North Korea successfully tests hydrogen bomb

[Fragony]

Strongly doubt it, satalites would have picked it up, and NK would have filmed everything

[Myth]

Strongly doubt it, satalites would have picked it up, and NK would have filmed everything

Japan has already condemned the test, sounds legit to me.

[Fragony]

Japan has already condemned the test, sounds legit to me.

I am just being suspicious, NK loves their military parades, they would absolutily use it for propagana purposes I think, but they didn't. That regime is batshit crazy, the great leader could drive a car when he was tree years old, scored 12 hole in ones the first time played golf. There are plenty of pictures where he inspects his toys. Something is kinda off as a hydrogin-bomb is quite the prize.

[Myth]

Blowing up a hydrogen bomb is not something easily faked. We'll know soon enough.

[Don Corleone]

Very unfortunate. North Korean submarines pose little to no strategic theat. They are easily detectable from hundreds of miles away and whenever they enter striking range of American targets, they would almost certainly be escorted by a much quieter, much faster American attack sub that would sink the NK vessel the moment they tried to open their missile hatches (which unlike Hollywood movies is not an instantaneous move).

The real concern here is what they're planning to do to hold South Korea and Japan for ransom. With 20+ years of appeasement by the West no matter how eggregious their acts, I don't think the North Koreans are all that crazy. It's actually been a very productive strategy for them. They issue a thinly veiled threat, the world condemns, then bribes them to stop. They take the money, promise to stop, then go develop a new threat.

I find the timing of North Korea's behavioral flare-ups to be strangely synchronized to testy moments in China's foreign policy itself as well. They certainly didn't disappoint Beijing here. Just when people start talking about pressuring China to calm down on territorial claims in the East and South China seas, lo and behold, we need them to put North Korea back in their cage yet again. Funny how that seems to happen time and time again.

[Kralizec]

I don't think China would be pleased at all by this. They're allies of opportunity, China only helps North Korea out in the Security Council because it doesn't want a stronger South Korea on its borders. If they were actual allies (in the sense that SK and USA are allies), China would be propping up their shoddy economy instead of letting North Korea resort to blackmailing its southern neighbours.

More to the point, China doesn't want North Korea to become a real nuclear power anymore than we do because
A) they're fully aware NK is run by lunatics
B) they're right on their border
C) it would be much, much easier for NK to construct a missile that can reach Beijing instead of the continental United States.

[wooly_mammoth]

I find the timing of North Korea's behavioral flare-ups to be strangely synchronized to testy moments in China's foreign policy itself as well. They certainly didn't disappoint Beijing here. Just when people start talking about pressuring China to calm down on territorial claims in the East and South China seas, lo and behold, we need them to put North Korea back in their cage yet again. Funny how that seems to happen time and time again.

Am I the only one who thinks you won't have a mouse fart in NK without explicit directives from China? I'm pretty sure NK is just an extension through which China "negotiates" with the US. That place wouldn't last a day on its own without chinese support. The bomb they tested is probably part of a chinese nuclear weapons program as well. Much easier to proxy it out through that place instead of going through the trouble Iran has for instance.

[Sarmatian]

Am I the only one who thinks you won't have a mouse fart in NK without explicit directives from China?

I'd say you are.

NK pisses off China to no end. The only reason it is still there because it is a buffer zone between China and potentially a large US army.