Re: North Korea
 

The question is what does the north want? a spot on the table with the big boys? so they get a say what goes on in the world or are they just hell bent on wanting to take out America regardless of any situation?

Re: North Korea
 

They want as much as they can get and the more concessions they get, the more they will demand.

Re: North Korea
 

I feel we are getting close to the point of no return. N Korea will keep pushing the limits and that limit will be hit. Once they go past the limit there will be a lot of dead people but no more N Korea. N Korea will not win against the US Japan and S Korea. The issue's will be who shoots first if its N Korea then Russia and China will not get involved.

Re: North Korea
 

We're at the point of no return as suggested above. You either allow North Korea to become a fully fledged Nuclear state or you don't. Are they going to troll us with these utterly and 100% effective sanctions again? Whilst Russia continually supports them instead. :erm:

Russia is against N.Korea's nuclear program, yet literally nullifies the sanctions imposed against them.

Re: North Korea
 

This constant pushing by NK is making me think there's more going on then any of us know, while the leader might be an overgrown child his senior military are not. Either kim jong un believes he will get russian and chinese support regardless of how stupid he is or he's lost it as the road NK is on only has one destination and it isn't good for NK. Now that they have announced that they can mount nuclear warheads on their missiles Japan is going to find it very difficult not to respond if anymore missiles are fired in their direction they certainly cannot be expected to just accept the situation given at some point it may be a live missile that hits them.

This whole situation has demonstrated why Russia and China are not upto filling the role the USA has in global affairs as they could have prevented this from happening on numerous occasions and chose not too.

Re: North Korea
 

NK will target SK the second it is hit

Re: North Korea
 

Latest: President Trump is considering stopping all trade with any country still doing trade with North Korea. (Cough, China,,Cough).

Re: North Korea
 

I think this is one of the things he doesn't follow though on, he isn't going to break trade with China.

Re: North Korea
 

Time will tell.

The US with its oil reserves is sitting a lot prettier than it was a while ago.

I think a few people are imagining that we're trying to negotiate with a rational leader. We're not. Hitler marshalling non-existent armies into battle comes to mind. Once their leader is gone the NK people will soon see what's out their and be more than willing to make their choice. In the meantime they represent what looks like a formidable force but one which is mostly a facade.

Re: North Korea
 

U.S Defense Secretary, James Mattis, just now at an outside White House Press briefing... "Any threat to U.S Territories or U.S Allies will be met with a Massive Military Response."

Re: North Korea
 

I'm wondering who is helping NK with it's nuclear weapons programme as the level of progress is too quick for it to just be NK and that might be a reason why China is doing very little to rein NK in and why NK feel they can continue to push the way they are. There's definately something else going on here and perhaps that's the real force behind recent events.

Re: North Korea
 

Not sure why China would want a nuclear armed North Korea. It's only risks provoking American intervention and besides it's not great for their own safety to have them tinkering around with nukes.

Re: North Korea
 

China has agreed to join in on economic sanctions, which I believe will come to be tomorrow, I remember 4th September being banded about. These are tough sanctions, designed to cripple the rogue state further.

But Kimmy boy if left cornered and desperate, could see him cross a point of no return.

Re: North Korea
 

Yup although it's not going that well at the moment either. The other problem is all their missiles aimed at Seoul :erm:. It's a nightmare of a situation for anyone to deal with and it's only gotten harder since they've developed nuclear weapons.

China also have to take a lion's share the reasonability for this happening in the first place. They have been the protectorate of North Korea for years rebuffing American attempts to stop this earlier.

Re: North Korea
 

China had, has and will continue to have the power to end this but time after time they have failed to do so, perhaps NK got them involved in a nuclear power project in the beginning and lost control of it becoming a weapons program but whatever NK has progressed too quickly in their nuclear weapons program to have done it without help from someone. It makes no sense for China to have an unstable nuclear armed state on their border but they have allowed it to happen and continue to support that country. Yes they talk about supporting sanctions and then continue trading with NK anyway undermining the very sanctions they publicly support so China's agenda is very difficult to understand or judge on this.

I guess we just have to wait and see if NK feel like escalating this further with more missile tests or another warhead test.

Re: North Korea
 

Re: North Korea
 

China Latest: Finds it unfair and unacceptable that the US is prepared to suspend trade with any Country still doing business with North Korea.

IMO, All Nations need to cease trade with China and give them a message that they need to go in to North Korea and sort that evil dictatorship family once and for all.

