I believe that you are at fault for the ROE transgression.
You had a really nice command-level crisis. Often, scenario designers use such stringent ViCond as a technique to "rein in" over-zealous commanders like yourself.
By having tough ViConds, he can often prevent a player from indiscriminate destruction and it is a good limitation on the firepower of a particularly powerful side. As you can see, the USN can quite easily devastate the DPRK by itself. The restrictive ViCond was probably used to create such a situation and force you into a command crisis.
So, how about a game of ANW head-to-head, sometime?