This Author seems sympathetic to the north's position and it's madman leader. Their and his actions now, cannot be excused by the temporary placement of a few tactical nuclear weapons half a century ago, since removed decades ago and not there now! Unlike the thousands of pack howitzers now threatening Seoul!

And he glibly glosses, with rare callous indifference over the millions of innocent human beings now being held against their will in north Korean gulags, or that the whole of the north is little better than one giant prison camp.

When a mad dog threatens folk that have never ever threatened it. There's just one solution! Take the creature outside and put a bullet in its brains.

That one already absolutely justified death, may well save millions of other lives!?

These folk have had countless opportunities to end this war and in a power sharing arrangement.

Instead this failed regime just keeps on with all the cage rattling, sabre rattling, moral blackmail!

Decades of attempted appeasement have proved a recipe for more of the same inexcusable unjustifiable horse sh!t and endless demands that make ending anything impossible!

One cannot negotiate with a gun held to the temple and in the hands of a demonstrably insane murder playing russian roulette with the survival of our species!

It comes as a complete surprise anyone with any ethics Max, would ever consider going in to bat for this animal, let alone actually doing it with this spurious attempt at propaganda?

I regret bothering to read this commie garbage!
Alan B

Where on earth do people like Max live? It certainly can't be the real one, where things like Pearl Harbour happen, & thousands of your people die.

It must be in some virtual reality, where when the stuff hits the fan, & thousands die when you find you have got it entirely wrong, you can just press the reset button, bring them all back to life, & try again.

Max the real world does not offer the luxury of play acting with the results of dreaming. You have to take the course most likely to minimise the cost in lives & possessions of you & yours. If that means an obliterating first strike, that is what you must do.

God we need protection from day dreaming of academics, so smug & protected in their ivory towers.

The two previous posters have been too kind to Max. He completely forgets when espousing the commie line that the one family see North Korea as "Their" country! Father to son leaders like some European upper class twits.
Murder and threats all come from this garbage and always backed up by Max and his mates.
Personally I would do nothing and let this little idiot with a bad haircut (Not Max, Kim Jong l) urinate into the wind.

This essay is an edited version, with some updating, of an article first published by New Matilda on December 18th with the title “Iraq Mark II: The Fatal Flaw In The Case For War Against North Korea”.

From the North Korean point of view, its status as the most invaded country in the world justifies a nuclear deterrent.

North Korea has been invaded by China, Japan, Russia the US, UN forces (including Australian and British) and South Korea.

North Korea has a nervous relationship with nuclear armed Russia and China who are not in friendly alliance with North Korea.

South Korea was no peace-loving democracy when North Korea invaded it in 1949. The invasion followed several South vs North Korean border clashes since 1945.

South Korea's leader, authoritarian Syngman Rhee, killed 14,000 and 30,000 of his own people during the Jeju massacre, in 1948-49 just before the Korean War.[1]

By early 1950 Rhee had about 30,000 alleged communists in his jails, and had about 300,000 suspected sympathisers enrolled in an official "re-education" movement called the Bodo League. When the Communist army attacked from the North in June, retreating South Korean forces executed the prisoners, along with several tens of thousands of Bodo League members. [2]

Like Dresden or Hiroshima (WWII) North Korea's capital, Pyongyang was bombed flat by the US Air Force during the Korea War. "By the time of the armistice, 75 percent of Pyongyang's area was destroyed by the bombing campaign, which was part of a broader U.S. bombing effort throughout the country which cost the lives of nearly 3 million North Koreans by the time the war ended" [3] Enough said.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeju_uprising

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syngman_Rhee#Political_repression

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Pyongyang

Remember that the aim of the US in North Korea is the same as in many other countries which have had governments not sympathetic and compliant with its interests. ie "Regime change" to install its own puppets and stooges. Obviously the regular US led military exercises basically stimulating an invasion of North Korea and killing its leaders were likely to turn into a real invasion sooner or later if warmongers in Washington think one had a good prospect of success. Also are more likely to be bullies while likelihood of retailiation is low.

North Koreans are very well aware of the US record of destroying countries with military action. Especially including their own during the Korean War and more recently Afghanistan, Libya and Syria. So if an new attempt is made to attack them they have the option of possibly hitting the bully back hard with nuclear strikes. If likely they could be carried out on eg a US aircraft carrier group or from a missile to the US west coast, an armed invasion is very unlikely

Devils advocate position.
If I was in his position with the weight of evidence about US starting wars by deceptive means I would be doing anything to prevent them.

