GLENN: All right. So North Korea appears to be prioritizing testing their missile technology over the actual nuclear tests.
We're wondering if that is because they've got the nukes all ready to go. We're not sure. This is the question that President Trump is now facing --
PAT: How can we be so unsure? With the technology we have --
GLENN: Zero.
PAT: Supposedly we can see a license plate from space and read what's in somebody's pocket from there.
GLENN: This is all underground --
PAT: We can't figure out --
GLENN: This is all underground. And they're so technologically inferior to us, that it's like -- you have to go on the ground, to be able to find it. We don't have the human assets anymore. We don't spy that way anymore. We do everything digitally. So everything being underground and no human assets on the ground, I mean, how do we --
PAT: Maybe that's the problem. Why don't we -- we should maybe have some human assets on the ground. Right?
GLENN: Yeah. I would think so.
PAT: The United States of America --
JEFFY: Other than Dennis Rodman.
PAT: Yeah, other than Dennis Rodman.
GLENN: So what has been the world's response? This is where it gets really dicey.
Russia and China immediately responded to the test yesterday with a call for South Korea and the US to halt all military exercises in return for North Korea's abandonment of their nuclear program.
Two problems with this: North Korea doesn't have a program anymore. They have nuclear weapons, and they're not going to give the weapons up to anyone.
Two, Russia and China see the writing on the wall now. They know what is about to happen. And they are now positioning themselves to portray United States as the aggressive warmonger that refused any diplomatic solution. They are setting up a diplomatic trap. And we know it.
So what's going to happen? Well, neither side can back down. And the world is now preparing for what comes next.
So what actually does come next? This was the case in the 1950s. This is what got us here, beginning in the 1950s. And China holds the key. The only thing that will make Kim Jong-un back down is heavy economic sanctions and a full-on oil embargo. If China says no trade, it's over for him. And only China can do it.
Unfortunately, the president just tweeted this at 4:00 a.m. this morning: Trade between China and North Korea grew almost 40 percent in the first quarter of this year. So much for China working with us. But we had to give it a try.
STU: Well, because he had tweeted the opposite just a couple weeks ago. Where he was saying they tried and it worked.
GLENN: Yep. And at the dinner, he said that we've made a lot of progress.
STU: Yeah, yeah.
GLENN: So let's assume there's some strategy here. What does saying something like that politically accomplish? If you read between the lines, this tweet looks like a justification. This tweet looks like the president telling the world, the United States has exhausted all non-military options. That the key to a peaceful solution ran through China. And China refused to play ball. He's setting them up to be the fall guy, while they are setting us up to be the fall guy.
All signs now point to a military resolution. South Korea and the United States responded to the ICBM test with a military exercise last night, firing surface-to-surface missiles into the ocean. It was a message to Kim Jong-un that a preemptive strike is now looming. If China decides to cooperate, the war can be stopped. If North Korea backs down, the war can be stopped. If the United States agrees to halt military cooperation with South Korea, the war can be stopped. But are any of these realistic?
PAT: No.
GLENN: It is beginning to look like war with North Korea is becoming more and more of a real option. And we are entering now the endgame stage with North Korea.
So you know, this is far more grave than anything I have seen in my lifetime. This is -- this is the possibility of being millions dead and a good possibility.
This is -- if it -- if it begins, thousands will be dead within hours. And if it drags on, millions will be dead. There is no winner in this, and it could drag the entire world into a third world war. And with Russia and China standing on the side of North Korea, that's disturbing.
STU: Yeah, because really the only thing, you know, that pops into mind, in recent -- relatively recent history is the Cold War, where that was really the thought all the time, where you could have millions and millions dead.
GLENN: And that stopped us.
STU: Yeah. I mean, I don't know what you do here, to be honest. Because, yeah, you can put more sanctions on them.
GLENN: Without China and Russia, it won't happen.
STU: At least they won't have roads and electricity anyway in the country. So I don't know -- they're already all starving. So...
GLENN: And the people -- the people blame us. I mean, the people have been raised, since the 1950s, that all of their problems are being caused by the United States. That their starvation is because of the United States. Their lack of medical care, if they even understand that, because they're so far in the Dark Ages on that, is caused by the United States. That the point of all suffering for their people is the United States of America.
And it is why Kim Jong-un has -- has distanced himself from his father, Kim Jong-il, and gone to his grandfather. Got the same haircut. Does the same stuff. Speaks the same way. Has the same photos taken. Does the same rituals. Everything. To image himself as his grandfather and not his father. Because his grandfather was the great hope of South Korea -- or, North Korea. And Kim Jong-un is trying to image himself as the new great hope that's going to take them through the next wave of hell and remain victorious on the other side like his grandfather.
It's -- it's -- now that they have nuclear weapons and an ICBM and we know they're not afraid to use it.
