...Personally, if I were in Kim Jong-Un's shoes, I wouldn't capitulate to the US Empire in any way, and especially not for heart attack inducing food like Pizza Hut or McDonalds.

of killing off the population of a targeted country?

Couldn't agree more; the US PTB never have kept agreements and Trump, implementing The Next Step, can't keep his word for 10 minutes in his hurry to complete the whole Global Dominance Thing.

Gotta take out China! (Partially through that 'back door' you mentioned? Or by attacking both at once in the hope that their publicized assault next door will act in some sort of a Trojan Horse manner, up to a point, for their missiles?)

From back in Feb:

https://www.rt.com/business/419080-china-initiative-threat-us/

China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ is threat to US in Latin America – US commander
Published time: 17 Feb, 2018

Beijing’s decision to extend its ambitious multitrillion-dollar trade initiative to Latin America creates “security vulnerabilities” for the United States, said the chief of the US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), Kurt Tidd.

Talking at a Senate Armed Services Committee meeting, he said China has already pledged $500 billion in trade funds with various Latin American countries and $250 billion in direct investment over the next decade.

“Increased economic cooperation – such as the extension of the ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative to Latin America, one of the nodes to support China’s vision of a competing global economic initiative – and the continued provision of financing and loans that appear to have ‘no strings attached’ provide ample opportunity for China to expand its influence over key regional partners and promote unfair business and labor practices.”

Tidd added that “Increased reach to key global access points like Panama create commercial and security vulnerabilities for the United States, as do Chinese telecommunications and space ventures with dual-use potential, which could facilitate intelligence collection, compromise communication networks, and ultimately constrain our ability to work with our partners.”

According to the SOUTHCOM commander, China is intensifying its role as a US rival in Latin America.

“The larger strategic challenge posed by China in this region is not yet a military one. It is an economic one, and a new approach may be required to compete effectively against China’s coordinated efforts in the Americas. Some of the most critical elements needed in this effort are not ones that [SOUTHCOM] can bring to bear,” he said. ...

There also concerns that China may be competition regarding recruitment of some of the so-far 16,000 Latin American students attending the US International Military Education and Training program.

Perhaps one of the scariest things is that they seemingly have no idea that there's anything wrong with them...

From 2017:

https://www.rt.com/news/388285-china-silk-road-forum/

Belt & Road: China welcomes heads of state, intl bodies at global cooperation forum
Published time: 14 May, 2017 01:15
Edited time: 14 May, 2017 18:29

Beijing is hosting a high-level international cooperation forum, dubbed "One Belt, One Road,” which brings together dozens of heads of state and government, along with financial organizations and hundreds of business representatives and entrepreneurs.

LIVE UPDATES: China hosts global Silk Road forum

"Spanning thousands of miles and years, the ancient silk routes embody the spirit of peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit," Chinese President Xi Jinping said at the opening of the forum. "The Silk Road spirit has become a great heritage of human civilization."

Xi also undertook to build a “road of peace” as he emphasized the need to respect the sovereignty and national interests of each and every state. The Chinese president added that he also wants it to be a “road of prosperity,” focusing on cooperation and production that would aim to maintain a dynamic growth.

The initiative, Xi said, is based on transparency and efficient resource allocation, with “no intention of creating a small group detrimental to stability.”

Speaking after the host of the conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that, unfortunately, “protectionism and unlawful restrictions” have become the new norm in the modern world.

“We cannot resolve modern challenges by using old approaches. We need new ideas. We need to abandon all stereotypes,” Putin urged.

“We should set a role model for the global community of how we can work together, develop together, based on equality and respect for national sovereignty based on international law and the United Nations principles.” ...

Not that I trust the self-proclaimed President-For-Life of (another) Surveillance-State-of-Censorship, but the above just somehow sounds so much nicer than threats to overthrow governments and bomb flat/invade countries if they don't knuckle under to The Right Corporations.

But publicly known plans call for illegally taking over China after practically everyone else less powerful than Russia and less difficult to militarily mug than Iran!

So perhaps each half of the world will be pushed into blowing up the other half, in following the the wisdom of Solomon according to TPTB - who are apparently hoping to keep the to-be-nice, gooey, irradiated centre, all to themselves...

