[quote=@catchamber]I sincerely hope the current plan is dropped, and the situation is approached with the living conditions of the North Korean people being the unquestionable concern of everyone that's involved.[/quote]

Eh. I mean don't get me wrong, I hope their lives get better, but I don't wanna have to flex my nuclear muscles every time a goatherd in the third world stubs their toe. If we're doing this for the sake of suffering people, then North Korea is gonna wind up being the cheapest thing we do for the next fifty years. I'm okay with approaching this from a position of rational self-interest. Enough people can find enough common ground to make that work.

[quote]China knows that defying the past few UN Security Council resolutions regarding North Korea would be a very bad move for both countries, and that the risks of such behavior far outweigh any hypothetical benefits.[/quote]

lol, what's the UN gonna do about it? China has a veto on the security council. If by some miracle the UN got off its ass without the US whipping it into motion, China has the irrevocable power to make the entire UN sit back down. And again -- they've let it happen before. In plausibly-deniable ways, but they've let it happen.

[quote]Maybe. Then again, [url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/22/the-ice-stupas-of-ladakh-solving-water-crisis-in-the-high-desert-of-himalaya]science[/url] [url=https://www.asiabiomass.jp/english/topics/1209_06.html]marches[/url] [url=https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-create-a-graphene-based-sieve-that-turns-seawater-into-drinking-water]on[/url].[/quote]

I remember reading that, when they found it! Neat stuff. Well, if we're counting speculative advancement, I totally believe China is up to the task of maintaining itself in the long run. I'm [i]less sure[/i] they can also maintain all of North Korea in a short-term sense of things. Hope they're working on it though. 

[quote]Fortunately, existing technologies can be synergized to accelerate development at cost effective rates, and living standards being improved should give North Koreans more than enough resources and time to participate in the process.[/quote]

[url=https://www.nknews.org/2015/02/the-real-reason-north-korea-refugees-not-defectors-struggle/]I dunno about that last bit.[/url] Skip to the bottom; basically, this is not going to be an easy pie to slice, no matter who winds up slicing it. But you're right, we can drop a 4G network instead of laying cables, and shit like that. Sometimes it pays to be the last horse across the line. Then again, I mean, how's Afghanistan look these days? It's not like we didn't spend money there.

[quote]You make it sound like you have Trump on speed dial. :hehe[/quote]

You caught me. I'm Trump.