Nah, the damage from NK would be profound. This is no longer about being able to wage a thermonuclear war but to cripple infrastructure via an EMP. A North Korean ICBM w/ one nuclear warhead, detonated over the west coast of the U.S. would have a tremenduous impact: Imagine just the destruction of the grid and with that the melt-down of 60 nuclear power plants.

That, IMO, was the main reason why western nations struggled so much to get a deal w/ Iran to prevent her from developing nucelar warheads and IRBM capabale of carrying them. Just one nuclear bomb, detonated in 20km height over Central Europe, would have a circle of impact from the Urals to Gibraltar.

With that being said, war is still very likely. Be it over the Baltic states (Article 5 of NATO treaty), Syria (Us vs. Russia), North Korea (Us vs NK), the Southeast Asia Sea (U.S. vs. China) ... and these are only the "rational" conflicts. War by accident is far more likely, esp. w/ this inapt & belligrent U.S. administration.

@simon3@https://mastodon.social @jd@https://soc.ialis.me @antanicus@https://social.coop