- The tensions between North Korea and the United States have escalated, with both sides making threats and sending tweets.
- While North Korea claims to have missiles capable of hitting the US mainland, experts believe they do not yet have the technology to do so reliably.
- President Trump responded to North Korea's threats with strong language, promising "fire and fury" if they make any more threats.
- North Korea responded by announcing plans to fire missiles near the US territory of Guam.
- Understanding North Korea is difficult due to its isolation and state propaganda.
- Western reporting about North Korea can be inaccurate and sensationalized.
- The truth about life in North Korea can be just as striking as the urban legends.
- Despite the humor in some aspects of North Korea, it is important to remember that it is a dark place for the people living there.

- The Kim family in North Korea is known for their cruelty and mismanagement, responsible for the deaths of many during a famine in the 1990s.
- There are brutal camps where political dissidents are imprisoned, and only those who have escaped can provide insight into their horrors.
- Kim Jong-un is motivated by self-preservation and fears losing power, which is why he continues to invest in a large military and nuclear program.
- North Korea's narrative portrays the United States as a dominant and threatening villain, stemming from the Korean War.
- Activists have tried to undermine this narrative by smuggling information into North Korea on USB drives.
- Trump's approach to North Korea is flawed, as he believes he can negotiate with Kim Jong-un and relies on China to exert influence, which may not be effective.
- China has significant leverage over North Korea but is hesitant to increase enforcement of sanctions due to concerns about regime collapse and the potential consequences.

- The video discusses the potential dangers and consequences of military action against North Korea
- It highlights the risk of a non-nuclear war due to North Korea's heavy artillery capabilities near Seoul
- Removing Kim Jong-un could lead to a humanitarian crisis and a power vacuum with nuclear weapons
- Sanctions are not a guaranteed solution and diplomacy is difficult due to Trump's unpredictable actions
- The video emphasizes the importance of understanding that Trump's words may not necessarily reflect his intentions
- It mentions the need to address misconceptions between the US and North Korea through humor and music
- The video ends with a performance by Weird Al Yankovic singing a song urging North Korea not to nuke the US

- Tensions between North Korea and the United States have escalated, with threats and strong language exchanged.
- North Korea claims to have missiles that can hit the US mainland, but experts doubt their reliability.
- President Trump responded with a promise of "fire and fury" if North Korea continues to threaten.
- North Korea plans to fire missiles near Guam, a US territory.
- Understanding North Korea is challenging due to its isolation and propaganda.
- Western reporting on North Korea can be sensationalized and inaccurate.
- Life in North Korea can be shocking, and the Kim family is known for cruelty and mismanagement.
- Political dissidents are imprisoned in brutal camps, and only escapees can provide insight into their horrors.
- Kim Jong-un fears losing power and invests in a large military and nuclear program.
- North Korea portrays the US as a dominant and threatening villain.
- Activists smuggle information into North Korea to undermine this narrative.
- Trump's approach to North Korea is flawed, relying on negotiation and China's influence.
- China has leverage over North Korea but is hesitant to enforce sanctions.
- Military action against North Korea carries risks, including a non-nuclear war and humanitarian crisis.
- Sanctions and diplomacy are uncertain solutions.
- Trump's words may not reflect his intentions, and humor and music can help address misconceptions.
- The video ends with Weird Al Yankovic singing a song urging North Korea not to nuke the US.

As nuclear tensions continue to escalate between the United States and North Korea, John Oliver enlists "Weird Al" Yankovic to perform some accordion-based diplomacy.

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-♪ ♪ -♪ ♪ North Korea, America's number 1 excuse for putting off chores this week.

You know, I could do laundry, but if the world's about to erupt into nuclear war, what really is the point?

North Korea has clearly been on everyone's minds this week, and I think you know why.

President Trump and North Korea escalate the war of words, lobbying new threats and sending new tweets.

North Korea now accusing the President of the United States of pushing the world to, quote, the brink of nuclear war.

When Twitter was invented, I bet even they didn't imagine that it would 1 day lead us to the brink of nuclear Armageddon.

It's like if the invention of the Furby had led to the Sudanese Civil War.

