A new slant on RIMPAC Naval politics/The Fight To Control The South China Sea

[ikalugin]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Yes 'David'...a common enough name in the USA

Not bad, I assumed that "David" was PRC due to their obvious comparative weakness.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by ikalugin

Not bad, I assumed that "David" was PRC due to their obvious comparative weakness.

In the simplest terms.....PRC are currently no match for the USA.

[ikalugin]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

In the simplest terms.....PRC are currently no match for the USA.

This really depends for a scenario. Despite comparative weakness PRC can "win" (as in achieve their objectives within the planned time window) in a war, where US is a beligent.

[Jimbuna]

Well, let us hope the outcome is never put to the test....the current POTUS is yet to be fully understood/predictable on the worlds stage and the potential consequences could be very alarming.

[ikalugin]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Well, let us hope the outcome is never put to the test....the current POTUS is yet to be fully understood/predictable on the worlds stage and the potential consequences could be very alarming.

With the deterioration of the power of nuclear deterence I don't think that the next large war is really avoidable.

[Mr Quatro]

Originally Posted by ikalugin

With the deterioration of the power of nuclear deterence I don't think that the next large war is really avoidable.

I doubt if there will be a really big war before there is a small war ...

It is written that there will be wars and rumors of war, but the end is not yet in sight and then later on it is written, "People will say peace, peace and then sudden destruction will come on them"

[Aktungbby]

The murderer of his own half-brother and uncle, ol' Kim Jong-Un is feeling the noose tighten....??!! In addition he is a thief.

Originally Posted by WSJ

SEOUL—North Korea slammed China’s “insincerity and betrayal” in a commentary published late Wednesday, calling statements in the official Chinese media “an undisguised threat” to Pyongyang, as it sought to stave off pressure from Beijing on its nuclear and missile programs.
“China should no longer try to test the limits of the DPRK’s patience,” North Korea said in the commentary published by the official Korean Central News Agency, using the acronym for its formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “China had better ponder over the grave consequences to be entailed by its reckless act of chopping down the pillar of the DPRK-China relations.”
The commentary, which was attributed to a person identified only as Kim Chol, comes as China seeks to get North Korea to curb its weapons programs, amid pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump and other United Nations members. North Korea’s latest statements referred to recent articles in two official Chinese publications, the People’s Daily and the Global Times, that apparently alluded to the possibility of Beijing confronting North Korea militarily, or ending friendly ties between the two neighbors and Cold War allies, if it didn’t halt its weapons programs.
The commentary also referred to Chinese press statements about North Korea’s weapons programs threatening China’s northeast, which borders North Korea, and about how Pyongyang’s actions were giving the U.S. an excuse to deploy more strategic assets to the region. The article said that the U.S. military buildup in Asia was aimed at China, not North Korea.
China’s hardening line on North Korea, the commentary said, showed that Beijing was “dancing to the tune of the U.S.,” and that China was exercising “big-power chauvinism” that meant “the dignity and vital rights of the DPRK should be sacrificed for the interests of China.”
Last month, Mr. Trump met Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where Mr. Trump says that he offered China more favorable trade terms in exchange for help on confronting the threat from North Korea.
In February, China said that it would suspend coal imports from North Korea until the end of the year, potentially depriving Pyongyang of a key source of revenue, a move that Mr. Trump has pointed to as a sign of China’s willingness to turn the screws on North Korea.
Mr. Trump has said that China holds the key to halting the North Korean weapons programs, citing the two countries’ close economic and historical ties.
Beijing in return has said its leverage is limited and has pressed the U.S. to enter into unconditional talks with Pyongyang.
China and North Korea have enjoyed friendly ties since the years immediately following World War II, when Communist parties in both countries took power and fought in one another’s wars. The two countries have described their ties as being as close as that of “lips and teeth.”
In recent decades, however, bilateral ties have become increasingly strained, as China opened its economy while North Korea grew more isolated and pursued a nuclear-weapons program that antagonized the region.
Wednesday’s article wasn’t the first time North Korea took rhetorical aim at China. In February, North Korea published a similar broadside, though in that case the commentary took a softer tone and didn’t call out Beijing by name, referring to China only as “a neighboring country, which often claims itself to be a ‘friendly neighbor.’ ”

Money is the 'sinews of war' and an economic attack is always preliminary: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/02/world/asia/treasury-imposes-sanctions-on-north-korea.html?_r=0

With private cybersecurity firms linking North Korea to recent computer attacks that absconded with at least $81 million, the Treasury Department moved on Wednesday to choke off Pyongyang’s remaining access to the global financial system, designating the country a “primary” money launderer.
The Treasury, employing sanctions techniques that helped pressure Iran to give up much of its nuclear program, said it would seek to impose what are known as secondary sanctions against the reclusive communist country. That means that it could cut off from the American financial system any bank or company that conducts banking transactions with Pyongyang.
As a practical matter, that would largely affect Chinese banks, which facilitate North Korea’s financial transactions with Beijing, its largest trading partner. It could also affect some institutions in the nominally autonomous Chinese regions of Macau and Hong Kong, as well as in Singapore, where Pyongyang has often gone to hide the true nature of its banking activities, and to pay for missiles, nuclear fuel and the huge infrastructure it has built around those programs.
The designation, officials said, was in the works long before evidence emerged linking the country’s aggressive hackers to the bank thefts, which involved stealing the credentials that banks use to access theSwift system, a global network that thousands of financial firms use to authorize payments from one account to another.
In interviews, administration officials said they were still sorting through the evidence that North Korea was involved, and left open the possibility that the thieves deliberately left evidence implicating the country to throw investigators off their trail. It could be months, the officials said, before they reach any conclusions, and in the end the perpetrators of the attack may not be definitively known...