NK is actively developing nuclear weapons and ICBMs, and has threatened to use them.
It’s not just against us; NK has a record of aggression against South Korea and Japan.
The key is to predict what NK will do when they have developed the means to nuke us.
Kim is not just some comic figure. The record of NK against its own people shows that he and his predecessors are ruthless murderers, and Kim is strange. That’s not enough to start a war against him, but it weighs in the balance when trying to predict how NK will use its nukes and ICBMs.
We want to contain NK. At the least possible cost. If that can be done short of war, all the better. But if it takes a war, we better have a strategy to win with the least possible damage to ourselves and our allies.
“NK is actively developing nuclear weapons and ICBMs, and has threatened to use them.”
Saber rattling designed to keep his starving people from eating him and to extort money to keep his govt alive.
“It’s not just against us; NK has a record of aggression against South Korea and Japan.”
The Norks have no capability to successfully invade SK let alone Japan.
“Kim is not just some comic figure. The record of NK against its own people shows that he and his predecessors are ruthless murderers, and Kim is strange.”
Kim is a tool of China. They tell him to bark when needed to see what the US will do. The Chinese may want to see how far we can be pushed before attacking. Starting a preemptive war with NK would be a huge mistake.