[Doctor Mongo]

Perhaps you can comment on this. The nuclear reactor that North Korea is now loading with spent fuel rods for reprocessing and plutonium production is a type that is gas cooled, or so I have read. Why not let them load it, start it up and then destroy the cooling plant with one cruise missile? The fuel rods would melt and destroy the reactor with, at worst, a result similar to that which occurred when Chernobyl melted down. Big question: will China and Russia let North Korea start a second Korean War over one well-placed cruise missile?

[Physicist]

Big question: will China and Russia let North Korea start a second Korean War over one well-placed cruise missile?

But there are other big questions, such as, will one well-placed cruise missile be sufficient to knock out North Korea's nuclear capabilities? (Answer: no chance.) And can China and Russia together--assuming they'd want to--prevent the North Korean army from boiling across the DMZ once we hand them such a causus belli? (Answer: no chance.)