As speculation mounts that Kim Jong-un and Trump could meet this month, analysts say Pyongyang will continue to see nuclear weapons as a matter of survival
North Korea’s launch last week of a missile from a naval destroyer elicited an uncharacteristically prosaic analysis from the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un. The launch was proof, he said, that arming ships with nuclear weapons was “making satisfactory progress”.
But the test, and Kim’s mildly upbeat appraisal, were designed to reverberate well beyond the deck of the 5,000-tonne destroyer-class vessel the Choe Hyon – the biggest warship in the North Korean fleet.
His pointed reference to nuclear weapons was made as the US and Israel continued their air bombardment of Iran – a regime Donald Trump had warned, without offering evidence, was only weeks away from having a nuclear weapon.
Surplus 90s equipment and lack of 21st century AMRAAMs is not a serious effort to back Ukraine.
They didn’t even give the F-16s until it was literally too late to make a difference.
I still remember a horrendous reddit article post of everyone championing Ukraine receiving a measly couple hundred ATGMs fom the UK as if that was going to do anything against Russia.
If the US was serious about their offer, they would have provided several squadrons of aircraft, training, the new AIM-260, muntions, etc etc.
While Ukraine was drowning in technology transfer blocks, they shipped all of that stuff to Israel no questions asked.
And for money mind you. Ukraine was still able to fund those purchases at the time.
As of early 2026, the U.S. has allocated approximately $175 billion to $188 billion in total, covering military, financial, and humanitarian aid related to the war in Ukraine. Of this, roughly $66.9 billion to $69 billion has been specifically dedicated to security assistance and military aid.
That’s more than the entire GDP of Ukraine when the war broke out.