Seoul: N. Korea to Collapse, China "Incompetent"

Updated at 7:25 p.m. ET

Secret State Department cables released through news outlets Monday show the U.S. planning for the day North Korea implodes from its own economic woes, which a South Korean official is quoted as saying could happen "two to three years" after the death of the current dictator, Kim Jong Il.

The Obama administration has called the latest leak of secret government documents by the website WikiLeaks a threat to national security, but it is also a major embarrassment, CBS News National Security Correspondent David Martin reports.

The collapse of North Korea would be a cataclysmic event and planning in advance makes sense, but the revelation will only fuel North Korea's paranoia.

The secret U.S. government document reported on Monday, day two of the timed Wikileaks release by the New York Times and other international outlets, was written in February. In it, South Korea's vice foreign minister not only predicts the collapse of North Korea but also is extremely critical of China.

China has "no will" to use its economic leverage to force North Korea to change its policies and the Chinese official who is the lead negotiator with North Korea is "the most incompetent official in China," the official said, according to the leaked document.

The Times reported that, in the event of a sudden unification, South Korea would plan business deals with China over the mineral-rich part of the north in order to warm the country to the north's collapse.

The United States, however, would unlikely be welcomed by China north of the demilitarized zone currently separating the north and south, the Times reported.

The document is one of hundreds of thousands obtained by WikiLeaks. First the online site released battlefield reports from Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, it has moved on to diplomatic cables, more than 250,000 of them, some with less-than-diplomatic language about world leaders.

"The United States deeply regrets the disclosure of any information that was intended to be confidential," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters Monday afternoon. "Disclosures like these tear at the fabric of the proper function of responsible government."

So far WikiLeaks has only released a fraction of the quarter-million diplomatic cables it intends to distribute, but it has left the U.S. mortified that it could not protect its secrets.

"When you take things like that out of context, it certainly, I think, helps no one but hurts diplomatically," former President Jimmy Carter said in an interview to be webcast Tuesday on CBSNews.com's "Washington Unplugged."

The White House has ordered a review of how government agencies safeguard sensitive information, and the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation.

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[sheilamba]

What a situation! I wrote about it here, with photos of the protest and video: http://www.examiner.com/fashion-trends-in-san-francisco/north-korea-us-south-korea-japan-refuse-meetings

[azkobushi]

All China ever does is "urge restraint". When it comes to solving real problems with N. Korea, they are useless. It's just a matter of time before N. Korea implodes. Then S. Korea will be faced with the same kind of problem that occurred with E. Germany. Maybe China will build another wall then.

[James93x]

The SK Foreign Minister should remember how South Vietnam fell to Hanoi in 1975 and Philippines ousted the Americans from Subic Bay. Harry Truman's little war will not last forever (quoting Dwight Eisenhower).

[Lawyers-Guns-n-Money06]

Someone with lots of moohlah -- say, a Rupert Murdoch or a George Soros type -- needs to invest some money to dig, I mean really DIG, up these people's arses. I wanna know who they are, where they're from, who their contacts are, the names of their maids and nannies, what they eat for breakfast, where they bank, what sort of lewd habits they have...

Imagine if every single move Julian Assange and his creepy cohorts made was reported live and they were forced to live under a microscope.

Shoe, meet other foot.

[tmittelstaed]

Believing that China would do nothing about a collapsing N Korea realm is very naieve. If anything happens with N Korea's government that would cause it to get closer to South Korea, such as a North Korean government destabilization, or a coup, or some such, then China would send in the Red Army just as the US sent our army into Afghanistan and Iraq. China has no interest at all in a unified Korea. And the fact is that every year the Koreans who remember a unified country are getting older and older and are dying off.

In another 30 years, talking about a unified Korea is going to be like talking about unifying Virginia and West Virginia. Nobody in either country will be left alive who is anything other than a distant relative of someone in the opposite country. And the culture of both Koreas will have diverged to the point that both populations will be pretty much independent from each other.

[AnnieDanny]

I despise Wikileaks. I'd rather not hear a thing about them or any mention of them. If we ignore them maybe they won't have a reason to exist.

[jms133]

Well,for once I agree with Sarah Palin,this smacked of treason.Exposing sensitive material from ongoing diplomatic processes is trying to influence the outcome of the process.Of course it's about money but it's also about national security and relations with our allies which need a certain veil of secrecy until its no longer sensitive.Then,thats fine.Just dont endanger any ongoing negotiations or get anyone hurt.

[imnho]

WikiLeaks is going to get someone killed or major intellgence capability compromised if this keeps up. These continual core dumps of intellegence will spin out of control.

[miami_don]

I agree. This time he may have crossed the line, or at least I hope so. That little SOB they are holding for these leaks needs to be moving rocks in the Arizona desert for the rest of his life.

[jackpenn]

The best thing that could happen for the North Korean people would be for their government to collapse, so they could begin a new democratic society of people like the South Koreans, and maybe someday it could be one Korean Nation. I have complete confidence in the South Korean military to be able to handle any aggression coming from the North, after all we have 28,000 of our American military stationed there, along with any other backup from America they might need in Naval and Air Force fire power. I would hope to believe the common people of North Korea would love to see their government collapse, so they could get some necessary aid, like food and supplies. Those people have been suffering for years under that Kim Jong "Koo Koo" bird regime. The trouble is; he feeds and supplies all of his military people, and everybody else suffers and dies, creating a dominate country of mostly military.

[miami_don]

Let em both rot and blow away. I am glad you feel that strongly about South Korea but I am having a hard time warming up to the idea that our ally just turned us down on a Free Trade Agreement less than a month ago.

Let em eat worms says I....no American dead to defend Kia, Samsung, and the cattle producers of South Korea. Let the French, Chinese, and Greece defend them after all they have FTR's with South Korea.

[jackpenn]

The best thing that could happen for the North Korean people would be for their government to collapse, so they could begin a new democratic society of people like the South Koreans, and maybe someday it could be one Korean Nation. I have complete confidence in the South Korean military to be able to handle any aggression coming from the North, after all we have 28,000 of our American military stationed there, along with any other backup from America they might need in Naval and Air Force fire power. I would hope to believe the common people of North Korea would love to see their government collapse, so they could get some necessary aid, like food and supplies. Those people have been suffering for years under that Kim Jong "Koo Koo" bird regime. The trouble is; he feeds and supplies all of his military people, and everybody else suffers and dies, creating a dominate country of mostly military.