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The Korean situation

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  • #132983
    raymondu999
    Participant

    With tensions heating up in Korea – and even China (who usually is N. Korea’s sole outside friend) backing away from N. Korea – I wonder – would any grands prix be cancelled if tensions build further?

    As a Chinese myself I am somewhat concerned for the situation, especially as I am so close to the action. Do you think any of the “oriental” grands prix have any chance of cancellation?

    #231018
    andae23
    Participant

    I think there’s definitely a chance the Korean GP will get cancelled: North Korea has now officially declared war with the South and we simply don’t know if the situation will deteriorate between now and October when the race is scheduled. Regarding China: that’s in under ten days, and Shanghai is not very close to North Korea, so I think it will go ahead. Same goes for the Japanese GP, though again we don’t know how the tensions will develop.

    I can understand your concerns and wish you all the best! Hopefully this will get sorted out quickly.

    #231019
    Ben Furtula
    Participant

    Yeah I agree with andae23 I think that the Korean GP will get cancelled. The announcement of North Korea declearing war with South Korea will most likely cancel the GP in Korea, and with the money and dept the GP has created with the GP in Korea, Bernie has said it will most likely be it’s last year. As for the GP in China next weekend, that hopefully won’t be canceled. raymondu999 I hope that the situation in Korea hopefully goes away quickly.

    All The Best, Iceman25

    #231020
    Aish Heydrich
    Participant

    PLEASE SELECT THE AUSTRIAN RED BULL RING INSTEAD OF KOREAN GP, in that case. Bitte! :)

    #231021
    Prisoner Monkeys
    Participant

    North Korea has now officially declared war with the South

    No, they haven’t. They have said that they are in “state of war” with the South, and that every decision they make will be made with this in mind. They’re not actually at war, because a) they’ve technically been at war with the South for the past sixty years, and b) they haven’t actually done anything that could be considered an act of war.

    I honestly doubt that the Korean Grand Prix will be cancelled, except in the case of a nuclear shortage. For one, the North seems to have abandoned its idea of uniting the Koreas by force, and is instead concentrating on attacking – verbally for the moment, but they claim a military strike is not far away – the United States. They see the United States as being the perpetrator of every grave injustice, and are more interested in threatening them than they are their neighbours; perhaps they feel that if they can wound America’s pride enough, the South will capitulate and join with the North, having awakened to America’s imperialist oppression.

    However, an actual war would be unlikely to threaten the race because it would be over very quickly. Despite having the fourth-greatest army on the face of the earth, the North’s soliders use weapons and equipment that the Soviet Union deemed unuseable, and the bulk of their firepower is aimed directly at Seoul. It would take a matter of hours for America and the South to target and destroy their artillery positions, and despite having nuclear weapons, the North does not actually have the ability to deliver them via missile – which means they need a bomber, which would be easily intercepted. Any war would likely reduce North Korea to a smouldering crater in the space of a few days. The West using nuclear weapons is out of the question, because they’re unnecessary and because the fallout would have the potential to affect over three billion people.

    Given the distance from Seoul and its relative strategic unimportance, it would not be likely for Mokpo – the site of the circuit – to be affected by such a war. Provided that Seoul stands, the race will probably go ahead.

    #231022
    matt90
    Participant

    What PM said. Basically, the only way I see it being cancelled is if North Korea continue the rhetoric for another 6 months before finally deciding to act on it- meaning a war starts near the date of the grand prix.

    #231023
    andae23
    Participant

    Provided that Seoul stands, the race will probably go ahead.

    Are you realizing what you’re saying?

    I think that if North Korea does decide to invade South Korea within the next 6 months, the GP will immediately get cancelled – it’s just unthinkable a country will host an event so utterly pointless as a Formula 1 race when they are also fighting on the frontline. But of course there is a very bug ‘if’, because we simply don’t know if this scenario will occur.

    #231024
    andae23
    Participant

    Provided that Seoul stands, the race will probably go ahead.

    Are you realizing what you’re saying?

    I think that if North Korea does decide to invade South Korea within the next 6 months, the GP will immediately get cancelled – it’s just unthinkable a country will host an event so utterly pointless as a Formula 1 race when they are also fighting (or have been fighting if the war indeed lasts very very shortly) on the frontline. But of course there is a very bug ‘if’, because we simply don’t know if this scenario will occur.

    #231025
    Prisoner Monkeys
    Participant

    An invasion of the South is perhaps the least-likely scenario to arise. The North simply don’t have the means to do it.

    #231026
    Force Maikel
    Participant

    In fact the korean war has never ended, they agreed to a cease fire but a peace treaty was never signed. They have been technically at war for 60 years!

    @prisoner-monkeys
    Their military means might be outdated but they have superior numbers. Wiki states they have 1,106,000 active personnel and 8,200,000 reservist. Never underestimated your enemy.

    #231027
    Prisoner Monkeys
    Participant

    Their military means might be outdated but they have superior numbers.

    And virtually no air force. What they do have is a mismatched selection of second-hand Soviet and Chinese aircraft, most of which is in various states of disrepair. A coalition between the United States and the South would establish air superiority simply by showing up, thwarting any ground invasion. Which would already be hamstrung by the limited number of passes through the Demilitarised Zone.

    #231028
    Force Maikel
    Participant

    @prisoner-monkeys Agreed the aircraft they have plenty of are old planes from the last war like the MIG-17 and MIG-19 but they are no match for the modern might of South-Korea and the USA. The 35 MIG-29’s however might cause some issues. They are not the youngest but they still pack a punch. Even the reformed German Luftwaffe used the MIG-29 up until 2003 because it was such a good plane.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/yvesvanneck/5814042129/
    (This one is from the Slovak Air Force hence there are no to many pictures out there of the N-Korean ones)
    I reckon the North might get some ground in the initial stages but the south is going to push em right back over the border. I don’t even think they really need the US necessarily

    #231029
    robk23
    Participant

    If North Korea tried to attack the US they would probably be a smoking crater within a few days.

    If the situation in Bahrain where people were actually going out into the streets and fighting didn’t get the Bahrain GP cancelled last year then the possible threat of war in Korea will hardly put Bernie off.

    #231031
    tmekt
    Participant

    It’s very, very unlikely they’ll actually be doing anything.

    Kim Jong-Un is just trying to prove his rather newly acquired power to the new South Korean PM and the United Nations (who recently introduced new sanctions for the country, as far as I recall). The situation will probably quiet down when they start discussing about the next big aid package at the latest.

    #231032
    tmekt
    Participant

    @robk23

    If North Korea tried to attack the US they would probably be a smoking crater within a few days.

    Like Afghanistan and Iraq?

    North Korea probably isn’t powerful enough to think about occupying the South but it would be extremely costly to any power to enter war with them (if the same kind of results were wanted as with the most recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq). They shouldn’t be underestimated.

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