This is definitely amusing, watching the North Korean leadership try and play tit for tat, essentially against themselves. This is the kind of bravado that can only be fostered living in a hole in the ground. What do they think is going to happen?

The old lines of warfare have been killed out, largely thanks to the financial industry. Unprecedented levels of cooperation and mutual interests have been aligned over the last sixty years. Those aren’t going to just erase themselves.

The roots of NAFTA have sprouted a magnificent tree that is even now holding the countries together. Does North Korea think China has its back in a war against the South? South Korea and the US are far more important to China than North Korea is. I would venture that North Korea is actually a liability for China.

If markets seem unusually calm at North Korean warmongering, it’s probably because North Korea will get their clocks cleaned if they pick this fight. Any effective war against the US by the part of China would send that country screaming into a depression. They’ve come too far to see it all get ruined by old world communists.

But hey, let’s call North Korea’s bluff and find out.

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