@soryang

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the old 'final solution' dialogue. Bombing their way to create some resolution.
Since negotiation and diplomatic avenues are closed to the militarists.
Of course they want to erase No. Korea, similar to Russia, to enable the
eventual attack on China. Except for the inconvenient fact they will not
succeed in a bombing campaign. Making NATO / America great by destroying
competitors has become a failed policy.

Siegfried Hecker recently visited China to talk about his new book Hinge Points: An Inside Look at North Korea's Nuclear Program or something like that. (I'm sure it's a worthwhile read but I haven't read it yet). He spoke to "nuclear colleagues" there in China in connection with his presentation on North Korea. I cued the video below to begin where he describes this experience. One of the Chinese "technical types" knew a great deal about North Korea, made some observations on North Korea's shift in strategic outlook that coincided (on all fours he suggests) with the view that Carlin and Hecker presented in the recent article Is North Korea Going to War. (Many people have taken issue with that article although given the experience and credentials of both authors their point of view needs to be given serious consideration).

I think one of the shortcomings of their perspective toward critics as they are the putative "authorities" so to speak, on North Korea (in the US anyway) is that they are taking a somewhat overly defensive view of the number of critics of their thesis. In any case, rather they should welcome informed criticism of their expressed viewpoint, that North Korea has decided to "go to war" as assisting in a penumbral or dialectic process of analysis that adds to our potential understanding. On the other hand, Hecker welcomes the Chinese viewpoint from what appears to be a personal perspective as a scientist or technician, to the effect that here is another technical expert from China, who looked at the data, and came to the same conclusion we did.

Watching the whole video, in particular the hour before this, my critique is that the so called military "final solution" could mean military resolution, aka deterrence for survival. Apart from low threshold skirmishes or confrontations which could lead to full blown war, the major danger is the incitement of uncontrolled escalation without adequate consideration of the consequences. Carlin says North Korea is not adequately prepared for war now, but is in the process of getting prepared for war. He also alludes to an allied "counterattack" on a preemptive North Korean (missile attack) to thwart any US/allied attempt to execute a war plan against North Korea. I view this perspective as avoiding consideration of US plans to "decapitate" North Korea and its nuclear capability as the first move in an unlimited escalation process, to which the North responds with a nuclear counterattack, which is "preemptive" only in the sense that it might be or probably be the North which engages in first use of nuclear weapons to meet the US existential threat to its continued existence.

In other words, this is the significance of the similar Chinese observation that the North has determined that the US will not accept the continued existence of North Korea in principle, and therefore from the North's point of view, there is simply no point in further negotiations. As some of the questioners point out, this could not foreclose any possibility at all of negotiation because of the possibility of dancing around further with Trump if he is reelected. Nevertheless, one is forced to make the observation, that whatever Trump is open to consider, the national security establishment in the US will simply not accept negotiating with North Korea in the same way they sabotaged the talks in Hanoi, and during the W administration before that.

I noticed that before November 2023 when he appeared on Kim Eo-jun's very popular South Korean radio program, Hecker appeared to have no idea who he was. This makes me wonder how much he could really know about the Korean perspective. I noticed Carlin had nothing to say about this.

Thanks for OT QMS. Great art work.