The author of the below (lengthy, comprehensive and worth reading in full at source, just not before bed-time) article does state at one point that he's merely hypothesizing, and at the end of the quoted bits, off into wild conjecture - but considering Cheney, Bolton and the rest, if these are the capabilities aimed at...

https://news.vice.com/article/what-does-the-f-35-mean

Here's What the US and Its Allies Can Do With Their New F-35s

By Ryan Faith
May 17, 2016

... So the Brits, who will fly their F-35s from carriers, have just gained that ability to do on their own a lot of the fancy stuff that they could do until now only with the Americans. If they want to carry out a deep stealth strike against, say, Argentina, they don't need the US to hold their hand to do it. Likewise, their contributions will become more important in any coalition, including one involving the US military.

So a whole bunch of countries can now operate at a much higher level, with greater strategic impact, independent of the US. 11 countries other than the US are currently participating in the program and are planning on getting their own complement of F-35 aircraft. To unpack the impact of that, let's look at that list.

We've got seven NATO countries: Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. This will change the calculus of any fight involving NATO; Russia will be facing off against at least a few new operators of stealthy strike/reconnaissance capabilities in Europe alone.

Going to the Pacific, there are three future users: Australia, Japan, and South Korea. That has the Chinese scrambling in an attempt to make (and quite possibly copy) their own stealth fighter jet, to counter the advance in strategic capability the F-35 gives their regional adversaries.

In the Middle East, Israel's acquisition of the F-35 is, in some ways, just a continuation of its long-standing policy of maintaining a qualitative edge over its neighbors. But it also affects the power dynamic between Israel and Iran; the latter must be worried that there are now more options for an Israeli strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. ...

... Either way, it's worth noting that this means both the UK and Italy will soon have cutting-edge power projection capabilities, equaled only by the US and substantially better than the vast majority of the planet. These guys are moving to the head of the class.

The second subset of foreign F-35 operators comprises those that have to do with nukes. Again, the US has had stealth bombers for decades, so stealthy nuke delivery is taken for granted in some circles. However, three of the five NATO countries that are hosting shared nuclear weapons provided by the US are also in the F-35 program: Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey. They are going to be getting the standard F-35 variant, the F-35A, which will be able to carry the B-61 free-fall bombs that those countries currently host.

In essence, within a few years, there will be US-owned nukes in three European countries that will have their host nations' names on them and will be able to be delivered by stealthy nuclear-strike aircraft.

Before anyone freaks out, it's vitally important to note that the paperwork for taking one of these nukes out for a spin has got to be absolutely prohibitive, so while the nuclear weapons are shared, it's pretty easy to imagine that their peacetime owner — the US — would be able to veto any use of those weapons, which means that, in practice, it doesn't really indicate an independent nuclear capability.

Which is entirely different from the UK. Right now, the nuclear missiles on British subs are US Trident missiles, with UK warheads. Both countries need to give the thumbs up before they can start nuking people, but the important part here is that the UK owns the warheads. Thus, it's entirely possible that the UK will be able to have stealthy, nuclear-capable strike aircraft and the nukes to use with them. So far, there are no plans for certifying either the STOVL F-35B (which the UK is getting) or the carrier-based F-35C as nuclear capable for the US; however, the UK is the top foreign partner in the F-35 program, so never say never.

Outside of NATO, Israel has its own nuclear weapons program, although details are sparse about whether the Israeli version, the F-35I, will be able to use nuclear weapons. But, again, even if it's not an announced capability today, that doesn't mean it's not on the board. Israel already has (unofficially, but it's an open secret) land- and submarine-based nukes, and adding nuclear capability to the F-35 means that Israel will be getting a very flexible, survivable nuclear deterrent — just in time for a budding Iranian nuclear program to start running.

Beyond that, it's worth pointing out that countries like Japan and South Korea don't currently have their own nuclear weapons programs, but are widely regarded as being nuclear capable. If you can make your own reactors and have a bunch of top-flight scientists sitting around with a bunch of plutonium, it's just a matter of time and inclination.

Where all this gets crazy is when you consider that one particular country is in both smaller groups. The UK will not only have a pretty top-notch stealthy power projection capability, but will also have its own independent nuclear capability. To be absolutely clear, we're well off into the wilds on speculation at this point. It'd be pretty polite to just call this conjecture. But, if nothing else, it would explain why the UK is going to two carriers: it means they should always have one available. In the context of the UK's current debates about replacing all their nuclear missile subs, it means delivery of nukes from an F-35 will almost certainly come up in discussion. ...

It's crazy to start off with...

Luckily, the planes have been, among other things, stifling their pilots, slowing the whole thing down, but as far as I'm concerned, What the US and Its Allies Can Do With Their New F-35s is to fly them up their own arses.

We'll just have to hope, for starters, that North Korea doesn't walk into the PTB pitfall to have his country and people bombed flat for fun and profit again the moment his deterrent goes down...