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[wierd]

Redking:  The way I see it, it is too little too late for Beijing. The initiative bonus to halt this madness was over, and they overplayed their hand. (Keeping a tinpot madman with nuclear ambitions in power as a boogeyman for the US, to keep the US off balance and off their shores)

They did not control their pawn well, the pawn is biting the hand that fed it, because of it, and now they are forced to act.

[smjjames]

Public health, infrastructure, and educational nightmare for highly urban SK.
Diplomatic and military nightmare for China.

Nightmare for everybody involved due to the amount of economic uplifting that has to be done.

Unification might be better done in steps at a time than all at once, so that it's not as much of a shock. But both sides have to want unification for that to start in the first place.

@RedKing: Yeah, there'd have to be some equivalent of the Marshall Plan to support the reconstruction of the NK area if it went full on sudden-shock reunification.

I guess Japan could chip in, but given the history (WWII and before) between Korea and Japan, not sure how that'd go down.

[RedKing]

Redking:  The way I see it, it is too little too late for Beijing. The initiative bonus to halt this madness was over, and they overplayed their hand. (Keeping a tinpot madman with nuclear ambitions in power as a boogeyman for the US, to keep the US off balance and off their shores)

They did not control their pawn well, the pawn is biting the hand that fed it, because of it, and now they are forced to act.

The notion that Pyongyang is some Chinese puppet that they can fully control is simplistic bullshit.

North Korea is an angry, barking dog.
China is the "owner" trying to calm the dog down without hurting it or, more importantly, getting bitten themselves.
And the US, especially of late, is the asshole neighbor leaning over the fence yelling, "You better get that mutt under control or I'm gonna put him down!"


Oh, and in the category of "Not Helpful":
Trump evangelical adviser: "God has given authority to Trump to take out Kim Jong Un"

[wierd]

It has parallels to, (but would be worse than) the reunification of Germany.  The technology levels of NK are mostly 1950s in nature. SK is "Hyper modern". It would be like having space aliens land, finding out they were ancient abductees who have interstellar travel, and who want to reunify with the people of earth.

Red King: Keeping a dangerous pet, if we want to keep that metaphor, is still the onus on the owner. Especially when said angry neighbor has repeatedly suggest obedience school, and socialization training, but the moron owner refused, because it is their "guard dog." Dropping the admittedly bullshit metaphor, The issue with NK and the rest of the world has been going on for a very long time. China could have been much more successful at this 10 years ago, and was being urged to do so by the very actors I mentioned, but chose not to, exactly like I said. THey would have been much more successful then, when NK was not very far into its nuclear program. Beijing felt that NK would likely not be successful, and could be safely ignored. They were wrong.

[smjjames]

It has parallels to, (but would be worse than) the reunification of Germany.  The technology levels of NK are mostly 1950s in nature. SK is "Hyper modern". It would be like having space aliens land, finding out they were ancient abductees who have interstellar travel, and who want to reunify with the people of earth.

Red King: Keeping a dangerous pet, if we want to keep that metaphor, is still the onus on the owner. Especially when said angry neighbor has repeatedly suggest obedience school, and socialization training, but the moron owner refused, because it is their "guard dog."

They definetly have modern technology, just that only the well off really have it, and even then, it's tightly controlled.

Making all of that accessable to everybody and as hypermodern as the rest of Korea would definetly take decades and lots of money.

[Antioch]

It has parallels to, (but would be worse than) the reunification of Germany.  The technology levels of NK are mostly 1950s in nature. SK is "Hyper modern". It would be like having space aliens land, finding out they were ancient abductees who have interstellar travel, and who want to reunify with the people of earth.

Red King: Keeping a dangerous pet, if we want to keep that metaphor, is still the onus on the owner. Especially when said angry neighbor has repeatedly suggest obedience school, and socialization training, but the moron owner refused, because it is their "guard dog."

They definetly have modern technology, just that only the well off really have it, and even then, it's tightly controlled.

Making all of that accessable to everybody and as hypermodern as the rest of Korea would definetly take decades and lots of money.

The cost of German reunification is estimated at 1.3 trillion euros. And east Germany is was in a lot better shape than North Korea is and former east Germany is still lagging behind. It was also a relatively small amount of people added compared to the population of West Germany.

[Starver]

Seen the latest twitter? (Twitters...  his use of ellipses whilst spanning messages is not the worst, but it does leave a bit of a cliffhanger.)

His first order as POTUS was apparently to update the nuclear arsenal. And now that it is renovated (in about six months?) he's now waving it around, effectively promising to use it if everyone doesn't shut up and declare him Emperor Of The World.  (With just as much authority as any schoolkid would, with the same playground egomania. And just as many "new" or "upgraded" nukes, I'm betting.  Hoping and betting. But it's not like I'd have to pay up, anyway...)

[Starver]

I neglected the various sarcasm marks about that bit.  (Due to confusion about whether his first act was to build the wall (which he hasn't yet done), to get rid of ObamaCare (ditto), to jail Hillary (*checks* ...nope!), etc.

King Rhetoric, that's all he is. Maybe a Prince, at best.

[Strife26]

If our Executive branch can be so inept, and the country continues to tick forward, maybe it's time to reevaluate the massive perceived dependence on the Feds. Libertarian 2020

[smjjames]

If our Executive branch can be so inept, and the country continues to tick forward, maybe it's time to reevaluate the massive perceived dependence on the Feds. Libertarian 2020

It's more that the Fed continues to tick forward independent of the Executive branch.

[smjjames]

Guess what happened on this date, 72 years ago. Pretty sobering in all this isn't it.

Also, article on what it would take logistically to have a run up to actually attacking NK. This would be a planned event mind you, not a spur of the moment "We need to move, NOW!". Basically, it would be pretty obvious that something is happening, and we aren't even in that sort of position. Which lies behind the problem of Trump's rhetoric since you shouldn't make threats or bluffs that you can't immediately back up. That Trump doesn't understand that is no surprise.

[Antioch]

Guess what happened on this date, 72 years ago. Pretty sobering in all this isn't it.

Also, article on what it would take logistically to have a run up to actually attacking NK. This would be a planned event mind you, not a spur of the moment "We need to move, NOW!". Basically, it would be pretty obvious that something is happening, and we aren't even in that sort of position. Which lies behind the problem of Trump's rhetoric since you shouldn't make threats or bluffs that you can't immediately back up. That Trump doesn't understand that is no surprise.

Some of the comparisons in that article don't seem right though. The US for example has a lot more bases and men already in place than it did for Desert Storm.

[ChairmanPoo]

And a fleet of aircraft carriers. Dont forget that Trump sent a fleet of aircraft carriers to Korea.
It would be over in a day

[Hanslanda]

And a fleet of aircraft carriers. Dont forget that Trump sent a fleet of aircraft carriers to Korea.
It would be over in a day

More than a day but carriers ARE basically instant win.

[Antioch]

And a fleet of aircraft carriers. Dont forget that Trump sent a fleet of aircraft carriers to Korea.
It would be over in a day

More than a day but carriers ARE basically instant win.

Actually I have also read articles that carriers are surprisingly vulnerable to modern anti ship weaponry.