For its report, RAND war-gamed a North Korean attack on Seoul’s wealthy Gangnam district. “Roughly half the size of Manhattan, Gangnam—a district of Seoul—is a major economic center and home to many large companies, such as Google and IBM. With some of the most expensive real estate in the country, the district is also considered the most affluent in all of South Korea. Consequences of a single DPRK nuclear attack on Gangnam would be severe.”By 2020 North Korea could possess as many as 100 nuclear warheads.That’s the startling conclusion of a January 2019 report from RAND, a California think tank with close ties to the U.S. military.”North Korean provocations and threats have created an unstable environment on the Korean Peninsula,” RAND’s report explains. “North Korea’s ongoing development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles increases the possibility of their use against regional states, furthering instability across the region and beyond, thus affecting vital U.S. interests.”(This first appeared several months ago.)To deliver its nukes, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, as the regime in Pyongyang calls itself, is building up a large stockpile of rockets of varying ranges.”The DPRK’s growing arsenal will provide its regime with multiple options to employ its nuclear weapons,” the RAND report warns.
