Regarding the July 26 front-page article “N. Korea on fast track to nuclear missile”: North Korea is unlikely to use a nuclear weapon first because of the logic of deterrence. Retaliation wo…
North Korea is unlikely to use a nuclear weapon first because of the logic of deterrence. Retaliation would be assured and universally supported. North Korea and its government would not survive. North Korea’s conventional forces have threatened South Korea with unacceptable damage. But what has North Korea gotten for its trouble? Security from invasion and little else. It is subject to the most rigorous sanctions in the world, profoundly poor, isolated, anathematized, a burden to China and a problem to everyone else.
