(”what about it” was in reference to their satellite launch)
Also, right now, their warheads mounted to Nodongs aren’t really the concern. They take hours to launch - hours sitting out in the open, vulnerable. Then they have to get through up to three layers of BMD - Aegis, THAAD and Patriot. Combined with their low missile reliability.. I doubt they’d actually get anything through.
Infiltrated nuclear weapons are more of a concern. But their sub fleet is antiquated, and anything in port would be hit in the first wave. Their MiGs will all be quickly downed as well, they pose no threat to modern air defense systems - and certainly not to the F-22s that will be sweeping their airspace. Probably their biggest shot is ground infiltration - such as any undiscovered tunnels (I don’t know how thoroughly modern tunnel detection techniques have been applied to the whole border). They could already have a nuclear mine placed - though as these tunnels were dug by hand, (and probably no undiscovered tunnels newly dug, because modern seismometers would see the digging too easily), they’re not likely to be very long, so it would be under DMZ defenses, not under, say, Seoul. Also, underground and ground-level nuclear blasts aren’t nearly as destructive to cities as airburst bombs; they spend most of their energy digging a crater.
If the US and ROK invaded across the DMZ, they could cut the DPRK off from their tunnels and keep even their longest artillery. But the dove that will soon be running the ROK probably won’t allow that - he probably won’t even allow the US to launch attacks from the ROK, out of some naive hope that by doing so, the DPRK won’t retaliate against them.
“Also, right now, their warheads mounted to Nodongs aren’t really the concern. They take hours to launch - hours sitting out in the open, vulnerable. Then they have to get through up to three layers of BMD - Aegis, THAAD and Patriot. Combined with their low missile reliability.. I doubt they’d actually get anything through.”
The USAF didn’t kill one SCUD on the launch pad during Desert Storm — and that was in flat, desert terrain. The Nodongs will be tucked into tight valleys and caves. Yes, they have to be fueled after erecting for launch, but you’d have to be looking straight down on a lot of terrain to have any chance of getting a strike in prior to launch.
Astute of you to factor in the South Koreans into the debate. The problem of North Korea is not Americacentrtic. What do the SORKs want and how do they go about achieving that goal?