Who knows what will be the U.S. response. After all, we have idiots at Dept. State and Dept. Defense and a Communist as Commander in Chief!
Missing from alll of this dialogue is any concern about the response of the ROK. The North Koreans have doubled the size of their army in the past two decades with the proclaimed objective of invading South Korea and unifying it with North Korea. The North Koreans have developed nuclear weapons while South Korea is denied the right to develop nuclear weapons as a defensive countermeasure. In response to these provocations, South Korea has embarked on a programme to develop its own major air, ground, and sea weaponry to reduce its dependency upon the weapons systems of the United States and other foreign nations who can deny South Korea access and support for those weapons systems. North Korea knows Sotuh Korea is about to bolster its own defenses, so it may attempt to carry out its offensive now to avoid facing an ever stronger South Korea in the next few years. Knowing North Korea may attempt to preempt the growth of the South Korean defense establsihment and deploy more nuclear weaponry in the future, South Korea may find it more desirable to meet the North Korean threat now to avoid the threat of a growing North Korean nuclear weapons arsenal in the next few yeears.
Bottomline: North Korea may be initiating an offensive war against a South Korea who is ready to take the war to a final conclusion with the defeat and occupation of North Korea. So much for anything POS kerry may have to say about the matter.