South Korea

Unable to make de-escalation progress using conventional diplomatic means at the United Nations, on Monday South Korean President Moon Jae-in proposed that the U.N. Security Council hold serious discussions about imposing an energy and capital blockade on North Korea, by cutting off oil supplies to Kim's regime coupled with a block of North Korean sources of foreign currency, the South Korean president's office said. Moon discussed the idea with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, during a phone call, according to South Korea's Blue House.

Barely had the market digested news of the latest, 6th - and this time allegedly thermonuclear - test by North Korea (with the South Korean Kospi cutting initial losses of as much as 1.6% in half on yet another BTFNWD ramp), when Yonhap reported that South Korea's spy agency said it had detected that North Korea is making preparations for a possible intercontinental ballistic missile launch, a move that would further raise tensions a day after it conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear detonation.

As has become custom, shortly after North Korea engages in some provocative activity, in this case its first ever hyrdogen bomb test, South Korea has traditionally responded with its own military drill, and today was no difference, with Yonhap reporting "that South Korea's military said Monday it conducted a combined live-fire exercise targeting North Korea's nuclear test site."

To be sure, it's not exactly clear how a "drill" can "target" a foreign military site, but we'll assume someone just used Google translate in this case.

Authored by James George Jatras via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

They say that most of the world’s real dangers arise not because of what people don’t know but because of what they do 'know' that just ain’t so.

As a case in point, consider three things about Korea that the bipartisan Washington establishment seems quite sure of but are far removed from reality:

Delusion 1: All options, including U.S. military force, are «on the table.»

Confirming reports that first floated several months ago, the Telegraph reports that South Korea is preparing to send special forces units into Pyongyang to conduct a "clinical strike" - searching for, and taking out Kim Jong-un and his closest advisers, in the event that North Korea should start a conventional war. The plan is among the revisions being made to South Korea's latest strategy for dealing with an attack from the North.