CAN NORTH KOREA BE STOPPED?

• Author: Smith, Patricia
• Position: INTERNATIONAL

North Korea is developing the capability to mount a nuclear attack against the U.S. How will America respond?

For decades, the danger that North Korea posed to the mainland United States was hypothetical. The rogue Communist nation's leaders often spoke of destroying the "American imperialists," but they had no real way to back up their bluster.

They're much closer to having it now.

In July, North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile that experts say is capable of reaching many cities in the U.S. It's a milestone in North Korea's military capability that a long list of U.S. presidents have said could not--and would not--be tolerated.

"It's extremely important," says Bruce Klingner, a North Korea expert at the Heritage Foundation, a think tank in Washington, D.C., "because it's the manifestation of North Korea's decades-long quest to be able to threaten the U.S. with nuclear weapons. And it shows that the threat is very imminent."

There's no reason to panic quite yet, experts say. To pose an immediate threat to the U.S., North Korea still needs to figure out how to prevent a nuclear warhead from breaking apart as the missile that carries it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere. It also needs to determine how to aim a missile accurately enough to hit its target--something North Korea's scientists have never mastered.

"They're not there yet, but they're making progress," says Richard Bush, a North Korea expert at another Washington think tank, the Brookings Institution.

'Fire and Fury'

For the U.S., the latest missile test is particularly unwelcome news. President Trump took office in January promising to get tough with North Korea and finally deal with the threat it represents--a goal that eluded three previous presidents. Over the past two decades, the U.S. has alternately tried negotiating with North Korea and punishing it with tough economic sanctions. Neither approach has worked.

In August, the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed a new round of sanctions against North Korea that are expected to cut the amount of money it earns yearly from exports by $1 billion--a third of its total. In response, North Korea ramped up its threats, declaring, "There is no bigger mistake than the United States believing that its land is safe across the ocean."

Tensions escalated further when President Trump said North Korean aggression would be met with "fire and fury, like the world has never seen." The declaration raised alarms about the possibility of a pre-emptive military strike by the U.S. Those tensions subsequently died down a bit, but the situation remains volatile.

North Korea has a long history of antagonizing the international community, and the U.S. and North Korea have been at odds for seven decades. The roots of the conflict go back to the end of World War II (see timeline).

In 1945, the Soviet Union occupied Korea north of the 38th parallel and installed a Communist regime, while U.S. and Allied forces controlled what became South Korea. The North later invaded the South, and the Korean War (1950-53) followed. That conflict, in which 34,000 Americans died, ended in a stalemate, leading to two very different nations (see "Side by Side," right).

South Korea developed into a thriving democracy with a strong, high-tech economy. It's long been a staunch American ally, with 28,000 U.S. troops stationed there to protect South Korea.

North Korea, on the other hand, became a Communist country and one of the most repressive and isolated regimes in the world. When Kim Jong Un, then in his late 20s, inherited the dictatorship after the 2011 death of his father, Kim Jong II, some hoped that he might improve relations with the international community.

But he's proved to be as ruthless as his father and his grandfather, who founded the regime. Aside from...