...”Those that poo-poo this threat do so at their own peril”...
Unfortunately too few have a finger on the Worlds danger overall. Kim is even crazier than his father was..and those surrounding him are not about to hand over their comfy lifestyles without a fight and showing what they will do if anyone tries to disturb them in their country.
Then you have Russia, Iran, China and all their other ‘friends’ lending them a hand for their own purposes in that region.
Consider the number of pressure points Washington and Beijing share these days: tensions in the East China Sea that involve U.S. ally Japan, the question of arms sales to Taiwan and its future status, the South China Sea and now bilateral trade issues. China could easily demand America back down in one of these areas, much to the peril of Washington and its various allies.
For example, let’s say the Trump administration decided to give China a free ride in the South China Sea, one of the world’s most vital shipping lanes and the beating economic heart of Asia. Beijing would be able to cast aside the fishing, natural resource, and legitimate maritime rights of nations like Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and any other nation that stood in its way. Beijing would have control of not only Asia’s most vital waterway, through which 60 percent of Japan’s oil imports transit, but could economically strangulate almost any nation in the Asia-Pacific region. Would any nation in Asia ever see America the same again?
http://theweek.com/articles/697511/astronomical-cost-asking-china-restrain-north-korea