we have a covert operative in place. he reports the hard-liners and moderates in the high command are arguing about how to respond, should the premier's niece and her children should be killed.
best guess is an as-15, medium-range cruise -- their version of our tomahawk, launched from offshore.
the north korean premier holds what we call a "brinksman switch." he's able to destroy a missile in flight, right up to the moment before it achieves its target.
uh, it's a code name.  for weapons using the yersinia pestis bacillus.
kipchaks were asian nomads. in 1347 they attacked a genoese fort, and catapulted infected corpses over the walls. the genoese who survived carried the disease back to europe.  and it killed half the population.
the warhead vents the plague bacteria above the target area, infecting about 50,000 people. first symptoms are vomiting, lymph nodes become swollen; temperature rises to 105. victims turn deep purple from lung hemorrhaging, usually die the same day. there are treatments -- streptomycin and tetracyclines -- but we'd be overwhelmed by the numbers and its extreme contagiousness.
the bacteria can't survive the heat of an explosion.