[grandalf]

This story is meant to make the American public more willing to support an attack on NK. Americans are generally happy to support strikes that we view as high tech and not targeting/harming civilians directly.

But in reality any strikes with RF weapons will be accompanied by significant conventional strikes.

I think there is still zero chance that there will be any sort of war between the US and NK. NK holds all the cards and has played them quite effectively. The only question is how much longer our president will continue to bluster embarrassingly before he realizes his actual strategic reality.

One other possibility is that the US would be willing to undertake a strike on NK even if there was a decent chance of NK launching a successful attack on Seoul. In that scenario, the goal of the PR is to help Americans feel that every "high tech" thing possible was done to stop NK and that the casualties were sad but ultimately worthwhile.

US bluster over NK reveals both the failure of power projection toward China and China's full knowledge that the US has more to lose from failed negotiations than China does. China will let this play out slowly and let our leaders act foolish as long as they wish.

It's funny how even in spite of the widespread mockery of our president, there is much less mockery of the foolishness underlying US "tough talk" aimed at NK. I think we believe that the tough talk is aimed at NK and not at the American people.