Maybe a spectacularly naive question, but what positives do North Korea offer the world? ?

[drivinmecrazy]

As the title says,,what apart from being the ignition for a huge global nuclear conflict, does NK actually offer?
A genuine question.
Are the rest of the world in anyway reliant on them for any resource, knowledge or product??
I'm trying really hard to see what drives NK and apart from the nuclear threat , what strengths do they have?
Recent threats of trade embargos and economic isolation seem slightly inept if they are not a huge trading nation.
Particularly when they are certainly not a consumer lead society.
Please help me understand

Not so much naive as majorly missing the point, maybe?

They're not trying to 'offer the world' anything. They're a despotic, insular, hereditary fiefdom built around a cult of personality.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=TCCG5qMgmBo

This is quite a good quick overview.

John Sweeney and Barbara Demick have both written fascinating books about N Korean society, if you're particularly interested.

I do understand that part of it.
My confusion is really concerning how the UN countries think the recent threats of economic sanctions would hurt NK.
Do they hold some strategic/ political wild card that stops the rest of the world just disabling the demonic patriarchal dictatorship or to take out (by absolutely any means deemed necessary ) their military hubs.
After all we went to war over far less following Blairs declaration of possible weapons of mass destruction in Iraq

Economic sanctions don't just stop North Korea selling stuff. They also stop North Korea buying stuff. The idea is to make life difficult for the elite in the hope that they will pressure the regime to change its behaviour.

The alternative of simply attacking North Korea is problematic. Whilst China is unhappy with the way North Korea is behaving, they don't want a US-friendly united Korea, which would be the likely outcome of any military action. So if the US attacks North Korea it could find itself at war with China. This is why the preferred approach has long been to pressure China into taking effective action over North Korea. I hope and expect that no military action will be taken unless China has agreed not to take any action to defend North Korea.

North Korea is apparently very good for wildlife as most of it is left alone and not built over and that they use old fashioned farming methods.

They make a lot of textiles.
They remind us what is good / works in our society, e.g. Freedom of speech.

Do they hold some strategic/ political wild card that stops the rest of the world just disabling the demonic patriarchal dictatorship or to take out (by absolutely any means deemed necessary ) their military hubs.

1. It's not good to just blow up innocent civilians because of the actions of despotic leaders.
2. China and S.Korea are both well in range and S.Korea /Seoul would be obliterated as an ally of the US by N.Korea if we carried out preemptive strikes against N.K

Well, first of all, it's all hot air. Kim is many things but he is not an idiot and this is just all part of an elaborate set of negotiations. A power play. No different to Trump and his various expostulations - it's mainly just a show for the cheap seats at the back.

It's not good for other countries to 'take out' leaders they don't like. The world is not a Bruce Willis film. America has done that in the past, as has Britain. It never ends well. It's not how modern states should behave.

Also, there's no viable, unifying alternative to the Kim family. A power vacuum in North Korea would almost certainly lead to instability, a military coup, and an increased likelihood of not only war but also genocide and even worse treatment of the North Korean people as various factions struggle for power.

Technically, North Korea and South Korea are at war with each other and have been since 1950. An armistice agreement was signed in 1953 but there has never been a ceasefire. There are other players on both sides, who might feel drawn into a conflict should one arise. But these days, despite all the mansplaining and posturing, the US, China and Russia are (hopefully) sensible enough not to get themselves into that position.

Sad though it is, North Korea's leadership is primarily a problem for the North Korean people.

I feel very sorry for the North Korean people. They will suffer so much if their leader continues with his policy.
The Policy of Apoeasement didn't work prior to WW2, so the major powers and the UN will have to do something.
Why does Kim keep aiming for Japan.
What are all those test strikes doing to the ocean/ sea life ???

1. North Korea has both fission based (conventional nuclear) and fusion based (hydrogen bomb) weapons. As they're demonstrating, they're now capable of fitting those to both medium and long range missiles capable of hitting Japan, South Korea and the west coast of the US.

2. the above is the most effective deterrent to them being attacked that there is. A US air strike or a missile strike from a US destroyer on Pyongyang will almost certainly lead to a North Korean nuclear missile strike on Japan, South Korea (US regional allies) or the West Coast of the US itself.

3. imagine the damage such a strike would do. In 1945 the US laid waste to Hiroshima and Nagasaki with basic fissile nuclear bombs which had a tiny proportion of the destructive power the North Korean warheads will have. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still wastelands. Imagine what Tokyo, Seoul, California would look like after being hit by one of NK's nuclear missiles. The deaths will run into the millions.

4. therefore military action is not an option, even for a blustering fool like trump. A very different situation to Iraq, which didn't have nuclear weapons.

5. which leaves other ways of exerting pressure on NK - they don't export much to the rest of the world, so the main ways of doing this is to a) try and convince china to cut off their oil supply b) try and convince Russia to not employ the hundreds of thousands of NK labourers c) put trade sanctions to starve the country of income that goes towards funding the R+D that produces these weapons.

Do you mean what is the point of sanctions? Its mostly symbolic.
This is a incredibly complex situation, nothing like iraq (and look how great that turned out. Hello isis)
Military power would be the biggest headfuck you could ever imagine

Jeanvaljean

Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not wastelands, they are bustling cities with populations of 1.1 million and half a million respectively.

though there are parts of the city that are not suitable for human life still (aka no houses or stuff can be built and prolonged exposure is bad but the city does exist) basically ground zero creator has unhealthy levels of radiation still.