Here is my theory.
Twitter BABA97 who I think is Fleporblog over at CTH covered this yesterday as many others have.
* 10/10/17 Explosion in a NK Tunnel takes out 200 engineers of their Newkh program. So was it 200 or more? Where Iranians Their is my question...
* So how or what blew it up?
* In a press conference Gen Mathis was asked is everything on the table including "kinetic"?
* His answer was yes, but I am not going to discuss it.
* Kinetic is Rods of God ( google it ) , do we have them and did we use them?
* If we did we cut off the head of the snake i.e. the engineers, now his weapons are useless.
* No wonder he is conciliatory and looking to save face, after all these years and money he has ugats to show for it, if the North Korean people knew how bad he **cked up, would they revolt is the question.
somewhat related and Paralell is the Sub the Jimmy Carter coming into port a month earlier flying the Jolly Roger denoting they were on a mission and won. What did they do? It's territory is the Pacific and it's a Spec/Op mini-sub equipped if necessary for those "kind of jobs".
Why were they flying the Jolly Roger and is it related to the event in October.
IMHO it is like if I woke up with a world class collector Ferrari in need of restoration in my garage. I don't have the skill set to restore it, I might as well give in and sell it. Same thing with Kim, give up his Newhks, open up trade (the $ ) and save face.
IF my theory is correct as to what our Lion and his team have done is makes a lotta POTUS look like dolts, then again how long has Rods of God been up and running? If we have and used it, that is the mark of a leader.
The question begs, was the Cave Explosion in Pakistan really a "MOAB" or did we test Rods of God before NK?
Jerry Pournelle came up with the concept in the 1950s.