Re: North Korea
 

China is playing both sides and it's clear we cannot trust them to put an end to this situation or to even abide by any agreement to isolate NK of course the problem is too many countries have allowed China to hoover up national debt and that will be a card they will use soon. North korea has clearly had substantial help from somebody to progress as quickly as they have i cannot see Russia being stupid enough to be involved which to me leaves two realistic options either China or Pakistan and the more resistance China puts up against action against NK makes me think more that they are involved in this rapid development.

Re: North Korea
 

Silly cynical response : Company making nuclear survival equipment reports increase in share price in the wake of the latest news from the Korean peninsular.

More seriously - there could well be people who profit from the situation.

Re: North Korea
 

Conspiracy theory rears it's head!

Re: North Korea
 

Chinese companies have been selling North Korea missile technology.

If China has genuinely had enough of NK expect them to substantially fortify their border with them to prevent refugees.

China seem to be near the limit. They have stopped much of their trade with them.

While we're at it it'd be good if Middle Eastern countries stopped allowing NK workers there - they are there at the demand of the NK government to earn currency to send home, but of course the ME really likes its cheap labour.

---------- Post added at 12:58 ---------- Previous post was at 12:50 ----------

WaPO

Re: North Korea
 

They need to ship a ton of patriot missile batteries in to SK, and then set out a plan for a crippling strike against NK.
Or maybe not a strike, if one of their nukes could be sabotaged to detonate prematurely, that would be ideal.

If military action is inevitable, then it must be before they get any further along in the development.

Assassination? would be difficult to get close, and taking out Kim wrong-in resolve it, there's probably someone just as bad or worse to take over.
The burning question, do the people believe in "their glorious leader" or are they just to scared not to?

Re: North Korea
 

You know there's 10 000 artillery batteries aimed at and within striking distance of Seoul, it'll be hard to stop some of them getting through and decimating the city no matter how surgical our strikes

---------- Post added at 07:06 ---------- Previous post was at 07:05 ----------

Currency trading is what's propping the regime up that's for sure

Re: North Korea
 

all you need to know

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ack-video.html

Re: North Korea
 

Military action isn't inevitable. Indeed, it would be very undesirable. The attack on North Korea that would minimise the risk to Seoul would be a massive, pre-emptive nuclear attack. North Korea store artillery in tunnels which essentially ensures that nothing short of nuclear weaponry would be able to inflict the necessary damage in the necessary time.

South Korea's defensive systems are built around missile attack, not artillery. There is no real way to stop artillery shells in flight. Millions would die before the launchers were destroyed.

This ignoring that China have said that they will get involved if a pre-emptive strike happens. They aren't yet ready to have a liberal, Western-style democratic Korea on their doorstep - look at how they're struggling with Hong Kong.

Re: North Korea
 

So what do N Korea actually want and think they can achieve?

Re: North Korea
 

They want a unified Korea under their system.

They think, given enough time, they can do so.

In the interim a life of luxury for the ruling family and classes is fine.

Re: North Korea
 

apparently the ordinary people enjoy eating mud and grass .

Re: North Korea
 

Well they've been told it's good for them and KJU is only fat because he's the work workers' 'queen'.

Re: North Korea
 

More likely they have been told it will be very bad for them if they dont ...

Re: North Korea
 

Draft UN Resolution suggests the U.S will seek an oil embargo on North Korea and a asset freeze on Kim Jong Un.

Re: North Korea
 

someone's gona open a large can of whoop ass on this little prat

Re: North Korea
 

Donald or Kim ?

Re: North Korea
 

What happens afterwards?

If we've learned anything from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, etc., is that there has to be a plan for after the military action - otherwise chaos and ongoing conflict ensues.

Re: North Korea
 

Agreed.
Before then, China and South Korea fear that if there are crippling oil sanctions, North Korea will invade and fire missiles at South Korea. China also fears a wave of refugees in such a situation.

Re: North Korea
 

Having some sort of plan is vital but, even if there is one, the world is such that chaos and ongoing conflict will probably ensue no matter what we do. It'd be great if we could get away with choosing the least worst option but we can't even do that with any degree of certainty and even that outcome might be horrendous. God only knows where this is going to end up but with KJU in possession of nukes and the US, Russia, China and Japan all having competing interests I don't see it ending well for anyone. Glad I'm not calling the shots... :shrug:

Re: North Korea
 

I think the problem is that no one is even thinking about "afterwards", rather than there being a least worst option.

