So here we are. Again.  The title of the Journal’s editorial of February 24, 2017.carries the message: North Korean Terror Notice. Indeed it is terror, and terror for a long , long time if something isn’t done.

It brought to mind The Cuban Missile Crises of 1962. I was surprised when I did the arithmetic and realized that one would have to be roughly retirement age for one to have any “feel” for the terror of those few days in October 1962.

Not too brag, but I predicted that we would get here. I have a record on line here. See my posts dealing with North Korea from years ago.  When the talking heads on TV were describing North Korean engineer as the “gang that couldn’t shoot straight,” and pointing out how short and funny looking their leadership was; I said this is going to become a very very real and serious problem.  Potentially more terrifying than that grim weekend over half a century ago.

Because engineering realities in 1962 meant the most important person on the other side of the table  in resolving the terror was a Russian adult: Kruschev. Cuban engineers could not do what Russian could do.  Korean engineers, North and South, are excellent engineers,

Two slogans that will encapsulate the North Korean Terror reality:

1 The Kid Is Too Good.

2, The Product is Too Cheap.

The slogans are explained in various posts on this site. Let’s get to the editorial.

First point. The editorial thinks that “the U.S. should redesignate North Korea a state sponsor of terror.” It lists a number of occasions where the writer asserts that the North Koreans were behind plots to kill or harm people, but it does not suggest that so listing would hinder the North Korean nuclear weapons  program.  Instead the listing would “signal that the new Trump Administration is willing to recognize the North Korean threat as it is. . .”

Well I have been yelling on this blog that if one begins the analysis with Korean scores on quantitative IQ tests, the threat was bound to get more dangerous for every family in California. Inevitably.  Dicking around with “Lists” is another diversion for Americans, to avoid the really agonizing decisions that are on their way.

Second Point. MISSION CREEP ON THIS ISSUE IS DEMONIC. Trump has said that North Korea will not be allowed to develop an intercontinental capability that can reach the U.S.

Friends and Countrymen: IF HE CAN DO THAT; THAT IS A DAMN GOOD MORNING’S  WORK.  He does not have to do anything else that morning.

The Wall Street Journal is tough to please. The editorial wants more than a solution to the North Korean threat:  “The United Nations Panel of Experts has repeatedly cited North Korean shipments of illicit arms and munitions to Iran . . .” I fear that they want Trump to force a new trade policy for North Korea.

More ominously the editorial supports a new set of sanctions on “Chinese firms that sustain the Pyongyang regime,,,”

My response: Military force may be required. Force looks one way if China supports the U.S.

It looks very different if China objects.

R Peppe