North Korea: What to do?

DNI concluded that the "explosion yield was less than a kiloton."

“Why do you say such a thing although you know all?” an officer said. “We don’t need good jets. Nuclear weapons are all. We can win when our General is with us.”

I've always been confused about goose-stepping. It seems like an absurdly large expenditure of energy for such little forward movement.

A
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"That Crap."
But what does it mean when you, your gf and Kim are so complacent? Should anyone else, in some other country, fret about SK and any threat it may face?

North Korea says to strike South if drill goes ahead

By Yoo Choonsik and Chris Buckley Yoo Choonsik And Chris Buckley – 42 mins ago
SEOUL/BEIJING (Reuters) – North Korea said on Friday it would strike again at the South if a live-firing drill planned by Seoul on a disputed island went ahead, with an even stronger response than last month's shelling that killed four people.

The announcement on North Korean official news agency KCNA came as South Korea readied for live-firing drills on Yeonpyeong island near a disputed maritime border with the North for the first time since November's exchange of artillery fire.

The South Korean drills will take place between December 18-21.

"The strike will play out a more serious situation than on November 23 in terms of strength and scope of the strike," KCNA said.

The North had said its November shelling was a response to South Korean "provocations."

North Korea's warning came after Seoul promised a more robust response to any further attacks on its territory. The shelling of the island was the first time since the Korean war that the North had attacked South Korean territory.

The won fell slightly in offshore forward trading against the dollar, with the 1-month non-deliverable dollar/won forwards rising to as high as 1,159 soon after the news broke from around 1,155.

China, the North's main backer, has said that Pyongyang had promised restraint and the threat of a new attack by the North came as China told visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg that the two big powers should cooperate more in defusing tension on the Korean peninsula.

It also came as U.S. diplomatic troubleshooter Bill Richardson visited Pyongyang in an effort to "reduce the tension on the Korean peninsula.

China's top diplomat, Dai Bingguo, urged closer coordination over the Korean peninsula during talks with Steinberg, the second most senior official in the U.S. State Department, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.

Steinberg was in Beijing for three days up to Friday to press China to do more to bring to heel its ally, North Korea, which last month sparked alarm by shelling the island and disclosing advances in uranium enrichment which could give it a new path to make nuclear weapons.

China has avoided publicly condemning its long-time ally over the deadly shelling and nuclear moves, and instead pleaded with other powers to embrace fresh talks with North Korea.

(Writing by David Chance; Editing by Andrew Marshall)

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea said Saturday it will go ahead with artillery drills on a border island shelled by North Korea last month despite Pyongyang's threat to retaliate again, as Russia and China expressed concerns over tension on the volatile peninsula.

The North warned on Friday it will strike even harder than before if the South went ahead with its planned drill. Four people died last month in the North's attack on Yeonpyeong Island near the tense sea border.

The U.S. supports South Korea, saying the country has a right to conduct such a military exercise. However, Russia's Foreign Ministry expressed its "extreme concern" Friday over the drills and urged South Korea to cancel them to prevent a further escalation of tension.

China, the North's key ally, also said it is firmly opposed to any acts that could worsen already-high tension on the Korean peninsula. "In regard to what could lead to worsening the situation or any escalation of acts of sabotage of regional peace and stability, China is firmly and unambiguously opposed," Chines Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in a statement Saturday. More