North Korea & the Relevance of Missile Defense

One of the cries that has gone up alongside the underground mushroom cloud in North Korea is that the U.S. should be expanding its missile defense, particularly to Japan and South Korea. Former Defense Secretary William Cohen, who served under President Clinton, just decried President Obama's proposed cuts to the system.

While such a system might be useful for the continental U.S. and Japan, it wouldn't be much use for our ally South Korea. The North has thousands of artillery pieces dug into the mountains, giving it the capability to shell Seoul, the densely populated capital of South Korea. Missile defense, such as it is, wouldn't prevent an artillery fusillade which would kill thousands of South Koreans.

More broadly, what would it do? If the North Koreans want to fire a single missile at Japan or South Korea, why not ten? Why not 50? (The North doesn't exactly want for missiles.) What has stopped the North from embarking on such a path - and what will prevent them in the future - is deterrence. If the North is determined to fire away, any missile defense system would likely be overwhelmed.

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Photo credit: AP Photo