John Oliver tries to game out the best-case scenario for North Korea, finds some hope in Weird Al's accordion


Last week, President Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un pushed us closer to war, John Oliver said on Sunday's Last Week Tonight, and he didn't really sugarcoat the situation. "When Twitter was invented, I bet even they didn't imagine that it would one day lead us to the brink of nuclear armageddon," he said. To help make sense of it, Oliver said, "tonight we thought we would ask: What exactly is North Korea thinking, how did we get into this mess, and what can we possibly do about it?"
There are a lot of amusing things about North Koreans, like their love for accordions and bizarre '80s cinema, but there isn't much reliable news out of North Korea, Oliver said, and "the underlying truth about North Korea is that it is a dark place, not just figuratively but literally," and "the Kim family is known for their bone-chilling cruelty and mismanagement." But as cruel as Kim is, many analysts say he is driven by rational self-preservation, and he saw leaders like Iraq's Saddam Hussein scale back their nuclear programs only to be overthrown and killed in a gruesome fashion.
America is Kim's "most dominant and useful villain," Trump is a terrible negotiator, and with Seoul's 25 million people in range of Pyongyang's artillery, "even a non-nuclear war could have horrific results," Oliver said. "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."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"So, here is where we are," Oliver said: "We have two nuclear-armed leaders who are accustomed to issuing empty threats to impress their own people, and they are now currently goading each other toward armageddon." He didn't have any solutions, but he did try to reach out to the North Korean people, with help from Weird Al Yankovich and his accordion. There is some NSFW language, images, and misleading reports on how babies are made, but you can also just skip to the Weird Al song at the 24-minute mark. Peter Weber
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
5 artfully drawn cartoons about Donald Trump's Epstein doodle
Cartoons Artists take on a mountainous legacy, creepy art, and more
-
Violent videos of Charlie Kirk’s death are renewing debate over online censorship
Talking Points Social media ‘promises unfiltered access, but without guarantees of truth and without protection from harm’
-
What led to Poland invoking NATO’s Article 4 and where could it lead?
TODAY'S BIG QUESTION After a Russian drone blitz, Warsaw’s rare move to invoke the important NATO statute has potentially moved Europe closer to continent-wide warfare
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclub
Speed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's ills
Speed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, Stallone
Speed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's view
Speed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talk
Speed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'
Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
A long weekend in Zürich
The Week Recommends The vibrant Swiss city is far more than just a banking hub
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposes
speed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle