I posted this in the military thread and most probably do not visit it but thought it might make for a separate conversation and if I overstepped I apologize in advance . Sorry , not sorry .
So here is what we propose to give Kim a taste of but do not be under any illusions as this is a last resort and there are serious ramifications to bringing this kind of fire power into hostile territory and it is as dangerous as it sounds .
First off here is the USS Carl Vinson and her mite .




The US prepares to 'incapacitate' Kim: USS Carl Vinson carrying huge fleet of fighter jets arrives in South Korea as military sources reveal plan to 'remove' Jong-un's war chiefs

• USS Carl Vinson arrived at the southern port of Busan, in South Korea, to join the annual joint military exercise
• South Korea military source says heightened presence is part of plan to decapitate North Korean leadership
• Pyongyang has long condemned the annual joint drills - called Foal Eagle - between South Korea and the US
• Tensions have escalated with missile launches from North and assassination of Kim Jong-Un's half-brother

A growing US presence off the Korean Peninsula is reportedly part of a plan aimed at 'incapacitating' Kim Jong-Un's despotic regime in Pyongyang should conflict break out.

A nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier arrived in South Korea on Wednesday for joint military exercises in the latest show of force against the North.

The USS Carl Vinson arrived at the southern port of Busan as US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson began a tour of the region, where tensions have escalated in recent weeks with missile launches from the nuclear-armed North and the assassination of Kim Jong-Un's estranged half-brother in Malaysia.

More than 80 aircraft, including the fighter aircraft F/A-18F Super Hornet, the E-2C Hawkeye and the carrier-based EA-18G Growler are on board the supercarrier.

South Korea's Yonhap News Agency claims the heightened military presence is part of a plan to decapitate North Korean leadership.

They claim a military official, who wished to remain anonymous, told them: 'A bigger number of and more diverse U.S. special operation forces will take part in this year's Foal Eagle and Key Resolve exercises to practice missions to infiltrate into the North, remove the North's war command and demolition of its key military facilities.'

The aircraft carrier and a US destroyer will conduct naval drills including an anti-submarine manoeuvre with South Koreans in waters off the Korean peninsula as part of the annual Foal Eagle exercise.

Washington insist they are purely defensive in nature.

Rear Admiral James Kilby, commander of USS Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group 1, said: 'The importance of the exercise is to continue to build our alliance and our relationship and strengthen that working relationship between our ships.'

Yonhap news agency said the navy drills will begin next week.

The US has also started to deploy 'Gray Eagle' attack drones to South Korea, a military spokesman revealed on Monday.

South Korean and U.S. troops began the large-scale joint drills on March 1.

The exercise last year involved about 17,000 American troops and more than 300,000 South Koreans. This year's exercise is expected to be of a similar scale.

The spike in tensions has concerned Beijing, with China's Foreign Ministry calling on all sides to end 'a vicious cycle that could spiral out of control.'

North Korea, which has alarmed its neighbours with two nuclear tests and a string of missile launches since last year, said the arrival of the US strike group was part of a 'reckless scheme' to attack it.

The North Korea's state KCNA news agency said: 'If they infringe on the DPRK's sovereignty and dignity even a bit, its army will launch merciless ultra-precision strikes from ground, air, sea and underwater.

'On March 11 alone, many enemy carrier-based aircraft flew along a course near territorial air and waters of the DPRK to stage drills of dropping bombs and making surprise attacks on the ground targets of its army,' KCNA said.

Last week, North Korea fired four ballistic missiles into the sea off Japan in response to annual U.S.-South Korea military drills, which the North sees as preparation for war.

The murder in Malaysia last month of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's estranged half-brother has added to the sense of urgency to efforts to get a grip on North Korea.

Visiting the headquarters of an army unit early this month, Kim praised his troops for their 'vigilance against the US and South Korean enemy forces that are making frantic efforts for invasion', according to the North's official KCNA news agency.

Kim also ordered the troops to 'set up thorough countermeasures of a merciless strike against the enemy's sudden air assault', it said.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is due to make his first visit to South Korea on Friday.

The threat represented by North Korea's growing nuclear and missile arsenal is the main reason for his trip to the region.

Tillerson arrives in Tokyo on Wednesday, moves on Friday to Seoul, which is in the grip of a political crisis, and then travels the next day to Beijing to hold talks with President Xi Jinping and other officials.

Last week, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said President Donald Trump's administration was re-evaluating its North Korea strategy and 'all options are on the table'.

 

All the way back in Spring 2016, the WSJ was reporting concerns among foreign policy experts that the United States and China were headed toward a showdown over many issues, including the Koreas and the Spratley Islands. Experts were reporting the increased likelihood of a massive preemptive attack against the United States by China, if the tensions continued to rise.

