Oh, so we think North Korea's a threat now? lol. A nation of starving people and forced labor camps isn't going to do anything. The only reason that we (America) hasn't bombed North Korea of the face of the planet is because we want to look a little less militaristic than we really are. (Like that's saying much, lol terrorism)
Y'know, those 3 nuclear tests, 2 of which were successful, they've performed mean nothing. Nothing at all. They're not trying to threaten the south. No, no, no. Why would we think that? Seriously, they'll never actually USE the nukes they're building and testing. Never! Oh, and those missile tests don't mean anything, either. Despite the fact that the missiles themselves are nuclear capable. But nah, those tests failed, so they wouldn't research and determine the point of failure and fix it for another test or actual fire. Oh, and the promise to aim a missile at Hawaii on the Fourth of July? It was all in good fun, you know! Jolly good fun, they knew no one would take a missile launch towards the USA, flying over Japan, seriously!
Sending nuclear tipped rockets to hawaii? If you don't consider the
very limited and early stage of development in NK's nuclear program; NK's crumbling military which is only backed by an even worse off "economy",
Our comparatively advanced ability to no only detect any launch, but to actively counter those threats (aka shooting them down, we have lasers mounted to 747's for this exact purpose), not to mention the whole idea behind Mutually assured destruction, and the fact that Most of the world is united on their stance against NK, (*breathe in*) Then YES, North Korea is a theat to us.
Let's however, assume you're right, and that North Korea is something to give more than two shits about. What would the rest of the world do about this? Can we talk to Kim Jong Ill, and see if he can reduce his weapons program? Can we convince him and the rest of his nation to relax on their tensions with the south, so that the entire world is safer? No. NK is a isolated little country that's locked in it's own little world.
That leaves us with one choice; the one you're technically auguring for when you call NK a threat: War. War would be awful for many reasons, but let's start with the humane part. I think that in the case of any armed conflict with NK, Seoul is somehow getting destroyed. That's already a massive loss of life right there. Japan is going too. Perhaps Parts of Russia and China as well. However, once the smoke cleared, it wouldn't be too hard for america to crush what remains of NK. That's where the second part of this comes in: It would be prohibitively expensive for any country to occupy North Korea. NK is willing to send it's rabble of weak, starving, civilian, but very dedicated army to attack any foreign troops. You think one roadside bomb every other week in Iraq is bad? Try dealing with 10+ a
day. Pretty soon, casualties would mount, and Here in America that war would get very unpopular, very fast. Plus, we would waste enormous amounts of money on maintaining this occupation. Do you think our economy can take that hit with the shape it's in now? Don't get me wrong though, if the world was (Much) simpler, then we would bomb the shit out of that nation tonight. But the world doesn't work like that.
Point is, the mold currently growing behind my toilet is more threatening to America than North Korea. However, I agree that while it's not a threat, it can become one soon. I think we could solve that if we started being more decisive and absolute in our communications with NK. (I don't mean "Decisive" here, keep that in mind.) That way, Kim and his starving people will know that we mean more than just some random sanctions tossed around the UN headquarters.
That's just my 2 cents though. Whatever.
