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Comment by hwers | Hacker News Reader

I always find NK as a threat such a silly idea. The moment things escalated to anything real they'd be wiped out or even if they did manage to put up a fight they seem so resource constrained that it'd be over within weeks. I can only imagine the reason it keeps being hovered over our head is because the US needs an enemy and russia and china are too powerful to put in that position anymore (but what do I know I'm just speculating).

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China wants a buffer zone between them and south Korea. USA tells china make sure NK does not do anything to crazy. And yes if NK attacked south Korea they could kill lots of people.. but after that the USA would carpet bomb them until nothing was left. One of the above comments is very accurate. Basically NK Will not attack. And NK Will exist for as long as china sees value in it.

I thought for a long time that the north korean government acts so "crazy" is to hide this fact. If they were acting "sane", they wouldn't be taken seriously because of the massive power imbalance and the extreme retribution problem regarding nukes.

NK has a very complex relationship with China and I'm fairly sure they would not be "wiped out" immediately.

Even in the extreme case of North Korea nuking Japan, it would still lead to an extremely complex international situation. The US retaliating for Japan with a nuclear strike or any similar situation of extreme force would be a far too risky of a move.

Not only is NK important to China strategically as a buffer between themselves and the US friendly South Korea, but the Chinese people feel a kinship with the people of NK, not entirely dissimilar to the way the US views Canada culturally. Aggressive retaliation would unquestionably make China an aggressive and active enemy of the US (or whoever decided it was their job to retaliate).

North Korea's proximity to China, not just physically but culturally as well, makes the issue far more complex than if a rogue nation where make similar threats.

North Korea is currently hoping that their ICBMs mean they can toss around nukes in their back yard while not having to worry about the US nuking them back. If they can take out enemy seaports and air bases they might possibly have a chance against the conventional forces already arrayed against them in the Korean peninsula. It's, well, it's a terrible plan but maybe credible enough to dissuade the West from thoughts of regime change.

Their main threat is that they can start a war that's incredibly prone to escalate.

It's because even though North Korea would be destroyed, that wouldn't prevent millions of South Koreans dying before that happened.

You realize NK is basically an offshoot of China, right?

"They have a close special relationship and China is often considered to be North Korea's closest ally. China and North Korea have a mutual aid and co-operation treaty, which is currently the only defense treaty either country has with any nation." [0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93North_Korea_rela....

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