Vox:
North Korea successfully tested a missile on Tuesday that can carry a nuclear warhead and travel at least 5,000 miles in distance. The intercontinental ballistic missile test is the latest in a series of provocative acts by North Korea and the most significant development in the regime’s nuclear program in years.
It also crosses a dangerous threshold. Experts have long worried about North Korea’s nuclear program, but until now the regime has not demonstrated the ability to deploy a missile beyond their region. The missile fired on Tuesday shows that North Korea can at least fire a projectile capable of reaching Alaska.
How worried should we be? What did North Korea’s ICBM test actually prove? And assuming there’s nothing we can do to curb the regime’s plans, what are America’s current missile defense capabilities?
To answer these questions, I reached out to retired Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly, a physicist who has worked in missile defense for more than three decades. He is the former director of the US Missile Defense Agency and currently a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.
His assessment of North Korea’s test is that it’s a dangerous escalation but not necessarily an existential threat…
