Analysis: North Korea missile launch raises the stakes in a big way. What now?

“Then you get into a situation where the United States has started a war with large-scale South Korean casualties,” said Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director-general of the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies in London. “Even if you could be assured you take out all the nuclear and missile capabilities, North Korea also has significant conventional retaliatory capabilities. That could turn parts of Seoul into Aleppo (Syria), and that’s the fear.”