"Warning Flights for North Korea" Topic

The United States Air Force began flying B-52 bombers over South Korea, amid rising tensions with North Korea, Pentagon officials said today. Pentagon press secretary George Little said one B-52 flew over South Korea on Friday, March 8 and another mission is scheduled to fly tomorrow.

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Could be an interesting hypothetical scenario – if the North Koreans tried to intercept…

Woah, this is getting interesting in the Chinese sense.

Not so much interesting a short. The Norks would have problems with the South Korean Air Force; add USAF assets in theatre and basically you are looking at overkill.

Fatman

But it's not the North Korean military that is the major concern. I am pretty sure their Air Force would be gone shortly after leaving the ground, and that their ADA would be suppressed in a day.

However, they have enough of the populace in arms to flood the border so that even killing them in job lots would let them make gains into the south.

Once you also factor in the possibility of their use of nukes now on either South Korea or Japan, and they are a nation that isn't going to threaten us directly, but could easily kick off something that can spiral out of control quickly.

Aaaaannnnd…that doesn't even bring China into the question. Would they back North Korea to the hilt? Will they reign in their "ally?" Or would they abandon them to their fate.

Of the three options I'd guess the third would be the least likely.

Dan,

I believe that the Chinese will take the third option – abandon them to their fate.

All bets are off if the free world forces get to close to the Chinese border.

It could all go very bad very quickly.

Vince

I would like to see weekly flights of B-2 stealth bombers to drop food in the middle of the capitol and start food riots-kill them with kindness.
Look we are feeding your people and you can't stop us.

If North Korea strikes first, China isn't treaty-bound to come in on the Nork's side.

I hope that it doesn't come to anything serious, but the US (and rest of the world) should probably be talking to the Chinese about what line the Chinese don't want the US to cross.

Problem is that the Koreans don't want to be subordinate to either China or Japan, and China doesn't want a US ally on their border.

Don't underestimate the NKs. I've sat across the table from them. They are religious zealots in their hatred for the US and dedication to the regime. They are also very experienced at successful brinksmanship. They will push the limits of limited use of force, like sinking a ROK destroyer, because it will force us to choose between the bad option of paying them off and the very bad option of a real war.

China will continue backing NK because it fits perfectly into their foreign policy goals. NK is no threat to China, but is a very useful tool. The Chinese use the NKs to keep the US, ROK and Japan distracted. We are focused on the DMZ while the Chinese continue their preparations for expansion and domination of the western Pacific. China does not want the NK regime to collapse for the same reason the ROKs don't: millions of refugees streaming across their border and it serves as a buffer to keep US allies away from their border. Until the US makes Chinese support for the NK provocations too expensive, the Chinese will continue to publicly condemn the NKs while privately funding their shenanigans. About the only thing that will make the Chinese change is a complete severance of US trade, something they don't believe our political leaders have the stomach for.

Somehow, I still doubt that the Chinese will abandon NK, no matter what they do.

Sure, they may make statements against them occasionally, but just watch their UN votes.

They are their greatest proxy, and are funneling aid and missile/rocket tech and equipment to them to tie down US assets, indirectly.

Didn't china just vote in the UN to enforce sanctions?

Methinks they are more interested in other things I.e islands off Japan. If they play nice about Korea, it may be reciprocated

They may have, but that still doesn't change the fact that they rarely do vote against NK, and even more importantly, are still giving them aid, technical know-how, and equipment to help construct all those wonderful rockets and nuke warheads.

All good points Cold Steel …

Cold Steel wrote:

I've sat across the table from them. They are religious zealots in their hatred for the US and dedication to the regime. They are also very experienced at successful brinksmanship. They will push the limits of limited use of force, like sinking a ROK destroyer, because it will force us to choose between the bad option of paying them off and the very bad option of a real war.

That sounds very like what Ditto said. "Successful brinkmanship" generally means "behaving like a spoiled child". I do hope we find some way of impressing it upon the fat-faced weasel-in-charge that he and his entire country exist only on sufferance. I know the Chinese have been patiently trying to chivvy the Norks out of the grass-eating stage with their special economic zones on the border, but, really, it's past time since the Cheonan to demand a bit of rapid growing up from The Spoilt Leader.

All the best,

John.

A pair of B2s were just flown over the southern part of the Korean peninsula, to make a bit more of a point, in case the aged Buffs didn't send the message clearly.

In an unusual move, just in case the NK radars didn't pick them up, they announced the overflights as well.

Seems to me they are putting the message across that we can play assymetrical warfare as well, if the North Koreans decide to attack.