World war 3 now imminent

[DaveB]

“Some people would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying 'End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH', the paint wouldn't even have time to dry.”

[OwlHoot]

Yes but how long before 'moderate rebels' get their hands on them and they end up with the not so moderate rebels?

It's a bit hard to get your hands on a bomb that is dropped from a supersonic jet and explodes half a mile over your head.

[Jog On]

It's a bit hard to get your hands on a bomb that is dropped from a supersonic jet and explodes half a mile over your head.

These rebels seem quite resourceful when getting hold of US kit.

[barrydidit]

These rebels seem quite resourceful when getting hold of US kit.

[BR14]

yeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaa !!!!!!

[greenlake]

[zeitghost]

So Fatboy claims he's gone thermonuclear.



And not just thermonuclear but launchable thermonuclear at that.

Gosh.

120kt.

That's almost getting into the 2nd league.

[GJABS]

The "Chubby Un" (or should that be "Roy Chubby Un") loves to dance too (2014 video):

[Jog On]

The whole situation is just getting more bizarre by the day:

The Stranded ISIS Bus Convoy That No One Knows What To Do With | Zero Hedge

Interesting take on NK situation here

any contemplated U.S. preemptive strike would have to be massive from the start, imposing a ghastly cost on North Koreans (do their lives count?) but still running the risk that anything less than total success would mean a devastating retaliation. That’s not even taking into account possible actions of other countries, notably China’s response to an American attack on their detestable buffer state.

So this isn't Iraq or Afganistan - this will hurt, a lot...

Whether anyone likes it or not, North Korea is a nuclear weapons state outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and will remain so. Kim Jong-un learned the lessons of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi. Because Kim has weapons of mass destruction, especially nukes, he gets to stay alive and in power. If he gives them up, he can look forward to dancing the Tyburn jig or getting sodomized with a bayonet, then shot. That’s not a difficult choice.

So fat boy's not going to give up the only thing between him and 'regime change' the old fashioned way - maybe a 'colour revolution' instead?

Aside from speculation (which is all it is) that China could seek to engineer an internal coup to overthrow Kim in favor of a puppet administration, maintaining the current odious regime is Beijing’s only option if they don’t want to face the prospect of having on their border a reunited Korean peninsula under a government allied with Washington.

China want to keep their equivalent of Ukraine as it is without it becoming a US puppet state thank you very much because...

- After Moscow’s experience with the expansion of NATO following the 1990 reunification of Germany, why would Beijing take credibly any assurances from Washington (of which there is no indication anyway) not to expand into a vacuum created by a collapse of North Korea?

What a mess - or not....

«China should also make clear that if North Korea launches missiles that threaten U.S. soil first and the U.S. retaliates, China will stay neutral. If the U.S. and South Korea carry out strikes and try to overthrow the North Korean regime and change the political pattern of the Korean Peninsula, China will prevent them from doing so».

That means that if Kim attacks the U.S., he’s on his own. If we attack Kim, we’re at war with China. In the latter case, while Russia would not likely directly join the fray we can be sure Moscow would provide China total support short of belligerency

Checkmate (again)?

And while we're all getting scared to death by the media:

But let’s be optimistic. There have been reports of direct «back channel» contacts between North Korea and the U.S. at the United Nations in New York.

Bunch of winkers the lot of them

[Hobosapien]

If NK only want the nukes for self defence, like many other countries that already have them, China could solve this easily by providing the missiles but retain power of veto over their use.

NK would know China would allow their use if NK were attacked first and it keeps NK in check from starting a conflict.

Better than letting NK continue to antagonise its neighbours, which only takes one dodgy missile launch to escalate into a conflict.