Now, Wouldn't That Be Something?

Leftists' heads all around the US, if not the world, may very well be explode should this come to pass:

The Detroit News: Trump nominated for Nobel Peace Prize by Norwegians

Indeed, I expect much wailing and gnashing of teeth should President Trump be awarded the Nobel Prize.

Obama got his Nobel Prize as a participation trophy for showing up, not for actually doing anything.

Trump, on the other hand, may just pull off what Presidents and diplomats of the past have failed to do: Get North Korea to agree to denuclearize and begin to normalize realitons.

We'll see how it goes, and if President Trump succeeds in making the Nobel Prize great again.

It Looks Like The P-8 Poseidons Are Going To Be Busy

The Detroit News: N. Korea appears to fire submarine-launched missile

Submarine ballistic missile launching capability in the hands of a nuclear-capable rogue state that has threatened to nuke the US and South Korea, what could possibly go wrong?

Assuming this isn't more communist make-believe theater, Noirth korea just got a whole lot more dangerous to areas outside its immediate neighborhood.

We're gonna need more P-8s.

The US Navy May Need To Push ASW Assets North Korea Way

More of the results of that smart diplomacy: US diplomatic overture to N. Korea met with missile-firing

The Detroit Free Press: North Korea tests submarine ballistic missile

Under the watchful eyes of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, North Korea says it conducted an underwater test-firing of a submarine ballistic missile, the Korean Central News Agency reported Saturday.

The test "proved and confirmed that the ballistic missile fire from the submarine fully met the requirements of the latest military science and technology," KCNA said.

They're going to need these P8 Poseidon aircraft out to play earlier than they thought.

Maybe they'll call up Old NFO for his experience.

Saying Sayonara To The Ex, North Korean-Style

A very harsh way to finalize a break up:

Kim Jong Un's ex executed by firing squad over pornography law violation

A jarring report out of North Korea that claims Kim Jong Un’s former girlfriend was executed by a firing squad last week ...... Chosun Ilbo said it is unclear if Kim’s wife had anything to do with the deaths; before becoming the spouse of the “dear leader,” she was also in that same orchestra. Kim had reportedly known Hyon for about 10 years, and their relationship ended at the orders of Kim Jong Il, though rumors have persisted that the two were having an affair.

While its good to be the King, it's bad to be the King's ex-girlfriend, especially once he's married and either he or the wife wants you out of the picture permanently.

North Korea's Petulant Saber Ratling

Much like a child having a tantrum, North Korea is busy screeching "Hey, Look at me, Look at me!"

The Detroit Free Press: North Korea says it is in 'a state of war' with South Korea

North Korea declared today it has entered "a state of war" with South Korea in the latest of a string of threats that have raised tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea's government, parties and organizations said in a joint statement that all matters between the two countries will now be dealt with in a manner befitting war

The Norks then decided to up the ante by threatening to Nuke the United States: White House takes North Korea's threats seriously

"Now that the revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK have entered into an actual military action, the inter-Korean relations have naturally entered the state of war," said the statement, which was carried by the official North Korean news agency and referred to the country by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Provocations "will not be limited to a local war, but develop into an all-out war, a nuclear war," the statement said.

According to a South Korean "expert" on North Korea, these threats are really just attempts for peaceful normalized relations with South Korea and the United States.

"I don't think military action will be imminent," said Lim Eul-chul, a professor of North Korean studies at Kyungnam University in Seoul.

Despite the bellicose statements, "Kim Jong Un wants to terminate the repeated harsh action and reaction [cycle] with the United States. They want to establish a more eternal peace mechanism and they want a more sustainable relationship with the USA."

That's an interesting way of showing a desire for normalized relations. I daresay the expert should take a break from the academic delusions he seems to cherish. While the threats may be for domestic consumption to prove the current Nork leader's toughness, the threats are either an attempt at blackmail for more food or material aid, or the Norks are crazy enough to think they can win a short, victorious war - they'd be wrong on both counts, and hopefully the South Korean sand the US have the backbone not to be blackmailed yet again.

