[scoundrel]

Originally Posted by trailmaster

In my opinion there will never be World War 3 in my lifetime. The end of the cold war and the breakup of the Soviet Union ends at least for the time being any threat from the Russians. China is still communist, but they are embracing some of the ideals of capitalism so I don't think they have plans to start a war which would devastate their nation and destroy all the gains they have made in the last ten years. Then there is North Korea which claims it has a million man army and has the bomb, but I know that if the North Koreans tried anything funny the Chinese would stop them, and Russia would help also. But there is one more thing that is more frightening than a war using atom or h bombs and that is germs that are being studied in secret labs all over the world. What if one day some superbug gets out of one of these labs and infects just one person. The pandemic from this infection could decimate the entire population of the world in just a couple of months.

The North Koreans are highly belligerent and unstable in their conduct towards the outside world but with them it is all about keeping the ruling family in power. They need to maintain a permanent state of emergency for internal political reasons. If they were bigger they would be a bigger threat because they are very capable of invading South Korea should they believe they could defeat the place. As things are, they maintain a huge military for a country with so little resources and in the main the purpose is defensive. There can be little doubt that the United States would crush them like beetles if they were weaker, and if China could be relied on to do nothing, but of course neither of these preconditions is met.

In the end, China is the country most likely to crush North Korea. There is clear evidence that China is unhappy with her neighbour and ally. But China is a conservative power when it comes to military actions and would not attack North Korea casually or without a really strong cause for action.