[garbanzo]

It would but the question is how long would such a response take and how much are our hands tied? One of the biggest problems with a nuclear response is having years of fallout drift to the south and to Japan. A large preemptive attack could potentially allow the North enough time to make a serious attack on the South before an effective US (conventional) response. The South could collapse before we are ready for a counterattack.

[Poohbah]

It would but the question is how long would such a response take and how much are our hands tied?

Response time equals flight time of a Trident missile from a SSBN patrol station to Pyongang.