Re: North Korea
 

In a number of scenarios there is no 'afterwards' to think about.

A pre-emptive attack on NK is likely to lead to a nuclear response from them and a response from China. As soon as China get involved Article 5 kicks in, and Russia are likely to join in with China.

If I became aware of Seoul being evacuated I would be considering my life choices closely.

I'm not convinced Japan will remain non-nuclear either. They have the technology to have fully functional weapons of at least intermediate range in months. The only reason they haven't done so as yet is the US's nuclear umbrella, and that seems to be weakening.

Re: North Korea
 

Hmmm I'm not sure that's true.

I'm sure a good many people are thinking about it and getting their brains tied up in knots. The problem is that there are so many imponderables and NK is so powerful that even with the might of the world aimed against them they could still cause a lot of trouble and do a whole lot of damage. That wasn't so much the case with Iraq or Afghanistan who posed no huge direct threat to the west really. It could most definitely be the case with Iran however and what to do about that regime is another big problem waiting on the horizon for the strategists to mull over in their free time...

Re: North Korea
 

South Korea has reported that North Korea has tonight, fired an unidentified missile that has again been flown over Japan.

http://news.sky.com/story/north-kore...ssile-11036058

Re: North Korea
 

We need to send an elite group of troops over there to take that little fat bustard out!

Re: North Korea
 

Sounds all very agreeable Mr B but one has to remember the quagmires of the of the past like Vietnam , Iraq and Afghanistan before we ever contemplate those steps again.

Re: North Korea
 

You also have to remember that there is no friendly resistance of any significance in NK. They're all totally brainwashed so any kind of local knowledge, essential for a covert operation like this, is likely to be scanty at best.

Re: North Korea
 

It'd be interesting to see what would happen if the madman was taken out and his obvious grip on those around him thereby released. How would they react? On the basis of some form of pre-determined armageddon type retaliation on SK, Japan etc. or would they seize the chance to have freedom from his tyranny and bring NK into the 21st C?

I wouldn't to be betting my life savings on the outcome of that scenario anyway. :erm:

Re: North Korea
 

For better or worse that, and any other proactive military intervention, are off the table.

What the launch does indicate, however, is that even the weakened actions that have been put in place are getting under Kim's skin.

China can bring him down in months however they fear a refugee crisis.

Re: North Korea
 

Better than a nuclear crisis I guess .. It is really only China that can resolve this. Doesn't China supply 90% of NK's crude?

Re: North Korea
 

IIRC it's all supplied by one pipeline over a bridge. A "terrorist" attack might disable it for long enough to bring the regime to it's knees. ;)

Re: North Korea
 

Yes. They cut that off the regime topples as the entire country grinds to a halt.

Re: North Korea
 

... precipitating a massive refugee crisis, much of which will come China's way; paving the way for the collapse of NK into massive civil war as the high heid yins battle it out for supremacy; and not forgetting the long-term risk of reunification, which would put an American ally and American military hardware and personnel right on China's southeastern border.

China badly wants the Kim regime to survive, purely for its own interest. I suspect they do have a line beyond which they will no longer tolerate the instability he's causing, but where they've drawn it is anyone's guess.

Re: North Korea
 

I think it would be so cool if Trump were to totally destroy Korea.

but as we all know. he's all talk. so no chance of it happening.

Re: North Korea
 

Not the millions of innocent citizens surely? We need a Plan B if the leader is deposed.

Re: North Korea
 

I suppose just bombing where Kim is and making sure he dies will be sufficient enough.
they were going to kill him anyway.

Re: North Korea
 

I think it'd be so cool if Trump were to totally destroy you but we can't always have what we want :angel:

Re: North Korea
 

The people higher up than the president are probably more focused on Venezuela next: https://www.yahoo.com/news/shunning-...015639651.html

Re: North Korea
 

Using the alleged said words by Crooked Hillary about Julian Assange, to Gary L.....

"Can't we just drone this guy?"

Re: North Korea
 

Huh. Well they are following in the footsteps of Iraq on that score, not using the US Dollar for oil pricing, so quite possibly.

Re: North Korea
 

They could price it in Woolongs (₩) for all the difference it will make to that socialist ruined economy.

Re: North Korea
 

Corbyn's utopia...

Re: North Korea
 

Unfortunately the naïve young will vote for it. :rolleyes:

Re: North Korea
 

Very likely they will in spite of the facts.

