Let alone, blow Kim Il Sung's body to bits in its mausoleum, would, shall we say, summon an unprecedented amount of wrath within the NK leadership and maybe even the people. Such an act would force them into a major conflict that would immediately result in their own national nuclear suicide. But the mentality is there, believe me there, it is there.
IMHO here, it is perhaps bound up 50% in Korean mentality and 50% in communist cult dictatorship mentality.
On the other hand, if we suddenly had the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Memorial, JFK's gravesite, the Iwo Jima Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial and Ford's Theatre in D.C. all blown up at once, and we had an inkling of the adversarial 'culprit', what do you think the sentiment would be in this country? (Multiply that sentiment threefold and you know how the North Koreans and KWP would feel about such an attack on the symbolism of Kim Il Sung.
I understand the Oriental concept of "saving face". I always thought of it as the Medeival, "honor", extrapolated out exponentially 10X.
I had no idea, as you describe, that the Nk's,with full awareness of their consequential actions, would invite their own destruction. I'm beginning to understand. They will allow themselves to be destroyed in order to save their National Pride. Somewhat mind boggling to this Occidental.