The possibility of North Korea having nuclear capacity is often called a “nuclear threat”, as if North Korea somehow had the desire to hit the United States or South Korea with nuclear weapons. While such a strike would be a theoretical possibility if the North had nuclear weapons, and is thus of course a bit scary, it is important to remember that the North Koreans have never made an explicit nuclear threat against the US or any other country.[4] Former North Korean President Kim Il Sung, in fact, told Carter when the he visited P’yǒngyang in 1994 that it would be suicidal for a small and poor county like North Korea to ever delude itself into thinking that it could develop a nuclear arsenal sufficient to threaten the United States. The United States, on the other hand, has frequently made nuclear threats to North Korea. These threats are not widely known outside policy circles, so the idea that North Korea truly feels fearful of US attack seems incredible and irrational to most Americans. Yet even as recently as last September the possibility of preemptive strikes specifically mentioning only Iraq and North Korea was published as part of the Bush administrations National Security Strategy. Since the United States and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations, and Iraq has already been attacked, it is only prudent for the North Koreans to take these threats seriously regardless of measured statements that may be issued by other parts of the Bush administration. A fair assessment of the North Koreans’ motivation, then, would have to concede that they have significant security concerns vis-à-vis the US, and the “threat” goes as much from the US to North Korea as visa versa.