Who knew that that's where it was headed?

Now, tensions have sharply escalated this week, which is a little surprising, given that the world has been dealing with North Korea's provocative missile tests for years now.

North Korea fires yet another missile, but Pyongyang claims this 1 will be able to hit the U.S.

Mainland, striking cities like Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, and possibly even New York and Boston.

If everyone is really honest, your level of fear over the North Korea situation is in direct proportion to whether or not they can hit the exact place where you live.

If you told me that the blast radius stops at 56th Street, I'd think, well, I hope nothing happens, but we've still got time before things get serious.

Now, it is worth properly understanding what North Korea is currently capable of, because while their missiles may be able to reach us, and they do have nuclear warheads, most experts believe that they don't yet have the technology to reliably hit the U.S.

Although, on the other hand, a recent Pentagon assessment did suggest that they could cross that threshold next year.

So, if a job interviewer asks you, where do you see yourself in 5 years' time, it is now perfectly acceptable just to scream in terror into their face.

--LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE Look, this is clearly a very serious situation requiring a deft hand, And sadly, that's not what it got.

North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States.

They will be met with fire and fury, like the world has never seen.

The only way that that is not terrifying is if you report it the way that 1 newspaper actually did in Maine, saying, -"Trump warns of fire and furry." -$TIME OUT!

In which case, Trump was threatening to send this to North Korea, which is a very different kind of threat.

Now, in response, North Korea announced plans to fire missiles that would land just off the coast of the U.S.

Territory of Guam, which is frightening, although not unprecedented.

They have made similar threats before, but what is different this time, obviously, is that we now have a president who has the general temperament of a wet cat.

And in response to that Guam threat, Trump promptly doubled down.

Frankly, the people that were questioning that statement, was it too tough?

If anything, that statement may not be tough enough.

What would be tougher than hiring Hillary?

We're gonna go with that bomb more destructive than the nuclear bomb.

I'm not writing a letter, I'm talking, says you.

We thought we would ask, what exactly is North Korea thinking?

And let's start by trying to understand just a little bit more about North Korea.

It's 1 of the most isolated and insular nations on Earth.

If you know anything about it at all, it's probably just that they have a wacky, totalitarian leader who loves military parades, and Dennis Rodman, and who really didn't like that Seth Rogen movie about his assassination.

And it can be hard to trust any information about North Korea because lots of it is inaccurate for multiple reasons.

First, there's the outright state propaganda, which glorifies North Korea's leaders, the Kim family.

Just last year, we showed you Western journalists being taken on a tour of a historic target range where they learned something suspiciously impressive about Kim Jong-un's father.

Comrade Kim Jong-un shot 3 bullets and 3 of them got bullseye.

Of someone who really wants to shut down a conversation.

She sounds like a parent fielding questions about where babies come from.

So, a stork brings the baby, uh-huh, it carries an 8 pound baby through the air in its mouth, mm-hmm.

Storks fuck each other, and the baby comes out of the stork's vagina!

What is tricky is that a lot of eye-catching Western reporting about North Korea can be shakily sourced, like this 1.

The BBC reports all of the men in the Hermit Kingdom must now sport the same haircut as the dear leader, Kim Jong-un.

His look was known as the Chinese smuggler haircut, not too long ago in the region, But now it will be known as the haircut every man in North Korea must have.

There is no solid evidence that that story is true, but it is seductive because it sounds like it could be.

It's like if you saw the headline, Trump to NATO, I invented squirrels.

You'd believe it because it sounds like something he would have claimed, even though, as of this taping, he has not.

And while it may not be true that all men had to get the same haircut as Kim Jong-un, state TV did run a series called, Let us trim our hair in accordance with the socialist lifestyle." And it's weird when a verifiable truth is almost as strange as a wild rumor.

It's like how the Richard Gere put a gerbil in his ass story is completely false.

But what if The truth was that he engaged in consensual mutual anal play with a chinchilla.

And sometimes the truth about life in North Korea can be just as striking as the urban legends.

For instance, you may have seen claims online that every teacher in North Korea is obligated to play the accordion.

