IF, North Korea does create a nuclear weapon, how will they deploy it and with what accuracy, and could they get it past the missile defence shields on the US coast? And yes, I do realise that these defence shields are not totally effective, however, if a strike was imminent, I am sure a lot of these missiles would be deployed, with a chance of one destroying the incoming nuke, thus mitigating the strike. Just look at the 'Iron Dome' defence shield that covers Israel.
Also, the US has 'tactical' nuclear weapons, as opposed to the 'strategic' nuclear weapons that North Korea is trying to develop, assuming that they are not as advanced in weapon design. A 'tactical' nuclear weapon is designed to strike military targets with high precision and are probably a low yield device, thus minimising collateral damage. And, I doubt NK have the necessary technological sophistication required to develop high precision guidance systems.
If there was a real and credible threat of an imminent strike from NK with a 'strategic' weapon, which is designed to destroy large areas, the US would have no hesitation in deploying a 'tactical' nuke, or even a normal cruise missile, to destroy the NK missile, before it even launched. And NK would know this, and that would be a deterrent, as they would not be able to actually carry out the threat with any real chance of succeeding. China would also know this and would probably step in to prevent any real escalation of hostilities on the Korean Peninsular.
The US has sophisticated surveillance systems which North Korea do not have, so are in a better position to know what NK is doing.
So, I doubt NK can really do anything meaningful to carry out such a threat anyway. And, as I said earlier, I ain't worried about it and won't lose any sleep over it.
Cheers Peter
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