what would the UN do? [FLA Jill] [ In reply to ]
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That border will never ( i guess I shouldnt say never) open but if ever came the day when NK citizens were free to leave you can bet it would look very similar to the border between east and west Germany pre Reagan.

The Chinese do not want them.


~
"You lie!" The Prophet Joe Wilson
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Re: If North Korea invaded South Korea, what would the UN do? [Rodred] [ In reply to ]
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However the 'international community' sees what has really been going on inside NK. Think of both Cambodia and Rwanda and NK being much worse than those two places combined. In NK they arrest people for decades old "political crimes." But they don't arrest the perpetrator of the old crime, they arrest his family and throw them in jail long after the 'crime' has been committed. The perpetrator walks free. This is how they do it.


**All of these words finding themselves together were greatly astonished and delighted for assuredly, they had never met before**
Last edited by: mojozenmaster: Apr 15, 12 19:08
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Re: If North Korea invaded South Korea, what would the UN do? [PJC] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks for the info.

I love learning stuff like this

Rhymenocerus wrote:
I think everyone should consult ST before they do anything.
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Re: If North Korea invaded South Korea, what would the UN do? [mojozenmaster] [ In reply to ]
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mojozenmaster wrote:
However the 'international community' sees what has really been going on inside NK. Think of both Cambodia and Rwanda and NK being much worse than those two places combined. In NK they arrest people for decades old "political crimes." But they don't arrest the perpetrator of the old crime, they arrest his family and throw them in jail long after the 'crime' has been committed. The perpetrator walks free. This is how they do it.

And they like to shoot for three generations of the family in many cases. A "camp" the size of Washington DC just to house its own people and use labor, hunger, experimentation and disease to punish citizens for things asimple as whispering something that might not go along with the "Great Leaders" view of the world. I still have in my possession an article from USA Today from about 10 years ago that was the most detailed thing I had read outside of the military that talked about just how bad it was there and about the camp I mentioned and yet you still never hear anything ( or very little) about it.

If I recall there is a story about one of KJI private guards being sent to prison for putting a cigarette out in the ashtray in on of his bosses elevators. I guess it was an important elevator.


~
"You lie!" The Prophet Joe Wilson
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Re: If North Korea invaded South Korea, what would the UN do? [dave_w] [ In reply to ]
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The UN would write progresively more harsh resolutions to express their displeasure.

That sounds about right, assuming that no nation on the Security Council vetos those resolutions.

-----
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
Which is probably why I was registering 59.67mi as I rolled into T2.

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Re: If North Korea invaded South Korea, what would the UN do? [Eppur si muove] [ In reply to ]
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Eppur si muove wrote:
The UN would write progresively more harsh resolutions to express their displeasure.

That sounds about right, assuming that no nation on the Security Council vetos those resolutions.

Well since we have thousands of pieces of evidence of NK breaking the armistice and every other promise thats been brokered since the war, I won't be counting on the UN to do anythig :)


~
"You lie!" The Prophet Joe Wilson
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Re: If North Korea invaded South Korea, what would the UN do? [FJB] [ In reply to ]
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The thing people never seem to get about the UN is that it is not in and of itself an ineffective organization. The Secretary General only acts according to the Members Resolutions so if you want someone to blame when things go poorly, you have to look at the Members.

Actually, that's exactly why it's an ineffective organization.

-----
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
Which is probably why I was registering 59.67mi as I rolled into T2.

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Re: If North Korea invaded South Korea, what would the UN do? [Eppur si muove] [ In reply to ]
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Actually, that's exactly why it's an ineffective organization.


They have had a few good moments, the 1993 elections in Cambodia for one but I would agree with you. However, my point is that people tend to dismiss the UN as if they are some independent organization completely separate from the US and other governments which is not the case. The reason it is ineffective is because of politics, with each country, specifically the 5 members of the Security Council, acting in their own self interests and none of those members are exempt from criticism.

