Cute little game, this. And I'm not sure who is playing it better, the US or N. Korea. But, it is most certainly a game. This is not true conflict, and won't be. Any trained military strategist knows this is just a game.

WHAT can North Korea expect to accomplish by bombing Tokyo ? Will the Japanese surrender, and ask North Korea to become it's new mommy ?

If the North Koreans somehow were to get a missile all the way to Guam, what would that accomplish ? It would be like swatting a hornet's nest in mid-day.

And, what could be accomplished by an invasion of South Korea ? The starving North Korean troops would soon come to a grinding halt with a complete armada of western ships ringing the country so that NO re-supply could ever reach the north country.

North Korea is playing a nice game, and it is helping the Obama administration look tough (in some eyes, if that is possible).

We will end up "averting a massive, long-term war in which tens of thousands of US soldiers might have been killed, and the US economy further damaged." How ? By giving the the enemy what they wanted to begin with...as we usually do. Supplies and money and status.

One additional gameplay is that we will cooperate with our new "dear ally, China," giving them our military information (so we won't "accidentally" shoot at each other). This will be helpful later when the communist government in the United States agrees to surrender to the more experienced and helpful Chinese Communists.

It's all a game.