[daviddennis]

Kim has a big ego.

His feelings of self-importance are supported by nukes, and the fact that people have to pay attention to him and his regime because of them.

Getting rid of them would feel like castration for him; he would no longer be important, and no longer be able to extort money.

The west would probably contribute big bucks to him if he renounced his nukes, but then he couldn't salve his ego. That's more important to him than anything else.

Unlike Steel Wolf, I think his regime could survive without nukes, because he doesn't have to tell "his" people that he doesn't have them anymore. A quiet surrender, not covered anywhere within the country, would work just fine.

But he would feel like a broken shell of his former self, and I can't help but think that's pretty important to him.

D

[Conservative_Nationalist]

The guy probably doesn't have many nukes and if we had an idea of where they were couldn't we use air strikes to destroy them? I know we would be taking a chance on starting an all out war but I don't know if North Korea really wants that. If we destroyed there nukes and they attacked South Korea it would be eventual suicide for them. If they didn't retaliate then they could probably keep their power. What do you guys think their reaction would be to a massive air assault that destroyed their Nukes and capability to make new ones?

[Steel Wolf]

The west would probably contribute big bucks to him if he renounced his nukes, but then he couldn't salve his ego. That's more important to him than anything else.

You're countering your own point here. Kim is not in it for the money. He's also not going to give up power until dead or focibly removed. We won't be pulling Kim out of a dirty hole in someone's backyard.

The 1990s and even the last three years have been a very desperate time. If Kim were more concerned with survival than power, he'd be living in a Chinese dacha, enjoying a huge Swiss bank account. He's not.

He needs power above all else, and there is no greater manifestation of power than nuclear weapons. It is the only language he speaks, and the lens he views the world from. He would sooner abdicate and flee than give up his nuclear arsenel.