Calling it now, next world war starts because Bolivia and Lichtenstein have a disagreement over the price of hot dogs.

Hm, guy with obvious WMD makes and carries through with threats to unleash >>> no action


guy with no WMD . >>> shock and awe

the difference>>> Saddam was easy (at first)


Cant see Kim waiting patiently while Sec Council deliberates and US houses debate, a zero dark thirty response is called for

You should work for Stratfor with predictions like that.

Opinions and Arseholes my friend.
But in the pea and shell game the NK sub is the one to watch out for, analysts reckon most are olkd and cannot fire off missiles...but what if the old type IS the missile..lurking on the bottom of the Delaware or Hudson???

I don't think there will be a world war.
America won't strike without intelligence indicating kinetic action from NK at least. If that happens, it's unlikely China and Russia will help.
The rhetoric is almost at a point where it can't really escalate anymore though.
"Don't build nuclear reactors"
>builds reactors
"Don't produce plutonium"
>produces plutonium.
"Don't test nuclear bombs"
>tests nuclear bombs
"Don't keep working on ICBMs"
>continues to work on missiles.

Now they've apparently managed to mount a nuclear warhead. I don't know what the next step is.

My bet is NK tries to launch a missile somewhere they shouldn't, it probably gets shot down, and America along with Seoul and Tokyo devastate their conventional military rapidly.

This is not an option.

NK ocean-going submarines are noisy '60s-era Soviet Romeo class diesels, sourced from China from 1973-95. They are half the size of the Collins with more than 50 crew. They are not suitable for a sub-polar transit and their range is insufficient to reach the east coast of the United States.

In theory they could reach the west coast. But in reality they would need to escape satellite surveillance of their departure and transit (they can't be submerged all the way), be mechanically reliable for a journey an order of magnitude greater than any previous NK submarine patrol and then elude sonar detection on the US continental shelf. It'd be worse if the USN was actively hunting them.

I hear the sonar operators need to wear ear plugs when they're tracking them to protect their hearing.

The US Navy actively train to hunt old diesels. Haven't you ever seen Down Periscope

Putin on the gloves

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-0 ... fmredir=sm

Good luck to Ivan.

They’ve got less GDP than us.
They might have about the same effective combat units too.