North Korea declares war?

China will not throw missiles over NK. As was said elsewhere here, the Chinese want to sell them stuff, not blast them into oblivion.

 

Well, if for whatever loony-tunes reason NK started to get belligerent toward China (and given Un's nutty behavior it is certainly not inconceivable), it's 100.000% certain China would bring the bootheel down on them, hard.

If in some insane-scenario situation NK launched some kind of WMD strike on a Chinese city, I have no doubt whatsover China would strike back 10 times over. Probably 100, except for the drifting-fallout problem.

 

And that would never happen, because the Chinese are the main reason the Kims still rule.

* -- unless Iran is somehow now calling the shots in Pyongyang.

 

That's what I'm talking about, Starman. Kim doing something stupid like that.

 

china also wants to sell stuff to the rest of the world. potentially go starting dub-dub III, and china just might shove a bomb or 12 up its ass.

 

If North Korea launches a nuke, all bets have to be off. As primitive as it seems, you simply CANNOT shrug that off with sanctions and harsh language. You can't launch a conventional invasion when nukes are in play because you're simply sending troops to slaughter.
On top of that, if you let North Korea get away with that it's still going to start World War III. The backing and threat, respectively, of U.S. nuclear retaliation might be the only things keeping Israel from nuking Iran, and vice versa. If North Korea launches a nuke and no concrete counterstrike is made, Israel sees that and realizes the U.S. will do nothing if Iran sends one toward Tel Aviv. So it takes matters into its own hands and sends one toward Teheran. Or Iran sees it and realizes it has free reign to do as it pleases and attacks Israel in some form or fashion. Either way, the Middle East blows up and we're at the gates of hell.
A counterstrike obviously needs to be coordinated or discussed with China and Russia to avoid hundreds of nukes from flying, and with Japan and South Korea to keep them as key allies. It is, however, a political and moral necessity. Whoever would criticize the U.S. for killing millions of North Koreans with a retaliatory strike when Seoul or Tokyo have been irradiated needs to gain some perspective and fast.

 

I'd like to think we could pretty much destroy Pyongyang just using conventional bombs.

Should probably add that China & Russia could probably do the same thing if need be. There would be no reason for anybody to retaliate with nukes.

 

I can assure you that if they were dumb enough to start something, we have enough assets on or close to the peninsula to finish it with much haste.

 

I'd be OK with that, as long as the bombing starts an hour after the nuke is launched from NK and continues until the rubble is turned into rubble. The civilized world has to send a message that this is not acceptable, and the consequences will be sudden and severe.

 

I'd like to think we could take out a nuclear missile while it's in flight.

 

we've actually been missing quite a few while testing.