Tillerson says diplomacy with North Korea has ‘failed’; Pyongyang warns of war

[EC]

 TOKYO — The Trump administration made a clear break Thursday with diplomatic efforts to talk North Korea out of a nuclear confrontation, bringing the United States and its Asian allies closer to a military response than at any point in more than a decade.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that 20 years of trying to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear program had failed and that he was visiting Asia “to exchange views on a new approach.”

Soon after Tillerson’s remarks, in a sign of mounting tensions, the North Korean Embassy held an extraordinary news conference in Beijing to blame the potential for nuclear war on the United States while vowing that its homegrown nuclear testing program will continue in self-defense.

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North Korea has amassed a sizable nuclear stockpile and appears at the brink of being able to strike the U.S. mainland and American allies in Asia. The rising threat from the isolated military dictatorship has prompted the Trump administration to begin assessing its options for how to respond and serves as an early test for how the president will confront an increasingly volatile international situation.

One potential immediate response would be to strengthen existing South Korean missile capabilities or to provide Japan with new offensive missile ability. Japan’s defense chief told parliament this month that he would not rule out “first strike” capability, which would be a major departure from Japan’s postwar pacifist traditions.

More: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/tillerson-stresses-regional-cooperation-to-curb-north-koreas-weapons-programs/2017/03/16/4ec5e07c-09ab-11e7-bd19-fd3afa0f7e2a_story.html

Despite it being the WaPo, it's not a bad article.

[TomSea]

Inching towards nuclear war? It's terrifying. North Korea's use of missiles threatens a new global flashpoint which could suck in South Korea, China, Japan and the US

By Neil Tweedie for the Daily Mail
Published: 19:37 EDT, 16 March 2017 | Updated: 22:14 EDT, 16 March 2017
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At 8.30 in the morning, rush hour is in full swing in the South Korean capital Seoul, home to some 25 million people.

Those commuters crammed into the underground system are the lucky ones — initially, at least. When the missile hits, they are protected from the blinding light of the 20-kiloton detonation.

But above ground, in the area centred on the Yeouido financial district, all is destruction. Buildings up to a mile from Ground Zero have been vaporised or reduced to rubble. Some 70,000 people are dead, killed by the heat and the blast wave. Many more will succumb to radiation burns and radioactive fall-out over coming days.

The nuclear nightmare that has long bedevilled South Korea — America’s key ally in the region and one of the world’s most dynamic economies — has become reality.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4322096/North-Korea-s-use-missiles-threatens-global-flashpoint.html#ixzz4bb3f5mt0
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No telling how far NK will push it.

[240B]

I don't know what Tillerson is talking about. There's only one way to deal with NK! Give them a couple of billion dollars in exchange for a few weak promises which they certainly will not keep, and relieve sanctions. Then they will be good and rejoin the human race.

We have done this very process a dozen times before over the last 50 years, under several different Presidents and it has always worked. I don't understand why Tillerson would think that it is time for something new?

[TomSea]

I don't know what Tillerson is talking about. There's only one way to deal with NK! Give them a couple of billion dollars in exchange for a few weak promises which they certainly will not keep, and relieve sanctions. Then they will be good and rejoin the human race.

We have done this very process a dozen times before over the last 50 years, under several different Presidents and it has always worked. I don't understand why Tillerson would think that it is time for something new?

This is probably mostly true, Kim Jong Un is probably quite a bit more unstable than his predecessors. So, maybe it's a little different now, I don't know.

[EC]

This is probably mostly true, Kim Jong Un is probably quite a bit more unstable than his predecessors. So, maybe it's a little different now, I don't know.

Don't know if Lil Kim is more unstable than his Dad or if it's mostly an act (I sort of believe each on alternate days) but I do know the country is more unstable. Too much leakage from the outside of the much higher standard of living, even with one of the most effective censors in history.

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

The Island of South Korea has a nice ring to it.

[mirraflake]

It totally amazes me no one has knocked off the short, fat, ugly bastard..either his own family or the military.

[EC]

Military are too smart to do that. He, or rather his family, are considered almost gods by the peasants. Knocking off a god tends not to be a good career move.

[TomSea]

It totally amazes me no one has knocked off the short, fat, ugly bastard..either his own family or the military.

He's executed a lot of people, probably a bit like Stalin and Hitler did, to retain his power.

[catfish1957]

This is my old boss.  I will tell you right now he is not a bull shitter.