Originally Posted by Pandemos

I think that if it cam down to it, North Korea could be militarily defeated very quickly, maybe in just a few days. A bit of shock and awe would do that, quickly followed up by love-bombing. Flood the country with convoys of free food, beer, TVs, DVDs and whatever and the locals will soon be onboard.

The difficulty is getting to a position where it would be possible to do that. The risk is that they'll just do something crazy if they see a military build-up.

China's also a problem because you can't go launching a military campaign on their doorstep and not expect them to have something to say about it. That said, I think it would be possible to get the Chinese onboard. North Korea's a pain in the ass for the Chinese as much as anyone else and some juicy deals for chinese banks and companies and other concessions could be persuasive.