North Korea appears to have blown up inter-Korean liaison office - Yonhap

[bluesofa]

2 minutes ago, DoctorG said:

12 hours ago, Mavideol said:

South Korea should use Kim's best friend and best deal maker to settle things down,

Roddy? 

Someone will end up cock-a-hoop.

[Crazy Alex]

11 hours ago, Tug said:

No as my post says a 100% maritime blockade millions of thumb drives dropped in country so the n Koreans know they have support if they get rid of Kim not shaking the enemy’s hand sucking up to and generally making an absolute fool of ones sielf,country,and squandering all the work of previous administrations so no don’t think giving the n Koreans reactors is a good idea.

Yes, I'm sure North Korea is loaded with people with computers to read thumb drives. But hey, at least you agree that Bill Clinton offering North Korea nuclear reactors was a dumb idea. Kudos.

[herfiehandbag]

13 hours ago, Traubert said:

 

It was more likely to be his sister.

Hmm, I wonder who (if anyone at the moment) is really in charge?

 

It is surely only a question of time until the whole structure collapses. The risk is whether it collapses "inwards" or "outwards".

Edited June 17, 2020 by herfiehandbag

[kamahele]

Drama queens

[heybuz]

17 hours ago, smedly said:

Kim has nukes and if cornered likely to use them which is why tin pot power hungry nut jobs like him should never be allowed them - we can thank Putin for that - giving them the ability

i thought it was Pakistan

[klauskunkel]

19 hours ago, webfact said:

his unprecedented but otherwise fruitless meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un

personally I wouldn't want to be near a fruit that resulted from those two...

[Stargeezr]

I guess North Korea is  very rich,  affording to blow up buildings like that.

Too bad the generals would not blow up one with the little boy inside.

  Oh I hope for too much.

Geezer

[Srikcir]

17 hours ago, johnpetersen said:

Actually, we can thank Pakistan for that. Back when it was reckoned to be a U.S. ally.

Pakistan helped North Korea make bomb

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/oct/19/pakistan.northkorea

 

[Srikcir]

It looks like Kim has learned from other US enemies on how to manipulate POTUS Trump. Play to his ego.

Kim will refrain if Trump wants the Nov. 3 election presidential election to go smoothly.

Imagine election eve after Kim launches a couple nuclear-capable ICBM's over Japan as tests a few days prior. 

 

[Srikcir]

2 hours ago, herfiehandbag said:

Hmm, I wonder who (if anyone at the moment) is really in charge?

 

It is surely only a question of time until the whole structure collapses. The risk is whether it collapses "inwards" or "outwards".

The same might be said about Trump regime.

[Baerboxer]

19 hours ago, keith101 said:

I doubt a Korean war would last very long these days nor the North Korean leader . Provided Russia and China stayed out of it .

 

Why would China and Russia stay out?

 

Russia isn't Soviet anymore but the ambitious dictatorial Putin wants to expand Russian influence and importance. 

 

China is NK's closest ally. Although dough-boy Kim is somewhat of a loose canon, his little sister may be getting ready to grab power, with Chinese backing. China likes a stable do as their told type running their satelites.

 

China is pushing many boundaries at the moment. The West is reeling from Covid 19. The virus shows how vulnerable the West is to such pandemics and how poor their response and coping is. Their economies are reeling and much weaker because of it. Mass lawlessness, rioting, mixed with protests is taking place in many Western countries that would normally counter Chinese aggressive expansionism. BLM might be protesting against racism but it is also a neo-Marxist organization that wants to destroy capitalism and replace it with the so called neo-communist socialism like China, Venezuela etc, where democracy is a sham and the truth is what they government says it is.

 

China, like all revolutionary totalitarian regimes wants to take advantage of chaos to further it's own interests. The Chinese government would most certainly not allow the US to simply neutralize NK. And the inept UN has become almost dominated by sham non democratic countries.

 

Perhaps after all, we are really heading to the apocalypse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tug]

3 hours ago, Crazy Alex said:

Yes, I'm sure North Korea is loaded with people with computers to read thumb drives. But hey, at least you agree that Bill Clinton offering North Korea nuclear reactors was a dumb idea. Kudos.

