North Korea Mega Thread

[kelestian]

So what Trump must do? He has 3 options: continue current politicy on DPRK, start a war or just admit nuclear status of North Korea

[kelestian]

How exactly did NK advance in their technology so quickly all of a sudden? Not too long ago, they were struggling to get anything off the ground effectively.

There are speculations about Yuzhmash manufacturer from Ukraine. New korean rockets looked similar to rockets produced by Yuzmash. If it's true, there are two possibilities: either Yuzmash secretly sold techologies to DPRK (it existed only because of cooperation with Russia, and after 2014 it was ended as well as any money incomes for ukrainian plant), or DPRK agents just stole secrets (it would be quite easy, and DPRK agents already tried it in 2000s)

[kelestian]

Wow, i've missed this incredible good article in Vox
https://www.vox.com/world/2017/9/8/16256880/north-korea-nuclear-weapons-test-containment

[kelestian]

Wow, i've missed this incredible good article in Vox
https://www.vox.com/world/2017/9/8/16256880/north-korea-nuclear-weapons-test-containment

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While I don't necessarily disagree with the premise of this article (the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is not happening), it annoys the hell out of me whenever I see the Iraq/Libya comparison. North Korea actually has a strong non-nuclear deterrent (the shelling of Seoul) that neither Libya or Iraq had...even if you take the nuclear threat out of the equation, thousands upon thousands of civilians would die in a second Korean War even if the South and the US were to secure a fairly quick victory. Libya is an even worse comparison, because Qaddafi was in trouble even before the US/European intervention, we only intervened in the midst of a popular revolution—something that is unlikely (at least right now) in North Korea.

Qaddafi would have won if West hadn't intervened, and probably fast.

About a non-nuclear deterrent... It's a complicated question. Some experts said that without the nukes DPRK couldn't hurt South Korea heavily enough, and death toll of civilians of Seul would be thousands of people, but less than 10000