1 Quote "1958, when the US installed nuclear missiles in South Korea in breach of the Armistice Agreement."
Claims they have been removed. The first lie is putting them there, so saying they have been removed could also be a lie.

2 Quote "where things like Pearl Harbour happen, & thousands of your people die."
Not sure what point you are making but America knew of the attack before it happened but kept the information from Admiral Kimmel

Nobody here is in the business of forgiving tinpot despots and their crimes against humanity. Be they Stalin with more Russian blood (25 mill) on his hands than Russian war dead during WW11!

Nor pol pot, Idi Amin, the butcher of Belgrade, the butcher of Bagdad, the butcher of Syria, the tyrant of Turkey. Rhee with the possible blood of 30,000 innocents on his hands, possibly the least monstrous of these baby butchering autocrats? Two wongs do not make a white.

As bad as these subhumans were, they did not threaten the world with a nuclear holocaust!

Some incredibly naive folk seem to believe that North korea could get away with what she has been getting away with, without covert assistance like that provided North vietnam, by Russian advisors, or the Russian migs that once regularly patrolled Northern korean skys, or the ones now providing invaluable assistance to the butcher of Syria.

Whatever Rhee did simply doesn't justify anything this, brother butchering, mad bastard does now.

I stand by my previous comments and agree absolutely, with Hasbeens contribution at this time!
Alan B.

Nearly all countries are complicit in atrocities and illegal actions.

France sent agents to blow up the Rainbow warrior. illegal

USA and other countries have killed thousands via drones and other means. illegal.

There are hundreds of other instances, committed by various countries.

The author of this article doesnt seem to realise that there is no way little
Rocket man is going to fire a Nuclear Weapon at anyone, because American
missiles are no doubt pointed right at him if he should make a move.

He has got to know that, so he is just making empty threats.
Donald Trump understands the situation better than the author of this article and is simply calling his bluff.

Once again Donald Trump proves his ability to see the reality of whats going on better than the left wing writer here
who filters everything through a left wing Anti American lense like all these leftist. Doesnt matter if its the truth or not.

Well CHERFUL I am no leftist, but I completely disagree with your post.

Trump and his neoconservative lunatic advisers and military morons surrounding him are the only ones threatening nuclear war.

It is the US who refuses to sign a peace deal with NK despite multiple opportunities offered by NK. It is the US provocative war games and continued threats both overt and covert which has driven NK to take self preservation by developing nuclear weapons, not the other way round.

Russia and China also don't want the US parked on their borders which is the plain and simple reason the US wants regime change in NK.

NK is observant, it has watched what happens to countries who give in to US threats, see Iraq, Ukraine, Syria, and continued attempts by the US in Venezuela and dozens of countries around the world. Remember Iran in 1953, the US is at it again, yet Iran has invaded precisely no one for hundreds of years.

It's all about oil, pipelines and access to energy which the US wants to unilaterally control.

Don't believe all the rubbish you read or hear from the MSM, it b-llsh-t. Expand your knowledge and then post something with a bit of truth behind it.

'Nobody here is in the business of forgiving tinpot despots and their crimes against humanity'
Of course you have to be classified as a despot otherwise all decimation is permitted.
We have N Korea clearly possessing WMD's and no one is in a hurry for regime change here and we had Iraq with a US claim it had WMD's and most of the west, including Australia, was keen to go along with Bush and Blair and decimate a country and it's people on a questionable 'we thought'
Seems to me that not only were the architects of this fiasco were 'forgiven' they certainly weren't held accountable.
The entire middle east was brought down with this irresponsible act with the repercussions being felt today and the best we've got is people running around with their heads up their backsides muttering nonsensical rubbish and inventing stories of convenience to justify the unjustifiable bleating about 'crimes against humanity'.....give me a break!
Then we have Australians claiming to be Pontius Pilate, wanting to know why their social fabric is being shredded as if they expected to be exempt from the ripple effect of their participation in wars of opportunity.
Talk about thick!
We can't even teach our children respect for their elders and you want to punish those responsible for crimes against humanity, unless they happen to speak English
Puleeze..... we're a bunch of hicks who wannabe whatever is proving popular on the day....devoid of any moral compass and a lifetime quest in avoiding responsibility.

