MAPPED: Are Europe and US targets? These are the countries North Korea can hit with a NUKE
Defence officials
have warned that the latest test poses a "threat to the peace and
security of the entire north east Asia region".
But it is not just North Korea's neighbours that fear the development of nuclear weapons by the posturing despot Kim Jong-Un.
The
US government and military chiefs are in agreement that the rogue
communist state has the potential to strike targets in America,
including the states of Alaska and Hawaii.
Nuclear experts
believe North Korea is developing the KN-08 rocket that has a range of
5,600miles - far enough to hit locations as distant as Germany and
California.
The Taepodong rocket is another of its feared missile development programmes.
The rocket could one day be capable of striking targets as far away as Australia and Alaska.
But efforts to
perfect multi-stage ballistic missiles capable of being fired across
continents have been failing for more than a decade.
While
they theoretically have the ability to hit California and other
locations on America's west coast, the communist regime has never
actually demonstrated the capability to launch or test those missile
systems, said Dr Robert Winstanley-Chesters, a North Korea expert.
Speaking
to Express.co.uk, he said to date Pyongyang's only tried and tested
missile system was the Nodong, which has a range of 1,000km.
However North
Korea has only ever tested the Nodong at a range of 600km - still far
enough to hit South Korea, China and a small area of Russia but without
the sufficient range to strike Japan.
That places China, South Korea, Japan, Mongolia and parts of Russia firmly in the nuclear crosshairs.
Sanctions
placed on North Korea by the rest of the world have also made it more
difficult to access the kind of finely engineered machinery necessary to
make the technological jump.
One factor
holding back North Korea's missile programme is the ability to scale
down a nuclear weapon to fit on an intercontinental missile.
However,
Tatsujiro Suzuki, professor at the Research Centre for Nuclear Weapons
Abolition at Nagasaki University in Japan, said it was possible to fire
the latest test device over long distances.
He
said: "That the bomb can become compact is the characteristic, and so
this means North Korea has the US in mind in making this H-bomb
announcement."
Even if North
Korea has fully functional hydrogen bombs and a carrier system capable
of hitting the US, many believe it is unlikely to launch them.
The
survival of the regime is top of Kim Jong-un's agenda and, even with a
handful of nuclear weapons, he knows the US has thousands of similar
warheads.
Dr Winstanley-Chesters added: "I think
that North Korea knows if it was to launch a nuclear attack they would
know it's game over."
North Korea's claims to
have tested the device have also been rejected by experts who believe
the pariah state is merely "bluffing".
People watch a news report on North Korea's first hydrogen bomb test |
Dr Alan Mendoza,
executive director at Henry Jackson Society, told Express.co.uk: "Most
experts believe North Korea is bluffing about the type of test it claims
to have conducted.
"But even if so, this episode once again shows why allowing rogue regimes to develop nuclear weapons is highly dangerous.
"Having
failed to stop North Korea from taking its first nuclear step some
years ago, we now have to rely on the good faith of a 32 year old
despot, Kim Jong-un, that he will never use them or develop further
destructive capabilities.
"As this test shows, we can't guarantee that, which is why pandering to other nuclear aspirants like Iran is always a mistake."
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