Nuclear North Korea - missile capable of hitting Wa

It's about optionality though. North Korea exists because, so far, China wants it to exist. They have the option right now to switch to a new dictator or to strike a deal with the West on reunification if circumstances change in a way that makes such options attractive. If Kim has his own nukes, the costs of those options go up. Just because they don't intend to exercise the options right now doesn't mean it isn't worth something to have them.
North Korea doesn't have to worry about Japan any more than they have to worry about the US. Japan won't mess with them so long as China supports them. They are immune from everyone right now, except from China.

 

Posted this in the other thread but figure I will put it here too since there are two threads on this topic:

This shlt stain over there keeps testing these missiles and we are just watching. Should the world (and us) just sit here and wait until he does something? Or is he just a phony launching these things into the ocean but has no intentions on actually firing them towards land?

Aren't they basically sanctioned into oblivion as it is? What are more sanctions going to do? You can't blame the people that are starving, etc from the sanctions from being ruled by a psycho..

 

North Korea would be destroyed if it actually attacks the US. However, this does give NK leverage to attack South Korea, maybe. How would the US respond in that case? Are we willing to put US cities at risk to protect an ally?

 

Even without US support, a nuclear armed North Korea is still no match for South Korea militarily.

 

I believe those who study DPRK and say the missile program is for their leadership an existential exercise. They literally believe that the world (and mainly the US) could and would eventually topple them without a significant deterrent.

The real danger of them launching an attack, then, comes from two places: (1) they perceive they're being significantly attacked, or (2) they send the end of the regime is nigh (be that from internal or external forces).

Who knows when #2 arrives -- we've been waiting about 60 years.

 

I think the odds of a nuclear attack due to #2 is negligible, if their regime is collapsing due to internal forces it doesn't help Kim one bit to use his nukes. If his regime is collapsing, he'll probably use the nukes as his last bargaining chip to try to secure external help to prop up his regime and if that fails use the nukes to bargain asylum & safe passage out of North Korea. I think Kim is pragmatic enough not go down the same route as Qaddafi & Saddam (went down with the ship & ended up getting both themselves and their family killed in the process), but will instead go the same route as the likes of Ferdinand Marcos, Idi Amin, Charles Taylor, Abidine Ben Ali, Claude Duvalier, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, and the most recent Yahya Jammeh (all escaped to another country and lived comfy & rich retirements)

 

Don't worry... Trump's got this:
Lindsey Graham: Trump “told me” he will bomb North Korea if it keeps testing missiles
https://www.vox.com/world/2017/8/1/16075198/trump-lindsey-graham-north-korea-war

 

Saying extra prayers today...

 

Great, we are going to start Korean war again, what could go wrong.

 

time to annihilate that regime

 

That worked well in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

Apparently NK will have nuclear ICBM capability by early 2018. Of course the Pentagon is full of lies so who knows the truth. It seems they have set early 2018 as some kind of deadline for action. This could get really ugly.

 

he obviously watched G.O.T and got amped up.

 

Just bomb their nuclear facilities