Escalating US rhetoric towards North Korea this year has stoked fears of war but Donald Trump’s threats of “fire and fury” have yet to be matched by the logistical and military build-up that would almost certainly precede any strike.
While the US could launch some kind of pinprick attack on an individual target without the need for huge firepower, experts say the Pentagon would have to prepare for the possibility of serious retaliation.
With more than 200,000 US citizens in South Korea and another 50,000 in Japan, Washington would almost certainly want to conduct an evacuation. But this would be a big logistical operation and could itself be the trigger for pre-emptive action by Kim Jong Un’s nuclear-armed regime.