N. Korea has nuclear ICBMs. Threatened to launch US premptive strike for UN sanctions

Its safe to say the US has all the intelligence they can gather on NK. I would imagine if NK launches any strike on its allies, the US already has a full plan in place to bomb all military installations into oblivion.

 

I agree that the US has a plan in place already and further that NK knows this. What makes me really uneasy is whether the leadership of NK cares.

 

North Korea cares. They do.

The problem isn't so much North Korean leadership starting a war, because they're smart enough to know that war with SK, much less the USA = everyone is killed by a bomb if they're lucky. North Korea is basically doing the equivalent of "I'M GOING TO START A WAR NOW SUPER SERIOUS REALLY I'LL DO IT ANY DAY NOW", and the world is watching, but isn't overreacting, just as it shouldn't. The problem is that in this era of high tension, all you need is one stupid junior officer, filled with all sorts of propaganda about the righteousness of crushing the Yankee pigdogs, to do something which would kick off a shooting war. It's completely irresponsible for regimes which probably have nuclear weapons to do stupid brinksmanship like this.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22144667

 

Agreed there will be a time to put this guy in his places one mistake is all it's going to take.

 

It's not this guy you're going to put into place. I'm more worried about the 25 million innocent people in NK.

 

That's understandable but those other millions that may lose there life should also be a worry if NK does make the mistake of attacking the wrong country lives will be wasted on two leader who want too have a *ick measuring contest which I doubt neither will measure up too.

 

The leadership of North Korea is far more rational than we give them credit for. Make threats, get concessions, stay quiet for a while, and then repeat. They do this routinely and it has worked brilliantly for them, both in terms of developing weapons and getting lots of food and economic aid. While the rest of the world's dictatorships have essentially fallen apart, NK has managed to maintain their status as a brutal dictatorship with family succession and a compliant population. When you view their actions through their own lens of what they've accomplished in a world that is universally aligned against them, you see that they are both more rational and more effective than we like to give them credit for. It's much easier to just call them crazy, but it doesn't actually fit their results.

What has changed in the world dynamic - and it's unclear how much they really understand this - is that they are now dealing with a semi-unhinged leader on the other side too. In their entire history as a country, foreign leaders have played by a pretty consistent and predictable set of rules. Now there is one that doesn't give a rat's ass about those rules, and I'm not sure Kim Jong Un fully grasps that. Where that leads is sort of unclear. Either NK finally blinks or we go down a very bad path.

 

Edit wrong thread.

 

Generals and ministers care, but Kim may have a Jim Jones type ego and exit strategy, especially if he feels he's been publicly embarrassed.

 

If you are referring to the recent missile test and flew over Japan, it's actually close to impossible to shoot that down with existing systems and any attempt would end in embarrassing failure. That particular missile flew over Japan at a height of 550km, none of the systems currently deployed in Japan (THAAD, Patriot PAC3, SM-6 etc) can get anywhere close to that height. The only possible way to even attempt an intercept of this missile is if one of Japan or USN's Aegis destroyer by pure luck happens to be right next to the landing point for this missile (considering the size of the ocean & the # of destroyers, this is an absurdly low probability).