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North Korea Doesn't Have Rockets or the Nuclear Warheads Capable of Striking the US

But its threats may not be as wild as it would seem

Mar 9, 2013 09:44 GMT  ·  By
The North Korean rocket Unha-3 last year, ahead of its unsuccessful attempt to put a satellite into orbit
   The North Korean rocket Unha-3 last year, ahead of its unsuccessful attempt to put a satellite into orbit

North Korea is getting more vocal these days, though that's pretty typical of countries led by tyrants. North Korea is a prime example of that.

But the grandstanding was taken to new extremes this week, with the regime threatening pre-emptive nuclear strikes on the US and saying it will end its non-aggression pact with South Korea.

From any other country, those would be serious threats. From North Korea, it's just more of the same.

The main reason why experts aren't worried is that the country doesn't have the capability to launch a nuclear strike even on its neighboring South Korea, let alone the US.

The rockets it's been building could conceivably carry a nuclear payload to any point in South Korea and even Japan, if they manage to get off the ground, but that's the limit of their range.

What's more, it's believed that, despite its claims, North Korea doesn't have the capability of building a nuclear device small enough to be carried by a rocket.

Its latest nuclear test, the third to date, was the most powerful. The rocket launch of last year and the nuclear test incurred the country new sanctions. Some came just this week. In retaliation, North Korea made the new threats.

But it's not prepared to carry out the threats, at least not technically. Everyone knows this, so why make such bold statements if you know you can't and won't actually fulfill them?

Well, for a country like North Korea, there isn't much else you can do. In essence, the regime wants to ensure its survival. This is what the nuclear program is about, an insurance policy.

The general thinking is that North Korea would give up the program if it was offered immunity, if the UN could ensure that there will be no regime-changing interventions. To do that, it must keep the talks going and to do that it needs to ramp up the threats.

But all of this is further complicated by the wildcard that is Kim Jong Un, who just came to power late last year. He's proven more unpredictable or at least louder than his father, whom he succeeded. It may be that it's all just talk, or that he's far less calculated than his father. Time will tell, but for now, the big words remain just that, words.