Resolved: North Korea poses a more serious threat to U.S national security than Iran

Answer to my opponent's questions: 1. Look at my entire first contention again. 2. North Korea has done a couple attacks. The impact of these attacks are minimal. Iran funds terrorist organizations we are currently fighting two wars against. 3. Ok, first of all, the article says, North Korea COULD have the missile. It never says they HAVE it and there is proof that they do. Secondly, they don't have the technology to mobilize a warhead onto an ICBM missile. I don't want to get into anymore semantics, I mean, I COULD be a fairy princess but that doesn't necessarily mean that I am one. 4. M.A.D is the reason why nations don't attack each other. 5. According to the C.R.S, just from 1995, the U.S has provided in over over 1.3 billion dollars in aid to North Korea. Furthermore, Andrei Lankov of the WSJ writes," Since North Korea's semi-Stalinist economy cannot meet the most basic demands of the population, the regime needs aid from the outside world (the U.S)." If North Korea didn't need aid, their GDP wouldn't less than 1 percent of the U.S GDP, and their entire country wouldn't be impoverished. 6. Again, North Korea doesn't have an operation nuclear missile. Intent doesn't matter because North Korea will never launch its nuke. 7. Iran funds terrorists that attack U.S soldiers. If terrorist groups weren't interested in attacking the U.S we wouldn't see U.S troops dieing in Afghanistan. Summary Speech/ Final Focus: First of all, I'd like to point out that this resolution is a STATUS-QUO resolution, so therefore, we must not weigh the threats in the future, but examine the threats that are happening right now in the present. Look to my first contention, my opponents only response to this was that the terrorist groups Iran support ONLY target Israel and then goes on to say that the Hezbollah doesn't prevent middle east peace because they only want to kill Israel, implying that they've never done anything. First, I'd like to point out Israel supports other terrorist groups like the Taliban, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other liberation movements. If they were only targeting Israel, we wouldn't see U.S troops or civilians dieing in the Middle East. Secondly, the Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, not a tree house club, during the Hezbollian-Israeli they killed thousands of Irsaeli troops and to this day, prevent Middle East peace through terrorist acts like homicide and bombings. Look to my second contention, my opponent's only refutation to this was that these movements have no impact. However, he's ignoring the fact that because of these movements , "oil has gone up 35% in the last three months as a result of the protests." At the point, where these movements are adding an extra $520 billion dollars to the U.S trade deficit, causing the stock market to loose thousands of point, and leading economists to forecast a return to a recession, we can see that these movements do have a massive impact. Going back to my opponents case, extend my CATO institute evidence which states, "The North Korean regime, while bizarre and brutally repressive, has never shown signs of suicidal behavior. And attacking the United States would definitely be suicidal. Even attacking a U.S. treaty ally, such as Japan or South Korea, would be extraordinarily risky." In my opponents first contention, he talks about how North Korea has long ranged ICBM missiles. But AGAIN, he has still failed to provide a quote saying that North Korea HAS and operational long ranged ICBM missile. Furthermore, as I've stated previously, even if North Korea had a fully functional nuke, they'll never use the weapons because of M.A.D. But even if you don't buy that, remember that North Korea heavily relies on concessions from the U.S and South Korea, so therefore, there is no incentive for it to kill the country that's essentially babysitting it. In my opponents second contention, he argues North Korea has more intent. However, as I stated before, intent doesn't matter when one doesn't have the capacity, and surely, North Korea doesn't have the capacity to launch a nuclear missile. Look to his final contention where he says North Korea has more WMDs. He talks specifically about biological weapons. However, again, this isn't unique to North Korea and again they'll never use their biochemical weapons because of M.A.D. Don't be fooled by my opponent, he tried to put the argument in my mouth that Iran specifically wanted to attack Israel, and then refuted it, however, NOWHERE in my case, did I specifically state Iran wanted to bombard Israel. North Korea may be a threat in 5 years however, Iran is threat right now in the present and thus, I strongly urge a negative ballot.