(12-05-2017, 03:58 PM)Last42min Wrote:

(12-05-2017, 12:12 PM)FBT Wrote: He doesn't have the capability to destroy the US at the touch of a button. He has the ability to lob a few missiles in our direction.  If that happens, his country would be leveled before his missiles had a chance to hit anything.  He knows this.  He'll continue to threaten, and he will keep launching at water targets to amp up the rhetoric.  The moment one of those missiles is tipped with nukes, he will get a quick trip to visit his predecessors.

This is short sighted, imo. We should give them more credit; they are smart. While I agree that NK isn't a direct threat, I don't think it's their end goal to get into a nuclear war with the US. They have their own self-interests, and that won't be obtained by attacking the West. I think their end goal is two-fold: Leverage international bargaining power and generating revenue via arms sales (via nuclear technology). The former is a mild inconvenience, but the later is a global threat.

Should we go to war to prevent it? That's tough. It would be truly costly, and South Koreans would pay dearly, even if the US came out relatively unscathed. Our biggest threat is losing Samsung.