[doublerabbit]

Right, so how is that any different to NK developing ICBM's?

This is just as the same level of war mongering as Isreal going to war for not wanting Iran to build nuclear. It's okay for other countries to have bombs, but not if..

[bayouborne]

Because Russia and China's occasional hyperbolic rhetoric notwithstanding, one gets the sense that behind the posturing, the people with their hands on the nuclear machinery are cold-eyed professionals. North Korea doesn't appear to have a layered command structure - it just has a succession of paranoid, isolated, all-powerful individuals, and almost directly underneath them, terrified administrators who feel that if they put a foot wrong they'll be disappeared. On the nuclear stage that's a terrifying dynamic. The US plays games, same for Russia and China - in a sense they're all veterans and they've been opponents on the same pitch for forever. Pakistan and India are going to be involved in their own private drama (from a global perspective) for the foreseeable future. I agree that Israel/Iran has disturbing potential, but North Korea? They're the damaged kid who had a .22 two decades ago, then got a 9mm, and now is about to take delivery of a Kalashnikov - that's why it's different.

[35208654]

Not if they are totalitarian and have plans to invade a sovereign nation it borders.

You cannot ignore the values of these states in this discussion.

[fnordpiglet]

Seems legit. If I were a country faced with a belligerent other country avowing my nuclear destruction once they get the capability I wouldn’t be super eager to see that happen. That’s not warmongering that’s taking serious explicit threats explicitly seriously.