KR North Korea Megathread - Dear Leader and his shenanigans

MOD NOTE:

There's so much news about North Korea right now and what Un is doing, I got a suggestion for a NK megathread, so here it is. Post the world's greatest nation's antics here. I'm merging a few of the more recent threads to continue discussion.

ORIGINAL POST:
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https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/south-korea-planning-war-decapitation-132232777.html

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has pushed for a new plan for a rapid war with North Korea and an overhaul of the country's defense industry to overwhelm and crush the North's government, the South Korean newspaper The Chosun Ilbo reported Tuesday.

Moon took office in May promising to attempt to engage diplomatically with North Korea and seek peace, but in the months since, the North has provoked the international community with missile tests at a blistering pace.

For some time, South Korea has been training a "decapitation force," reportedly with the help of the US Navy's SEAL Team 6, but now an increasingly bold North Korea may demand quicker action.

South Korea's new plan identifies more than 1,000 targets for precision missile fires and sites for marines to drop in and quickly kill North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the paper reported.

The plan represents a more independent version of South Korea's current plan, which relies on support from US aircraft carriers. As it stands, no major military commander recommends military action against North Korea, which has a staggering array of conventional — and potentially nuclear — weapons pointed at Seoul, where 26 million call home.

But South Korea's new plan to quickly and decisively dominate the North relies on reforming the defense-acquisition process and cutting out wasteful spending to wield the full might of its economic dominance against Pyongyang, according to the report. For that reason, don't expect the plan to take effect anytime soon.

 

[Tookie]

I would expect the summit to still take place. The North Koreans always dance around delaying and cancelling virtually any meeting before it takes place, Trump just preempted them this time.

 

[Black Waltz]

I would expect the summit to still take place. The North Koreans always dance around delaying and cancelling virtually any meeting before it takes place, Trump just preempted them this time.

It still might happen, just not on June 12th.
I have to say, I totally saw this coming the moment the norks started back up with the threats.

 

[Tookie]

It might happen, just not on June 12th.

I thought it was very telling that the challenge coins the White House made said "2018" but left off "June 12th." The North Koreans even pulled this with low-level talks on Olympic preparation a few months ago, so these talks will definitely get punted around a bit.

 

[Medicated]

We got our hostages back, had the North Koreans dismantle their nuclear program and blow up their nuclear testing site, and brought the North and South back to the same table, and America had to give them absolutely nothing in return. But... Why not, Trump got played I guess. By someone's standards, I'm sure.

These people are fucking ridiculous.

I don't see this any different from the hot-cold game Trump has been playing with NK the whole time. I think it's much preferable to wait this sort of speculation out.

Gotta love the people who someone know Trump is the laughing stock of the entire world because their Twitter, Facebook and reddit feed tell them so. Because we know if Clinton or Obama had done the same thing and talks had broken down, you'd see them rationalizing this in the complete opposite way.

It's just so transparent at this point I wonder how people don't even become self-aware at what they are doing.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Well, no incentives apart from the crushing, economic sanctions that were more than enough to get us to this point in the first place.

The "crushing, economic sanctions" didn't bring them to the table all throughout these decades, they didn't bring them to the table now - at least not by themselves. There's another thing to be considered, which is NK successfully creating nuclear devices and (apparently) mating them with a (more or less) functional missile in the more recent past.

North Korea thinks it's in a better bargaining position with nukes on their side (and they aren't wrong about that). With nukes, they hope that they can make SK aknowledge their souvereignity (and thus the Kim regime) over the northern korean peninsula and maybe get into a position to lift the sanctions at least partially.

If this was a no-win situation and it was completely hopeless, then how did we go from everyone in the planet panicking about a nuclear war to everyone just trying to dunk on Trump because he just decided to wander off away from the negotiating table?

The MSM love to shit on Trump. More News (most likely involving how Trump's way of eating crumpets will lead to the apocalypse) at 11.

I don't particularly understand how the Kim regime "stays on top" by keeping itself underneath all of those multi-billion-dollar sanctions

By not ending up like this:

Spoiler: NSFW/Gore

They are in it for the long game. They have lived with sanctions for decades, even if the more recent ones are particularly nasty, they have circumvented them easily with the help of China (and most likely Russia).

surrendering hostages

These hostages have barely any value in terms of foreign policy for North Korea. Maybe they can shake some money out of the US for having these people freed every now and then, but mainly they need them to parade them around in front of their own people in a show trial where these hostages are forced to admit to rididculous crimes such as being spies for the US.
It's not like they are an important bargaining chip to NK. At best, releasing them is a sign of good will (which is what they were used for).

keeping itself poised at the mercy of China and Russia

Still better than what Gaddafi and Hussein got, tbh. Bolton announcing that the upcoming NK deal will be modeled after the Lybia deal was pretty counterproductive.
KJU and his cronies want to maintain their own power and well-being first and foremost, maybe bringing up a treaty that ultimately lead to Gaddafi getting axed wasn't particularly smart, I'd say.

not opening itself up to economic investment and international aid

The people that suffer aren't the high echelons of the regime, so the regime is all out of fucks to give.

 

[Jewelsmakerguy]

I have to say, I totally saw this coming the moment the norks started back up with the threats.

Which, again, makes me wonder, unless they absolutely couldn't, why the fuck the US and SK couldn't postpone their tests until after the talks.

 

[CWCissey]

Which, again, makes me wonder, unless they absolutely couldn't, why the fuck the US and SK couldn't postpone their tests until after the talks.

Because they actually couldn't. Prep was done as far as I know.

 

[Black Waltz]

Because they actually couldn't. Prep was done as far as I know.

