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[Culise]

And China would never attempt to annex North Korea, that borders on comedy. All of the places that China has annexed over the last century were ones that have been in and out of the control of Chinese governments for a thousand years, which does not include Korea (much).

Eh, Korea's not that much odder than Tibet, where they went in and hammered it, and Vietnam, where they got a bloody nose for their limited gains, withdrew, and subsequently claimed a win regardless.  Besides, there was some muttering from both Korean governments as well as most independent scholars back a few years when China started characterizing Goguryeo as a Chinese state by virtue of its northern territories in Manchuria and Liaodong, which was at its most paranoid extreme viewed as China laying a foundation in Korean history for their more modern "interests" in North Korea.

The real reason China wouldn't be interested in annexing North Korea, rather than any (lack of) nebulous historical viability, is because they sure as sin do not want to inherit the economic and demographic mess that would be entailed in any collapse of the government there.  They aren't even interested in seeing it melt down on their border, hence why they've been rather muted during what has appeared to be the latest wave of purges of potentially pro-Chinese members of government a few years back.  As long as it stays domestically quiescent, they'll tolerate the occasional bellicose action taken against the West. 

[martinuzz]

Experts from the research group '38 North' of the US-Korea Institute have come to the conclusion that the last NK nuclear test was stronger than initially thought.
After the test, South Korea reported it was an explosion of about 50 kiloton TNT. Japanese experts estimated it at 150 kiloton.
US intelligence services said they thought it to be 140 kiloton.

According to the new research done by 38 North, it appears it was a bomb of 250 kiloton, making it likely that it was indeed a hydrogen bomb.
For comparison, the nuke dropped on Heroshima, which instantly killed 78000 people had an explosive force of 15 kiloton.

Meanwhile, North Korea threatened today to nuke the US and Japan if sanctions aren't lifted. "Let us reduce the US mainland to ashes! Let us show our wrath by deploying every means of retaliation that we have prepared so far", the committee for external affairs stated.
"The four islands of the Japanese archipelago will have to be sunk into the ocean with the nuclear bomb of Juche".

https://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/atoombom-noord-korea-was-17-keer-krachtiger-dan-hiroshima-bom-zegt-denktank-vs~a4516584/

[Teneb]

Are they even capable of reaching the US?

I mean, they are certainly a real threat to Japan now, in addition to the damage they could do to S. Korea and to a lesser extent China, but can they even deliver the bomb across the ocean?

[martinuzz]

Yes, they can, check the animated globe at the bottom of the news article. They can get about as far as Chicago with their latest missile.

https://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/atoombom-noord-korea-was-17-keer-krachtiger-dan-hiroshima-bom-zegt-denktank-vs~a4516584/

http://allthingsnuclear.org/dwright

[Antioch]

Remind me, why again did the world let North Korea develop nuclear weapons?

[andrea]

A few reasons, depending on which side of the thing you are on

1)For the west, fear of North korea shelling Seoul with their conventional but still quite deadly artillery
2)For China, fear of sharing a border with an USA ally which hosts USA bases (if North korea falls, whatever happens china will see USA military uncomfortably close)
3)For both, fear of impoverished masses and a broken government to deal with, for the post war situation in which somebody has to rebuild NK

Basically, neither side can afford a military engagement in North korea or its results, and North Korea knows it.

[Teneb]

Yes, they can, check the animated globe at the bottom of the news article. They can get about as far as Chicago with their latest missile.

https://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/atoombom-noord-korea-was-17-keer-krachtiger-dan-hiroshima-bom-zegt-denktank-vs~a4516584/

http://allthingsnuclear.org/dwright

Well, that's bad.

Also I keep thinking Chigaco is in the US' west coast for whatever reason.

Remind me, why again did the world let North Korea develop nuclear weapons?

It wasn't exactly easy, especially with China thinking it had NK on a leash. NK has excellent terrain for defending, and no one wanted to send their troops into a meatgrinder. Plus what andrea said.

I'd usually say at this point that NK won't actually launch the nuke because that would be a death sentence. But, uh... it's NK.

[smjjames]

Ideally, rebuilding NK should be an international effort, given how much rebuilding, building, and modernization has to be done. That and Trump is all "No more nationbuilding!". China would probably want some say and investment in it, given that they're already investing in SK.

[Strife26]

Ideally, rebuilding NK should be an international effort, given how much rebuilding, building, and modernization has to be done. That and Trump is all "No more nationbuilding!". China would probably want some say and investment in it, given that they're already investing in SK.

It's something even more terrible than nation building, nation building Berlin level ruins by committee without a tenth of the interest organization money!

[smjjames]

Ideally, rebuilding NK should be an international effort, given how much rebuilding, building, and modernization has to be done. That and Trump is all "No more nationbuilding!". China would probably want some say and investment in it, given that they're already investing in SK.

It's something even more terrible than nation building, nation building Berlin level ruins by committee without a tenth of the interest organization money!

I meant more like having SK (well, it'd be a unified Korea by then) lead it with help coming internationally than the US bearing the brunt of it. China, being their neighbor, is going to have interest in it regardless. The SK portion of it doesn't have the economy to go it alone anyway, especially if Seoul got pummelled and the SK portion would have it's own reconstruction to do.

[Starver]

Also I keep thinking Chigaco is in the US' west coast for whatever reason.

Even though I do know it's positioned up by the freshwater coast in mid-north-or-actually-a-bit-more-to-the-east, I tend to think of Chicago as grouped with Seattle (and honorarily Canadadadadian,  as well), so maybe you have picked up the same sort impression?

[Descan]

Chicago, New York, Portland, Seattle, and San Francisco are kinda all lumped together, even though most of them are entire small(and not so small)-countries-widths apart from each other.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Portland and Seattle are also drastically smaller than the other entries on that list.

[Descan]

Yeah but we're talking about (international especially) impressions, not reality.

[martinuzz]

Threaten to nuke Japan into the sea, and within 12 hours after that launch a missile over Japan? Yeah, looks like he REALLY wants to start a nuclear war.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/14/world/asia/north-korea-missile.html?mcubz=3

I kinda have to praise Trump at this moment for showing restraint, unless there's already a few 100 missiles flying to NK right now as we speak.