Editing Mutual assured destruction (section)

==== North Korea ====
Since the emergence of [[North Korea and weapons of mass destruction|North Korea as a nuclear state]], military action has not been an option in handling the instability surrounding North Korea because of their option of nuclear retaliation in response to any conventional attack on them, thus rendering non-nuclear neighboring states such as South Korea and Japan incapable of resolving the destabilizing effect of North Korea via military force.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Baranwal|first=Sanjay|title="Nuclear Nihilism of North Korea: Perils and Path Ahead"|date=2011|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42761440|journal=The Indian Journal of Political Science|volume=72|issue=2|pages=547–554|jstor=42761440|issn=0019-5510}}</ref> MAD may not apply to the situation in North Korea because the theory relies on rational consideration of the use and consequences of nuclear weapons, which may not be the case for potential North Korean deployment.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2017|title=Time to re-assess mutually assured destruction|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26951722|journal=BMJ: British Medical Journal|volume=359|jstor=26951722|issn=0959-8138}}</ref>