Hey love the premise of THIS THREAD, will read the article and hope this thread has not been closed by the time I can make a contribution which I hope is intelligible, if not intelligent.

Before going into the article, I've already thought it would be great if N. Korea could be brought to close with S. Korea as E. Germany went to W. Germany. This would call for the participation of the leadership which of course we don't have and the acquiescence of China which we don't have either. From my point of view the use of force unilaterally with Trump/ Pence behind it is not an option. It would be like trusting the Keystone Kops to bring down Goldfinger. The use of force including nukes on our part should be a big NO no matter who on our side is behind it. It should in no case be unilateral. The S.Koreans, Japanese and Chinese have more to worry about than we do.

Technologically N. Korea hasn't proven they have the chops to make small deliverable thermonukes and none of the detailed nature of their underground 'tests' are known by the public because the major nations aren't going to want to reveal how they get their information.

On the unfortunate side, there is no reason they can't develop several of these weapons because the technology is not out of reach to the determined.

Did you notice Putin's quote back in September that the N. Koreans would eat grass before they'd give up nukes? That was a re-quote of Ali Bhutto's famous quote in the 70s that Pakistan would eat grass and leaves but would obtain the bomb 'we have no other choice!'

In the past, the smartest engineers and scientists we had to dedicate to nuclear issues set up means to detect the nature of nuclear tests in detail. We've got sensors and satellites. As far as executive action, we know how far the U.S. was willing to go with Iran; I think our experts and higher pols have a much better idea of where N.Korea really is technically than the public has access to.