North Korea Nuclear Weapons Pros And Cons

Peace through strength has been the United States strategy since its foundation. For decades, the United States Military has been considered the strongest in the world. One of the reasons the United States is seen as a superpower is because of their nuclear weapon supply. But, since the Cold War, they have been working on depleting this supply. With countries like North Korea being active with nuclear weapons, the US needs to keep their nuclear weapons and even work on improving their own nuclear program. These nuclear weapons come with other benefits like deterring war and deterring other countries from developing nuclear weapons. So, in a way, having nuclear weapons in stock may actually help the world keep its peace. All in all, the US needs

As stated above, probably the most important reason for having nuclear weapons is because of other countries possessing them. Currently, the country causing the most concern is North Korea and their leader Kim Jong Un. North Korea is active in testing all of their missiles, including their nuclear weapons.The reason for all the tests is because they are trying to guarantee their own security and gain respect and prestige among others (North Korea's Nuclear Weapons 2). In fact, North Korea recently conducted their sixth nuclear test this past September, making that three in the past two years (North Korea's Nuclear Weapons 1). This shows that the country is constantly trying to improve their missile quality. One of the problems they are having is the size of their nuclear warheads. North Korea claims that they can mount miniaturized nuclear warheads on their missiles, but this has yet to be proven

“North Korea is working steadily toward fielding ballistic missiles with increasingly longer ranges and even working on submarine-launched missiles. In the last five years, they have conducted more than 50 missile tests” (Squassoni 1). If North Korea develops these ballistic and submarine-launched missiles, then they would be able to attack the United States mainland and all of the pacific islands.Even if the US mainland is safe now, it is known that North Korea could target all of the American territories in the Pacific Ocean (North Korea's Nuclear Weapons 3). “North Korea can still target South Korea and Japan with its nuclear weapons and the US has military bases, equipment, and personnel in both countries” (Squassoni 2). Currently, the only thing stopping the North Koreans from attacking is the fact that they know the United States would not be hesitant to hit them back. The US’s reputation as a nuclear superpower is stopping North Korea from launching an attack. “North Korea has threatened to launch a “great war of justice for Korean national reunification” and to attack the US mainland in full out war, under the situation where the US hurts the DPRK by force of arms” (North Korea's Nuclear Weapons 1). This puts the US in a difficult situation. The US wants to stop the development of North Korea’s nuclear program, but they would not be able to without heavy retaliation. The US