That's more something for the Bin Laden-type cowards. North-Korea wants to project power, not an ability to do what every crackpot Islamic terrorist can do once given the right weapons by somebody else.

North-Korea has rockets that can hit Japan. I wouldn't expect them to attack the US directly. What would that be good for given that the US has a weakness in the form of the easily-accessible Japan and South-Korea?

Yes, one or two options may be the more logical/likely, but you don't want to be blind to all options, or one of them just might bite you in the hindquarters.

If North-Korea hits the US with rockets a few times (or smuggles bombs into the country and blows stuff up), how long do you think the US should wait before responding, how should the US respond, and should we hold the US responsible for every single Korean death caused by the conflict (and possibly killed by the US response)?

(What would happen if North-Korea blew up the UN headquarters in New York? Would the Chinese pay for a new one?)

I'm not talking about whether their actions would make sense or not because previous actions by NK have shown Kim Jong Il to be rather irrational and erratic. Granted, we would respond swiftly after licking wounds a bit. I just think it would be a mistake to discount all avenues that they could use to force that merciless war they called for against South Korea (or the US).

Sure a device could be smuggled, but the chance that the weapon would be detected before it could be used is much greater. NK hasn't had time to miniaturize a device. They would have to find some covert means to get it into the US (probably not an impossibility). It's not like they can put it into a container and ship it to the US. First of all I doubt anything arrives directly to the US from NK. Second all ports of entry have the capability to detect radiation. No, if they went this route i believe they would use it closer to home, if they were stupid enough to use it at all.

I do agree all avenues should be cover, and we should be vigilant in all respects. But, a missile launched nuke is really what they want IMO. Uncle Kim has a big ego.

Granted, it is the most likely.

Thank you for the insightful commentary! Please state why.

haaah ha ha haa aaaah ha ha haa haa haaaaa!!!!!

whew!

Thanks for the laugh. I needed that.

Please explain why a 10 trillion dollar debt (that can never, ever be repaid) owed by a nation that no longer produces very much actual products, should ever be taken seriously.

Nitro Cruiser-

I think the generals that control N. Korea's missile arsenal know quite well that if they launch a single nuke against another country they're completely and utterly fucked. If that were to happen, China would immediately step out of the picture and N. Korea would stand alone. And then all bets would be off. These generals (and Kim Jong Il) know full well that if they struck first that nobody would protest if North Korea were saturated with nukes in reataliation (except of course for South Korea.... they probably wouldn't be very happy with lots of nukes going off near the border)

Sooo again, going back to my original point....

this is all a big attention grab.

As a side note, one of my former room-mates was a South Korean fellow for a good two years. When North Korea detonated their first nuke I grilled him about "the word on the street" in South Korea and he laughed. He told me that this was part of a long tradition of North Korea acting up whenever they wanted to get attention.

Also, please keep in mind that the first nuclear detonation carried out by N. Korea was during Bush's reign, and he completely and utterly CAVED to their demands. He agreed to send oil, food and technology and in exchange they symbolically scrapped one of their reactors while still keeping their nuclear program running full tilt. Bush, the CIA and the Pentagon knew full well that North Korea had taken all of the spoils and never held up their end of the bargain but never said a single god-damned word about it.

why?

You tell me why Bush never did a thing about North Korea getting nukes besides giving them everything they demanded!

How do you know the protesters won't come out in force and demand a "proportionate" response, or better yet, no response at all?

I think the generals know very well (or at least might now think) that anti-western powers can do anything they like and that anti-western protesters will take care of stopping the response.

A few years ago when Bush taught everyone that America _will_ strike back it was different (that's when Gaddafi gave up his nuclear arms project). But today...

Do they? If UN resolutions were worth the paper they were written on, they would have been fucked long ago. There should be real consequences NOW.

BTW any nation that launches a single a single nuke against the US, would probably not be attacked in turn by this administration, let alone a massive response (which would not be good for neighboring countries).

I'm sure some thought the Rhineland, Austria, Sudetenland, and Czechoslovakia was just Hitler acting out to get attention, even by the people living in those areas.

More Bush.... now back to the present, were the voters supposedly opted not to have four more years of Bush. Any other administrations you care to fault? Truman would be a good start.

I find it weird when somebody points out what will happen if X happens, given that X is already something that must not happen.

You know what ticks me off, is when people play the "You're just bashing Bush some more" game. His administration, whether wonderful or not in your eyes, is still relevant. It will be for some time to come.

Yeah just like Hitler invading Poland, Hitler just wanted attention.  He just wanted everyone to lavish attention on him.

NK is doing this because they want to be taken seriously AND seen as threat. China is also pushing them to do it due to the fact that NK is China's wench

First that was in October 2006 AND Congress was mostly democrats. Pakistan and India both set off their nukes during the Clinton years.  I COULD ask now why didn't he do anything?  Once someone gets NUKES there is very little you can do.  You can show them that you're not going to take any of their nonsense.

I wonder who gave them each their nukes? Hmmm. 

As Leauki stated this is all a ploy by China. Let's look here.  When is the last time that a Chinese ship got attacked by Pirates off the Coast of Somilia?

China is loving this because the U.S. is wasting time, money, and possible military action in areas. Causing the West as a whole to spread its self thin.

On last thing, I wonder where Iran got their Nukes?

Actually if anyone from the WEST could have the gahonas and just a little testicular fortitude we would cram something up China's tail pipe and tell them to knock it off.

NK and Iran are problems that the West will worry about yet I don't see China nor Russia going pyscho over this.  In reality, instead of sticking to NK/Iran directly, the West should stick it right to China.

Well wait this won't happen because China castrated us due to the fact that a lot of our debt was bought by them.

I guess we best start to like taking one or many up the tail pipe.

Oh, please, that oil-rich country only wants to have nuclear power for civilian reasons. How else would they produce electricity?

Oh, and I didn't say it was a Chinese ploy; I said it was China's fault.

It was China's idea to rescue North-Korea from the same fate that South-Korea ultimately had.