Following Sunday night's resumption of trade after a three-day weekend, which saw sharp moves lower in US yields, the dollar and the USDJPY after Friday's disappointing CPI and retail sales data and the weekend's North Korea jitters, the mood has stabilized in light trading with Asian stocks advancing, Europe mostly closed for Easter Monday and S&P futures fractionally lower at 2,325 in early New York trading.
With the North Korean "problem" front in center for the Trump administration, especially after Sunday's failed ballistic missile launch prompting Trump's top security advisor, Lt. Gen HR McMaster to "work with China on a range of options" to respond to the North Korean provocation, here are several charts and infographics summarizing North Korea's conventional and nuclear potential, as well as its short and long-range military options.
In its first official comments on Sunday morning's failed missile launch, South Korea said the latest North Korean provocation threatens the entire world, and warned of a punitive action if it leads to further actions such as a nuclear test or a long-range missile launch.
After Saturday came and went without any provocation out of North Korea on its national holiday, many asked if Kim Jong-Un had finally learned his lesson.
Authored by Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,
It was no coincidence that America's 11-ton bunker-tunnel busting bomb was deployed in Afghanistan as tensions mount over North Korea's nuclear theats.
In the past, China resisted U.S. saber-rattling against North Korea. Now China is threatening North Korea with military action. What's going on? Why the sudden convergence of U.S.-China threats of military force against North Korea?