Demand sovereignty, and one automatically becomes an enemy; bend the knee or die.

Why Kim Jong Un Isn’t Afraid of Donald Trump:

If they did not attack us when we didn’t have nuclear weapons and missile that could reach them, they are not going to do it now…

He is likely to view Donald Trump much like his predecessors—as a president who doesn’t like North Korea’s nuclear capabilities but with few realistic options for stopping it.

Mattis Warns U.S. Could Bring ‘Total Annihilation’ to North Korea:

We made clear that we have the ability to defend ourselves and our allies, South Korea and Japan, from any attack,” Mattis said of the U.S. military.

What the Media isn’t Telling You About North Korea’s Missile Tests:

[F]or the last three weeks, Japan, South Korea and the US have been engaged in large-scale joint-military drills on Hokkaido Island and in South Korea. These needlessly provocative war games are designed to simulate an invasion of North Korea and a “decapitation” operation to remove (Re: Kill) the regime…

Monday’s missile test (which flew over Hokkaido Island) was conducted just hours after the war games ended.

From Counterpunch:

As military technology specialists Markus Schiller and Theodore Postol point out, “It is unlikely that North Korea now has a nuclear weapon that weighs as little as 1000 kg. It is also unlikely that such a first-generation nuclear weapon would be capable of surviving the unavoidable 50 G deceleration during warhead reentry from a range of nearly 10,000 kilometers.

We have a navy which can’t sail, an air force which can’t fly and an army which can’t win.

China decided long ago to buy us rather than invade.

UNDERCOVER IN NORTH KOREA: “ALL PATHS LEAD TO CATASTROPHE”:

They didn’t recognize pictures of the Taj Mahal or Egyptian pyramids…

Once you look at how this whole thing began it makes some sense why North Korea uses this hatred of the United States as a tool to justify and uphold the Great Leader myth.

Could North Korea Annihilate Seoul with Its Artillery?:

Despite the thousands of artillery pieces, only 700 heavier guns and rocket launchers, plus the newer 300-millimeter MRLs, have the range to strike Seoul. Only a third would normally be fired at once, and notional rates of fire would be slowed tremendously by the need to withdraw guns into their hardened artillery sites (HARTS) to shelter them from counter battery fire.

From The Saker:

It is difficult to talk to people who confuse Austria and Australia. But there is nothing we can do about this; this is the level of political culture among part of the American establishment. As for the American people, America is truly a great nation if the Americans can put up with so many politically uncivilised people.

Vladimir Putin

Yesterday, another well-know Russian politician, Sergei Markov, referred to the American leadership as “amoral pygmies”!

From Larchmonter445 in the comments:

The direct threats in the Far East from the Hegemon are not just aimed at Pyongyang. They are aimed at China and Russia. The THAAD missile radars ‘see’ 1000-2000 miles into both adversaries. This defeats the second strike MAD protection of China and Russia. It is untenable.

Combined with the threats in Ukraine and the Black Sea Nato moves with Aegis Ashore missile defense and other EW systems of the US creeping right to Russia’s borders, Putin has to defend from the existential threats in the West, also…

Look at Minsk 2. Total legal snare he threw over Kiev.

Look at the Syrian strategies of military, diplomacy, deconfliction, de-escalation zones and local reconciliation agreements (thousands of them). This is pure Putin…

The arctic is heavily Russian-owned because Putin won the international legal battle…

The North and South Koreans are in Vladivostok today talking with him.

From The Saker:

We beat them is Syria, we are beat[ing] them in the Ukraine, they lost Afghanistan, they lost Iraq, their Navy apparently does not know how to use a radar, their soldiers are terrified to fight somebody capable of resistance, they failed to impress not only China, but even the North Koreans who are openly laughing at them. Hezbollah laughs at them. Even Venezuela refuses to be scared! The Iranians openly threaten them with consequences if they back out of the deal they signed. Even Pakistan is openly expressing its disgust with the USA. Ditto for Turkey. Heck – the Americans are losing on all fronts and the very best they can do is try to feel good about illegally harassing our diplomatic personnel! Pathetic, lame, losers!

North Korea is ‘YEARS away from NUCLEAR missile’ Russian official claims after ICBM test:

What they are testing are quite primitive devices which require months for preparation, and which are essentially pieces of equipment with all sorts of wires and additional elements around, which simply cannot be put on top of any missile.