North Korea

[Phoebe]

I know many of you here are not religious but perhaps you have your own version of regular praying for the greater wisdom and restraint of both Kim Jong Un and President Trump? Honestly not sure what else the average person can do about it. Always felt like the end of the Cold War marked the end of major fears of a nuclear war. Now it just feels like the beginning of a new and even more dangerously imbalanced era. How can any human being know the effects of these weapons and not want to do whatever it takes to ensure it never happens again? Well, who can grasp why there are Neo-Nazis, either? God help us.

[Tahlvin]

I used to have a friend, who I've since lost touch with, who had an agreement with a college friend of his that they would drink themselves to death if a nuclear bomb was ever used again in a hostile situation. I wonder how nervous he is about North Korea.

[poorpete]

I worry, though not for the end of the world, yet, as N. Korea doesn't have the power to make that happen like we and Russia do. I worry, though.

North Korea with a few nuclear weapons and missiles is a scary threat. This is what really worries me.

[Eliahad]

What exactly is worrying to you about that graph, Pete?

[Stan]

I don't think NK will shoot a nuke. I don't think they'll start a major war, either. Despite all their rage, they'r still just a rat in a cage.

If a war did start, conventional weapon would probably account for more damage - thousands of artillery pieces, many of which can hit Seoul. Trump's not a great choice for keeping things cool with China if things go sour, though.

It's not a likely end of the world, but it would really suck. 9/11 was just a few thousand casualties and a bunch of confusion in a financial center. SK would lose a lot more than that and would be disrupted for a while. SK is a moderately big piece of the world economy and everything is connected now days. There would be a ton of refugees pouring into SK and China, If things got tense with China, that would hit a pause button on the world economy.