Do You Agree That North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Un Is A Brutal Dictator & Warmonger. He Should Not Be A Leader In A Kindergarten, Never Mind Of A Country In The 21St Century

[willbewhatiwill]

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has a megalomaniac one-track mind who had been influenced by his father & grandfather, who were North Korean leaders he succeeded. Kim Jong-un is paranoid against USA, with the infantile, egoistic, poorly thought out belief/delusion that striking an US territory will bring glorious victory to North Korea. He lacked insight, by not taking consideration that the likelihood of USA shooting down the North Korean ICBM fired will result in radioactive fallout on North Korea and the surrounding area. North Korea will certainly be shooting herself in the foot.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-40871416 reported, “North Korea has said it is considering carrying out missile strikes on the US Pacific territory of Guam. The North's official news agency said on Tuesday the plan involved firing medium-to-long-range rockets at Guam, where US strategic bombers are based. The UN recently approved further economic sanctions on North Korea, which Pyongyang said were a ‘violent violation of our sovereignty’, warning the US would ‘pay a price".

[jim360]

Let's get the obvious out of the way first: of course, if it comes to a first strike by North Korea, then I'd fully expect the US to defend itself by any appropriate and necessary means. Not even up for debate, really.

It bothers me though that Trump seems to have essentially jumped to the last desperate measure of a Nuclear (counter)strike almost as a first resort. And no -- there doesn't seem to have been much advice of that sort from US military leaders, who would presumably have pointed out that the point of Nuclear weapons is *not* to use them, and anyway the US isn't necessarily ready yet for something so drastic (apparently, it could take several weeks to prepare properly, which is probably not too surprisingly really). The "fire and fury" line was made up by Trump on the spot -- not the first time he's done that, either against or without the advice of top generals (the "Transgender ban" was another one that turns out to have been dreamed up without the knowledge of the Pentagon).

It's dangerous to escalate the rhetoric quite so quickly; North Korea doesn't seem to be cowed by the talk and if anything has just escalated in kind. We can't know that they wouldn't just have carried on ramping up the tension anyway -- I suspect they probably would have -- but still Trump's jumped in all guns blazing and that hasn't really helped either.

I'm reminded a little of Obama's "line in the sand" moment. The problem is that he went ahead and announced said line (with respect to Syria, at least) before checking that everyone else who needed to agree with him on that actually did so. Turns out they didn't, he had to back down, and it looked foolish (because it was foolish). Will Trump's "fire and fury" be the same? Or is he going to carry through on his effective threat to launch nuclear weapons? To be honest, I am not sure which is the scarier option.

If it comes to military action, then, as I say, I would fully support whatever is needed to combat the threat from North Korea. What I am saying -- and what I think a few others are saying -- is that it may not need to come to that, and I hope that Trump gives other options due consideration before going too far down a road that could lead to a Nuclear War.

[ludwig]

// bit of a Cuba situation ! //

Worryingly not MurrayMints. All of the people in the Cuban crisis were at least sane, and Cuba was answerable to Russia.

North Korea ignores everyone including China. Kim Jong Macadandang has been treated like a demigod since birth. His grip on reality and rational thought isn't going to be the strongest.

[anotheoldgit]

Best time to strike at North Korea would be when they are staging one of their military parades, everything gone in one swoop then, Kim Jong-un, his generals, his troops and his weapons.

[fender62]

maybe news will come out dprk, that the great leader has died from a heart related problem.

[ichkeria]

They wouldn't all be gone though.
Unless the US has a way of disabling anything that might be fired in anger by the N Koreans, especially anything nuclear, then a pre-emptive strike of that sort would be monumentally daft and, I am 99% sure, is not going to happen. It would be 100% were it not for the identity of the current US President.

[youngmafbog]

Can someone point me to where Mr Trump has said he would use Nuclear either in a pre emptive or retaliatory attack as I cant seem to find one, only TJU saying it?

[jim360]

I don't think he has said it explicitly, if you want an "out" clause, but I suspect that everyone is wondering "well, what the hell else does 'with fire and fury like the world has never seen' mean if not Nuclear strikes?”

After all, it would presumably take a Nuclear bomb of the modern era to make Hiroshima and Nagasaki look small fry.

Of course, it's also possible that, once again, Trump has just decided to go all out and sound as impressive as possible without really considering what he means specifically. He does love his superlatives, does Trump.

[dannyk13]

I think that the US has enough fire power to satisfy Trumps prediction without going nuclear.

[jim360]

Well, quite. And I'm sure that Trump is happy to remove the talk of nuclear weapons from this tense situation. Wouldn't want to give off the wrong impression now, would he?

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/895252459152711680

[hereIam]

I won't feel safe until this dangerous man is dead (and I mean Kim Jong-un).

[naomi24]

Jim, //It bothers me though that Trump seems to have essentially jumped to the last desperate measure of a Nuclear (counter)strike almost as a first resort.//

I would have thought it fairly obvious that Trump’s rhetoric isn’t designed for our ears, but rather those of North Korea. As he said yesterday he doesn’t have to tell us what he intends to do because he doesn’t want North Korea to know what he intends to do. Seems about right to me.

[ladybirder]

Naomi, sounds sensible (Babes), (pmsl).
Perhaps he should be conducting our Brexit negotiations!!

[jim360]

Well, his rhetoric warning North Korea to scale down their attacks certainly hasn't worked either.

We'll see how this plays out, and it remains the case that both the US and North Korea have a history of shouting loudly at each other without really doing much.

[naomi24]

Ladybirder, Haaa! Thanks babes. That is so crass, don't you think? ;o)

From yesterday to today not quick enough for you, Jim?

[jim360]

Since NK immediately responded by calling Trump's words "reckless", and then promised to launch a strike against, Guam -- I'd say it's not worked.

Trump will need more than words to cow North Korea, that's clear. But then, that's the problem I'd have with the words he's used. We'll see how Trump follows up.

[naomi24]

Jim, in Trump's shoes, what would you have said?

[jim360]

I'd have come up with a better statement. I always have the best statements. Everyone says so.

Believe me...

[naomi24]

Can't say I do believe you .... so not quite everyone. ;o)

[MichaelZZ]

Given NK's success rate with their missile launches, isn't it possible - or even probable - that any missles launched in the general direction of the sea around Guam will not make it that far and will either self destruct within a few minutes of being launched or make a bit of a mess of south-western Japan?

[EDDIE51]

The problem here is that this could be salvation for Chump!
He is a total @rse*ole but this could see him hailed as a 'war hero'.
The huge problem is the ordinary people of North Korea. They did not have a choice of leader and just failing to show enough enthusiasm for one of King Kong Won's edicts is enough to have 3 generations of your family liquidated !!!
Very few on here realise just how isolated NK is!
Most of the inhabitants have been duped into thinking that NK has the best living standards and education system in the world!
There is no real access for citizens of any other country, what few visitors are allowed in have a permanent 'bodyguard' of government agents whose sole reason for existence is the show them what the NK government wants them to believe.
For example if foreign visitors are scheduled to visit a particular town then that town's shops will be filled with consumer goods to make it look like the normal way of things. The very second the visitors leave the goods will be removed and just empty shelves will remain.