Like this Momentum idiot who seems to admire NK and despise everything about the US.

https://order-order.com/2017/09/18/m...rth-korea-usa/

Re: North Korea
 

North Korea Latest: U.S President Donald Trump has just signed an Executive Order which targets companies and individuals who trade with North Korea.

China's Central Bank has ordered it's banks to stop doing business with North Korea. Which could be the most significant step China has made against it's rogue Neighbour, the question remains, how defiant will Kim be with these steps because remember a cornered rat, is said to still pounce?

Re: North Korea
 

I would like to face a NK soldier, they might be tought surrender and your family die.

Secondly launch an attack on NK he will nuke Seoul, without a second thought.

Re: North Korea
 

The Japanese were no different. Clearly any attack on HK would have to be designed to take out that capability amongst many other things. There's no good outcome to be had only a least worst.

Re: North Korea
 

While much of the weapons NK has are old and obselete by our standards they still function and do the job and they have thousands of them making the idea of hitting them before they can fire almost impossible. It should be remembered that only a small amount of the artillery can fire and hit seoul from their current dispositions and that is reliant on them having assisted shells which extend their range and hitting those is within current U.S and SK capabilities but Seoul will get hit. I think if NK go the route of launching a military campaign against the south artillery isn't the main problem NK's nuclear weapons will be the choice for them to use.

I doubt NK has any intention of initiating any form of military action as propaganda aside they are fully aware it's not something they will win and their only hope is getting China involved which isn't a possibility if NK starts military action. The biggest problem is the missile program and their reckless targetting of their tests which is putting Japan in an impossible position of not being able to just accept these missiles violating their territory and Japan not wanting a military solution to it. China is key to any peaceful end to this as NK only continues to function as a nation because of chinese trade and supplies which range from oil to munitions and if they just cut those two NK would have serious problems in holding things together.

Re: North Korea
 

Any pre-emptive strike could only hope to take out their WMD capability and a proportion of the rest. There'd clearly be no way to stop mass casualties in SK as a result of retaliation (even if it were only short term) by NK.

China is key to this but they too are dealing with a maniac and they know it. If they were to force his hand they have no certainty of how he'd react and what damage he could/would do to Chinese interests.

Re: North Korea
 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-41356836
They're both right.

Surprised they don't get on more, they've got a lot in common, dodgy hair for a start...
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2017/09/22.jpg

Re: North Korea
 

"Show of force" is how the media have reported US bombers and strike aircraft flying close to North Korean airspace earlier today.

A show of force only because it's details have been revealed to the media. The significance is that this is the first time that US strike aircraft have operated this far north of the DMZ in the Sea of Japan. This is in actual fact a legitimate strike drill with a specific purpose and an escalation of the crisis to the next level.

A military objective in that it's an operational run for the strike package

A military objective to poke the hornet's nest and light up fixed air defence radars for marking as targets in a future SEAD mission

And to get rocket man to show his hand by wheeling his mobile air defence capabilities out of their underground bunkers (because after day 1 that's all he'll have left)

Re: North Korea
 

If things do escalate I do think NK will face a sudden unprecedented level of force aimed at destroying as much of their weapons capability as possible as quickly as possible. Maybe there'll be a message to Putin in that response too.

Re: North Korea
 

I've just gotten round to reading the Saturday edition of i - what's this about the world's biggest prat talking about testing a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific?! Does the Moscow Treaty ring any bells?

In the extremely unlikely event that a) anyone from North Korea is reading this, and b) that you are in any position to do something about this madman, I, a perfectly ordinary citizen of the United Kingdom and not a politician or leader or anyone in a position of power or authority, urge you in the strongest possible terms to do it - NOW!!!

There is absolutely no way the US - or anyone else - can possibly ignore a violation of said treaty, and surely no possible way in which they can react other than with military force - just shaking their heads in disapproval doesn't cut it when we're talking about nukes. The fact that NK is not a signatory is irrelevant...because the US definitely is (though the PRC is not, which is worrying to say the least).

I'm planning to retire in 2030 if not sooner. Now I'm starting to wonder if I'll even be here by then.

Re: North Korea
 

North Korea aren't a signatory to, well, pretty much anything.

NK detonate a weapon in the atmosphere even China will struggle to gloss over it.

Re: North Korea
 

The best anyone can hope for is that Kim takes early retirement and the Russians stop meddling.... Hmmm I wonder where those dodgy Ukrainian rocket engines that they've reverse engineered came from/via

Re: North Korea
 

Issue is, one thing Kim has going for him is that he is young, that said, NK is such a secretive nation, his actual birth date is unknown, estimations put him between the age of 33 and 36, however, carrying on his sedentary lifestyle and that he has his weight issues, he probably won't make it to his fathers age, which was 70.

