What to do about North Korea?

[Rev. Rye]

Either we just wait for the regime to collapse on its own, or we go to war with them. That could potentially spark a conflict with China, although China's relationship with North Korea seems to have been getting worse over the years. They recently placed sanctions on North Korean coal (their main export) but the West may have to make some sort of deal with China to convince them to abandon North Korea.

Peacefully or violently, it will be one massive expensive mess and it will be our countries that will have to pay the price to clean up the said mess. There is absolutely no way South Korea could handle the refugee crisis that would ensue on their own.

I have heard that if North Korea reaches a point of full-blown war that can't be settled diplomatically and they unequivocally started it, China has said they will not support them.

Apparently, the big reason they put up with North Korea is because they fear if North Korea falls, their Communistic government won't be too far behind, seeing that's what happened with the Western Communists around 1989.

Given that once, Russia sent supplies via train and North Korea took everything, even the actual train (the people there had to walk back), it's not hard to see why the relationship is so strained.