By Gary K. Busch, Lima Charlie News: “To understand the reasoning and the logic behind pursuing such a program requires some knowledge of the political origins and structure of the DPRK and the state of its economy.”
By Rod Lyon, The Strategist (ASPI): “North Korea’s sixth nuclear test is easily its most impressive. It’s possible, but not certain, that the test featured a genuine thermonuclear device, a second-generation nuclear-weapon design in which a primary fission explosion ignites a secondary fusion stage.”
To be fair to Tillerson, he joins a long roster of American diplomats who over the years have tried to cope with the intractable problem of North Korea by seeing (or at least professing to see) what they want to see. Going back at least to the early days of the Clinton administration, Washington has developed rituals in which American officials proclaim that North Korea's regime has a choice: to continue its rogue pursuit of nuclear weapons and suffer various penalties, or give them up and enjoy the many perquisites of life as a conventionally armed murderous totalitarian state.
https://pjmedia.com/claudiarosett/north-korea-unrestrained/
By Dave Majumdar, The National Interest: “In the event a war were to break out on the Korean peninsula, American airpower would play a key role. Initially, the burden would likely fall to the Pentagon's fleet of stealth aircraft including the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bomber.