Anti-missile defenses are not yet capable of defending large territories or any large civilian populations. At best, they can protect points on a map, concentrations of military power, like a carrier battle group. And even that cannot yet be done with 100% certainty. Perhaps technology will change this in the future, but, for now, deterrence and MAD are the only realistic strategies.
A nuclear N. Korea will set off a cascade: Japan, then the rest of E. Asia, will acquire the necessary deterrent. In exactly the same way as a nuclear Pakistan was quickly followed by a nuclear India, and a nuclear Israel makes a nuclear Iran, Syria, Egypt, Hezbollah, and then Hamas inevitable. |
