How do you think this will play in Japan? Japanese antipathy to nuclear weapons is legendary (and understandable). To be told that they are potential targets of the Kim Jong-Il regime (not exactly a stable government) has to be chilling. But... will the public think that the US is trying to play off that well-known Japanese nuclear policy?
You could certainly make a case that the NKs don't really want their nukes to blast Japan. I believe they want to prevent another Inchon when the Dear Leader decides to unify the nation under tank-treads. A sensible military strategist might do that by attacking Japan, but as I have indicated I don't think the NKs are sensible. The North Koreans are very ethnocentric, and I don't know if they worry too much about anything but Korea.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Japan can and will swing from one extremity of the pendulum of rampant pacifism, to one of belligerent pro-Japan anti-North Korea vigilence. Often, there is little ground in between two polar extremes in Japan in public policy.
The nation could well forget their recent history, particularly on the part of younger voters who know nothing of what led to the Great East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere, and rearm and renationalize all in favor of keeping a wall of protection between themselves and a new, violent and uncontrollable neighbor on the Asian peninsula just a sea away to the west.