Will North Korea Use Nuclear Weapons?

North Korea just tested nuclear weapons and is now making threats to attack the south. Are these just empty threats or is North Korea serious about using nuclear weapons? This is a very serious threat that North Korea could use against US ally South Korea. Thousands of US troops are still stationed in South Korea to this very day.

A repeat of the 1953 Korean war is unlikely, with China and Russia both condemning North Korea's activities. It would be a very different war with North Korea basically on it's own without many allies. But the nuclear weapons factor adds a deadly X-factor to any war that the US gets involved with with North Korea. Kim Jong has been said to be "deathly ill" so just how far is a man on his death bed willing to go? Will he go out in a blaze of "nuclear glory", this might actually be his thinking.

How many nukes North Korea actually has is up for debate, as well as how many missiles that North Korea has to deliver the nukes. The North Korean nuclear program is very secretive, so nobody knows really how many nukes they have or how many missiles they have to deliver these nukes. We also don't really know what kind of chemical weapons they have.

The nuclear weapons test that North Korea recently conducted has been compared to about a Hiroshima type blast, which is nothing to laugh at, although today's nuclear weapons are much more powerful. Will the North attack the South Koreans? It depends on how far Kim Jong is really ready to take this thing, or if it's all just a political game.

North Korea and South Korea have technically been at war since 1953. The war never really ended there was just a "truce" ending hostilities, over the years they have been many small battles or skirmishes, but never all out war again. North Korea is still also technically a communist country, with Kim Jong as the supreme leader, the school system, television and radio is highly censored and biased towards the North.

In conclusion, North Korea has just developed nuclear weapons, they have also launched several short range and a few long range missiles. They probably have the capability to deliver a nuclear weapon. Will they use these nuclear weapons? Well thats anyones guess, but this is probably one of the greatest nuclear threats since the Cuban missile crisis.

Sources:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/05/27/ST2009052703825.html