FreeMason

Valid points but the reason I don't agree with them is I'm projecting possibilities...

We know that North Korea can make Nuclear bombs (whether they've actually done so yet is still contestable but we think they've made 2).

We know they are having difficulties with their missile program (because they've shelved it for bargaining chips) but we know they can put a satellite into orbit because they've done so (albeit a short-lived orbit) thus they can put a payload onto an American city...just not with any of the weaponized rockets they have right now.

So in the future, depending on what they want to do, they can set-up a Nuclear state.

To the scale of the Soviet Union? They'd probably need to get very lucky to do that within a few decades (i.e. some nation with Uranium resources begins to openly trade with them).

I think that possibility is not far-flung, because North Korea can pose a technical solution to 3rd world problems.

That is...some dictator in Africa who has resources but nothing to do with them due to lack of technical knowledge of his people, and lack of infrastructure...numerous problems...could ship his resources to North Korea, who in turn constructs them into whatever the African nation wanted...in return the African nation gives them food and some spare resources...

This is what happend in Germany in 1920s-1930s, which is how the Nazis pulled out of their Inflation.

They had little resources at the time, but plenty of unused technical talent...they blocked-off the eastern nations from the west, causing them to give them raw materials.

In return, Germany made them farm equipment and other heavy machinery, and made some tanks and bullets for themselves on the side.

Scale is an issue, again, North Korea would have to be lucky, "Luck tends to be a factor so long as courage holds" is a true statement here.

Right now North Korea is being cowardly, pawning their Nuclear Weapons as a bargaining chip at the six-party talks....that's good for us.

But when they get enough Nukes, I hypothesize they'd say "OK...shut-up America, we're going to trade with whom we want, when we want, whatever we want, and if you don't like it, you can't stop us, because any attack on our shipping will be an act of war to which we will invade South Korea and Nuke Tokyo."

That'd effectively prevent us from stopping North Korean vessels, they'd not need to try and smuggle anymore...

The problem though still exists of who do they trade with.

More luck can be gained by the courageous move of proxy-wars. Wars that would not be tolerated by the Free World...but they can't do anything directly to the instigator...same reasons as we could not do anything directly against the Soviet Union in their proxy wars.

This could gain them allies.

And that's the root of my theory, thus...question.

The time-table, the plausibility...are all dependent on several things.

1) How fast until they have enough Nuclear Warheads to feel bold enough to put them on missiles.

2) How bold they are in actually executing a foreign policy, right now they are rather timid.

3) How bold they are in internal policy, right now they do half of what we say...such as not opperating their 50MW and 200MW nuclear power plants which together could produce about 50 Nuclear bombs a year...if I remember right, it might be 30 Nuclear bombs for the 50MW and 50 for the 200MW.

These things would make a difference...for now they aren't happening swiftly if at all...but like a snowball...after a few conditions are met, things could happen quite swiftly.

Especially with the impoverished condition of the 3rd world.