North Korea Vows Nuke Tests Will Target U.S.

They could do a lot of damage, but I'm thinking the US is watching North Korea very closely. The difference between North Korea & the US is, we have military all over the world, it's not confined to a single Geo location like the Korean peninsula. North Korea would also have to launch their rocket directly over Japan, I doubt that would go over very well.

Your not going to shoot a rocket with a .22.

15 MINUTES? What? ...doesn't your state have drive-thru Gun Stores?

Mine does - they're called "Drive Buys"

Is that a rhetorical question? :p

No it is not an act of war! look at the missles the U.S put on the border of russia,and germany. Is this not an act of war on part of the U.S, but still there is no war with russia.The U.S may not like them, but still they will never have a war.They might steal each other secrets though. North korea on the other hand is a diffrent story.Japan is more likely to get bombed than the U.S is. North Korea will never bomb the U.S,it will never get that far.Other countrys will stop the rockets befour they ever get there.

Germany had US military bases there since a bit after WWII. And several times, including one several years ago, we had missiles aimed at russia. They weren't actually USED though.

Steve

So THAT's what's inside all the Russian shipping containers outside my house that hasn't been moved for about a year now! :rolleyes:

They have a strange motorized sound inside them that turns on ever second hour or so and it lasts for about 2-3 minutes. Maybe they're arming and disarming themselves?

I don't think I ever thought of that, which is embarrassing because it is sickeningly OBVIOUS. MAN! It wouldn't work on a plane, but almost anyplace else. And NOW, they even have these for HOMES.

Of course they ARE supposed to Xray the containers, etc..., though there are ways to make that deadly, but they usually DON'T xray them!

Steve

I think people have misconceptions about the possibility of defence against attack by an ICBM.

Simply put, there is none.

They don't come 'at you' through the atmosphere like an aircraft does... they basically drop on your head from orbit at several thousand miles an hour.

That's why even the most outlandish stuff in Reagan's SDI (most of which never worked) was intended to target them just after they were launched - that's the only time they are potentially vulnerable, and even that is only for a few minutes (at best). (Note the recent Russian threats to destroy the (now-cancelled) US "missile shield" based in Poland unless they could station officers at the site... it was simply too close to their fixed launch sites to not be considered a threat).

That's why both sides in the Cold War adopted the MAD doctrine in the first place (i.e. "we can't stop you nuking us but, if you do, we can still nuke you back").

That's also why existing nuclear powers go to such lengths to stop other countries "joining the club" but, once they do, the threats, sanctions, etc. evaporate. That even happens among allies (e.g. it happened between the US and the UK right after WW2).

The Russians still have most of their nuclear arsenal pointed in your general direction even today, Pat... but they aren't at war with you.

You should look up background to the Cuban Missile Crisis: The reason the US would have been willing to go to war over the presence of missiles in Cuba is (almost) the same reason the Russians were willing to attack the Polish "missile shield" mentioned above. It's also noteworthy that the Soviets didn't agree to back down until the US agreed to remove it's missiles from Turkey... again, the reasons are pretty much the same.

Doubt it, unless the Chinese agree (which they won't; expecting them to be ok with a US-occupied North Korea would be like expecting the US to be ok with a Chinese-occupied Canada or Mexico... it simply won't happen). Look at the last time the US was in North Korea; it, the South Koreans, and the UN forces all thought they were about to be victorious... and then a million Chinese troops poured over the border (and that was before China was a nuclear power).

No, 'fraid not.

The South Koreans do though, as do the Japanese. However, the problem is that the missile defences of both countries are designed to intercept short-range stuff fired at them, not the US. Neither could intercept a missile fired from North Korea on a trajectory aimed at the United States.

The US could try to intecept it as it falls back into the atmosphere, but imagine someone fired a bullet at your head... and the only way you could stop it was to try hitting it with another, smaller, bullet... and you could only fire when it was a few feet from your head... and you weren't certain exactly what direction to fire in... and, even if you do manage to hit it, that might only be a decoy bullet... the real one is actually over there, and still heading for you

That's the level of difficulty involved. It could be done in theory... but I, personally, wouldn't want to bet money on it.