Clearly, the leadership in Pyongyang is a few fries short of a Happy Meal. Kim Jong Un's latest lunacy involves declaring that his forces are in position to hit the US mainland, as well as Guam, Hawai'i, Japan, and South Korea.
They could, in fact, hit South Korea, and maybe Japan, but North Korea simply does not have the long-range missile capability to hit any of the other places. The Pacific Ocean is really freaking big, and NKorea only has short and medium range missiles, not the ICBMs necessary to hit distant targets.
That said, I'm quite frankly getting unnerved by these guys. Kim Jong Un's rhetoric indicates that he may very well be unstable, given that threatening THE superpower and two of its best buddies (Japan and SKorea) is generally considered a less-than-rational action. While we may be totally out of range, South Korea is not. Seoul is within easy range of NKorea's most primitive artillery, not to mention their very functional medium-range missiles and rocket batteries. The capital of South Korea has 10.5 million people living in it; a single day of bombardment would cost the lives of thousands.
I'm honestly not sure how to take these threats. It's very possible that Pyongyang is simply blowing off steam and acting tough to save face; given the honor-based culture in the region, that wouldn't be at all surprising, considering the recent sanctions. On the other hand, the Dear Leader's actions are very much in keeping with those of a deranged maniac, and while a lunatic third-world dictator would not normally be that big a deal, this is one lunatic with missiles, rockets, cannons and nukes pointed straight at a crowded metropolis.
I still am hopeful, however. Tensions have been severe on the peninsula before and didn't lead to war, so I think that, in the end, the worst that will happen is that the Koreas are at each others' throats for a while until things calm down, at least until the next big crisis. Only time will tell, though.
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