The news from the Korean Peninsula grows ever more dire.  Some tidbits from the news:

Officials To Take ‘Whatever Precautions’ Needed After North Korea Threat

Hagel calls N. Korea ‘real and clear danger,’ as US plans defense system in Guam

HOLMES: Decoding North Korea’s nuclear rhetoric

The money quote comes from the last story linked:

Two things appear to be going on: First, the young Mr. Kim is trying to prove himself, not only to us, but possibly to his own people, by playing tough. Second, and more worrisome, the leadership may be emboldened by the belief that they’re very close to possessing a nuclear missile capable of reaching the United States.

The situation is ripe for miscalculation. The new South Korean president, Park Geun-hye, whose mother was killed by a North Korean agent, has made it clear she will not roll over like other South Korean leaders. Moreover, there is a new U.S.-South Korean agreement that could result in the United States more forcefully backing the South militarily short of all-out war. Another North Korean attack could result in the U.S. forces joining South Korea in some form of military retaliation.

Either way, we should not think this is a case of parties on the peninsula crying wolf. North Korea has shown time and time again it will strike with violence. It may well be on the verge of doing so again.

Interesting times, True Believers.  China is massing troops and equipment along the North Korean border; the NorKs are a Chinese client state, it’s not at all clear that Beijing wouldn’t interfere on Pyongyang’s behalf. Russia is likewise an unknown quantity.

The NorKs may be bluffing; Baby Kim may be trying to show he has the biggest stones on the block.  Then again, they may not.  That remains to be seen.

If they aren’t…  We have an unstable dictator with serious weaponry astride a strategically important piece of real estate.  Sound familiar?  This is the stuff that starts wars.  Even world wars.

White House: US can defend against NKorea attack.  Can we?  Excerpt:

The U.S. is fully capable of defending itself against a North Korean ballistic missile attack, the White House said Thursday, after Pyongyang threatened a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the United States.

The threat from the North Koreans came ahead of a unanimous vote in the U.N. Security Council approving its toughest sanctions yet on the North in response to an atomic test last month.

North Korea has escalated its bellicose statements this week as the tightening of U.N. sanctions loomed. It has also threatened to scrap the cease-fire that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

“I can tell you that the United States is fully capable of defending against any North Korean ballistic missile attack,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

North Korea is a comic-opera farce of a nation, run by a dynasty of gargoyles.  But they are gargoyles with nuclear weapons; this much is true.  Could they strike an American city?

Despite what Mr. Carney, with his vast experience in strategic military planning (ha!) says, yes, they could.

It’s true that we could defend against a NorK ballistic missile, presuming they ever managed to make one that worked.  That isn’t exactly new technology.  But it’s true that military structures train to fight the last war, and the United States military has been caught with pants down before by an innovative enemy willing to try something new.

What options do they North Koreans have if they want to take out an American city?

Critics of the gargoyle-run, Stalinist state correctly point out the vast difference between building an operable nuclear explosive and weaponizing it – that is, making it tough enough, light enough and compact enough to fit in the nose cone of a missile or the bomb bay of an airplane.  That’s true, and there’s no evidence North Korea has successfully weaponized a nuke.

They don’t have to.

Is there any doubt that the North Koreans could build a nuke that would fit in a container ship?

And is there any doubt they could sail such a ship into a major American port – say, Los Angeles, or New York?  Maybe Norfolk, the home of the Atlantic Fleet?

By exercising a bit of creativity, they could even transfer a cargo container onto a truck and take it anywhere in the United States.  They could easily land a container in any number of places along our lengthy shorelines, or somewhere to the south and bring it across our increasingly porous southern border.

And how, Mr. Carney, do we defend against that?

In other news, it seems the North Koreans have also started practicing ASW – anti-submarine warfare.  On that front, at least, they have a long ways to go:

In a fair fight, a good big man will almost always beat a good small man.  But if a small man grabs a rock, sneaks up behind the big man and hits him in the head before the big man knows the small man is around, the fight may have a different outcome.  And wars are frequently won with dirty tricks.

Mr. Carney and his boss would do well to remember that.