"North Korea Has Conducted A Nuclear Test" Topic

"North Korea was struck by strong tremors on Sunday, with the South's officials saying it could be due to a nuclear test.

The USGS initially reported the first tremor as a 5.6 magnitude, but later raised it to 6.3, while China's earthquake administration said it detected a 6.3 magnitude earthquake in Northeastern North Korea, calling it a "suspected explosion," Reuters reported.

The depth of the first quake was recorded as zero kilometers, the China earthquake administration said, according to Reuters…"
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Amicalement
Armand

What on earth do they hope to achieve?

Dunno what to say tbh … He's like a bad comic villain on drugs…A month ago I'd have shrugged it off … but they seem determined to kick things off ! Woe betide 'em!

He did not get anywhere launching missiles so now he will try nuclear tests to try and win some aid. I suspect they will be feeling the pinch before long,as long as China follows through.

Chinese tolerance for Kim "organic bovine manure" seems to be approaching zero.

China's found itself in a bad spot. They don't want to encourage NK recklessness and they don't want a hot war to develop, but they also don't want to see NK collapse or the ROK or US march to the Yalu (again). China's not happy that NK provocations are resulting in THAD installation across SK, which was not the case before. What will they see as their least bad option? The Chinese are being pressured just as much as the Americans are, only from different directions. They really have more to lose, in a way, than the US, if they can't finesse this satisfactorily. (Who does NK border, after all?)

The Chinese should promote a non-bloody coup …. and put in front of North Korea someone who is close to them …. but he/she has not to be crazy or stupid ….

Amicalement
Armand

I think that China's least-bad option here is to actually march in themselves, decapitate the entire Kim dynasty (knowing the Chinese, literally), and then let the South have what's left of the country if the US leaves. The South Koreans won't want the US to leave, but I suspect that they'd rather have a unified Korea more.

It will take South Korea at least 20 years, and probably more like 50 years, to get back to their relative economic position after reunifying. North Korea is in a BAD way economically, they can't even feed half the country with local food production. Hell, the Norks are one below-average harvest away from cannibalism in the streets!

You can ask the Germans how long it took to get East Germany back up to speed after reunification, I'm pretty sure the Krauts are still working on it!