A snapshot of North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons tests.
While the details of the unprecedented summit between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un begin to take shape, experts are reminding everyone that North Korea spent most of 2017 perfecting its missile arsenal.
One expert even voiced his skepticism by comparing the relationship between the U. S. and North Korea to a recurring scene of frustration in “Peanuts” cartoons.
“Historically, every time Charlie Brown runs for the football, Lucy pulls it away,” Thomas Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told CNBC. “It would be a remarkable thing if Lucy didn’t pull the football out from Charlie Brown this time, but it’s one of those things where I’ll believe it when I see it.”
North Korea is Lucy in this case.
Under third-generation North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the reclusive state has conducted its most powerful nuclear test, launched its first-ever intercontinental ballistic missile and threatened to send missiles into the waters near Guam.
What’s more, the acceleration and frequency of testing show not only Kim’s nuclear ambitions but also that the nation has developed something of an arsenal.
