What to do about North Korea?

Cliff

The US is in that area to maintain stability in the region. It's silly to say many resent the US presence. They might, but that is irrelevant, and they certainly don't want the US to go.
You could say the same with the Philippines, Tiawan, and Japan. If the US pulls out then the balance of power will change to China, and none of those countries would feel secure if that happened. How long would it take China to "reclaim" Taiwan for instance? Japan would have to re-arm and be able to defend itself......and so it goes on.

Enki

While mulling over some shiny new expensive, sorry I mean sophisticated milatray hardware. Fair play to Trump he created a larger hole in the market and has put America first.  Job done.

Trump announces he's selling Japan and South Korea sophisticated military equipment

Surely this now concludes this years North Korea season.

B35

Looks like Trump wants to decouple from the area though. "America first" and laying into allies (SK). I wouldnt be surprised at all if he slowly tries to withdraw from the region. Having San Fran Vs Seoul being nuked. That's if the region isn't turned into a fireball first.

EarthRod

Agreed.

...As long as next year's season is not the finale.

Enki

It's like the itchy and scratchy show from the Simpsons there is no finale.  It keeps those well educated types in geopolitical matters specialising in Asian matters in some paid work in the summer holidays.

Cliff

Not really sure of your point although we seemed to have moved on from looney tunes.

North Korea will continue to test .  There is no season finale.
He has large nuclear bombs now, but the deployment system needs work. He has to be able deploy a ICBM to the West coast. Every test is seen as getting one step closer to US and a very serious threat.

B35

They're expecting a test this weekend with NKs big day of celebration or whatever the f*** it is. Yes, they'll continue test but I think they can reach the west coast of the States already. The big worry is they test towards Guam. Someone has to make a pretty big decision when a missile is in the air towards Guam whether to launch back or not.

BB3Lions

9/11 the apocolypse.

B35

This is also a disturbing possibility..

How North Korea's Nuclear Tests Could Get Even More Terrifying

IronGiant

To nip things in the bud as it were, perhaps we could start with: "OK, we get it, we accept you are a nuclear power now, you can stop testing now". Followed by "With great power comes great responsibility, perhaps you could start exercising it" of course if he carries on testing we will need Plan B, anyone got one?