Meanwhile, The White House takes these threats so seriously that President Obama is off, in between vacations, playing Golf.

Pirates Of The Situational Irony

Somali pirates hijack ship, 28 North Korean crew

Talk about a corrundrum. The crew from North Korea, the arguably most moserable place on earth being captured by pirates from Somalia, another country that while high on the sucky locale list keeps vying for the top spot but doesn't quite achieve such a dubious distinction. Is their capture a step up for the crew?

So once the matter is resolved do the North Korean crew press for asylum in Somalia or elsewhere? Did the pirates just unwittingly and unintentionally free a bunch of North Koreans from having to return to a life of misery under a super-totalitarian regime? How much can the North Koreans offer the Somalis to not be released back to North Korea? Time will tell, and hopefully they'll be released unharmed and not returned to North Korea.

Does North Korea's Kim have Pancreatic Cancer?

It could explain the erratic North Korean saber rattling of late.

Of course given the closed prison society that is North Korea, its hard to check the veracity of the Report: NKorea's Kim has pancreatic cancer.

While its a nasty disease indeed, and generally shouldn't be wished on anyone, fewer people in the world still living have caused as much misery as Kim Jong Il. Given that, let's hope he's actually ill, and that North Korea has a chance to move away from its model totalitarian society.

Obama, North Korea and Missile Defense

As North Korea threatens to destroy the United States, President Obama claims there's nothing to worry about(from the Huffington Post):

President Barack Obama said the United States is "prepared for any contingencies" involving North Korea _ including the regime's reported threat to launch a long-range missile toward Hawaii.

. . .

"This administration _ and our military is fully prepared for any contingencies," Obama said Friday during an interview with CBS News' Harry Smith, to be broadcast Monday on "The Early Show."

"I don't want to speculate on hypotheticals," Obama said. "But I want ... to give assurances to the American people that the t's are crossed and the i's are dotted in terms of what might happen."

Given Obama's historic antipathy to Missile Defense and indeed his budget cuts to the Missile Defense program it is certainly something he cannot take any credit for doing:

Lawmakers are demanding to know why the president's proposed 2010 defense budget cuts missile defense by $1.2 billion and does not provide any funds for the European missile defense shield as Iran and North Korea defy the international community with missile testing.

Iran tested its longest-range missile to date last month, and North Korea in April took another step toward an intercontinental ballistic missile on the same day President Obama gave a speech in the Czech Republic touting U.S willingness to protect Europe and the United States from rogue missiles.

Under President Bush last year, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and then-Secretary Condoleezza Rice signed agreements with Poland and the Czech Republic to base interceptors and radar there, but now the Obama administration appears to be backtracking.

"I thought it was certain that the Poles and Czechs believe that it was a commitment we made," Sen. John McCain said Tuesday during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

"We have not made a decision to go forward with that at this point," Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn replied.

At Fort Greeley in Alaska, the missile defense silos can defend the U.S. from both North Korea and Iran, but the Obama budget would cuts the number of interceptor missiles based there from 44 to 30. And that has both Republicans and Democrats asking, why now?

If the US is prepared for missile defense (the answer the Vice Chairman of the joint chiefs of staff gave for the potential to intercept a single missile attack on the US as "90 percent plus" - not very reassuring if you're in range of those missiles) it is certainly not due to Obama who is trying to cut the defenses.

Instead, this is an area where the Republicans have been proven right on yet again --missile defense is one measure among many necessary to protect the United States and the Republican insistence, starting with Reagan on deploying such even in the face of Democrat's nay-saying and childish derisiveness about "Star Wars' has proven prescient.

Given the new threats we're facing in this unstable, multi-bi-polar world (Thank you North Korea and Iran) it only makes sense to speed up the deployment of such defenses, and to cut development and deployment as the Democrats have been proposing throughout is woefully shortsighted at best and a great betrayal of America at worst.