We could not confirm that, although in trying to, we did discover that North Korea does love the accordion to a surprising extent.

Here's some school children playing the accordion.

Here's Kim Jong-un looking at an accordion.

Here is an air combat exercise where the camera pans across pilots, and guess what?

They also have a very popular song called Nothing to Envy in the World that begins with the line, the sky is blue, my heart is merry, let the sound of accordions ring.

And then, there is this video of North Koreans playing the last song that you would expect.

-♪ ♪ -♪ -♪ ♪ -♪ ♪ -♪ -♪ ♪ -♪ -♪ ♪ -♪ -♪ ♪ -♪ -♪ ♪ -♪ Yes.

That is North Korean accordionist playing Take On Me.

So beat that, everyone else who plays the accordion.

By which I mean exactly 2 old French men and 1 weird Al Yankovic.

And if you think that that is the most amazing piece of North Korean pop culture that you're gonna see tonight, you are wrong.

Because let me introduce you to Pulgasari, a 1985 movie known as the North Korean Godzilla.

The whole thing is incredible, but this is undoubtedly my favorite part.

-♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪ Ha ha ha.

No matter where you're from or what your religious or political beliefs are.

At some point, everybody has been about to decapitate someone, and then, out of nowhere, a baby monster jumps up and takes a bite out of your sword.

And look, look, we're all having fun, we're laughing about North Korea, and it can be very funny.

But, the very fact that that is true can be extremely frustrating to journalists who cover it.

It's always, you know, an exaggeration and a parody and, you know, kind of a freak show.

Which I think those of us who cover North Korea find a little bit distressing because it's not actually very funny to the 24 million people who live there.

And even when North Korea is objectively funny, like with Polkka Sari, it has dark undertones Because Kim Jong-il got that movie made by abducting 2 of South Korea's biggest names in film and forcing them to make movies for him for years.

So I'm gonna go ahead and say, and I know this is not gonna be a popular opinion, but if that's what it took to give us that baby monster scene, it was fucking worth it.

But the underlying truth of North Korea is that it is a dark place.

You can get a sense of how little development there has been there when you look at it from space.

It looks like a divorced dad's Christmas tree where he gave up halfway through hanging the lights, got drunk and fell asleep watching Ken Burns' baseball.

And the Kim family is known for their bone-chilling cruelty and mismanagement.

They were largely responsible for the deaths of somewhere between 600,000 and 2 and a half million people during a famine in the 1990s.

And we know that there are large, brutal camps where political dissidents are imprisoned, sometimes alongside their extended families.

Satellite images show their scale, but for a picture of what they're really like, we can only rely on those who've been there.

These sketches are the recollections of other prisoners who've managed to escape the camps.

But the existence, the continued existence of those camps brings us to a really important point to understand.

Kim Jong-un is terrified of losing power.

And while we love to present him as a madman, many experts believe that his actions are motivated by rational self-preservation.

He has seen leaders like Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi scale back their nuclear programs only to be overthrown either by the U.S.

Or by their own people and die gruesome deaths.

And it's true that dictators generally don't end their careers like disgraced American politicians with a stint on dancing with the stars.

Although, that would have been an incredible season.

Saddam, that fox trot was a weapon of mass seduction, and MoMA, you worked hard and it showed.

So Kim Jong-un has continued his family's military-first policy, spending huge amounts of money on what is the fourth largest military on Earth and an expensive nuclear program in an impoverished country whose economy has been estimated to be smaller than that of Birmingham, Alabama.

Their most notable export is American Idol season 5 winner Taylor Hicks.

So, How can Kim Jong-un justify that spending?

Well, he argues that the huge military is the only thing staving off imminent invasion from a host of outsiders, and that is where we come in.

Because the most dominant and useful villain in North Korea's narrative is the United States.

And it is not like that comes out of nowhere.

We sided with the South during the Korean War.

And while many Americans may have forgotten just how devastating that war was, the North Koreans certainly haven't.

They have an entire museum devoted to American war atrocities.

And I'm not saying that there were none, but I don't think any were quite as over the top as this.

