[talaniman]

Well maintained old nukes are effective if needed. Bet you can't tell if its an old nuke, or new one that's being exploded over your head.

[paraclete]

with Obama depleting existing stock and not even upgrading what's left ;we will have about 1000 aged and deteriorating nukes for our umbrella .

More than enough, you only need one for NK, beyond Pongyang there is nothing, besides your fleet of aircraft carriers is more than equal to the task, talk about a belt and braces approach to life

[tomder55]

Well maintained old nukes are effective if needed. Bet you can't tell if its an old nuke, or new one thats being exploded over your head.

Oh if only our enemies thought in terms of reductionism. If Zero pursues his dream of a nuclear free world, Japan, South Korea and other countries long sheltered under America's atomic umbrella will have urgent second thoughts. He (and you apparently )do not comprehend that unilateral U.S. strategic weapons reductions are as likely to encourage nuclear proliferation as reduce it.

[talaniman]

That fear may well be so, but everyone you take off the black market is one less to worry about. We have been here before with India, and Pakistan, remember? I am not saying be less alert about the saber rattling of NK, but don't panic, or let our allies, and protected countries panic either.

What should we do? Sell SK, and Japan nukes, or nuke NK? That would be escalation.

[paraclete]

No Tal let each progess according to their policy. Possession of nukes doesn't necessarily mean they will be used. Perhaps there is need for a deterrent on the doorstep in Asia. India and Pakistan have their problems but they haven't launched into all out war. Japan and SK should counter NK and present Kim Jung Uncool with a believable prospect of obliteration and just maybe it might be a counter to recent Chinese aggression

[paraclete]

That mouse is roaring again. Kim Jong Uncool wants to kill everyone, but the person he wants to kill is just too far away so he has cut the hot line, now that person does not exist.

What I don't get is how this maniac thinks he can win, at best all he will get is a waste land. He might have an army of millions but he has no real ability to transport them anywhere other than a short walk south. You would think that history might have taught him something. The last time the US confronted North Korea it ended in stalemate and devistation

[tomder55]

The Kim Dynasty have always ushered in a new wave of violence and bloodshed to gain legitimacy . This time Kim's toys have gotten much deadlier. It's bad enough that the NRKS have advanced their nuke program to a point that they successfully detonated a test ,and have successfully tested staged ballistic missiles... but the bigger problem is that the
12ers in Tehran are financing the whole enterprise and will benefit from the technology transfer . The pathway to an Iranian nuke can be traced back to the NORKS ;to Pakistan ;to China. Out of control proliferation has China's fingerprints all over it.

[paraclete]

I don't think the Chinese stupid enough to want another state in their region with the bomb, particularly not an unstable one like NK

[talaniman]

I think the young new leader has to at least talk tough or his own will eat him for lunch. I mean if he can' yell at the west and let them be the enemy, then his own people will will act on their empty bellies and then where will China be?

[paraclete]

I don't think the chinese would be concerned by regime change in NK, it would be another good market for them if it opened up and they could do with less tension in the region

[paraclete]

Officially on NK's part at least - a state of war exists

North Korea declares a state of war as attack plan glimpsed in background | News.com.au

NK is advancing its brinkmanship, so if SK so much as blink it will be a provocation. It appears the US gun boat up the river tactics of last week went down like a lead balloon in NK. It was polite of them to tell us all this time, instead of just attacking

[tomder55]

Yeah blame America .

[W]e do have one pretty good metric with which to judge the country's intentions: the Kaesong Industrial Complex. The Kaesong Industrial Complex, located just across the northern side of the border, is staffed by South and North Koreans. It can't function without Pyongyang's daily okay. If the North suddenly shuts down Kaesong at some point, watch out. But as long as it's still running, as it has been throughout the provocations and tensions of the last few weeks, we can probably – probably — assume that North Korea is not actually planning to launch a war.

A very good sign that North Korea is bluffing about war

[paraclete]

Well if the caps fits, wear it. Your actions, once again were unhelpfull. Do you think they weren't aware of your capabilities. No, you had to remind them at the wrong time. You don't have a diplomatic bone in your body, you have to always play the bully

[tomder55]

Yeah diplomacy has worked so well in the past . The language that bullies like the un-Kim understand is a punch in the mouth ;not sweet talk concessions by Jean Francois Kerry and his ilk.
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/globa...warning/63706/

[paraclete]

No Tom it hasn't worked in sixty years

[tomder55]

The Chinese have increased its military posture along the North Korean border including troop movements and warplane activity. They are now conducting unscheduled exercises in the Yellow Sea that includes 'live fire' on Vietnamese fishing vessels ; and amphibious assault exercises 80 km from Malaysia .

Russian President Vladdy Putin ordered a surprise military exercise from his presidential jet on a flight home from the BRICS meeting in South Africa. It is being conducted in the Black Sea .

Chinese President Xi Jinping told his South Korean counterpart on Wednesday that Beijing is willing to help reconciliation between South and North Korea, the foreign ministry said.

"China is willing to provide the necessary assistance to advance South-North reconciliation and cooperation," Xi told President Park Geun-Hye in a phone call, according to a statement on the ministry website.

China willing to help with Korea reconciliation - The West Australian
By reconcilliation ,he means a take over of South Korea.

"If there is any provocation against South Korea and its people, there should be a strong response in initial combat without any political considerations," South Korean President Park Geun-hye told the defense minister and senior officials at a meeting on Monday.

South Korea vows fast response to North; U.S. positions destroyer | Reuters
Park's mother was killed by a North Korean assassin's bullet that was intended for her father .I don't think she will back down from the NORKS intimidations .

Stung by criticism that its response to the shelling of a South Korean island in 2010 was tardy and weak, Seoul has also threatened to target North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and to destroy statues of the ruling Kim dynasty in the event of any new attack, a plan that has outraged Pyongyang.

Like 1950 ;this situation is one spark away from spiraling out of control.

[paraclete]

Like 1950 ;this situation is one spark away from spiraling out of control.

Tom we don't know if this is about internal NK politics or something else. The santions have been unhelpful because they don't elicit the required response. Undoubtedly the NK see it as we have tried to talk to these people but they just push us further all the time, while the US sees it as the NK are intractiable. The south hasn't stopped giving aid to the north. What China does it does for its own purposes, it can't afford a war, it is not isolated now as it was in 1950. Reunification may be a good thing and it doesn't need to be a northern take over, China understands the benefits of a market economy

[tomder55]

Good ;then let the Chinese do a regime change on the Kim dynasty . You make it sound that the Kims are the puppet master instead of the other way around.

China understands the benefits of a market economy

keep deluding yourself . What they have is a failed Potamkin economy that is about to have the mother of all bubble bursts . The only leverage they will have is muscle... and that is why they have been flexing it so freely these last few years .

[paraclete]

If China fails then we are all in trouble. No economy is isolated from any other in this world except maybe NK. China knows we need them but they need us also. You want to laugh at them but they have sustained growth and in doing so they have changed their economy and upgraded their inferstructure as well as commencing new industries. The way they are organised is different to your economy they have a longer term view and an energy you can only envy

[tomder55]

The NORKS closed access to the Kaesong Industrial Park.
Experts said that we shouldn't take seriously the harsh rhetoric coming from the un-Kim as long as long Kaesong was in operation. Thus, this news is very bad indeed.