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I'm curious what you think would happen if KP nukes a city or two in the US. I presume we'd nuke them back, but then what? How does the rest of the world react?

I'm curious what you think would happen if KP nukes a city or two in the US. I presume we'd nuke them back, but then what? How does the rest of the world react? How would SK and China, in particular react? Surely this is a known plan?

BeKindAndLearn 5y ago
Everyone would look the other way and offer thoughts and prayers. North Korea would be largely vaporized and neither China nor South Korea would prolong the issue and risk total nuclear annihilation of humanity.
- javajosh 5y ago
  There would be significant collateral damage to nuking the KP, including to a close ally. Plus, given the prevailing winds, fallout may even drift west all the way to the west coast of the USA. So perhaps we nuke one of their cities, and then begin a full scale conventional invasion? And of course during the chaos Russia takes Ukraine, NATO curses and gnashes teeth but the US has KW2 on its hands and does nothing.
- lobocinza 5y ago
  That would be the rational choice. But what about the decisions made on that blink of a moment? If where to be an escalation to nuclear I'm afraid there might not be an opportunity for diplomacy.
bluGill 5y ago
There are plans, but they are not always coordinated. I wouldn't be surprised if before the US could get troops in the area China invades, asking the US navy to provide cover fire (in large part this politics - China could do it themselves but knows that the US needs to be seen as responding so giving the US navy a target is good for both). China and the US are not on great terms, but China has a lot to lose in this scenario and is in geographical position to respond faster. (South Korea is closer, but North Korea is well set to defend against their invasion so China is my guess). I have no idea what Russia will do in this scenario. Anything seems possible.
dirtyid 5y ago
Any fallout tainting PRC / Russia is probably going to be used to extract concessions from US.
ChuckMcM 5y ago
I think it would be suicidal for KP to jump into a full scale "hot war" with the US. That said, I could easily see them shooting ballistic missiles into the ocean 100 miles off the west coast at random times to cause disruption and chaos in the state that provides the biggest chunk of the US GDP (California). The FAA and US would have no choice but to react as if it "might" be heading for landfall and unable to "launch on warn" because of the geopolitical consequences of obliterating a chunk of KP when their "harmless test" did no damage at all, would be high. So in the "perception is everything" game, KP's moves appear to me to been about making themselves look good and the US look bad. So my non-foreign policy analyst position is that this where I see this going over the next 5 - 10 yrs.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

BeKindAndLearn 5y ago

Everyone would look the other way and offer thoughts and prayers. North Korea would be largely vaporized and neither China nor South Korea would prolong the issue and risk total nuclear annihilation of humanity.

javajosh 5y ago
There would be significant collateral damage to nuking the KP, including to a close ally. Plus, given the prevailing winds, fallout may even drift west all the way to the west coast of the USA. So perhaps we nuke one of their cities, and then begin a full scale conventional invasion? And of course during the chaos Russia takes Ukraine, NATO curses and gnashes teeth but the US has KW2 on its hands and does nothing.
lobocinza 5y ago
That would be the rational choice. But what about the decisions made on that blink of a moment? If where to be an escalation to nuclear I'm afraid there might not be an opportunity for diplomacy.

bluGill 5y ago

There are plans, but they are not always coordinated. I wouldn't be surprised if before the US could get troops in the area China invades, asking the US navy to provide cover fire (in large part this politics - China could do it themselves but knows that the US needs to be seen as responding so giving the US navy a target is good for both). China and the US are not on great terms, but China has a lot to lose in this scenario and is in geographical position to respond faster. (South Korea is closer, but North Korea is well set to defend against their invasion so China is my guess). I have no idea what Russia will do in this scenario. Anything seems possible.

dirtyid 5y ago

Any fallout tainting PRC / Russia is probably going to be used to extract concessions from US.

ChuckMcM 5y ago

I think it would be suicidal for KP to jump into a full scale "hot war" with the US. That said, I could easily see them shooting ballistic missiles into the ocean 100 miles off the west coast at random times to cause disruption and chaos in the state that provides the biggest chunk of the US GDP (California). The FAA and US would have no choice but to react as if it "might" be heading for landfall and unable to "launch on warn" because of the geopolitical consequences of obliterating a chunk of KP when their "harmless test" did no damage at all, would be high. So in the "perception is everything" game, KP's moves appear to me to been about making themselves look good and the US look bad. So my non-foreign policy analyst position is that this where I see this going over the next 5 - 10 yrs.

deleted 5y ago
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