Okay, so one of my extremely liberal neighbors, perhaps a little too under the eggnog, ventured to ask the token conservative in the neighborhood what I'd do about North Korea.  After carefully probing to make sure the rest of the audience was listening and really wanting to hear the rantings of the right wing nut in our little gathering, I proceeded to lay out the Hawk's View.

• Lay down the rules of the game for North Korea:
1. Cease and Desist on startup of any new reactors capable of breeding fuel which can be processed easily into weapons grade material
2. Invite U.N. inspectors back in and resume IAEC safeguards and monitoring
3. Provide complete details of current weapons grade material inventories including any cores and/or loaded primaries and casings for nuclear weapons
4. Destroy all casings, primaries, and enveloping weapons frames
5. Dismantle weapons assembly areas and/or facilities if they serve no dual use purposes
6. Provide the names of scientists and technicians in the North Korean program and prepare them for travel to Switzerland.
7. Provide locations of weapons platforms deployed which are now or in the near future capable of delivering nuclear weapons loads
8. Complete this within 60 days, with progress reports every week
• If North Korea does not agree to play by the rules, then they should prepare for increasing stages of U.S. action
1. Air, Sea, and Land Embargo starting January 1 upon non agreement or if rules broken within 1 week of that event
2. North Korean vessels at sea will be boarded and seized.  This includes commercial transport and fishing vessels
3. North Korea will become a no fly zone and North Korean aircraft will be shot down.  No commercial aircraft will be allowed to fly either as part of the embargo
4. 10 miles north of South-North border will become a no drive zone, any vehicle in that area will be destroyed, military or not.  Any military vehicle 50 miles from the South-North border is at risk and should be withdrawn.
5. Any missile transporter with missile on board anywhere in North Korea is a target and should be abandoned or the missile removed.
6. If plutonium producing breeder plant(s) remain in operation for more than 1 week, or are stopped and then restarted, they will be attacked until the land is nothing but craters -- remove your personnel immediately or they will be killed.
7. Any missile site the U.S. suspects is capable of delivering nuclear weapons will be attacked within the next 3 months unless North Korea can demonstrate the sites have been dismantled or permanently disabled.  Any attempts to rebuild or re-assemble sites will result in their re-targeting by U.S. weapons
8. Any use of any weapon against South Korea will result in the destruction of North Korea's capital city, attacks starting in 24 hours from the confirmation of North Korean attack on South Korea
9. Any nuclear capable missile battery located in bunker or mountain will be attacked with tactical nuclear bunker buster weapons repeatedly until the bunker or mountain no longer exists.
• If North Korea remains belligerent at the conclusion of the above actions or passage of 6 months without realistic capitulation, the capital city of North Korea will be attacked, first all military targets and if within one week the regime has not surrendered, then the every military target in country will be attacked in sequence until there are no more military targets in North Korea.
• If capitulation is not complete by that time, then the capital city of North Korea will be utterly destroyed and ground forces will begin the taking of all North Korean major cities, leaving the capital city as a monument to the North Korean stupidity.

"No not exactly", I said.  "If we ever get to the point where an embargo is necessary and we employ that tactic, the North will launch conventional missiles at South Korean targets and we'll probably have to decide where down the list to skip to -- I would then predict destruction of nuke plants and missile sites long before any ground war began.  But I don't have much hope the nut in the North will backoff.  Maybe the President will play diplomacy until next year, but I doubt it.  I doubt anyone has that much patience with leaders as dangerous as that guy in the North.  Merry Christmas."
 

Sources:

1. North Koreans Back at Work in Nuclear Plant, Fox News Online, December 26, 2002

© Copyright, 2002, Michael Crawford, MILNET
 
 

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