latest range of ballistic missiles and

this map shows how far each one can go.

As you can see, it looks like most of the

United States is in range and it's got

people panicking. "The real fear is that

North Korea is getting closer to

having a missile that could reach the...

mainland United States, the west coast

United States, Hawaii and Alaska and the west

coast. But a closer look reveals that

this map doesn't exactly tell the full

story... as of right now. The longest range

missile the one that's supposed to put

the US in danger, is the Taepodong-2.

it's an intercontinental ballistic

missile or ICBM. It's the kind of thing

that the US and Russia have thousands of

and had used as a threat against each

other during the Cold War. "Hold at the

ready never less than a thousand

missiles. North Korea has been working on

one of its own for quite a while, except

their version doesn't really work. North

Koreans have had nuclear bombs since 2006 and

they could certainly attack their

neighbors. But they've had no real way to

deliver them to a distant target. They

could try and drop one from an airplane

but it would be likely shot down well

before getting to the target. The most

effective way to use a nuclear bomb is

to attach it to a missile. Different

delivery systems determine how far the

target can be. North Korea already has a

huge arsenal of short and medium-range

missiles but it doesn't have a working

ICBM, which can hit a target 15,000

kilometers away because it's actually

four missiles in one. Stacked on top of

each other, each missile is used one by

one to push the warhead into space. Then

once it's over target, this fourth

section re-enters the atmosphere and

detonates.

This is a very hard thing to engineer

and it's exactly why North Korea doesn't

have a working Taepodong-2 yet. Under

the pretense of testing a rocket engine

the country has tested it five times and

it's failed three times. It's managed to

launch into space twice but it's never

made it close to the final and crucial

stage of reentry. Theoretically North

Korea has two other ICBMs: the KN-14 and

the KN-08 that are capable of reaching

the US west coast. But neither of these

have been tested yet. So in reality, North

Korea cannot hit the US with a nuclear

ICBM today. That's the good news. The bad

news is that they've been trying to

build one for more than a decade and

experts think they'll have an ICBM

before 2027. That's because the US

intelligence community believes North

Korea may have achieved one of the

hardest parts of building an ICBM; making

a nuclear bomb small enough to fit on

one. A smaller bomb will make the missile

lighter and more efficient, making this

range very possible for a functioning

Taepodong-2 or KN-14. So this begs

the question: what would happen if North

Korea gets a working an ICBM? It helps to

understand why they want one in the

first place. The North Koreans first got

nuclear technology in the 1950s when

their ally, the Soviet Union, helped them

build nuclear reactors for energy. At the

same time they were protected from their

enemies, South Korea and the US, by the

massive nuclear arsenal of the Soviet

Union. But in 1991 when the Soviet Union

collapsed that protection went away. So

North Korean dictator Kim jong-il took

matters into his own hands and started

using the nuclear reactors to make

weapons. The US didn't want an aggressive

rogue state to have nuclear weapons so

three consecutive US presidents all

tried different tactics to get North

Korea to stop. Clinton negotiated, Bush

suspended negotiations and threaten them,

and Obama simply tried to wait North

Korea out. But every single plan failed

to stop the nuclear program. And there's

a reason for that. The Kim dynasty

believes their only option for security

is to have proven nuclear capabilities.

They saw the US invade Iraq and topple

Saddam Hussein because they thought he

might have nukes. They also saw Libyan

dictator Moammar Gadhafi negotiate with

the US and give up his nuclear program.

Only to be killed by US-backed rebels. The

Kim dynasty is determined not to be next.

So they've gone on to build an arsenal

of missiles for their nuclear bombs. The

Nodong is functional today and has a

range of fifteen hundred kilometers.

North Korea's SCUD missiles are highly

effective within a thousand kilometers.

This puts North Korea's main enemies,

South Korea and Japan, within range. As

well as a sixty-two thousand US troops

stationed there. In fact North Korea

wants to make that loud and clear. And it

does so by successfully testing these

short-range missiles a lot. The tests

provide a chance for them to improve

their missiles, but more importantly they

send a political message. South Korea and

Japan wouldn't attack North Korea

because they've seen the missiles that

could devastate some of their largest

cities. Also they don't have nuclear

weapons of their own. So what's keeping

North Korea from attacking its enemies?

The US is. They've promised to protect

South Korea and Japan with the largest

nuclear arsenal in the world. This puts

North Korea at a disadvantage; it knows

the US can obliterate it but it can't

reach the US just yet. This is why the

US can safely cut off North Korean trade

and enact other punishments. And this

brings us back to why North Korea wants

an ICBM so badly; it's what they need to

tip the scales in their favor. Right now

North Korea can only attack US

allies. If it can successfully test the

Taepodong-2 it would be the same as

telling the US: if you nuke us, we'll

nuke you. If the US knows North Korea

can target an American city it'll be

less likely to come to the aid of South

Korea or Japan. This would effectively

break up the alliance that's designed to

keep North Korea in check. But the

implications of this would go far beyond

the Korean Peninsula. Suddenly in charge

of their own protection, South Korea and

Japan would potentially develop nuclear

weapons of their own. Something Donald

Trump once said he would be fine with.

This would trigger a process called a

nuclear proliferation, and it's exactly

what the US has been trying to prevent

since the Cold War. Right now there are

9 countries with nuclear weapons of

their own. 190 maintain a non-nuclear

status because of the non-proliferation

treaty. But the success of a North Korean

ICBM could change that. If South Korea

and Japan start looking to change their

nuclear status, it could encourage other

countries to do the same. So experts are

urging the US and take action now while

it still can.

President Trump is pressing China to

help. See China continues to trade and

have a diplomatic relationship with North

Korea, essentially keeping the regime

alive. So if Trump can get China to

leverage or cut off that support, North

Korea might not have enough resources to

keep pursuing an ICBM. But for now as

North Korea continues to test and parade

missiles, tensions continue to rise and

the push to keep them from having a

nuclear ICBM gets stronger; not because

of the danger it poses to the US alone,

but because of the repercussions that

could be so severe and so far reaching.