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Just how do the tougher UN maritime sanctions in North Korea work.


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UN-allied ships, patrolling the area, can "challenge," but neither stop, nor search, nor inspect papers, of ships headed for North Korea. How does that work exactly in terms of interrupting the flow of contraband items shipped by sea?

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UN-allied ships, patrolling the area, can "challenge," but neither stop, nor search, nor inspect papers, of ships headed for North Korea. How does that work exactly in terms of interrupting the flow of contraband items shipped by sea?

 

 

Article in Time describes it in further detail.

 

Under last week's U.N. resolution, once the U.S. or its allies locate a suspect ship, they would then request permission to come aboard to inspect its contents from the North Korean government, not from the ship's crew. The expected denial from Pyongyang would trigger a notification to the Security Council, which in turn would urge the North Koreans to direct the ship to a convenient port for inspection. Most North Korean ships lack the ability to travel long distances, meaning they pull into harbors relatively frequently for fuel and supplies. "There are many countries in the region that we believe would be cooperative with us in trying to persuade the North Koreans to allow us to inspect their cargo once they were to take a port call for refueling,"

 

Edit - Sorry, fixed link.

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UN-allied ships, patrolling the area, can "challenge," but neither stop, nor search, nor inspect papers, of ships headed for North Korea. How does that work exactly in terms of interrupting the flow of contraband items shipped by sea?

This is a Los Gatos way of saying "I double dare you".

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I beleive the new UN resolution is along the lines of the classic "We Triple-Dog Dare You To Cross This Line" sanction, which officially enables all UN member navies to collectively stand around with their thumbs up their asses...which may not seem like much of a change, but now it has official UN recognition.

 

If the NK's aren't careful, the UN might add the "...And This Time We MEAN It!!!" sanction, which changes the UN posture from "stand around with thumbs up asses" to "glare menacingly and shake fists in the are in the general direction of North Korea as their ships sail away".

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Interesting take from a site. I am curious as to the military types opinions. I hope the guy is right.

 

The problem with the NKs is that they can open up simultaneously and without warning with at least 1000 artillery pieces (all sizes) on a densely inhabited area. How long they can sustain that rate of fire is unclear (what shape is their artillery storage in? How many of those old rounds are now duds?), but if they can get off a salvo a minute for a few hours, they could kill kill quit a few people and destroy a hell of a lot of buildings and cause a lot of fires. The effects would be like last year's earthquake in China.

 

And then, NK would essentially run out of gas. They don't have much in the way of aircraft and they can't really move those very old tanks and they ain't gonna get through the minefield. (And even if they do it because they've got a really bad ass secret tunnel, it'll be some place well to the east of Seoul.) NK leadership knows this, which is why Kim spent about 8 months vacationing in Russia during 2003, because he was afraid Bush would invade.

 

They can make a mess if we attack them; they aren't going to attack us, they're too afraid. Hello, Mexican standoff. If they've got the Bomb, they figure they can threaten us in the event we become dangerous.

 

If we can get the Russians and the Chinese to cooperate with us and cut the little SOBs off from food and fuel, their goose is cooked, which the Nks almost certainly know better than we do. But the Chinese do not trust us, and they like their little puppet. It distracts the West (the US, SK, and Japan) from bothering the PRC.

 

max

 

Taken from here. The take is from a comment.

 

Another interesting article.

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Interesting take from a site. I am curious as to the military types opinions. I hope the guy is right.

 

 

 

Taken from here. The take is from a comment.

 

Another interesting article.

 

 

If we can get the Russians and the Chinese to cooperate with us

 

That is a great idea.

 

Another great idea is to convince all of the world's pigs to fly over NK and let them have it with loads of pig crap which will clog their weaponry. The swine air force would come as almost as much of a surprise as Russian/Chinese cooperation.

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Another great idea is to convince all of the world's pigs to fly over NK and let them have it with loads of pig crap which will clog their weaponry. The swine air force would come as almost as much of a surprise as Russian/Chinese cooperation.

 

Well that's stupid. Why the hell would you employ the swine air force in North Korea when it's so better suited for Afghanistan? :thumbsup:

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Interesting take from a site. I am curious as to the military types opinions. I hope the guy is right.

 

Nothing that hasn't been said here a million times already.

 

NK is the walking example of what WMD really means. Knocking down the idea that they will attack is a strawman of the left - they won't (probably) because they will lose. But the real issue with WMD is defensive. NK's existing (non-nuclear) capacity for destruction means it is impossible to move against them, whatever the provocation. That reality kept the Clinton administration from considering a military strike against their facilities. So - NK can do pretty much what it wants, short of full war, and there is nothing we can do without the devestation to the world economy that a NK artillary attack on Seoul and the SK industrial region would bring. Missile technology, counterfeiting, insurance fraud (see today's Washington Post), drug trafficing, kidnapping - we hand over 'aid' and all is forgiven, over and over again.

 

As for China and Russia: Russia maybe, China no. Obstensively, China doesn't want the refugees (though it could seal the border in a pinch). It's real objection is that it fears regime change on the Korean peninsula. It likes having a backward repressive regime in the north. The last thing it wants is a unified Korea, a large democratic economic powerhouse, on its border as an example to the Chinese people.

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Theory will be put to practice now.

 

Breaking news 18 June: U.S. Military Tracking North Korean Ship Suspected of Proliferating Missiles, Nukes

 

The apparent violation raises the question of how the United States and its allies will respond, particularly since the U.N. resolution does not have a lot of teeth to it.

 

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday the military is "watching" that situation "very closely," and would have "some concerns" if North Korea launched a missile in the direction of Hawaii. But he expressed confidence in U.S. ability to handle such a launch.

 

I'd like the diplomatic community decoder ring for "concerns"... is this the order, from least to most serious:

 

some concerns

deeply concerned

gravely concerned

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