Apparently China. They seem to think they own the South China Sea. If N Korea was a nuclear power, and under China's thumb... they could also control the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan. In short, they would own the Far East.
5 trillion in trade passes through just the South China Sea, every year.


The entire UN is against NK right now, but we've had to back off a bit because China which has UN veto power is saying they are with the rest of the world, but acting the opposite.

for the laughs obviously...

So, what can we do to China to get them to back down

threaten more sanctions against them apparently. that seems to be mnuchin's approach at least. i wonder how effective escalating a trade war with china, in order to pressure them to deliver on promises trump made regarding north korea, will be though.

fact is that america is pretty much a toothless tiger here. the best they can do is make life for the average north korean citizen even more miserable, hoping that after decades of sanctions and isolation, they somehow magically lead to an uprise against the regime, and not just further feed the anti-american propaganda machine in pyongyang.
trump keeps making empty threats about "fire and fury" should north korea provoke them again, and then he can't even deliver on the sanctions that his administration suggested...

and while he keeps going down the escalation route, his bluff has long been called by the other madman. so now it's up to the REAL leaders of the world what happens with north korea. the simple truth seems to be that we will have to accept the unfortunate fact that north korea is a nuclear power now - even steve bannon suggested (in the interview that probably cost him his job at the WH) that there really is no military solution.

and while it's correct to point out that china is obviously the one nation to make anything happen in regards to north korea, it's rather naive to assume they were interested in a solution that possibly leads to installing a western controlled puppet right at their doorstep...

The US does NOT want to make a puppet out of NK, they just want them to stop making nukes...which NK agreed to, long ago at the UN.

The link I posted above is saying the "US lawmakers" want this dealt with. In other words, Congress is starting to see there may be no other options. The entire UN has shown agreement on this as well.
The only thing stopping the UN from, more or less shutting down North Korea is the fact that both Russia and China are among the countries that have veto power in the UN.

I don't think you will get to see your "toothless tiger" here, unfortunately. This may very well turn out badly.

North Korea does have a lot of people. What they don't have is a lot of land area. Even conventional weapons, only care about square miles, they don't care about how many people live there.

I would like to see North Korea, stand by the promises it made to the UN long ago. Those being, never to develop nuclear weapons. EVERY country in the UN wants NK stopped, barring China and Russia. If NK isn't stopped the UN will lose it's credibility, which can't possibly be a good thing.

I have the feeling, this IS going to ugly...in one way or another.

over a month ago, trump threatened north korea with fire and fury, should they so much as provoke them one more time. after that, kim not only made repeated threats, but also further tests on a larger scale than ever before. america's reaction? some more sanctions that were significantly weaker than they wanted. i don't know which alternative facts world you live in if that's not a toothless tiger, a bluff being called...

just so you don't misunderstand this: i think it's an extremely worrisome and unfortunate development that's happening in north koea and i certainly wish they didn't have nuclear weapons, but that doesn't change the facts about trump's failed escalation strategy. now just to be clear, i'm convinced kim would have pushed the development of nuclear weapons no matter what, but choosing the confrontational route, making threats you can't follow through with, being exposed like this just further undermines trump's credibility and importance on the world stage, when there was no reason to - other than "looking tough" for the unfortunate idiots who don't realise what's actually going on in the world...

The US backed off when the UN wanted more diplomatic talks.
I don't know what country you're from bro, but you'll have to get your jollies...somewhere else.

should have known that a weak pivot would be the best i could hope for...

It's in the articles I posted. South Korea and Japan also asked us to do the diplomatic thing. Guess those 25 million people in Seoul SK didn't want to die. They are 40 miles from the NK border.

oh right so when trump first suggested "fire and fury", he wasn't aware that US allies japan and south korea were right next to north korea...
seriously, it just shows what an empty threat it was to begin with, everybody knew it and kim called his bluff immediately, you're making my point for me...