For many of us, the specter of nuclear Armageddon has been an omnipresent threat. After the end of World War II, the world became embroiled in another war, a Cold War, brought on by the creation of weapons of such terrifying destructive force they could wipe out entire cities. Mutually assured destruction between the antagonists meant that neither side could commit to full-scale war without bringing about their own doom, leaving the world in a precarious state.
We thought such a world could be left behind with the fall of the Berlin Wall, but we were wrong. Nuclear weapons remain a global risk, with one particular rogue nation reminding the world time and again that the threat of annihilation never went away, and may indeed be more real than ever before.
With two mad-men threatening nuclear war on Twitter, these are the five things you need to know about North Korea’s nuclear missiles.

5. Kim Jong-Un Has Tested More Missiles Than Both Father And Grandfather Combined

Before we answer the “what”, it helps to first answer “why” North Korea has pursued their nuclear ambitions despite repeated condemnations from the United Nations and multiple sanctions from countries around the globe.
The Kim family has ruled North Korea since the end of World War II. Their dictatorship has been brutally upheld following the Korean war by imprisoning or outright killing political dissidents and creating a cult of personality around the Kim leaders portraying them as North Korea’s saviors and protectors.
While economic sanctions and isolation crippled North Korea’s economy, their leadership remains both well funded and well connected. They also keep a close eye on global events and took special notice of the Libyan and second Iraq wars that saw the deaths of two other tyrannical dictators, Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein. Both countries fell when foreign powers intervened, and only after both had agreed to abandon their nuclear weapons programs.
North Korea learned from those countries and sees nuclear weapons as the only way of securing their future. Thus, North Korea’s current leader, Kim Jong-Un , has tested more missiles than both his predecessors combined and is unlikely to ever relinquish his ambition of turning North Korea into a nuclear power—an ambition he seems to have achieved.

4. Only Recently, North Korea Has More Successes Than Failures

One of the hallmarks of North Korea’s missile testing program has been a string of failures that at times seemed laughable. Most headlines involving North Korea’s missile program since the late 2000s would show a rocket rising into the air before exploding spectacularly, or not even getting off the ground before erupting in a fireball. Even as recently as 2016, North Korean rockets would hardly strike fear into anyone, although that certainly wasn’t what was reported to the North’s people.
Their string of high-profile failures changed in 2017. Korea began to launch smaller, intermedia missiles with greater regularity after the US election, firing multiple rockets into the Sea of Japan. Later they would go on to launch missiles with a range they report as capable of striking the continental US. There were still failures, but the reporting on them was overshadowed by the increasing number of successes.

3. They’ve Tested Missile That Could Reach USA

Then news broke that North Korea could possess missiles capable of striking the continental US. A test launch in May of the Hwasong-12 missile ended successfully after reaching an altitude of 2,111.5 km, putting all of East Asia and even Guam under the threat of nuclear missile attack. In July, North Korea tested two Hwasong-14 missiles that reached even greater heights, one reaching 2,802 km and the other 3,724.9 km, and possibly putting US cities like Los Angeles and New York in range.
While those distances don’t seem to be in-range of North Korea, you must understand that these missiles were not tested on an ideal flight-path; they were fired straight up and then angled to come down in the Sea of Japan. Had those missiles been angled correctly to fly across the globe, they could easily reach the continental US.

2. They May Be Getting Supplies From Russia, China

Despite being under economic sanctions from every country on Earth, North Korea has still managed to acquire materials necessary to both create an atomic bomb and the missile capable of delivering it to the United States. All signs seem to point to Russia and China as their partners in crime.
The Hwasong-14 uses the RD-250 rocket engine developed by Ukraine for the Russian R-36 missile. Ukraine has denied all reports of supplying the engines and instead points the blame at Russia for supplying these engines via the black market, possibly even supplying an entirely intact R-36 missile.
Meanwhile, China provided North Korea with the WS51200 Wanshan Special Vehicle, a giant truck capable of transporting North Korean missiles as well as firing them from any location within the country. China says the vehicles were intended for civilian use, but it seems hard to believe the country wasn’t aware the trucks would be used in the North Korean Missile program.

1. They Have Miniaturized Warhead Capable Of Being Put In Missile

There’s no point in building an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) if it can’t deliver a warhead, which was a problem North Korea couldn’t deal with until very recently.
While North Korea reportedly developed an atomic bomb several times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima, it was large, cumbersome, and impossible to mount on the tiny end of a ballistic missile. Since then, the Washington Post reported last August that the North has developed a weapon small enough to mount inside their current generation of missiles that could potentially strike at targets within the United States.
This has drastically upped the stakes in the American president’s war of words with Kim Jong-Un, and if cooler heads don’t prevail, it could spell the end of civilization as we know it.

and if they should go to war; dat is the beginning of the end! FTC!

What is America waiting for?? They said Sadaam had nukes and they wasted no time in toppling his government.

See North Korea of yesterday and Nigeria is still dealing in charcoal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKM8C829oN8

North Korea tests its 'largest intercontinental ballistic nuclear missile test ever'