What's the Deal in North Korea?

What's the deal in Korea? Everything seemed to calm down a bit during the last few weeks due to the Olympics. Gestures and signs of peace on the Korean peninsula by both North and South athletes were followed by uneventful Olympic games in terms of national saber-rattling between both the United States and North Korea. So what is going to happen now? Now that the Olympic games are over and the general spirit of friendliness that the Olympic games bring is fleeting will we end up in a war with North Korea over their armaments?The vast majority of rational, logical thinking individuals firmly believe with good reason that the murderous "hermit kingdom" shouldn't be trusted with a pointy stick, much less nuclear weapons. With numerous ICBMs in development that have been flight tested such as the Hwasong-14 and Hwasong-15 which theoretically "could" reach the United States if they ever became fully operational, North Korea is pushing everyone's buttons.

We're not going to get political about all that's going on, but rather as best we can, as best as a Marine Corporal can understand, the global tactics and strategy involved on both sides.We'll give the upstart North Koreans the first go. They see their nuclear capability as the only way to keep the United States from interfering with its status quo. They have watched the United States bulldoze both Iraq and Afghanistan with relative ease and comfort compared to the bloody battles of both world wars all the way up to Vietnam. They don't want to get their asses handed to them in three weeks like Saddam Hussein did. They've not only amassed a few nuclear warheads, but North Korea also has pretty much all of their conventional artillery aimed at Seoul. With their country starving and people dying, North Korea might do something extremely stupid and attack South Korea...again. This time though, if the North started the fight, China has declared it would not intervene, as dissent about the "friendship" with North Korea growing in both Beijing and the population.The United States. We honestly have nothing to gain by doing a first strike on North Korea. While they can't be trusted to not run with scissors, wear their seatbelts or not hit other kids with pointy sticks, a pre-emptive attack would most certainly put us on the warpath with China. Not saying that China could beat us, but it'd certainly be more difficult than dealing with "Best Korea" alone. The fact is about this whole situation, it's a giant cluster****. If the United States attacks first to negate the carnage that will rain down on Seoul, China gets involved and thousands more will lose their lives in what would certainly be a long drawn out war. If North Korea attacks first, thousands in Seoul will die on the first day alone. It will be carnage the likes our generation has not witnessed.

While war-hawks and peaceful hippies drone on and on, it's important to realize this conflict, no matter how it plays out will most certainly have a cost of life that we are unfamiliar with. Gone will be the days of a few thousand casualties, rather it will run into the tens of thousands at a pace that we might not be so comfortable with.We definitely need to be thoughtful in how we proceed.