The United States and South Korea began a joint military exercise on Monday which prompted North Korea to issue a military alert to all civilians. During the exercise, the United States and South Korea practiced defensive measures against North Korea. North Korea viewed this as a threat and stated that they would not tolerate any attack or invasion. Furthermore such an attack would be met with a nuclear response.
Do you believe that the US would respond to a North Korean attack with nuclear force? I suppose I have trouble believing that this would happen. I do believe that the US would use force if North Korea attacked and there were casualties from such an attack. However if North Korea fired a missile and it was deflected by our missile shield, I don’t believe that the US would respond with nuclear force. Rather the US would use other, less severe means of attack such as missiles targeted at military facilities so as to minimize civilian casualties.
I find it ironic that North Korea is continually stating that they will use their nuclear weapons if they are attacked. What do they feel would happen at that point? Would they really do such a thing since they would likely be wiped off the map afterwards? Unfortunately it is still a possibility given the extremely unstable leadership of North Korea.
One thing is for sure, we must keep developing our defensive systems so that we are protected from unstable nations such as North Korea.
