Google maps based nuclear war simulator with multiple variables. Try single 150 KT on NYC:

[Fred Sanders]

http://www.nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/

This is 9 megaton:

[Algernon Moncrieff]

1. For those of us who grew up in the cold war, this is old news

I grew up near Washington, D.C. it was an article of faith that we'd be dead within moments of a war between the US and USSR.

[Irish_Dem]

2. I know, we used to talk about this. Wash DC and NYC would be the first to go.

Along with key military installations.

They would hit the political, financial centers and the military.

I just cannot believe we are once again discussing this topic.

[Lurks Often]

3. The largest known NK nuke is maybe 150 kilotons per that website

And I was about to post the same thing.

Most countries have switched to multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) with warheads of under 1 megaton (MT)
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_ICBMs

Currently Pakistan only possesses medium range ballistic missiles with a range of no more then 1800 miles which is why they are not on the above list.

[Fred Sanders]

5. Yes. Try a a few dozen150 KT airbursts up and down the California coast...which Russia could.

Or try a 50MT Tsar!!The point is that THESE are the only real WMD's nothing else goose with such massive and instant capability. The potential is too much to handle.

[Lurks Often]

6. NK doesn't have a "few dozen" ICBM's capable of hitting the U.S.

I see no reason why Russia would start a nuclear exchange with the United States.

[TheBlackAdder]

8. No, they have a few dozen midget subs, nuclear mines, and friendly nation states to assist.

.

One nuke, placed in a midget sub could float near any port city undetected. They are so small that the SOSUS nets do not detect them. The US can't track ghost ships, find lost nukes on US soil or in places where they know they were dropped by accident. DPRK has been spending the past couple of decades perfecting nuclear mines, and an underwater explosion is more threatening to an aircraft carrier task force and an above ground detonation. While their midget subs have a range of 2-3000 miles, they can float in the currents or be towed by friendly cargo ships until they near their targets.

https://blog.usni.org/posts/2010/12/09/report-north-korea-developing-nuclear-sea-mines

https://www.wired.com/2010/12/is-north-korea-developing-undersea-nukes/

https://www.stripes.com/news/u-s-military-enters-new-generation-of-sea-mine-warfare-1.143170


And here's a nice artcile from Atlas Obscura:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/70-years-ago-the-us-military-set-off-a-nuke-underwater-and-it-went-very-badly



I feel that the balistic missile thing is a distraction, to scare people with high tech missile capabilities, when in reality they are going to do the tried and true old-school methods of destroying an enemy. Sneak up on them and catch them off guard. A missile may work, it might not... but floating into a harbor will always work. Don't believe the bullshit that the US can detect these things.

.

[Fred Sanders]

9. Who said NK did? The simulation is educational. Enjoy the implications...turn on "casualties"

using NK suspected 150KT fusion devise...which I personally believe they do not have.

[True Dough]

4. This goes well beyond the scale

of "You sunk my battleship!"

[Squinch]

7. Been nice knowing you all.