The topic was largely ignored, because it reflected poorly on the Democrats' foreign policy.

Now there's a Republican to blame it on. So we can talk about it.

Good!

Capitulating in this crisis now would be disastrous. China is looking for weakness. China must be shown the exact opposite. China is warning us to stand down against North Korea. That is exactly what we should not do. We should hit North Korea, and hit it hard. That is the only way to motivate China to stand down.

 

Look at that beautiful vessel!

 

North Korea missile test ends in failure – reports
On Wednesday morning, the North fired a missile from the eastern coastal town of Wonsan, but the launch was believed to have ended in failure, Seoul’s defence ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said it was analysing what type of missile was launched but gave no further details. Yonhap news agency reported the missile was believed to have exploded in midair.

“US Pacific Command detected what we assess was a failed North Korean missile launch attempt … in the vicinity of Kalma,” Commander Dave Benham, a spokesman for US Pacific Command, said in a statement, referring to an airfield in Wonsan.

“A missile appears to have exploded within seconds of launch,” Benham said, adding that work was being carried out on a more detailed assessment.

The failure might mean the missile is a newly developed one the North has not deployed before, according to South Korean media. Last year, the country suffered a series of embarrassing failed launches of its new medium-range Musudan missile before it successfully test fired one.

File photo

 

It is kinda cute! LOL

 

I thought President Dipshit's plan was to never reveal the plan. So much for that.

 

US Humanitarian Aid Goes to North Korea Despite Nuclear Tensions

WASHINGTON — January 25, 2017 9:20 PM

The United States has provided $1 million in humanitarian aid to impoverished North Korea, the U.S. State Department said Wednesday.

Despite growing tensions between North Korea and Washington, the U.S. sent the assistance last week on the day before President Donald Trump was sworn in and took over the U.S. government.

It marks the first time that the U.S. provided humanitarian assistance to the North since 2011, when it provided relief items including medical supplies to North Korean flood victims. That aid, worth $900,000, was made through Samaritan's Purse, a U.S.-based humanitarian aid organization.

 

Good. Get em healthy before we send in the Marines

 

If you look at NK as a problem target , it is not very big.
And there isn't very much to it outside the south western area around the capital.
The northern third of the country is pretty inhospitable , with the Russian border within 150 k of Vladivostok.

There's obviously not going to be any strategic targets close to the southern border , being the most heavily defended and militerised border in the world , and similarly , not close to the coast , and probably not to the China border either.
So the area of major concern shrinks considerably.
Also ,
nowhere in the country is more than about 130k from a border or coast.

Think back to the gulf war , and tomahawk flying at least 3× that distance from the gulf to Baghdad.

So with a country less than half the size of NZ , 1/2the UK , 1/3+ of Vietnam , and 2/7 if Iraq ,
they are very vulnerable if they force preemptive action.
The size of Cuba+ an Ausie farm.

Given modern technology , and who knows what improvements to weapons , you'd expect them to be substantially incapacitated quite quickly.

I sure as hell wouldn't want to be there with incoming from three sides.
A sea coast each side , and SK south.

 

You know that saying "you are not as stupid as you look", no such luck here ... Kim fits the bill.

 

Do we really need to be skirting close to a nuclear strike.
Both the leaders of the US and NK are loopey enough to go that extra yard to show us all how tough they can be...... But then you need to add "both" of NK's allies into the mix China and Russia and things could go pear-shaped very quickly.

Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate....make the sanctions against NK even tougher....but keep the Gunboat Diplomacy out of the mix. It's never worked in the past so why should it work this time.

 

The world just has to hope there are a few intelligent brave people in North Korea. Certainly they can't all be as nutty as Kim...

 

If there are a few intelligent brave people in North Korea, manchild will have them killed.

 

North Korea Link Probed in $81 Million Theft of Fed Funds


The U.S. is investigating whether the theft of $81 million from a Bangladesh central bank account at the New York Fed is linked to North Korea because of the similarity of the hack to an earlier breach of Sony Pictures Entertainment, two people familiar with the matter said.

There’s no indication that charges would be filed soon, said one of the people, both of whom asked not to be identified because the matter wasn’t public.

Some cyber-security experts have concluded last year’s theft from the Bangladesh central bank’s account was done with some of the same hacking tools used in the 2014 attack on Sony Pictures, the maker of the movie “The Interview” that poked fun at North Korea Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un. The Sony hack, linked to North Korea by the FBI, was followed that year by a blackout of North Korea’s internet that a U.S. lawmaker said was retaliation, without saying who was responsible for the outage.

The hackers stole $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which said instructions to make the payments were authenticated by the SWIFT message system, widely used by financial institutions. The episode highlighted vulnerable links in the payment network underlying the global financial system and spurred calls for improved security measures for central banks.