Delivery of a Nuclear Weapon

Candy is dandy
But liquor is quicker

It could, but boats are easily intercepted or hijacked. A missile is something that can be fired quickly and is very difficult to stop. NK's greatest fear is that it will be attacked. Their current defense strategy is to make sure that they can kill millions even while being destroyed. This goes along with that.

To be fair, this is our "strategy" as well. And of all the other nuclear powers. It's MAD. Literally.

You are completely missing the point.

What is important is the capability to hit the US with a nuclear missile. He now has a credible threat. He doesn't want to actually launch a nuclear attack.

maxdancona-

Thank you.

OK. I am still missing the point.

Whether North Korea:

1) Launches a missile with a thermonuclear weapon aboard that flies to the U.S. where it detonates a thermonuclear explosion; or

2) Places a thermonuclear weapon on a boat that sails into New York harbor;

It will result in great destruction in and around New York.

North Korea doesn't want to do either of those things.

Think about it for a moment. The Hermit Kingdom is not in the seaborne transport business--any ship they send out would stand out like a sore thumb. If they sent one across the Pacific, it would have to go through the Panama Canal, after about two weeks at sea just to get there. If they went around the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa), they would need about a month at sea.

Quite apart from Kim not intending to make a first strike, the scenario you describe would be really, really stupid, and likely to fail. We have no trade with North Korea at all. A merchant ship from North Korea steaming for the United States would raise all manner of red flags. You're safe from that.

However, if you still want to worry, a more credible threat would be terrorists sending a dirty bomb to New York. A dirty bomb is an ordinary explosive device wrapped in radioactive material. It goes boom, and thousands and thousands die in the following weeks from radiation sickness. Now there's something to lose sleep over!

(reposting in reply to Gollum)
I don't think North Korea wants to get into an actual shooting war. I think what it wants is to be able to sit at the same table with the other nuclear powers and to be treated as such. This is the same thing Iran (and a few others) want.

The challenge they face is that you don't want to scare everyone at the table before asking if you can sit down. The people sitting at the table with the big guns are already on edge worrying about trusting their "friends", so none of them like to see a Wild Eyed Willie barge in shouting about his loaded gun and demanding to join them. That type of entrance can get you summarily shot.

So my guess is that "Dear Leader" is trying to figure out a way to force open a seat at the table without getting shot. Brinkmanship.

They don't want to get into a shooting war with the US (and they hope that their nukes will deter us from such a war). But they do want to get in a shooting war with South Korea after deterring us (they hope) from getting involved.

When they fail to deter us and we intervene to protect South Korea, North Korea will probably feel compelled to nuke a few of our cities.



There is no chance that North Korea will ever be accepted as a legitimate nuclear power. Doing so would invalidate the NPT and result in the spread of nuclear weapons to nations around the world.