In the last liberation war, during our strategic retreat, the American hyenas occupied the land of Shinchon.

They arrested Min Young-sik and stabbed her muscles with a three-pronged spear and sucked her flowing blood.

They also took the flesh from her thighs using a bayonet, dipped it in salt, and ate it.

And in case you're wondering, yes, you can buy coasters depicting that scene in the museum gift shop, but they are $16, which is the real war crime there.

And the North Koreans' indoctrination in anti-Americanism starts extremely young, as 1 defector remembers.

Then how many American bastards left to kill?

And as a child, I had to say, 2 American bastards.

It is fascinating when a country's culture seeps even into their math lessons.

As a British child, our math questions were, if Johnny has 2 artifacts, and Dinesh has 2 artifacts, then how many artifacts is Johnny about to have?

The answer, of course, all the artifacts.

Dinesh's family can come visit them in the British Museum whenever they're in town.

And the notion that North Korea is working on a bomb that can kill all the American bastards is a tremendous source of national pride.

There have been stamps depicting missiles hurtling towards the U.S.

And a few years ago, they produced a video depicting the destruction of New York set to the least appropriate song imaginable.

That was a karaoke version of We Are The World set to New York in flames.

And the last time I saw a karaoke song with background imagery that inappropriate was, every time I have ever sung karaoke.

I don't know what LL Cool J's doing it has to do with these 2 babies in a field of sunflowers, but it's making everybody uncomfortable.

So the North Korean regime has been very careful about presenting a threatening image of Americans to its people, and some activists have actually been trying to undermine that by sneaking information into the country on USB drives.

We send various content, from stories on human rights, general information on South Korea, to images depicting the average American.

Or a fictional version of the average American, TV shows like The Mentalist and Desperate Housewives, Kang says scenes like this 1 from NCIS...

Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.

That show police officers reading suspects their rights are especially useful.

You know what, if nothing else, we finally have our answer to the decade-long question, who the fuck is watching NCIS?

It turns out, it's all your mom's friends and the people of North Korea.

And if you think about it, that is very dangerous for Kim Jong-un, because if people get a sense that the image of America that he has carefully painted for them is false, he could have huge problems.

And when you understand him in that light, as a dictator, desperately hedging against a loss of power, it is possible to understand why all his recent threats against the United States have been reckless, but in his mind, also rational.

And that brings us to the key question here, what are we going to do about this?

Because on the campaign trail, Donald Trump made it all seem very simple.

They said, would you speak to the leader of North Korea?

And they come out, Trump would speak to him.

There's a 10% or a 20% chance that I can talk him out of those damn nukes, because who the hell wants him to have nukes?

Partly because, Remember, Kim Jong-un believes they are critical for his survival, and on top of that, Donald Trump is a shitty negotiator.

In his short presidency, he has failed to get Mexico to pay for his stupid wall, he's failed to get a Congress his party controls to pass a healthcare bill, and even when his administration does get something done, it way oversells it.

Like when the White House announced a trade deal with China as very big news, gigantic, and Herculean, and 1 much-celebrated component turned out to be lifting a ban on beef imports that China had preliminarily agreed to last September.

Thanks to you, except not entirely thanks to you, America is now marginally more able to export beef again.

And since taking office, Trump has voiced support for an even simpler solution.

China is helping us, possibly or probably, with the North Korean situation.

So, in the space of 14 seconds there, he said the word, great, twice.

He pronounced China with 3 syllables, suggested someone else should do the work for him, and then threw in a possibly or probably rendering the whole thing meaningless.

I think I may have just hit Trump bingo, and the prize that I want is to go drown in a river.

But Trump's idea there of convincing China to exert influence on North Korea is not inherently crazy.

China shares an 800-mile border with North Korea and accounts for as much as 90 percent of North Korea's total trade.

So they do have significant leverage, but some are skeptical about just what China could or is willing to do.

The UN have tried multiple rounds of increasingly harsh sanctions, but North Korea has always found easy ways around them.

North Korea is a 100 percent state enterprise.

So these companies change their names the next day if they're listed for sanctions.

That way the company stays, but with different names whenever there are sanctions.

