The White House has dismissed North Korea’s threat to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the United States in retaliation for UN sanctions, pushing the sanctions through with Chinese endorsement.
“The United States is fully capable of defending against any North Korean ballistic missile attack,” insisted White House spokesman Jay Carney, who says that the US doesn’t believe the threats are real.
It is interesting that, facing a specific threat from North Korea the administration is so quick to dismiss its validity, as officials have regularly cited hypothetical North Korean threats as the justification for extra spending on missile defense systems of dubious utility.
Though the Obama Administration appears correct in their estimation that North Korea isn’t actually going to attack, it is unclear on what they are basing their claim to be able to defend against them, since America’s missile defense system is, according to official estimates “very expensive and has limited effectiveness.”
