TNI Staff
If the United States and North Korea went to war, what kinds of targets would Pyongyang want to strike with its nuclear arsenal?
While the idea of a full-blown nuclear war on the Korean peninsula is disquieting, the fact is—given President Donald Trump’s recent tweets—such a conflict might not simply be theoretical exercise.In August, the Washington Post—citing Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) analyses—suggested that North Korea has 60 nuclear warheads in his arsenal. However, if one were to assume that the DIA has grossly overestimated the size of Pyongyang’s arsenal and assume the Kim regime possesses only 30 nuclear warheads, that is still a sizeable force.
Let’s also further assume that Pyongyang understands that any U.S. military intervention on North Korean peninsula also means that it is game over for the Kim regime, thus Kim Jong-un has the option of either using his last line of defense, or simply be swept aside by American forces. Given that set of circumstances, the Kim regime would likely chose to use its nuclear weapons
The best option for the Kim regime in such a scenario would be to reserve perhaps four warheads for a counter-value strike against the United States—assuming that Pyongyang possesses an operational intercontinental ballistic missile capability. Most of the remainder of the North Korean nuclear arsenal might be best used for counterforce strikes against major American, South Korean and Japanese military facilities and infrastructure. North Korean chemical and biological weapons—not to mention conventional artillery—likely provides enough counter-value capability to reserve the regime’s nuclear forces for counter-force usage.
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/how-north-korea-would-wage-nuclear-war-kill-millions-people-22664
