Nuclear security
The North Korean Nuclear Challenge:Military Options and Issues for Congress
North Korea’s apparently successful July 2017 tests of its intercontinental ballistic missile
capabilities, along with the possibility that North Korea (DPRK) may have successfully
miniaturized a nuclear warhead, have led analysts and policymakers to conclude that the window
for preventing the DPRK from acquiring a nuclear missile capable of reaching the United States
is closing. These events appear to have fundamentally altered U.S. perceptions of the threat the
Kim Jong-un regime poses to the continental United States and the international community, and
escalated the standoff on the Korean Peninsula to levels that have arguably not been seen since
1994.
A key issue is whether or not the United States could manage and deter a nuclear-armed North
Korea if it were to become capable of attacking targets in the U.S. homeland, and whether taking
decisive military action to prevent the emergence of such a DPRK capability might be necessary.
Either choice would bring with it considerable risk for the United States, its allies, regional
stability, and global order. Trump Administration officials have stated that “all options are on the
table,” to include the use of military force to “denuclearize,”—generally interpreted to mean
eliminating nuclear weapons and related capabilities—from that area.
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