North Korea: Threat or Blackmailer?

[CRedskinsRule]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

Why Hawaii? Simple, their missiles can't reach the mainland yet, they don't have the range. But they are semi-capable of reaching Hawaii.

I say "semi" because half the time they fail and go off target.

Nothing more to it than that.

Actually, they are about 500 miles short of Hawaii, but could also reach Alaska. I wonder how people would react if they actually launched a couple nukes in both directions and let them explode short. While not an exact strike, the radiation in the jetstream would kill and otherwise affect the whole of the US. Also, they could easily strike Japan, so a launch in the ocean would have a chilling effect on Japan.

I am more worried about this now, and here's my rationale. Both China and Russia have made statements both condemning calling on NKorea to go back to the table, and Russia has gone as far as to say it WILL shoot down any missiles fired towards it (i assume that means even if it were headed towards Alaska). This says to me that they have no internal controls on the upcoming regime in NKorea. Also, if NKorea feels pressed, they may believe that the only way to get everyone off its back - so to speak - is by committing a first strike. In a corner, and the military in a position of the country's heroes, may leave them only one option. It is not like we could return a nuclear strike toward them and not have it also affect both South Korea and Japan. So we effectively are limited to a ground war over where we stalemated once before in a very bloody war.

So why would they launch a nuke into the ocean. A simple answer is regional superiority. Suddenly, China and NKorea would own the Asian markets, and no American response would weaken our standing with Japan, and SKorea.

I generally see this as an extremely unlikely development, but less so since the recent Russian and Chinese governments actions.