I see what Prof. Atkinson tells us to do in regard to the White House's master, but I do not know what policy he suggests in regard to North Korea's nuclear programs.

why is North Korea so difficult? Because it is Confucianist.
There are three Confucianist societies or countries in the world: China, Korea, and Vietnam. Japan is not a Confucianist country.

Prof. Michael Pillsbury, an American sinologist, says he at last found himself deceived by China. It is strange that it took such a long time to come to the recognition. It is amazing how good people of the West are at misunderstanding (at being deceived by) China, as I said in my comment, It Is Not China's Fault, on Michael Pillsbury/The Hunderd-Year Marathon, amazon usa.

First a little bit about China:
One of the oft-repeated exhortation in China is "use the past to serve the present." There is now an avalanche of Chinese history to justify China's current assertive, some might say expansionist policy (Suisheng Zhao, Reconstruction of Chinese History).
https://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/reconstruction-chinese-history-peaceful-rise.

the reality of empire was that of a hard core of wei, or force, surrounded by a soft pulp of de, virtue...Although court records praise the Confucian wisdom of emperors, they in fact behaved like Legalists, who suggested that the well-ordered society depended on clear rules and punishment for violators rather than benevolence (June Teufel Dreyer, China's Tianxia: Do All Under Heaven Need One Arbiter?).
https://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/china's-tianxia-do-all-under-heaven-need-one-arbiter.

To be continued.

The Legalist conquror needed the efficient administrator, and a place of responsibility and honor was, accordingly, created for him in the government. As a result, men of education became supporters rather than opponents of the state (Edwin O. Reischauer, East Asia: Tradition and Transformation, co-authored by J. K. Fairbank and A. M. Craig).
Chinese feelings of cultural superiority are monumental, deriving as they do from a three thousand year tradition (E. O. Reischauer, The Japanese).

As I read before, Confucius wandered for years seeking for the post of a political adviser. When he found one, he was asked by the king what to do with his opponents in the kingdom. Conficius replied, "Annihilate them."

Now a little bit about Korea.
Korean culture and society is more Confucian (more Chinese-like) than Chinese is itself.

The Koreans in the early Yi dynasty adopted Confucianism with such enthusiasm that their value system and social practices were restuctured along Chinese lines more fully than ever before...It may have become more uniformly and fully permeated by Confucian ideas than China was itself. In fact, Korea became in many ways an alomst model Confucian society...Probably as a result of this intensive study of Confucian texts, the Koreans also developed a very literal but sincere devotion to Confucian principles and an almost fanatical adherence to Confucian rituals...Another result of this emphasis on Confucian scholarship may have been a narrowing of the range of intellectual interests and a growing dogmatism of thought (E. O. Reischauer, East Asia: Tradition and Transformation).

Their insane dogmatism makes them feeling shameless and guiltless in their international anti-Japanese propaganda of gigantic lies of "Japanese kidnapped two hundred thousand Korean women and foreced them to work as comfort women, and killed them when they were defeated in the war.

To be continued.

As for comfort women, I posted a comment, American Humanism, on Chinese Comfort Women, amazon usa.

Japan is not a Confucianist society. Whether a nation is Confucianist or not makes millions of light-years' difference.
No country is punished for showing virtues and for the crimes it did not commit like Japan.
Japan was the only non-Western country which made quick and smoothly transformation, by introducing and internalizing Western values, from pre-industrial to modern industrial country. It was punished for it by US Secretary of State John Hay's Open Door Doctrine in 1899 and the German Emperor Wilhelm II's theory of the Yellow Peril.

Japan wanted to withdraw its army from China and avoid war with the United States but it was punished for this by the Roosevelt Administration, as I quoted in my comment on Hamilton Fish/FDR, the other side of the coin: How we were tricked into World War II, amazon usa, "Many people who are familiar with the WWII history may think that the Japanese of that time were solely fixated on going to war with the United States to win dominace in the Pacific, but (US) Ambassador Grew reveals that most Japanese actually wanted peace with the US. British Ambassador Robert Cragie was in Tokyo at time. He was of the same opinion..."

You can enter a house by a backdoor (Japan) when the front door is locked. It was how President Roosevelt entered into the World War II. The United States had been making war-like provocations on Nazi Germany in the Atlantic, but Hitler knew how the US joined in the First World War, so did not give in and restrained himself. So the Roosevelt Administration took advantage of the negotiation proposed by Japan, as I said in my comment on Charles Beard/President Roosevelt and the Coming of the War, 1941: Appearances and Realities, amazon usa.

I shall appreciate very much if people read them.