# Resolved: North Korea's survival has nothing to do with nuclear weapons and everything to do with their proximity to China **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 30, 2026, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-north-koreas-survival-has-nothing-to-do-with-nuclear-weapons-and-everything-to-do-with-their-proximity-to-china/1029665 "2026-04-30T14:46:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2026, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-north-koreas-survival-has-nothing-to-do-with-nuclear-weapons-and-everything-to-do-with-their-proximity-to-china/1029665/61 "2026-05-02T13:57:04Z")
Is there even any evidence that North Korea has nuclear weapons at all? Note my precise wording there: We know that they have nuclear bombs. But a nuclear bomb is not necessarily a nuclear weapon. The bombs they’ve tested have been very large. The missiles they have are very small. Do they have the capability to deliver a nuclear bomb to anywhere outside of their own borders? Without that, it’s not much of a weapon. What they do have is a Hell of a lot of conventional artillery, aimed at a very large city that’s friendly to the US. That’s the real deterrent power they hold. And has been for generations. ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2026, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-north-koreas-survival-has-nothing-to-do-with-nuclear-weapons-and-everything-to-do-with-their-proximity-to-china/1029665/62 "2026-05-02T15:46:29Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > I would like to see a cite for this becasue it’s militarily impossible for them to invade Japan in huge numbers. It’s an absurd claim. I suspect that @Wesley_Clark 's sentence should be parsed as two different claims: > [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > They also have a huge special forces invasion force True, and NK does at times engage in actions across the DMZ with those forces probably in preparation to attack SK. > [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > , and they had plans to attack Japan. Where ‘they’ again refers to NK, not to the special forces invasion force of the first part, and where the attack on Japan would be conducted with MRBMs and the like, not by an out-and-out invasion. The writing was a bit ambiguous, but I suspect this is what was meant. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2026, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-north-koreas-survival-has-nothing-to-do-with-nuclear-weapons-and-everything-to-do-with-their-proximity-to-china/1029665/63 "2026-05-02T21:46:18Z")
> [@SunUp](#): > > The writing was a bit ambiguous, but I suspect this is what was meant. However, the post claims that the fear of what they would do in both South Korea and Japan are factors in preventing people from attacking them and I would love to see a cite for that. North Korea does not have the ability to sneak more than a few commandos into Japan and that would not be a serious factor. I suppose they could also find away to sneak some commandos into America. Perhaps we could include that as a reason people haven’t attacked them. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2026, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-north-koreas-survival-has-nothing-to-do-with-nuclear-weapons-and-everything-to-do-with-their-proximity-to-china/1029665/64 "2026-05-03T02:38:54Z")
Ok, reading the post again, I see the point. Japan is certainly concerned about nuclear weapons but there are serious questions concerning reliability and accuracy. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2026, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-north-koreas-survival-has-nothing-to-do-with-nuclear-weapons-and-everything-to-do-with-their-proximity-to-china/1029665/65 "2026-05-03T12:29:16Z")
Then again, the thing about nuclear weapons is that they are so destructive that nobody wants to guess _wrong_ on issues like that. Without a really good reason Japan won’t want to roll the dice on losing a city because it turns out that NK _does_ have a reliable nuke it can lob that far. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2026, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-north-koreas-survival-has-nothing-to-do-with-nuclear-weapons-and-everything-to-do-with-their-proximity-to-china/1029665/66 "2026-05-05T23:53:45Z")
“Does North Korea have a working delivery system?” was my first reaction to this, as well. But after reading a bit on NK’s nuclear program, it really does seem like they are likely to have at least a few fission warheads small enough for their missiles to launch with. Whether those missiles are reliable enough on launch or reentry to actually rely on them as a credible threat is somewhat up in the air, though. I doubt they or anyone else really wants to take that gamble, though. ETA: But that’s largely the same calculus as no one really wants to take a chance that all of those artillery tubes would flatten Seoul in an afternoon. Maybe they could, maybe they are too poorly maintained to do the job. Your guess is as good as anyone’s. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resolved-north-koreas-survival-has-nothing-to-do-with-nuclear-weapons-and-everything-to-do-with-their-proximity-to-china/1029665.md?page=3)