<story><title>China orders N.K. firms to close down within 120 days</title><url>http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/northkorea/2017/09/28/0401000000AEN20170928012000315.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>thevardanian</author><text>Honestly I don&amp;#x27;t get this sentiment. NK isn&amp;#x27;t some rationalistic actor. The NK problem can never ever be solved by diplomatic resolve. This goes beyond mere saving face, or diplomacy. This is simply about maintaining and expanding power. That is sometimes you need to be confrontational. Sometimes you need to stop being Chamberlain, and start being Churchill. Preferably before it&amp;#x27;s too late.&lt;p&gt;What else is their development of nuclear arms about? NK is a signatory of the NPT. They broke their promise. They&amp;#x27;ve broken their promise multiple times. What they&amp;#x27;re looking for isn&amp;#x27;t a resolution to their situation, if anything they want to prolong it as long as possible. What they actually want is to win, and emerge &amp;quot;victorious&amp;quot; in the face of US &amp;quot;oppression&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;Personally I think while China&amp;#x27;s interests are in maintaining a peaceful region, we must be wary of the relationship between NK and China. As there is a possibility of another game being played. Perhaps China wants to annex NK.</text></item><item><author>gypsy_boots</author><text>This makes me nervous and I fear that Kim Jung Un will have to do something big in order to save face. I hope we make him feel that he has a non-violent way to posture for his people as that&amp;#x27;s really what this is all about: posturing.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jasonwatkinspdx</author><text>&amp;gt; NK isn&amp;#x27;t some rationalistic actor.&lt;p&gt;The way they&amp;#x27;re behaving is quite rational. They looked at what happened to Gaddafi and Saddam, as well as how the new administration is seeking to tear down the Iran deal, and came to the conclusion that the US&amp;#x2F;West could not be trusted to honor a nuclear disarment deal long term.&lt;p&gt;This means a credible nuclear deterrent is the only way to ensure the regime&amp;#x27;s survival.&lt;p&gt;Lest people think I&amp;#x27;m engaging in apologetics, what they&amp;#x27;re doing to keep in power is reprehensible. But they&amp;#x27;re not mad men looking for a symbolic &amp;quot;win&amp;quot; at the cost of suicide.</text></comment>
<story><title>China orders N.K. firms to close down within 120 days</title><url>http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/northkorea/2017/09/28/0401000000AEN20170928012000315.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>thevardanian</author><text>Honestly I don&amp;#x27;t get this sentiment. NK isn&amp;#x27;t some rationalistic actor. The NK problem can never ever be solved by diplomatic resolve. This goes beyond mere saving face, or diplomacy. This is simply about maintaining and expanding power. That is sometimes you need to be confrontational. Sometimes you need to stop being Chamberlain, and start being Churchill. Preferably before it&amp;#x27;s too late.&lt;p&gt;What else is their development of nuclear arms about? NK is a signatory of the NPT. They broke their promise. They&amp;#x27;ve broken their promise multiple times. What they&amp;#x27;re looking for isn&amp;#x27;t a resolution to their situation, if anything they want to prolong it as long as possible. What they actually want is to win, and emerge &amp;quot;victorious&amp;quot; in the face of US &amp;quot;oppression&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;Personally I think while China&amp;#x27;s interests are in maintaining a peaceful region, we must be wary of the relationship between NK and China. As there is a possibility of another game being played. Perhaps China wants to annex NK.</text></item><item><author>gypsy_boots</author><text>This makes me nervous and I fear that Kim Jung Un will have to do something big in order to save face. I hope we make him feel that he has a non-violent way to posture for his people as that&amp;#x27;s really what this is all about: posturing.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gumby</author><text>&amp;gt;  NK isn&amp;#x27;t some rationalistic actor.&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t see why you say this.  I wouldn&amp;#x27;t say they are especially &lt;i&gt;competent,&lt;/i&gt; but they seem to have stayed in existence and played off various larger rivals successfully for 70 odd years.</text></comment>