NORTH KOREA IS KNOCKING THE DOOR OF THE NUCLEAR CLUB

North Korea: Kim Jong-un forces the door of the nuclear club

INFOGRAPHICS - After two years of unprecedented acceleration of its program and a new ballistic y fire on Wednesday, Pyongyang claims to have achieved its goal.


Whenever the stern figure of the state television star speaker appears on the screen, the 24 million North Koreans cut off from any other source of information know that a "historic" event is about to overturn their recluse existence. On Wednesday, the one who announced in crying the death of President Kim Il-sung in 1994, came out of his golden retirement to proclaim this time a triumph to the glory of the only Communist dynasty on the planet. "We finally realized our great historical cause, the completion of a state nuclear force, the development of a ballistic power," Ri clarified, echoing the words of Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un.

In the middle of the night, as if to mislead spy satellites that had spotted suspicious movements, the Korean People's Army (CPA) has unsheathed the most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in its history. The flames from the powerful engine of the new Hwasong 15 tore through the icy darkness, propelling the craft over 4,500 km above sea level, before transplanting on a vertiginous bell course and spraying itself just 950 km from its base of departure, north of Pyongyang.
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Fifty-three minutes of testosterone to assert in the eyes of the world and Donald Trump his new self-proclaimed status of atomic power. The new machine, "able to hit the entire US territory, is a victory without price won by the great heroic people," continues the propaganda, while crowds have hailed the feat in the capital. "Kim does like Putin, he plays the nationalist card. People love the bomb! "Decrypts Andrey Lankov, a professor at Kookmin University.
The technological feat is huge for one of the poorest economies in the world. According to a classic trajectory, the missile could have a range of 13,000 km, placing for the first time the White House in its line of sight, according to David Wright, one of the best specialists. A distance that the machine would probably not be able to travel if it was loaded with a warhead armed with a bomb, nevertheless says the scientist Union of Concerned Scientist, relativizing the assertions of the regime.

Mastery of the calendar

But, beyond the technical questions about the real capacity of the "hermit kingdom", it is the staging of this breakthrough, as well as its timing, which intrigues and could reshuffle the cards of the North Korean nuclear issue. The thirty-year-old dictator, often presented as impulsive, demonstrates a mastery of the calendar. After two months of silence, since its last test on September 15, this new coup reaffirms its determination, at a time when the Trump Administration could believe that its strategy of "maximum pressure" began to bear fruit .