Dave Majumdar
Commentators in Washington—and even sometimes officials in the Pentagon—offer suggestions that among the military options available to Washington in dealing with North Korea is some sort of decapitation strike. However, this is easier said than done—and might not in fact be a viable option. It would also almost certainly start a war on the Korean peninsula.
The first challenge is to locate the elusive North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Finding Kim is easier said than done inside the secretive North Korean state. Layers of defenses protect the young North Korean dictator inside an already tightly controlled country where the security apparatus has the population on lockdown. Moreover, Kim is thought to use doubles of himself to act as decoys—further compounding the problem.Technical intelligence gathering means such as spy satellites and signals intelligence can collect information about North Korea, but locating and identifying an individual requires a level of precision that those assets can’t provide. For example, analysts watching footage from drones flying over Syria and Iraq have difficulty identifying friend from foe—ISIS from the Kurdish Peshmerga—without help from ground forces. And, of course, the Kim regime is not Iraq or Syria—drones like the U.S. Air Force RQ-4 Global Hawk or the MQ-9 Reaper would not survive long inside North Korean airspace. Only a stealthy drone like the RQ-170 Sentinel would have any chance of survivalThe Pentagon is currently conducting a Nuclear Posture Review which is expected to be completed by December or early next year. The review is assessing each element of the triad to determine what the U.S. needs to retain its nuclear deterrent to stay ahead of emerging threats. Secretary Mattis specified that the review is not taking into account any specific adversary, but is being evaluated to “face unpredictable circumstances in the future.”
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/how-nuclear-war-north-korea-could-start-try-kill-kim-jong-un-22678
