[jjsheridan5]

This could very well affect me - as I am a retired Air Force pilot.

I have no idea whether you can answer this, but here goes: NK has, by all accounts, been building tunnels and bunkers for decades. Assuming, as I think is obvious by now, they have a nuclear arsenal of at least a dozen devices: how effective would any preemptive strike (by us, or Japan) be in terms of shutting down their program and destroying any existing weapons? How effective would such a strike be in terms of decapitating their leadership?

[SkyPilot]

I really don't know the specifics of that, and even if I did, I could not share them.

But even open sources (and common sense) acknowledges that the problem with a second Korean War is that casualties and destruction would be immense, even if we struck first.

It is true that the North Koreans have artillary, sited for Seoul and elsewhere, that is dug in hard, effective, and destructive. Before we could completely take even that node out, the NKs could kill thousands and thousands of people.

I don't know about their nuke weapons. But all you need is one to start one helluva war.