[@Penny]

The exact reason such an attack at this stage would be [i]very[/i] ineffective. They would need to hit as many of their targets all at once with a massed attack. That isn't going to be viable and any potential nuclear threat is going to be eclipsed by the conventional, chemical and potential biological one on, almost exclusively, South Korea. North Korea is attempting to dissuade the United States as a whole from even acting at all because it can threaten targets, even if it cannot actually land a blow on them. It is attempting to cow the populace.

In short what it is I am saying, is that they have not a way to succeed with any attempt at nuclear arms being employed because of a retaliatory attack of equal or greater vengeance. They know too well the risk. This is nothing but talk to induce fear and concern. Their best option, if they do choose to act at all, is unleash their standard array on the southern hemisphere; it is the only one that does not end in parts of North Korea being reduced to carefully aimed crater while they miss the majority of, if not all, their desired targets.

An actual nuclear war, with an exchange, is more unlikely now than before.