The Leadership of the country is a Dynasty, so he probably has a few children already, hidden in secret.

Re: North Korea
 

In a roundabout way I mean involuntary early retirement ;) Although that's unlikely to happen as demonstrated by what happened to his Uncle who allegedly wanted to move towards normalising relations with the international community via China.

Re: North Korea
 

North Korea accuses US of declaring war

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-41391978

No need to declare war as it never ended.

Re: North Korea
 

Well it going hot has odds from the 'experts', although I know no-one listens to them any more, of about 50-50. A nuclear conflict views vary from 10% to inevitable if the war goes hot.

So deeply encouraging that two man-children are in charge of the respective sides. There seems to be a competition of who can be the most bellicose at the moment. That rhetoric coming from North Korea is par for the course, it coming from the United States is unheard of.

North Korea's leaders are being fed all the propaganda material they need and their paranoia is being constantly nourished. Insanity.

Re: North Korea
 

Fair question. How do you think Hillary Clinton would have handled this as President?

Bearing in mind there is an old interview of her from 2008 era, talking of Iran getting nuclear capability and the threat posed against Israel, that would cross a line her book, she stated that if Iran attacked Israel, if she's the President, she'd attack Iran and made no bones about totally obliterating them, which totally upset Iran at the time, is kinda no different to how Trump is threatening NK, today.



Par for the course, initially it was just bluster from NK, they did not have Nuclear capability, so their threats to blow up the U.S with past Presidents, was not real, so they could be easily ignored. Now, not so much.

I think the U.S strategy is to now taunt and intimidate NK and make it so abundantly clear that while, yes they may get to strike Japan or South Korea or even Guam and that they may have a million strong army. The U.S has the military hardware to annihilate them.

The two rockets NK fired over Japan, I think were tests to see if Trump would lose it and make a strike them, Trump obviously hasn't lost his cool with them, in the military sense, he obviously has a lot more buttons than people previously said he hadn't.

Re: North Korea
 

So firstly it doesn't matter. She was not elected and what she may have done in any particular situation is absolutely irrelevant. Trump won, and whatever our opinions we all have to get over it.

For all it matters she could have said she'd respond to North Korea by doing a naked pole dance for the UN Security Council. She's not the Commander in Chief.

However, as you asked, she'd have likely carried on the same policies she pursued as Secretary of State. She has foreign policy experience. She tended to be very hands off with North Korea, and dealt with them through intermediaries rather than direct negotiation. The criticisms leveled at her during her tenure were that she was too relaxed over North Korea.

http://www.politico.eu/article/hilla...clear-weapons/

She is extremely unlikely to have threatened them outright with 'fury and fire', she is extremely unlikely to have called KJ-U names to the United Nations, and is extremely unlikely to have engaged in diplomacy over Twitter.

Do you find it likely North Korea would, without either actual or perceived provocation, attack South Korea or any other nearby nation? If not, why respond to their provocation with provocation in turn? All Trump's actions have achieved so far is acceleration by North Korea of their weapons program and a whole bunch of propaganda material for KJ-U to blast at his people.

South Korea have backed off from broadcasting propaganda at North Korea to try and calm things down. It's their lives Trump is gambling with with his frankly belligerent approach. China and the West have always been the grown-ups dealing with the petulant child who fires rockets and tests nukes for attention, now the West's responses are under the remit of another petulant child.

Like it or not, North Korea appear to possess both fission and fusion bombs, and there are no military options that don't involve the deaths of tens of millions at best and billions at worst. On a purely selfish level North Korean intervention militarily doesn't worry me, it's the potential for escalation. North Korea border 3 nations: South Korea, China and Russia. That's an awful lot of nuclear weapons in a small space and an awful lot of potential for conflicts to spill over.

I would hope that there's a carrot being dangled for them somewhere that we're aware of, I don't see any positives coming from the stick. The only way to resolve this now is softly and over a long period, however I don't think President Trump's ego allows him to entertain this but would be delighted to be proven wrong.

---------- Post added at 12:47 ---------- Previous post was at 12:43 ----------

China have a declared policy of responding to attacks on North Korea. I have no doubt those rocket launches were done to get attention but most definitely not an attempt to provoke attack. North Korea don't want a war. The ruling dynasty are quite happy being in charge and their belligerence strengthens their hold on power. Getting into a hot war with the United States wouldn't really be good for their longer term prospects.

