With the emergence of North Korea as a nuclear state, now combining to be a total of nine, out of which only five states are legally recognised, it is becoming difficult for America to remain sycophant and the question is can America live with another nuclear state? As long gone are the days when wars were fought with swords and needles, now nuclear war is something none of any country can afford. One by one, countries are slipping away from US influence. Every state has a right to protect itself whether we like it or not but Kim Jong Un’s regime is different than other governments with nuclear weapons.

Keeping in mind the relationship of America and North Korea, there comes deterrence and retribution. According to an expert Mira Rapp-Hooper deterrence is like: "If you do X thing that I don’t like, I will do Y thing that will be even worse for you." For deterrence to work, whoever is considering X must take seriously the threat of Y and be ‘rational’ enough to fear it. Nuclear deterrence is something whole world must fear because if one country fires nukes then the counterattack proves to be something deterrent as it should.

Deterrence of nuclear weapons is a matter to be whittled by America. But it depends how it is taken into account by Washington. Because North Korea is majorly concerned about retribution which may be more suitable with a quote: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth!" Depends more as which country sticks to deterrence or retribution, either way nuclear war is inevitable. As the world is still quite not over with US bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Deterrence is better thought of as a way to reckon reality, there are many nuclear powers that halted nuclear attacks, but that did not cease their nuclear development, plenty of states like the US with the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union with China, China with India, and India with Pakistan.

And many countries without signing the NPT still possess nuclear arsenals like Pakistan, India and Israel. Iraq too, during the time of Saddam Hussain, initiated a secret nuclear programme. North Korea also announced its withdrawal from NPT in 2003 and tested its nuclear devices since that time.

Instead of focusing on war policy, deterrence can be paired with efforts like sanctions and dialogues. On the other hand, it can also involve one state’s commitment to defend itself and its allies. In case of US defending Japan and South Korea.

As North Korea is a sworn enemy of the United States, and also being internationally isolate, war may start as a misfortune. And after testing hydrogen bomb if it becomes capable of placing a warhead on intercontinental ballistic missile, that can reach US, it will join the club of Russia and China, both being adversarial at times.

Either its deterrence or retribution, both ways the American hegemony is going to be over soon. America says it does not want to lose its patience but on the sly it hopes to maintain a monopoly on its own weapons.