How four recent launches signaled new leaps in North Koreas missile capabilities

[IronLionZion]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/world/north-korea-launch/

It wasn’t a big surprise, but it was a big deal — so much so that North Korea issued commemorative stamps. Two successful missile launches in July almost certainly proved that the country had produced an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking the United States. A Nov. 29 test that flew even higher and longer indicated that the entire U.S. mainland most likely was within range.

According to U.S. intelligence analysts, the country also has nuclear warheads small enough to fit on its missiles. On Sept. 2, the country tested its most powerful nuclear device yet, a blast seven times the size of the bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima.

Nonproliferation experts had long assumed that the secretive country’s nuclear capability was further along than many people wanted to believe, but seeing the proof was still jarring.

North Korea has launched 20 missile tests in 2017, and 15 were successful, according to a database maintained by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. The tests represented giant leaps forward in technology.

Great images at the link in a format that I can't link to here.

We better hope our missile defense system works correctly to intercept it. We have two nuclear armed idiots who are mentally unstable, deeply insecure, and have something to prove.

[CentralMass]

1. Would thinking that they are getting assistance from a foreign government be a reasonable suspicion?

[IronLionZion]

2. China and Russia are prime suspects

also they apparently prioritize weapons over feeding their starving people.

[rgbecker]

5. Russians helping NK with their missle and bomb development would not be a long shot.

If they are spending a minute messing with US elections and social media networks, a few friendly experts to NK would be nothing. They have everything to gain if the US and NK go at it in any way and as NK seems totally uninterested in Russia, Putin would have nothing to lose.

[IronLionZion]

3. North Korea is the only country that has performed a nuclear test in the 21st century

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/world/nuclear-tests/?tid=graphics-story

[True Dough]

4. You're right

Those info-graphics at the link are tremendously helpful in understanding the progress NK has made (undoubtedly with assistance from Russia or China).

Although there's still a belief that NK does not possess the accuracy/reliability to pinpoint targets in America, the potential to hit any part of the continental U.S. with a nuclear warhead is a major concern. How this can be effectively addressed now is a major dilemma.

Some analysts say we'll just have to live with it, like with Russia, China, Pakistan and others. Those regimes haven't spent any time threatening to launch against the U.S. like NK has, but it seems galling to sit back and hope that they don't act on their threats as they make technological advances.