this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2024
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North Korea will use nuclear weapons if attacked, says leader Kim Jong Un (www.france24.com)
submitted 1 month ago by Lemmynated@lemmy.zip to c/world@quokk.au
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North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, ramped up the rhetoric that has increasingly soured relations between South Korea, promising it would use "all the offensive forces it has possessed, including nuclear weapons". South Korea responded that its US-backed response would be "overwhelming" and result in the "end of the North Korean regime."

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[โ€“] moody@lemmings.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Seoul is very close to the border with NK. They don't need to be very accurate or go very far to cause catastrophic damage.

[โ€“] cynar@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Agreed. Though the challenge is more getting it airborne at all.

NK likely has shotgun nukes. These rely on spontaneous detonation, when above a critical point. The are big, heavy and awkward. The 2 big innovations with nuclear weapons were compression nukes, and hydrogen bombs. These both require far more engineering than a shotgun nuke. However it also allows them to be far smaller.

NK has nukes. It also has MRBMs. What it doesn't likely have is an MRBM or SRBM capable of lifting their nukes remotely reliably. If NK was to deploy a nuke, it would more likely be via a container on a flatbed lorry than a missile.