I've heard someone say that North Korea wants some attention, like they are some spoiled brat jealous that ISIL and Russia are getting all our attention.
Others speak of talking to North Korea to see what kind of incentives (money and stuff) we can offer North Korea to abandon their nuclear path.
I'm admittedly just a simple caveman blogger whose grasp of nuance is sadly quite low, but my guess is that North Korea is pursuing nukes with a single-minded focus not to get attention or get goodies.
I suspect North Korea is willing to starve their people and alienate the world in order to pursue nuclear weapons because North Korea wants nuclear weapons very badly.
Oh, and as an aside, because in the current political environment, anything can be taken as an attack, let me say that I do not actually blame President Obama for North Korea's nuclear path.
Indeed, I'm happy that the president has basically just left North Korea to rot without trying to bribe them. I actually worried on occasion that Bush 43 would be too tempted on that path. I worried the Obama administration would be even more inclined on that path, but they have not taken that path. Good for them.
Really, with North Korea's conventional capability to wreck Seoul and a potential nuclear capability to nuke South Korea or Japan, I'm not terribly sure we could get their cooperation to strike North Korea's nuclear facilities in a preemptive move.
My hope is still that there will be regime collapse before North Korea gets a nuclear missile capability that can strike America.
Talk, talk. Die, die, I say. Although I had hoped we'd get to the dying part by now ...
UPDATE: Nor do I blame Bush 43, who'd have been impeached if he even suggested doing something aggressive about North Korea or Iran.
But do spare a thought for Bill Clinton and that agent of chaos Jimmy Carter:
Back in 1994, President Clinton prepared to confront North Korea over CIA reports it had built nuclear warheads and its subsequent threats to engulf Japan and South Korea in “a sea of fire.”
Enter self-appointed peacemaker Carter: The ex-prez scurried off to Pyongyang and negotiated a sellout deal that gave North Korea two new reactors and $5 billion in aid in return for a promise to quit seeking nukes.
Clinton embraced this appeasement as achieving “an end to the threat of nuclear proliferation on the Korean Peninsula” — with compliance verified by international inspectors. Carter wound up winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his dubious efforts.
Only 12 years later, North Korea lit off its first (imperfect) nuclear device.
Although technically there has been no proliferation because we pulled out all our nukes from South Korea, leaving us with a net change of zero for nuclear powers on the peninsula.
Will it take Iran until 2027 to blow off their first nuke?
