North Korea: Threat or Blackmailer?

It truly speaks to what we've developed weapons-wise that most countries still can't replicate what we did over 60 years ago. It also speaks for the money that we've thrown at the programs and ability in acquiring the necessary materials, but a lot for just the technological developments as well.

Im curious as to why Hawaii. Sure it's closer than the mainland, but Hawaii (while owned by the USA) has fewer Americans there. Why not threaten Los Angeles if you want to get recognized? It would get the actors all riled up, which would cause a massive stir seeing those whiners on TV everyday worried about an imminant attack, and of course the seemingly billions of people that live in that area wouldn't be able to keep quiet either since a lot of them would be more concerned with the environment rather than actual human casualties. So to me this brings up a couple issues.
1- They don't have the technology to actually make it to Cali. So they will settle for whatever is in the way. They might not even be able to make it to Hawaii, but let's assume they can for now.
2- They are not very intelligent for actually letting their plan (or threat) out. Every country, no matter how small, knows the power the USA possesses, so why really wake us up? (just a metaphor, I know we were already awake)
3- Maybe, just maybe, Il saw what kind of a whimp Obama is and decided to try to get something out of it. Let's face it, even some of the Dems were worried about Obama's reduce the military stance and his seemingly disregard for abolishing terrorism. (which this is a perfect example of terrorism FYI).
4- Why the US? Why a tourism spot? Why not China?
It's blackmail. It's an open ended threat. Just like Schneed said, we have anti missile defense systems in place, if they so much as sneeze and send a weak bomb over here, we're taking the bomb out with a push of a button, and then we will bitch slap them. No matter what, you have to take this as a real threat, but it's time we put our foot up their ass and tell em to cut the shit! Maybe it's time "Kimberly" (classic) was wiped off this earth.

They want membership into the Nuclear Club -- which has a lot of perks. One of which is the status of Kryptonite to the United States. Because as we all know, we don't mess with countries that actually pose any sort of a threat to us.

Im curious as to why Hawaii. Sure it's closer than the mainland, but Hawaii (while owned by the USA) has fewer Americans there. Why not threaten Los Angeles if you want to get recognized? It would get the actors all riled up, which would cause a massive stir seeing those whiners on TV everyday worried about an imminant attack, and of course the seemingly billions of people that live in that area wouldn't be able to keep quiet either since a lot of them would be more concerned with the environment rather than actual human casualties. So to me this brings up a couple issues.
1- They don't have the technology to actually make it to Cali. So they will settle for whatever is in the way. They might not even be able to make it to Hawaii, but let's assume they can for now.
2- They are not very intelligent for actually letting their plan (or threat) out. Every country, no matter how small, knows the power the USA possesses, so why really wake us up? (just a metaphor, I know we were already awake)
3- Maybe, just maybe, Il saw what kind of a whimp Obama is and decided to try to get something out of it. Let's face it, even some of the Dems were worried about Obama's reduce the military stance and his seemingly disregard for abolishing terrorism. (which this is a perfect example of terrorism FYI).
4- Why the US? Why a tourism spot? Why not China?
It's blackmail. It's an open ended threat. Just like Schneed said, we have anti missile defense systems in place, if they so much as sneeze and send a weak bomb over here, we're taking the bomb out with a push of a button, and then we will bitch slap them. No matter what, you have to take this as a real threat, but it's time we put our foot up their ass and tell em to cut the shit! Maybe it's time "Kimberly" (classic) was wiped off this earth.

Why Hawaii? Simple, their missiles can't reach the mainland yet, they don't have the range. But they are semi-capable of reaching Hawaii.

I say "semi" because half the time they fail and go off target.

Nothing more to it than that.

We'll treat North Korea like a threat even if they're not. Look, I think the tougher U.N. sanctions further isolates and marginalizes North Korea to a degree. Russia, China, and Japan, among others, all support these tougher sanctions and stand at the ready to enforce them.

