In your free time, visit some helpful info in the field of Txs Hldm Pkr

Just everyone remember: stay indoors for the 1st 48 hours. The truly hellish half-life particles are running down in that period.

Am I the only one who has kept a sixpack of water bottles under my bed at all times in Korea? Well, have a nice day…

But apparently change is in the works up North for the Dear Leader-who-is-a-little-less-dear, and it will be interesting to see what comes about up there.

/sarcasm on/

Gosh, there seems to be quite a horrified tone coming through in your translation from the original.

“…People are in shock….when one considers that the re-election of U.S. President George W. Bush and the atmosphere that has accompanied the start of his second term that U.S. foreign policy has gotten even more hardline,….the possibility of an attack is not low…”

It’s a good thing this kind of analysis was never done in the US and European media, when the US and the Soviet Union were facing each other in Europe with literally thousands of tactical nukes for decades…

Oh wait (slaps self on forehead). Of course such analyses were done, just that nobody in ROK was evidently paying attention or had the imagination to transpose such analyses to their neighborhood.

“…the two pressing questions facing the Korean government in condensed form….One is to block North Korea?€™s possession of nuclear weapons in a peaceful way, while the other is to make the U.S. abandon plans to attack the North with nukes in the event of an emergency.”

There’s only one way to be sure of the latter, ROK. Send the insane American cowboys packing. Then empty out a big portion of the treasury and send the moneybags north. (How much percentage for a DPRK “piece of the action”, like in that original Star Trek episode? An interesting subject for speculation).

Safety and security will be assured, smiles will break all over the peninsula, the birds will start singing, and the bright light of a new dawn will illuminate upturned faces…wait, better scratch that last metaphor, doesn’t seem appropriate somehow.

/sarcasm off/

FWIW, it’s my understanding that the US removed all of its own tactical nuclear warheads from the ROK in 1991, well before the crisis of 1994 with DPRK, and the current period of assumed deployment of “5 to 6″ operational DPRK nukes.

I have no idea if Japan allows US storage of tactical nuclear weapons onshore, but I would think not, given their history. Seems to me I recall earlier periods of intense anti-American demonstrations in Japan, when nuclear-armed US navy ships made port calls.

So I presume a US tactical nuclear weapon counterattack (or attack, if you like –by tactical aircraft gravity bombs, or ship or plane-launched cruise missiles)would have to come from US Naval assets deployed from non-Japanese waters. Or from heavy USAF bombers out of Guam (not Okinawa? — presumably not since Japan regained sovereignty there).

So — since we’re in the “Fail-Safe” mode here — let’s assume a NorK missile nuclear first strike against Guam, during a crisis period of high tension on the peninsula — for whatever reason (deliberate because US heavily engaged elsewhere in the world, or simple miscalculation by NorK, etc.). Also — assume no US carrier task forces in immediate current aerial striking range of NorK.

In this situation, just how does the ROK envision “…make[ing] the U.S. abandon plans to attack the North with nukes in the event of an emergency”? (By ICBM from CONUS or “boomer” subs, or maybe by attack submarine-launched nuke cruise missiles if in range).

Seems to me that the only way to do this is to have all US forces leave the ROK peninsula — before such a contingency happens. Then there’s no longer a reason for such a strike by either side, and the ROK can rest assured that Uncle Sam will keep his nukes “holstered”.

Such is the price of nuclear safety. No matter how you twist and turn, ROK, you’ve got to pay a premium for “catastrophe insurance” — one way or another.