$&*@'s getting real in North Korea

There is zero chance of South Korea being "overrun" by North Korea.

The nightmare scenario is North Korea irrationally lobbing a nuke at Seoul (or Tokyo). However, it's unclear why they'd ever do that, since it would be a suicidal act triggering their own end.

But the notion of North Korea successfully invading and overtaking South Korea? No, that's never ever gonna happen.

 

Suck it up buttercup.

 

Nuclear fallout has a stubborn habit of not respecting international boundaries.

 

Great article about handling North Korea in The Atlantic:

How to Deal With North Korea

 

I know most regular posters here are age 40 or older.

Not sure about the rest of you, but I've always figured there would be at least one nuclear attack in my lifetime.

Plus, I've felt the further away from 1945 that we get, the more future leaders of countries around the world would forget just how horrific they are.

I hope I am forever wrong on both.

 

I guess she didn't see the part of the job description that said working holidays may be necessary. And do put in for holiday pay when filling out your time sheet.

 

This might be the dumbest, most tone deaf thing tweeted yet by this dumbfuck administration.

 

Or, it was a light hearted joke, along the lines of all the "thanks Obama" jokes we've become accustomed to, and recognize as obvious jokes.

 

A "light hearted joke" about an unhinged, nuclear-ambitious regime that just spent a year beating an American citizen to death for no reason.

No, not tone deaf at all.

 

Memo to Ms. Haley: You could have spent the day --- or the rest of your life --- barbecuing at the beach, and it won't make a bit of difference to anything.

 

We need to talk to him, says the NYTimes editorial board:

For Mr. Trump and other political leaders, negotiating with North Korea is anathema. It has one of the world’s worst human rights records. But sanctions have not ended the nuclear threat, and military action against the North would put millions of South Koreans, and 38,000 American troops, at risk. Negotiations, however, did lead to a deal in 1994 that froze the North’s program for nearly a decade.

Some of America’s most experienced nuclear experts, like George Shultz, former secretary of state; William Perry, former defense secretary; and Siegfried Hecker, former director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, recently wrote to Mr. Trump urging him to begin talks as the “only realistic option” to prevent North Korea’s potential use of nuclear weapons. And 60 percent of Americans, regardless of political affiliation, agree with them. There is no indication that Mr. Trump has a better strategy.

 

Trying to understand how the Times found this response (to our "backchannel" communications) hopeful.

One hopeful sign has been an unofficial meeting between North Koreans and Americans in Oslo in May that included Joseph Yun, a senior United States diplomat, which led North Korea to release Otto Warmbier, an American student it had detained unjustly and treated outrageously. Mr. Warmbier died June 19 after being returned home in a coma. North Korea needs to give a full account of what happened. But contacts between officials of both countries should continue, both to seek the release of three other Americans and to build a foundation for future negotiations over the North’s nuclear and missile programs.