If I'm included in the list, my name can be changed too.

Yeah, and that is some pretty weak enforcement.

Let's say HBO decided they wanted to cancel this show.

Their hand would be pretty weak if I was just able to get around that simply by changing the name to Earlier Times But Now, starring Spence Mugendorfer.

And it is true that China could increase enforcement of its sanctions, but they are understandably worried about where that could lead.

What they worry about is, if they do that, will the regime collapse?

Possibly a unified Korea that is then a pro-American country sitting on their southern border.

Don't forget there are 30,000 American troops in South Korea,

You know that there are a lot of problems when you end up saying, -"Oh, and by the way, 15 nuclear weapons." --LAUGHTER Imagine you were a babysitter and you heard, okay, you've got his EpiPen, you know about his nut allergy, he needs his inhaler every hour.

Oh, and by the way, he has 15 nuclear weapons.

Now, Trump has also been mentioning military solutions, but even targeted strikes against weapon systems could get out of hand very fast.

North Korea would likely retaliate, and they have an estimated 8,000 pieces of heavy artillery stationed just north of the DMZ, which is here.

And that artillery is capable of reaching Seoul, which is just 40 miles away, and is an area with 25 million people.

So, even a non-nuclear war could have horrific results.

And let's just engage in some truly magical thinking.

What if you could somehow just take out Kim Jong-un?

Well, you've probably got an immediate humanitarian crisis on your hands, as well as a leaderless country with a power vacuum and nuclear weapons.

And as we've learned from Iraq and Afghanistan, when regimes fall and there is no plan in place, that vacuum can be filled with terrible things.

We do not want to find out what North Korea's ISIS would be.

Even just the phrase, North Korea's ISIS, is absolutely terrifying.

So, sanctions are no guarantee, and military action could be catastrophic, and diplomacy is gonna be extremely difficult, given that you usually need to have a specific goal in mind, and Trump seems to be making all of this up as he goes along.

We are learning stunning new details about President Trump's extraordinary fire and fury threat tonight.

Multiple sources telling CNN the president ad-libbed those words.

As I'm sure someone has had to say to Wayne Brady at a funeral more than once, now is not a good time to improvise.

And look, look, the thing is, that's not a surprise.

Deep down, we all assumed that he was winging it.

We have become accustomed to discounting a large percentage of what comes out of his face.

But North Korea is listening to what he says.

And the people there have been primed for decades to believe that America is on the brink of an invasion.

Just look at their government's response to his fire and fury line.

The American commander-in-chief remains stuck at a golf course, oblivious to what is happening, and talking about such nonsense as fire and fury.

Since it is impossible to have talks with people who are incapable of rational thought.

The Strategic Armed Forces has judged that we must respond with absolute force.

Okay, just to be clear, the president is not stuck at a golf course, unless the cart ran out of gas and he has to walk, in which case, yes, the president is very much stuck at the goal course and may need to be airlifted out.

We have 2 nuclear-armed leaders who are accustomed to issuing empty threats to impress their own people, and they are now currently goading each other towards Armageddon, which is absolutely terrifying.

And I don't really have a solution to this, but part of me would love the chance, just the chance, to speak directly to the North Korean people.

So, on the off chance that this show is smuggled over their border on a USB drive crammed with NCIS episodes.

You may be hearing some frightening rhetoric from our president, but if it helps at all, when our president says words, he doesn't necessarily mean what those words mean.

We're still trying to wrap our heads around it ourselves.

Really, it's our problem, except it is now kind of your problem, too.

But I want to talk to you about some misconceptions, because we certainly have misconceptions about you.

But you should know, ideally, that we are not remotely what your state propaganda implies either.

We honestly do not spend our days plotting your destruction.

We spend them sharing cat memes, and spinning fidget, and getting furiously angry about a singing boy barely appearing in our favorite Dragon Show.

So, for what it's worth, I would like to give you, the North Korean people, a sense of how America is feeling right now in a way that you might understand and enjoy.

And that is through the international language of the accordion.

And I have some good news and some bad news there.

The bad news is, I do not play the accordion.

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North Korea: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)