[guildwriter]

You're thinking too small if you think this is just about self protection.

> "No. The goal of [North Korean] nuclear armament is not mere security from U.S. attack, which conventional weaponry trained on Seoul has preserved since 1953—and through far greater crises than George W. Bush’s little “axis of evil” remark in 2002. As every North Korean knows, the whole point of the military-first policy is “final victory,” or the unification of the peninsula under North Korean rule. Many foreign observers refuse to believe this, on the grounds that Kim Jong-un could not possibly want a nuclear war. They’re missing the whole point.

North Korea needs the capability to strike the U.S. with nuclear weapons in order to pressure both adversaries into signing peace treaties. This is the only grand bargain it has ever wanted. It has already made clear that a treaty with the South would require ending its ban on pro-North political agitation. The treaty with Washington would require the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the peninsula. The next step, as Pyongyang has often explained, would be some form of the North–South confederation it has advocated since 1960. One would have to be very naïve not to know what would happen next. As Kim Il-Sung told his Bulgarian counterpart Todor Zhivkov in 1973, “If they listen to us, and a confederation is established, South Korea will be done with.”"

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/interrogatio...

[RobertoG]

I don't understand how that would happen.

First, North Korea can't force the U.S. to do anything, the only they can hope for is to make an invasion too expensive to consider.

Second, even if the U.S. accept (why would they?) to leave South Korea, then what? Do NK have the capability of invading SK? That would be their end.

[guildwriter]

North Korea doesn't have to force the US. North Korea just has to convince South Korea to sign a peace treaty. From there getting the US to leave is easy.

North Korea doesn't have the capability at present to invade SK. Having nuclear arms makes invasion unlikely and it gives them a seat at the table as a legitimate nuclear power. With that as a position of security, it's not hard to see how NKorea can leverage that into them getting stronger.

Why would the US accept? Can you imagine the political fallout for the President and party in power if they're forced to keep acquiescing to NKorea anyways? Or if they decide to invade NKorea and deal with the aftermath? NKorea doesn't have to launch a missile to present a legitimate threat and project power around the world.

[RobertoG]

It seems to me that we agree that all the issue it's basically about self-protection from external threads.

[guildwriter]

No we don't. Self protection is just a small part of the overall strategy.