09-05-2017, 01:16 AM
(This post was last modified: 09-05-2017, 01:20 AM by Warren Dew.)
(09-04-2017, 09:56 PM)John J. Xenakis Wrote: A couple of days ago the BBC interviewed a Moscow analyst in Russia's
government. He said that really Russia and China don't care if North
Korea builds a nuclear ballistic missile, since it will be aimed at
the U.S. rather than at either of them. Good to know.
Moscow may not care. Based on Chinese analysts, China does care, but doesn't know what to do. Of course North Korea already has missiles that can hit China, so the situation looks a bit different to them. And Moscow cares at least enough to have been offering to increase trade with North Korea recently.
I don't understand why we're still talking about economic sanctions at all. North Korea now has all this extra coal that China is boycotting; they can easily make it through the winter without the oil imports from China - or for that matter the oil imports laundered through Singapore from Russia. We should be asking for a security council resolution for a blockade or military action.
Well, other than perhaps our using North Korea as an excuse to start a trade war with China, which apparently some in the administration want anyway.
Reading Nikki Haley's statement carefully, it says, "quit making threats and we'll accept you as a nuclear power". It looks to me like the Trump administration, or at least Nikki Haley, is looking for a way to back down, rather than to go to war.
That of course just plays into North Korea's hands. They quit making threats for a year or two, perfect their nuclear arsenal, then invade the South while telling the US to stay out of it unless the US wants to start losing cities.
Has North Korea showed any willingness to freeze their program in return for negotiations? My understanding is that they have not. If there are going to be negotiations, we have to have "no freeze for no freeze" negotiations.