It is for that reason that it will never be successful. What I hate is that governments will act to undermine the UN when it suits there purposes. The UN was obsolete when the US wanted to go to war in Iraq but if there is a peace keeping mission somewhere no one wants to go, then everyone points to the UN for help. It is the same with the US not paying dues as discussed above. The system may or may not be fair and Spot has a decent point however the US knew the fee structure in advance and decided to stop paying after the fact. It's like those athletes that sign a baseball contract only to demand renegotiation when the season starts because it isn't enough money.

I am far from a UN supporter and think it should be disbanded completely but for now its the only thing we have to get the world community together to provide peace monitoring and until someone comes up with a better solution thats it. Of course a better solution will never be found because most countries aren't too concerned with keeping peace, there is far more money in war.
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Re: If North Korea invaded South Korea, what would the UN do? [FJB] [ In reply to ]
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"I am far from a UN supporter and think it should be disbanded completely but for now its the only thing we have to get the world community together to provide peace monitoring and until someone comes up with a better solution thats it."

It's probably important to remember that the UN's charter purpose is to prevent nations from engaging in hostilities with eachother. It's built to be difficult to get consensus on use of force, deliberately.

Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)
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Re: If North Korea invaded South Korea, what would the UN do? [slowguy] [ In reply to ]
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It's probably important to remember that the UN's charter purpose is to prevent nations from engaging in hostilities with eachother. It's built to be difficult to get consensus on use of force, deliberately.


Agreed but the problem seems to be that it is just as difficult to get consensus on the use of peacekeeping too. I'm not sure if there is an alternative but the unanimous resolution requirement of the Security Council sure presents some roadblocks.
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Re: If North Korea invaded South Korea, what would the UN do? [FJB] [ In reply to ]
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"Agreed but the problem seems to be that it is just as difficult to get consensus on the use of peacekeeping too. I'm not sure if there is an alternative but the unanimous resolution requirement of the Security Council sure presents some roadblocks. "

It's difficult to get consensus on anything, when you have to take into account the wide variety of interests at play. Hell, try to get consensus among 200 people on what to have for dinner. Now extrapolate that out to 200 nation states with differing cultural backgrounds, languages, sets of national self interest, alliances, etc. I'm not disputing that it's difficult to get things done, nor am I arguing in favor of the efficiency or effectiveness of the UN. However, most Americans seem to get frustrated with the UN simply because the UN doesn't do exactly what we want. It's probably important to remember that the UN is not there to do what we want. The UN is not there to take decisive action in the form of military or police force; it's there to prevent that sort of thing. And it's a bit hypocritical to crap on the UN for not doing exactly what we want, when we want it, given the number of UN and other international programs, laws, and treaties things that we thumb our nose at.

Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)
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Re: If North Korea invaded South Korea, what would the UN do? [Rodred] [ In reply to ]
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Rodred wrote:
The Chinese do not want them.

Ive always wondered what the Chinese response would be. I think if it got wind that NK was planning a full-scale assault on SK, they would put the smackdown on Pyongyang themselves.
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Re: If North Korea invaded South Korea, what would the UN do? [iron_mike] [ In reply to ]
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Growing up in Maryland during the cold war, we had fallout drills in elementary school. We would go to a cinder block room in center of the school and sit for a few minutes.
Life in Seoul is not that much different from a large American city. The big difference is that the people seemed more polite in Seoul (minus the crazy guy yelling at me on the subway…)

A very interesting site to see in the DMZ, are the tunnels that NK build to infiltrate into the south. Several tunnels have been discovered and turned into a kind of tourist attraction



Last edited by: heliix: Apr 16, 12 13:24
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Re: If North Korea invaded South Korea, what would the UN do? [heliix] [ In reply to ]
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They would often fire artillery to cover up any underground explosives they were using. Those bastards can dig like gophers. I don't know if you noticed that many( most) of the yamas that overlook roads have trench lines already built for SK troops to occupy. They have some quality diggers of their own.


~
"You lie!" The Prophet Joe Wilson
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