And let's face it, they're not going to be rolling out a ship every other week just to test a missle aimed at Hawaii.

Why Hawaii? Simple, their missiles can't reach the mainland yet, they don't have the range. But they are semi-capable of reaching Hawaii.

I say "semi" because half the time they fail and go off target.

Nothing more to it than that.

Actually, they are about 500 miles short of Hawaii, but could also reach Alaska. I wonder how people would react if they actually launched a couple nukes in both directions and let them explode short. While not an exact strike, the radiation in the jetstream would kill and otherwise affect the whole of the US. Also, they could easily strike Japan, so a launch in the ocean would have a chilling effect on Japan.

I am more worried about this now, and here's my rationale. Both China and Russia have made statements both condemning calling on NKorea to go back to the table, and Russia has gone as far as to say it WILL shoot down any missiles fired towards it (i assume that means even if it were headed towards Alaska). This says to me that they have no internal controls on the upcoming regime in NKorea. Also, if NKorea feels pressed, they may believe that the only way to get everyone off its back - so to speak - is by committing a first strike. In a corner, and the military in a position of the country's heroes, may leave them only one option. It is not like we could return a nuclear strike toward them and not have it also affect both South Korea and Japan. So we effectively are limited to a ground war over where we stalemated once before in a very bloody war.

So why would they launch a nuke into the ocean. A simple answer is regional superiority. Suddenly, China and NKorea would own the Asian markets, and no American response would weaken our standing with Japan, and SKorea.

I generally see this as an extremely unlikely development, but less so since the recent Russian and Chinese governments actions.

We can either deal with them now, before it is no longer an option? I am fairly confident their plans include...............becoming a threat

We'll treat North Korea like a threat even if they're not. Look, I think the tougher U.N. sanctions further isolates and marginalizes North Korea to a degree. Russia, China, and Japan, among others, all support these tougher sanctions and stand at the ready to enforce them.

And let's face it, they're not going to be rolling out a ship every other week just to test a missle aimed at Hawaii.

I wonder if Serbia was considered a threat before WWI.
(my point on that is more to say that treaties and alliances cause little irritants to become major threats)

The problem with NKorea is simply that they are an uncontrollable regime. The fact that they are isolated makes them more dangerous, not less. They are marginalized when they are under China's influence because we have a rational country to deal with. but as a rogue country, even if they act stupidly, China won't let them be militarily defeated.

as for sanctions, I really am tired of hearing about them. Can anyone cite examples of where international sanctions affected a rogue country's politics? Maybe S. Africa. Any others?

I double dog dare them.

Our missile defense system is in place, it would never get near us. And it would give our country's leaders all the political clout they need to launch a full scale war on these douchebags and finally shut them up once and for all.

They have a strong military with 1 million men strong, but they don't have a counter to our air superiority. They'd crumble under bombing campaigns which could easily be staged from Japan and South Korea.

And as big as their army is, they could never get near our homeland. The only way they can threaten us is through missile strikes, but we've got a real good defense in place for that, too.

They're a threat. I'd love to see us squash them.

Couldn't have said it better myself. We'd stomp them out like a cigarette butt, they know it, and so does the rest of the world. Kim Jong Il is a glorified mob boss.

Thought I would revive this. Even China is getting tired of North Korea's antics:

BreakingNews

Update: China complains formally over shooting of 3 citizens by NKorean guard, an unusual move for the close allies-BBC
about 3 hours ago via breakingnews.com

BBC News - North Korean border guard 'shoots three Chinese dead' (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/asia_pacific/10263325.stm)

Is North Korea so close to the brink that they just don't care at this point, or is it still all political gamesmanship. At this point I don't think I would be shocked if they tried a land grab irrationally rationalizing:
a) they could get to Seoul with the element of surprise.
b) china would defend their airspace if push came to shove
c) as a last resort they have the threat of nuking Japan if we intervene.

Granted they have been nearly all bark for the last decade, but is it possible at some point their dear leader just puts all his cards in and goes for it?