For years, North Korea has been hard at work modernizing its military technology in order to threaten America and its allies. Now it appears that all that hard work is finally paying dividends. According to U.S. intelligence agencies with expert knowledge of the rogue regime’s missiles program, North Korea may be within one year of obtaining the ability to successfully launch a missile strike against the continental United States. The disturbing assessment was first reported by The New York Times, whose reporters spoke to several administration officials familiar with the matter.
“Until a few weeks ago, the official estimate was that it would take roughly four years, give or take 12 months, for North Korea to develop a missile that could carry a nuclear weapon small enough to fit into the missile’s warhead and capable of surviving the stresses of re-entry and deliver it to the United States,” noted The Times. “But the realities of the past few months, especially a July 4 test that crossed a major threshold — if just barely — has forced intelligence experts to conclude that their estimates have been too conservative. In the test this month, a missile carried a warhead 1,700 miles into space, and returned it at high speed in a sharp parabola.”
With missiles already reaching a distance (height) of 1,700 miles into space, the North Koreans may be able to strike the state of Alaska if they can translate the upward motion of their missiles into forward motion directed at targets on land.
As The Times explained, military advisors and weapons experts have long underestimated the sheer determination and resolve of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Despite the prospect of facing history’s most powerful military force, Kim has been openly threatening to “annihilate” the United States.
As a result, President Trump has taken a more hardline policy to North Korea relative to his predecessor, who stressed the value of “strategic patience.”
Unfortunately, years of Obama-era “strategic patience” has led to an emboldened North Korea, one that is on the verge of developing the technology necessary to kill thousands, if not millions, of Americans on the western U.S. coastline.