As far as whether Trump lost his cool over the matter or 'lost it' I don't know. For all you and I know his immediate reaction may have been to want to strike them and his Joint Chiefs talked him down before the plans were put into action.

Re: North Korea
 

Wonder what the genius masterplan is behind this, or is it just fake news?

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/01/po...rea/index.html

Re: North Korea
 

Do you think Trump's account has been hacked then? He (or his account) did tweet:

Re: North Korea
 

Sarcasm doesn't travel well on text mediums ;)

Re: North Korea
 

South Park gave this advisory to remind not to use your phone whilst being President:

Re: North Korea
 

I forgot the ;) Smiley .. sorry about that ... You are right though, Sarcasm doesn't travel well on text mediums :)

Re: North Korea
 

It's time...

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2017/10/2.jpg

...for a sequel

Re: North Korea
 

Ronery II :D

Re: North Korea
 

A "Cobra Ball" ballistic missile detection aircraft and a Korean E737 airborne early warning aircraft simultaneously took off in the last 4 hours. That's usually a sign that there's another missile about to be tested.

Re: North Korea
 

North Korea has fired another Intercontinental Ballistic Missile that flew for 50 Minutes at an altitude of 4,500m (the highest they have ever achieved according to U.S Defense Secretary, James Mattis) and travelled 650 Miles and landed in the Sea of Japan (Japan's economic zone), Japan's Prime Minister, Abe, is furious and is calling for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council. President Trump has said in a statement, it will be taken care of (whatever this means, is anyone's guess).

Re: North Korea
 

I don't think anyone has any idea what we can do about North Korea still....

Re: North Korea
 

I'm inclined to agree but something must be done. I just don't know what. Hopefully China will be the voice of reason here.

Re: North Korea
 

It was only last week, China sent an envoy to North Korea for talks, it's as if NK, are giving both two fingers to China and Trump (Or as they like to call him, Dotard).

Re: North Korea
 

I don't really know what China's motivation here. I imagine they must at least be putting a lot of internal pressure on them to cut this out as China's interest in them is only to prevent a Western friendly state on their border.

I don't see what the US can do. The country is so ruined than sanctions aren't going to work and they'll remain propped up by China/Russia.

Re: North Korea
 

What is more troublesome is what a Russian Nuclear bomber was doing near there at the weekend, they were seen approaching Aircraft Carrier USS Ronald Reagan that was in the Sea of Japan, the Russian bomber plane, was escorted away without incident by two U.S Navy F/A-18 Fighter Jets.

Re: North Korea
 

If the country is ruined and being propped up then just cut the funding. The research and development costs for ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads is phenomenal.

Re: North Korea
 

Just testing each other out... nothing to worry about.

Re: North Korea
 

Reports coming from South Korea officials this morning saying North Korea leader, Kim Jong Un, wants to 'desperately' sign a PEACE Treaty with the U.S and has signalled a desire to release ALL captured U.S prisoners as a gift.

Re: North Korea
 

Bit suspicious. I don't trust North Korea and this is rather out of character for them. North Korea remain pretty unlikely to be invaded/attacked as long as they don't start anything and are protected by China so why make any concessions? What do they want in return? I also find the idea he wants to meet with Trump dubious too, the Americans should make sure they've already made some steps before agreeing.

Still if it does work out then it's a significant foreign policy achievement for Trump and a relief for everyone else.

Re: North Korea
 

Lifting of sanctions? Not exactly rocket science.

The increased sanctions must be affecting them which also shows China playing the game.

Rather than approaching this with suspicion it should be welcomed. Obviously the devil will be in the detail but it's a start and should not be denied.

Any agreement needs a starting point. Talk,talk rather than war,war.

Re: North Korea
 

Yes obviously lifting of sanctions but to what extent? I don't see them entering the world economy any time soon and they've been under sanctions for so long that you wonder why it sudden bothered them now. It's not as if it has brought domestic pressure onto their leaders or really impacts their leaders in the way the Iranian sanctions did.

You can do both. I welcome it but it's North Korea so you would have to be pretty naive not to approach it with a lorry load of salt.

Re: North Korea
 

Wow Damien you either super stupid or super intelligent IDK.

They are so suddenly bothered because their long time sponsor (China) has acted.

Re: North Korea
 

:confused:

Re: North Korea
 

:rofl: