North Korea just conducted another nuclear test

[Malthus]

I've said it before, but this is just more proof: North Korea is like a crazy homeless person on the bus at rush hour who sticks a hand grenade in his mouth and threatens to pull the pin unless you all give him money. Right now he's showing he is serious by tossing another grenade out the window so all of the passengers can see his grenades are real.

[MadImmortalMan]

I've said it before, but this is just more proof: North Korea is like a crazy homeless person on the bus at rush hour who sticks a hand grenade in his mouth and threatens to pull the pin unless you all give him money. Right now he's showing he is serious by tossing another grenade out the window so all of the passengers can see his grenades are real.

I hate it when that happens.

[jimmy olsen]

I've said it before, but this is just more proof: North Korea is like a crazy homeless person on the bus at rush hour who sticks a hand grenade in his mouth and threatens to pull the pin unless you all give him money. Right now he's showing he is serious by tossing another grenade out the window so all of the passengers can see his grenades are real.

Does this happen often to you?

[Queequeg]

Does this happen often to you?

Its Canada.  They catch the homeless guy, give him a hot meal and a couple of meals inside a nice prison, and then send him out with a fresh grenade.

China's main interest in North Korea at this point is avoiding the scenario where millions of starving refugees flee across the border.  North Korea's sole remaining diplomatic chip of significance it its threat to die messily in the arms of the Chinese if China does not help them.

Yup.  I think there is also some residue sympathy from fighting together during the Korean War, but that's about it.  If North Korea goes nuts, I think there is a fair chance the Chinese would attack them too.

[PDH]

As if...homeless people on the bus in Canada behead people, they don't have grenades.

[The Brain]

The North Koreans use plutonium bombs, right?

I must give you an update on your Tomb of Final Resting!!

There will be a fisson reactor to power the entire Tomb complex!!1!! 

The Titian Wing is nearly completed, and then we shall start on the Van Cleef and Arples precious stone education centre and theme rides.

Total Tomb/Theme Park completion is on schedule for 3Q, 2021.

Sir.

Excellent!

Remember, spare no expense. My pockets are deep.

[Malthus]

I've said it before, but this is just more proof: North Korea is like a crazy homeless person on the bus at rush hour who sticks a hand grenade in his mouth and threatens to pull the pin unless you all give him money. Right now he's showing he is serious by tossing another grenade out the window so all of the passengers can see his grenades are real.

Does this happen often to you?

I'm not homeless.

[garbon]

Do people actually take buses?

[Malthus]

Do people actually take buses?

Only very large people.

Regular sized people merely ride in them.

[Berkut]

  North Korea's sole remaining diplomatic chip of significance it its threat to die messily in the arms of the Chinese if China does not help them.

[jimmy olsen]

I've said it before, but this is just more proof: North Korea is like a crazy homeless person on the bus at rush hour who sticks a hand grenade in his mouth and threatens to pull the pin unless you all give him money. Right now he's showing he is serious by tossing another grenade out the window so all of the passengers can see his grenades are real.

Does this happen often to you?

I'm not homeless.

I meant, do you run into that situation on the bus often.

[Habsburg]

Now the dirty communist regime is close to getting the weapon, it will be time to review our entire Korea-watching model.

Depends alot on who gets the Regency, if they can hold power, and Iranian elections.
However I would not be shocked if NKo developes a strategic planning model which looks to overrun SKo and wraps up with nukes pointed at Japan to ensure a favourable treaty.

[jimmy olsen]

The South is taking this saber rattling seriously.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30977008/

U.S., South Korea raise military alert on North
Communist nation has ramped up tensions with a series of provocations

updated 27 minutes ago

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korean and U.S. troops raised their alert Thursday to the highest level since 2006 after North Korea renounced its truce with the allied forces and threatened to strike any ships trying to intercept its vessels.

The move was a sign of heightened tensions on the peninsula following the North's underground nuclear test and its firing of a series of short-range missiles earlier this week.

In response, Seoul decided to join more than 90 nations that have agreed to stop and inspect vessels suspected of transporting banned weapons.

North Korea says South Korea's participation in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative is a prelude to a naval blockade and raises the prospect of a naval skirmish in its western waters.

On Wednesday, it renounced the 1953 truce that halted fighting in the Korean War. It said Thursday through its official media that it was preparing for an American-led attack. The U.S. has repeatedly denied it is planning military action.

"The northward invasion scheme by the U.S. and the South Korean puppet regime has exceeded the alarming level," the North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. "A minor accidental skirmish can lead to a nuclear war."

The two Koreas remain technically at war since a peace treaty has never replaced the truce.

South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young accused the North of "seriously distorting" the decision to join in the initiative and called its response "a groundless misconception."

Alert level
South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Won Tae-jae said the South Korea-U.S. combined forces command raised its surveillance from the third to the second-highest level on a scale of 5. He said the last time the alert level was that high was in 2006, when the North conducted its first nuclear test.

A South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff officer, speaking on condition of anonymity citing department policy, said the South's military has also bolstered "personnel and equipment deployment" along its land and sea borders.

He said, however, that there has been no particular movement of North Korean troops along the heavily fortified border areas.

There are 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea and another 50,000 in Japan. All are within striking range of North Korea's missiles.

Though the officer refused to give details, South Korea's mass-circulation JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported Thursday that Seoul has recently deployed more anti-air missiles and artillery at its military bases on islands near the disputed western sea border with North Korea.

A South Korean destroyer also has been deployed near the sea border to prepare for any provocations, the newspaper said.

Seoul has said its military is prepared to "respond sternly" to any North Korean provocation, and would be able to contain the North with the help of U.S. troops.

The U.N. Command on Korea issued a statement defending the armistice and said it would continue to observe it.

"The armistice has served as the legal basis for the cease-fire in Korea for over 55 years and significantly contributes to stability in the region," it said. "The armistice remains in force and is binding on all signatories, including North Korea."

Testing Obama
Experts said the recent flurry of belligerence from North Korea may reflect an effort by leader Kim Jong Il, who is reportedly grooming one of his sons as his successor, to boost his standing among his impoverished people by generating fear and claiming to be strong in the face of outside threats.

It was also seen as testing the new administration of President Barack Obama.

North Korea has announced it was abandoning the armistice several times before — most recently in 2003 and 2006.

The truce doesn't cover the waters off the west coast, and North Korea has used the maritime border dispute to provoke two deadly naval skirmishes — in 1999 and 2002.

Diplomats, meanwhile, discussed further what measures should be taken to punish the North.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned of "consequences" but it remained unclear what action the U.N. .Security Council would take.

The five permanent veto-wielding council members — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France — and the two countries most closely affected by the nuclear test, Japan and South Korea, discussed possible U.N. sanctions and other measures for a new Security Council resolution on Tuesday.

A diplomat, who was familiar with the talks but spoke on condition of anonymity because they were closed, said Wednesday there was a clear commitment to go for sanctions in the new resolution and no reluctance from North Korea's allies, China and Russia.

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said a new resolution should be stronger than the one issued after the North's first atomic test in October 2006 and contain sanctions.

Aso also indicated a possibility that Japan may impose its own sanctions, though he said he has to see the content of the U.N. resolution currently being discussed.

Associated Press and Reuters.

[Neil]

The South is taking this saber rattling seriously.

Well, sort of.

[lustindarkness]

I've said it before, but this is just more proof: North Korea is like a crazy homeless person on the bus at rush hour who sticks a hand grenade in his mouth and threatens to pull the pin unless you all give him money. Right now he's showing he is serious by tossing another grenade out the window so all of the passengers can see his grenades are real.

Does this happen often to you?

I'm not homeless.

I meant, do you run into that situation on the bus often.

Don't you think he would run away from the situation instead of into it?