Sorry I’m old school usb sticks but how could you possibly think that I thought it was a good idea that bill Clinton would give them nuclear reactors that’s bizarre kinda scratching my head on that one lol I am aware that there was some talk in the late 80s of giving them non capable of producing weapons grade material in exchange for inspections and free reign in the country but ware in the world did you get the idea that I approve weird???

[Eric Loh]

Trump foreign policies have always been criticized for lack of a grand strategy - a coherent , long term plan. He really don’t have any strategy with his overtures to Kim. He was there for self gratification. Kim went with much expectation but now feel betrayed following the failed summits with POTUS. Kim entered those summits with an expectation of securing relief from a punishing economic sanctions but received none instead. In fact, US escalate the sanctions pressure and frustrate Kim who is now flexing his muscle to get Trump’s attention. Trump has done more harm than good in managing North Korea. US now have to rely on China to bring the tension down and as we speak, Pompeo is in the Far East for talks with the Chinese. I feel North Korea will escalate the tension more and likely to see fire fights. 

 

[johnpetersen]

54 minutes ago, Tug said:

Sorry I’m old school usb sticks but how could you possibly think that I thought it was a good idea that bill Clinton would give them nuclear reactors that’s bizarre kinda scratching my head on that one lol I am aware that there was some talk in the late 80s of giving them non capable of producing weapons grade material in exchange for inspections and free reign in the country but ware in the world did you get the idea that I approve weird???

How about because North Korea had already built a reactor and it was estimated that it has produced enough plutonium to make 2 nuclear weapons. And there was nothing to stop it from making more. So Clinton proposed the NK mothball that reactor and 2 others it claimed were for making electricity. In return for which it would get 2 light water reactors which are a lot harder to use to manufacture weapons grade nuclear material.

 

"Bill Clinton gave North Korea $5 billion and two nuclear reactors in 1994, essentially giving them nukes."

While president, Clinton did broker a deal with North Korea, amid revelations that the country was building a full-scale processing facility to produce plutonium.

North Korea had kicked international inspectors out of the country in 1993, announcing its intention to pull out of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, an international agreement North Korea had joined in 1985.

By then, the North Koreans had separated enough plutonium from spent fuel from a reactor it had built while Clinton was governor of Arkansas to create a couple of nuclear weapons, according to Joshua Pollack, a senior research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2017/aug/09/viral-image/viral-image-wrongly-blames-bill-clinton-giving-nor/

[JCauto]

3 hours ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Why would China and Russia stay out?

 

Russia isn't Soviet anymore but the ambitious dictatorial Putin wants to expand Russian influence and importance. 

 

China is NK's closest ally. Although dough-boy Kim is somewhat of a loose canon, his little sister may be getting ready to grab power, with Chinese backing. China likes a stable do as their told type running their satelites.

 

China is pushing many boundaries at the moment. The West is reeling from Covid 19. The virus shows how vulnerable the West is to such pandemics and how poor their response and coping is. Their economies are reeling and much weaker because of it. Mass lawlessness, rioting, mixed with protests is taking place in many Western countries that would normally counter Chinese aggressive expansionism. BLM might be protesting against racism but it is also a neo-Marxist organization that wants to destroy capitalism and replace it with the so called neo-communist socialism like China, Venezuela etc, where democracy is a sham and the truth is what they government says it is.

 

China, like all revolutionary totalitarian regimes wants to take advantage of chaos to further it's own interests. The Chinese government would most certainly not allow the US to simply neutralize NK. And the inept UN has become almost dominated by sham non democratic countries.

 

Perhaps after all, we are really heading to the apocalypse.

This was a cogent post, well, at least until you got to the Mass lawlessness and BLM sentences. Ignoring those contentious statements and focusing on the meat of the matter...

Yes, agreed, why on earth would Russia and China sit back and watch? There's a reason they didn't before, and there's the same reason they wouldn't again. 

I am less concerned about China's boundary pushing though than you are. They're still fundamentally weak in terms of their economy, military and overall ability to manage an increasingly difficult country with massive environmental issues and won't be able to overcome those internal issues very easily. Those same weaknesses are evident with Russia, which however is much more experienced and equipped to cause trouble in the meantime due to their long-term build up of propaganda and soft warfare tools and skills. Overall though the only thing that can threaten America is internal division. I think this is why America's enemies are both focusing on that and succeeding in their efforts, unfortunately.