Dear Joe,

Hopefully something productive will come out of
the anticipated talks and diplomacy with China's
assistance. The concern is that Trump is the
one who's expounding the aggressive rhetoric
(poking the bear), not his advisers who
repeatedly seek a more moderate approach. It's
a pity that the man does not seem capable of
taking advice.

Dear Is Mise,

The 50s were before my time. However I do enjoy
watching the excellent TV series "Mash". And as
for Trump being involved? He was probably still
at school.

Foxy,

"He was probably still
at school."

Do tell!

//"He was probably still
at school."

Do tell!//

Trump was born in 1946 - assuming he started school at age 5, he'd have spent most of the 50's failing to get an decent education despite the best efforts of his teachers.

Foxy,

Because the US has opened communications with NK does not mean that negotiations are anywhere near close.

The single most important thing to waging war is cash. Without it, a large, well-trained, and equipped fighting force is not possible. KJU's obsession with nuclear weapons and missiles has cost the poverty-stricken nation many $bns, and it clearly shows on NK's conventional forces which are stunted and ill-equipped with even light weapons, and its military hardware is many decades old.

China for decades has been happy to sit back and let NK sabre rattle and build up a nuclear arsenal, but it is only recently that China has realised that the corresponding build-up in SK actually threatens China. The installation of the THAAD anti-missile system to knock down NK's missiles can just as easily knock down China's, and the talk of planting US nukes in SK will effectively neutralise China's defences in much the same way as placing missiles in Cuba threatened the US.

Now that the sanctions have been dramatically ramped up against NK, it is now a waiting game much like the more than a decade it took to bring Iran and Lybia to heel. With NK's economy collapsing it will become nearly impossible to keep its standing army let alone complete or maintain a sophisticated missile defence.

A similar tactic was used against Russia by Reagan who ramped up military spending, forcing Russia to compete until Russia's economy collapsed in 1989.

The Royal Australian Navy's new Hobart-class ships have the US Aegis combat system and are capable of being fitted with anti-ballistic missiles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobart-class_destroyer

This would be a relatively affordable and feasible, compared to buying a dedicated anti-ballistic missile system. But these ships would have only a limited capability, each at best, each able to protect one city. The SM-6 missiles have a range of only a few hundred km: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIM-174_Standard_ERAM

Australia already has the JORN over-the-horizon radar, which was designed to detect ships and aircraft, but may be capable of tracking ballistic missiles: http://www.australiandefence.com.au/E7425840-F806-11DD-8DFE0050568C22C9

Australia also has a world leading designer of radars in Canberra, CEA Technologies. CEA is fitting RAN ships with radars capable of detecting ballistic missiles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CEA_Technologies

The idiot running North Korea is on a terror watch of his own. He would be frightened of someone in his family or the military suddenly knocking him. It must make you rather fractious to say the least. Trump is well aware of what he is doing and he is surrounded by advisers.
Some of you people really need to temper your views of Trump. It is simple "He Won!" understand? Have a cry and get over it. I hope Trump starts on all the waste in defence spending which helps no one especially the US. This is something that Obama or Clinton did nothing about ditto North Korea.
Personally I would be sending cartoons making fun of the little despot it would do more than any intelligent comments.