Well yeah, he wants aide for his country because it's very poor. This is how he's been operating for years, the only difference is now he has nukes so we're forced to take him seriously.
He also wants to stay in power. As long as his power isn't overtly threatened he's not going to do something like attack America, that'd basically be suicide and there's nothing really for him to gain from doing that. That's about the best way to guarantee that he gets overthrown.
Oh boy...hope it is not true, it is CNN, but they aren't the only ones reporting it:
North Korea: Kim Jong Un watches 'H-Bomb' loaded on new missile
Originally posted by SableYou really have to keep in mind the kind of state you are dealing with. We're talking about multiple generations of people who have been brainwashed and terrorized into a state of absolute loyalty. North Korea is literally a modern example of the kind of totalitarian state talked about in the book 1984. Just like in the book, people are under constant surveillance by everyone around them. You can literally get in trouble just for failing to appear to grieve properly when the great leader dies, and it will very likely be someone close to you who ends up turning you in out of fear for their own lives, because if it is later discovered that they knew about your transgression and did nothing then they will be just as dead as you are.
Yea but they know he will kill them at a moments notice. Has to be a good general in there somewhere that can stage a coup and lead the country another way.
This is the leader who had his own brother killed, not for any actual sense of disloyalty, but just as a sort of insurance policy. He wanted to make absolutely certain that he was the only possible heir to the throne. If anyone were to stage such a coup the probability that they and everyone who cooperates with them would be killed is overwhelming.
US, North Korea on the verge of ‘large-scale conflict’, Putin warns
SEPTEMBER 2, 2017 - 1:44PM
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin has warned the standoff between North Korea and the United States is close to spilling into a large-scale conflict, saying it’s a mistake to try to pressure Pyongyang into halting its nuclear missile program.
Mattis: NKorea threat would bring massive military response
Associated Press September 3, 2017
Korea's latest nuclear provocation with a blunt threat, saying the U.S. will answer any North Korean threat with a "massive military response -- a response both effective and overwhelming." While he said America does not seek the "total annihilation" of the North, he added somberly, "We have many options to do so."
Trump Tweets
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing!
7:46 AM - Sep 3, 2017
15,929 15,929 Replies 19,051 19,051 Retweets 63,623 63,623 likes
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
..North Korea is a rogue nation which has become a great threat and embarrassment to China, which is trying to help but with little success.
7:39 AM - Sep 3, 2017
9,415 9,415 Replies 18,022 18,022 Retweets 62,843 62,843 likes
Guys, war is pretty much imminent at this point. Like, conflict will happen like in days / weeks now. This is not good. At all.
I foresee Trump any day now preemptively hitting NK and hard without notice until afterwards.
Originally posted by TethAdamTheRockThe precedent it sets, more than anything else. Becoming a nuclear power gives a country much more geopolitical leverage, and we would very much not like to see a regime like NK in that position.
Whats so bad about north korea making nukes
It basically will demonstrate a lot of weakness in our position in terms of being able to prevent other rogue dictatorships from becoming nuclear powers. Expect Iran to be next, and it won't stop there.
Unfortunately, there's not an easy answer in terms of preventing this sort of thing. It was the kind of thing we were trying to preemptively prevent in Saddam's Iraq, and the immense costs involved in that campaign became all too self-evident after 10 years of war in that country. So we don't really have the heart to start a new major war.
For now, we will posture and try our best to prevent these dictators from pursuing nukes. This is under the assumption that nobody, not even Kim, is crazy enough to actually start a nuclear war. Of course, should this assumption turn out to be incorrect, and for whatever reason one of these powers ends up nuking one of their enemies, then we will be working with a very different set of assumptions moving forward, and will not be nearly so hesitant to take more preemptive actions in the future.
North Korea fires missile from Pyongyang towards the east - South Korea
North Korea early on Friday fired an unidentified missile eastward from the Sunan district in its capital, Pyongyang, South Korea's military said.
The missile has flown over Japan, Japan's NHK television said.
South Korea's presidential Blue House has called an urgent National Security Council meeting.
The North's launch comes a day after the North threatened to sink Japan and reduce the United States to "ashes and darkness" for supporting a U.N. Security Council resolution imposing new sanctions against it for its Sept. 3 nuclear test.
This may've been the last straw. War is now imminent ..
Originally posted by Impediment
https://www.google.com/amp/amp.usatoday.com/story/680329001/WWIII, anyone?