"US Must Stop Threats Says China"! Well yes, but we only made a few off the cuff threats because he said he was going to nuke us and then fired an ICBM at us!

But then it gets better, NK says they want to be the equilibrium blah blah, the Eastern counterbalance to the Wests nuclear arsenal......well of course you do dear, now run along and play, tea will ready soon.

......I had to read this several times and pinch myself, just to ensure I wasn't still asleep, honestly, you couldn't make it up.

www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/16/us-must-stop-north-korea-threats-says-china-kim-jong-un-military-equilibrium

The media will make the most of any situation that's scary, the bigger the better because it sells newspapers.


Oddly enough I was looking yesterday at the VIX-CBOE index which is the fear gauge for the stock market. Whenever investors get unnerved by an event they tend to rush into stock index options as a way of preserving their wealth, the more options that get bought, the more investors are scared and the higher the VIX (volatility index) climbs. When NK fired its first missile the VIX soared, subsequent missiles have produced less steep climbs in the index - last weeks missile saw the index remain mostly unchanged. Perhaps we're all getting used to it; perhaps we think the threat won't materialize; perhaps we're dropping our defenses and we'll get zapped tomorrow, dunno. I'm betting the threat won't materialize.
www.marketwatch.com/investing/index/vix

I don't think Japan will retaliate no matter how many missiles are fired over them, if one should fall short and hit, that's a different story although I think any retaliation will be by proxy, SK, US or China.

I have it on good authority the Walt 22 SAS mobility troop (Pattaya district) is currently undergoing final preparations to conduct a secret mission in NK, they are going to HALO in disguised as blocks of cheese...

I wake up each day expecting to read news about Trump that will make me shake my head in despair and I'm rarely disappointed in that respect, this morning was slightly more than that however. Trump really doesn't have a clue, does he! He desperately needs the support of others to help resolve the NK situation and a speech at NATO was an ideal forum to help do that. But instead of trying to muster support he alienates everyone with his rhetoric about Iran and his failure to even mention everybody else's number one issue, climate change. It's quite remarkable really, he went there to grandstand, to tell everyone how powerful the US is and how he is number one, yet his reason for going there was the exact opposite. I fear this man is his own worst enemy and very likely, everybody else's worst enemy also! The man is going to get us all into deep doodoo unless somebody or country does something.

That's the prism through which you have to look at this.

Name a singular country, outwith China, that could influence NK into giving up nukes.

Answer - none.

Consider the opposite. Consider that there are forces in China actively encouraging NK.

Nationalist forces that would love to confront Japan and the USA.

And that is not as remarkable as it sounds. 

There has to be an explanation why China is still supplying oil to NK. 

You're over thinking it all - I seriously doubt that Trump could purposely aim anything, even if he wanted to. Trump's logic is very very shallow, threaten people and countries and let them know the US military will be around to see them if they don't do as he says, regardless of whether what he says is correct or not, it's classic playground bully stuff.