the north korea missile situation is interesting. of course NK wants to build a nuke. A nuke gives them something that can give pause to any nation in the world. every offense can be answered by the MAD scenario. they may get nuked in return but the question is, what situations would NK be willing to be nuked over? and when i saw NK i mean the very very small part of the population who is in the government and has control over the red button.

an intercontinental test launch. talk about balls. the US and USSR have had ICBMs since at least the 70s, and like old 8 track players the technology of the time has spread into the 2nd and 3rd worlds. i imagine massive military computer and radar networks are heavily focused on detecting a launch from NK or anywhere near it.

imagine an empty ICBM, with no payload, flying across the atlantic (or pacific, im not sure which route would be shorter), crash landing into pennsylvania or maine. that'd be news. i have zero faith in our space wars/missile shield that has cost billions. at least those billions allow government contractor employees to buy homes and SUVs which maybe somehow puts that money back into the economy.