North Korea

[Sea of red]

Looks like butterball boy over in North Korea has walked back on his previous threats against Guam.

My advise on NK: let them launder their money, move their drugs, and all the the other black-market activity they engage in to keep their toilet running, and in return they agree to no further missile tests. This keeps them happy and crazy in their own little corner of the world, while they will be unable to improve the already pathetic reliability of their launch vehicles.

[Christianbookworm]

This is a thread about North Korea. And they haven't started WW3 yet. I pray that they never do.

[KingsGambit]

North Korea just launched a test missile that passed over Japan:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41078187

[One Bad Pig]

North Korea just launched a test missile that passed over Japan:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41078187

Despite all the saber-rattling they do in America's direction, it's Japan which is the main focus of their emnity. A century ago, Japan owned them.

[Sparko]

North Korea just launched a test missile that passed over Japan:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41078187

"US and Japanese forces have just finished a joint drill in Hokkaido while another annual exercise involving tens of thousands of South Korean and US military personnel is still under way in South Korea.
The North sees these regular military drills involving the US as highly provocative, perceiving them as a rehearsal for an invasion."

Ya know, shooting missiles at Japan is a good way to insure that there could be an invasion.

NK is idiotic, they are pushing to be destroyed while thinking they are showing their muscles. I am not sure if Kim Jong-un is delusional or stupid but he is going to get his country demolished trying to pretend he is a big dog.

[Roy]

Current reports indicate that NK has successfully detonated a Hiroshima-sized device, causing a 6.3 scale quake in the region. link

[Sparko]

they are almost asking to get invaded. at this point their threat against the world can only get worse if nothing is done. the only way to stop them is to do it preemptively or they will soon hold the whole world hostage with their insanity if they are allowed to amass a nuclear arsenal.

[Christianbookworm]

they are almost asking to get invaded. at this point their threat against the world can only get worse if nothing is done. the only way to stop them is to do it preemptively or they will soon hold the whole world hostage with their insanity if they are allowed to amass a nuclear arsenal.

Aren't they also holding their own people hostage in a sense? If only there was a way to deal with the NK government without harming innocent peasants.

[seer]

If only there was a way to deal with the NK government without harming innocent peasants.

How?

[Sparko]

How?

Wait till all the leaders are gathered in the palace for Kim Jong Un's Birthday or something, then bomb the palace.

[Zymologist]

How?

Have you ever seen Team America: World Police?

Oh wait...without harming innocents. Nevermind.

[Christianbookworm]

Have you ever seen Team America: World Police?

Oh wait...without harming innocents. Nevermind.

Maybe if the North Korean leaders conveniently fell into a coma? And then got captured so they could be charged for human rights violations? Pray for divine intervention? Which isn't likely. How many dictators have been disposed via "natural causes"?

[firstfloor]

[Christianbookworm]

[Starlight]

Aren't they also holding their own people hostage in a sense? If only there was a way to deal with the NK government without harming innocent peasants.

They're effectively holding the South Korean people hostage too. Seoul, the capital of South Korea with a ten million population is fairly close to the border and we'll within range of a lot of conventional artillery that NK has got stationed along the border. Even without NK using nukes there's almost no scenario in which they don't level Seoul in response to any US attack on them. That's why the US alliance with SK requires the US get SK to sign off on any US attack against NK, and SK seems unlikely to sign their own people's death warrant. This is why all US military options are implausible and the best course of action is to take no military action.

Long term the best course of action seems to be to deescalate with NK, and to have as friendly relations with them as possible and funneling some wealth into the country with a view to slowly having them transition from dictatorship to oligarchy.