mgriffith27 :

What kind of US interests they could attack? I mean,  like it has been said, a war would hurt many countries interest but can they really do anything else to interests of the US?

Good f***ing luck for the North Koreans. At best they have 2 to 3 guidance Satellites functioning on low levels of technology, and are using plutonium/uranium warheads smaller than those used against Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Now lets think for a second, if you are a young dictator in his mid 30s with a wife and child(ren?).  your incentive is not to strike early into your regime, but is instead to wait and just laud your non-existent nuclear power over the United States as a propaganda machine to create stability via the rally around the flag effect.

Simply put:
Very aggressive approximations put North Korea at being capable of firing 6 nuclear warheads, not simultaneously, but 6 total warheads.
Again, very much overestimating their advancements in ICBM technology hey could hit Japan, and Alaska at best (not exactly population centers of the United States of America), with Alaska having a city of a mere 236,000 people.

Against an American Military which spends more than the rest of the world combined on its armed force
A Military with massive long range strike capacities, and roughly 4.5k nuclear missiles that are able to be fired, a vast majority of which are capable of 10x the destruction of Hiroshima, and an estimated capacity to actually destroy all human life on the planet. Furthermore, the United State's air force will be able to win the aerial battle, North Korea's only non-nuclear strike capacities, and North Korea does not have the self-sufficiency on any level/

TLDR: North Korean Missiles can hit Anchorage at best, while we can nuke Pyongyang, and we would be facing a nation that can't even feed its own people without fire bombings, and doesn't have enough power on a normal basis.

North Korea could not keep any real conflict going for long. They may have fairly strong military but do not have the cash or resources to a keep it going for long.

Do not underestimate North Korea. Just because their war technology seems very crappy in the news reports where it's filmed does not mean that after it's done filming they bring out the real missile and the real missile really does work.

I think that North Korea is kind of that big mouthed bully you have at public school recess. They are all talk and talk and they won't actually do anything. But who knows. The leaders are all crazy and it's hard to predict what someone like that is going to do. Every time I hear something about North Korea, all I can think is "What is going to happen next?".

Bane7 :
I seriously doubt this but who knows. It would be a ploy of all ploys that after showing the old soviet era and chinese rip offs of soviet era weapons they would dig out something no man would have ever seen before. Can you back up this thought with anything?

This is just N. Korea's style. They want to make as big of a scene as possible because they think they'll get more stuff. We give them food because their people starve. They have gotten into the habit of demanding more from us. Finally we're imposing more sanctions on them for being buttholes. We can't stop giving them food, but I would love a full on blockade, not allowing anything in but food. Problem is the 1.3 billion people next door who, until recently, blocked a lot of sanction stuff.

Anything to make the N. Korean aristocrats feel uncomfortable is a good thing. Luxury items was a step, but I would like to see more restrictions on that upper class that is constantly causing problems.

Its interesting to note that since then, the N.koreans have warned the south to vacate islands that the north attacked a while back, and the usa has flown nuclear bombers across the south. The north claimed the south was attacking its servers, and a few days later a virus took out various south korean sites. Its like a modern day coldwar, both sides warning each other off and trying to win without giving the other side an excuse to attack.

My say in this opinion is that after we required this info, it's going to turn into another Cold War. Otherwise known as an 'Arms Race.' Let us just hope that it does not get botched.

I have been thinking about what effect would a total blockade would have. Would it be better to let some 20 million people starve now than to have generations after generations be brutally oppressed? It is a tricky question I have been thinking about but seriously, have no answer or a opinion for.  When you think of all the death camps there... But then you think how people are starving there already. And now what, you are no longer allowed to import luxury yachts, sports cars and crap like this there? Just makes me wonder how come they were allowed in the first place and who had the heart to deal with them, making money out of the misery of people in a stalinist dictatorship?

As for this mini cold war, it is nothing compared to the one with the Soviet Union and it never really ended. Did you think those nukes just went away when the Soviet Union collapsed? The good news is that Russia no longer supports North Korea and neither does China so much anymore. And North Korea cant have an arms race with the south or with USA in that scale ever. They have made three nuclear tests, that is all. That is their nuclear scare.

Brigand : I'd prefer not to let them starve. Blockade, but we still export food to them. I really want it that strict. Let them feel the burn. Only problem is getting China to agree.

Txgangsta :

China would agree but they just fear the flood of refugees they would get and also I think South Korea. But yes, I agree,. It is horrible to think you would deprive the hungry of food but it would seem most of the food that goes there goes to Pyongyang anyway, where only the elite and the "trusted" are allowed to live and it is those who the blockade would need to hit the hardest.

Brigand : Yeah a total blockade wouldn't work as most likely Chinese smugglers will smuggle products into North Korea via N.K-Chinese border. Not to mention most North Korea citizens are dirt poor, so we would be only hurting the N. Korea citizens even more.

Now I'm going to be in the minority here, but I believe we should just go to war with the N. Koreans and issue an ultimatium to the Chinese. Either let N. Korea be conquored or you can find another place to ship your products.

Oldschool41 :
sending ultimatums to countrys wins no friends.
and I think talking of conquest is wrong too. it suggests permanent occupation and unjustified aggression. at this point id say liberation was more accurate.
incidentally, thread updated.

I see only 2 realistic outcomes of this right now.

1. N. Korea attacks S. Korea. Japan and the US back immediately. China (who is slowly becoming more pissed off) doesn't help N. Korea. Korea is united.

2. China attacks N. Korea and sets up a puppet government.

Well, now we are at war. Oh Goody. 

Barathemos :
um, I dont think so.
updated thread

Latest news: if Japan shoots down their bottle rockets they threat to shoot over them, (why would they want to do that even), they threat to nuke Tokyo.

We all know their only allies are pretty much china which we all know that they will not help them and even if they launch missiles at the u.s we will prevent it somehow from causing any harm.