What baffles me is that Kim knew that we still had to do the exercises and yet he still throws a fit.

 

[Mr. 0]

What baffles me is that Kim knew that we still had to do the exercises and yet he still throws a fit.

or maybe he fucked up and thought that US and SK were gonna make him do exercise in order to get fit

 

[It's HK-47]

BREAKING: North Korea said it is ready to talk to U.S. ‘at any time,’ responding to Trump’s cancellation of summit with Kim Jong Un.

After President Trump’s abrupt cancellation of the planned summit, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan issued a conciliatory statement, saying the regime was ready to meet with the United States “at any time.”

Trump’s decision did not match with “the world’s desire,” Kim said in a statement published by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency Friday morning. A summit is urgently needed to deal with the “grave hostilities” in the relationship between North Korea and the United States, the statement said.

“Leader Kim Jong Un had focused every effort on his meeting with President Trump,” the vice foreign minister said.

President Trump on Thursday canceled a summit next month with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, citing “tremendous anger and open hostility” from the rogue nation in a letter explaining his abrupt decision.

“I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting,” Trump wrote to Kim in a letter the White House released Thursday morning.

The summit — which had the potential to be a major diplomatic victory for Trump — had been planned for June 12 in Singapore.

Speaking later at the White House, Trump sounded a bellicose note, relaying that the U.S. military is “ready if necessary” to take action against North Korea if it engages in a “foolish or reckless act” and that South Korea and Japan are willing to shoulder the costs.

At the same time, Trump held open the possibility that he and Kim could meet at a later date to discuss denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, which Trump has been pushing.

“While many things can happen and a great opportunity lies ahead potentially, I believe that this is a tremendous setback for North Korea and indeed a setback for the world,” Trump said, adding that the United States will continue to impose tough economic sanctions against the nation.

Full Article

Alright, I'm officially dizzy now, can I get off the teacup ride for a few minutes. Just goes to show you how completely pointless it is to be instantaneously reactionary to news, these days. Apparently major changes can happen twice in under six hours.

 

[PS1gamenwatch]

Oh well, guess better luck next time, they're not completely sore about it at least.

Full Article

Alright, I'm officially dizzy now, can I get off the teacup ride for a few minutes.

 

[neverendingmidi]

Full Article

Alright, I'm officially dizzy now, can I get off the teacup ride for a few minutes. Just goes to show you how completely pointless it is to be instantaneously reactionary to news, these days. Apparently major changes can happen twice in under six hours.

So Kimmi was throwing a snitfit, and acting up, so Trump said “meh, whatever. later dude.” Which cause Kimmi to throw another snitfit and screech “wait! wait! i was only pretending to be retarded!”

 

[Coconut Gun]

Full Article

Alright, I'm officially dizzy now, can I get off the teacup ride for a few minutes. Just goes to show you how completely pointless it is to be instantaneously reactionary to news, these days. Apparently major changes can happen twice in under six hours.

I think I'm just not gonna get too invested in this North Korea thing for a while. Who the fuck can even guess what's really going on behind the scenes.

 

[Arse Biscuit]

As I said, if I were president, I would have distanced myself from this entire shit storm. Make a few comments about how glad you are that the two countries are talking, hope for the best, that sort of thing.

Pretty sure Kim did this entire thing just to score points with his generals. He had Trump figured from the very beginning.

 

[Pozzingmyfilthyneghole]

I think I'm just not gonna get too invested in this North Korea thing for a while. Who the fuck can even guess what's really going on behind the scenes.

If anything, the media sperging out has taught me that I don't know anything about what's happening.
Is the North Korean man harvesting grass to eat or is he a gardener? I really don't fucking know.
What's going on in Washington, D.C.? No idea. Syria? I don't even know who's fighting who anymore.
The world is a clusterfuck and experts are liars.

 

[It's HK-47]

I think I'm just not gonna get too invested in this North Korea thing for a while. Who the fuck can even guess what's really going on behind the scenes.

The only important thing is that the situation with North Korea is going to turn out fine, it's just that trying to trace the play-by-play is going to make everybody dizzy, so there's not a lot of point in trying to keep up with it. If anything I'm just deeply disappointed in how many Democrats and even high-ranking public officials were leaping out of their seats to laugh when it looked like the North Korean deal was off the table, for like... Six hours. There's something intensely disturbing about watching an entire political body right here in America openly side with a brutal dictatorship purely because it makes the U.S. President look bad.

I'm not the least bit worried about what happens with North Korea because I know all of that was hammered out and smoothed over a long time ago and what we're seeing now is just political theater to make sure that Kim Jong Un "saves face" so he doesn't look like he was limping desperately to the negotiating table, but the behaviour of these Democratic officials is very upsetting. That sort of thing is incredibly abnormal and completely uncalled for. The midterms can't come soon enough, we need to get these lunatics out of their seats because they just keep getting worse.

 

[Ceiling Kitten]

how did you get past the word filter

The first “r” was written in bold, I think.

 

[It's HK-47]

Wait, what? Am I reading this wrong or is he saying what I think he's saying?

 

[NotoriousD]

Wait, what? Am I reading this wrong or is he saying what I think he's saying?

Well, the word reunification is being thrown around a lot in there. Makes ya think.

 

[Coconut Gun]

Wait, what? Am I reading this wrong or is he saying what I think he's saying?

I think they're probably just using reunification as a carrot on a stick as a way to say "Hey, reunification would be nice, right? Well, come back to the table and maybe we'll get a little closer to that. (Please come back, we'll play nice, these sanctions suck.)"