Everyone is getting whipped up by the media and Trump’s tweets, calm down. This hysteria is nonsense and downright dangerous.
Too many headline readers are completely ignorant of the NK capabilities. NK must be having a big laugh at all our headlines.
The most powerful NK missile, only in theory, could reach about Kansas City, with no payload bigger than a jar of kimchee.
They would have to have another missile stage added on to provide more fuel in boost.
Their best missiles so far are all “truck” launched. They don’t have a truck big enough for a bigger missile. If they did, a bigger heavier missile would get damaged joyriding around NK.
They would have to go to a silo launch with onsite liquid fueling. That’s what every other nuclear power does that wants nukes delivered.
NK has no silos, if they did we would know. Also, all of their orbital apogee missiles have burned up on re-entry, they don’t have adequate heat shields, yet.
Let’s all calm down.
Agreed.
But I don’t recommend waiting until they are further along and actually have serious capability. I don’t think this problem is going away and I don’t think they will stop adding capability. Unless we do something.
Does no one remember the 'Mouse That Roared'?
What is the NK situation right now? Starving population, totally dependent on an unreliable neighbor for money/food/everything; complete suppression of original thought so no chance of a creative solution internally; etc.
A casual read of Americas involvement in wars will show anyone that once we drop a bomb or shoot some bullets and the adversary surrenders America goes all gooey and wants to rebuild and help out to right the 'wrong' of war.
Any benefit here for NK to provoke an armed response? Free lunch for life, anyone?
Just say'n
umm...silos are for missile protection, not boost. All US nuclear forces are solid propellant. For the record...the one Trident submarine that patrols that area as we sit here could completely destroy N Korea in less than 10 minutes. Thats ONE boat....
+2.
“have burned up on re-entry, they don’t have adequate heat shields, yet.”
You’re really not -that- gullible are you? SK and Japan routinely attempt to recover NK missile parts to analyze NK’s technology.
The NKs don’t use heat shielding because they don’t want the warheads (and their guidance system) surviving re-entry to be collected by SK and the Japanese.