As I see it, the North Korean dictator is two-thirds done in becoming a genuine threat to the United States, and he’s not far from the final third. The first segment is that he has atomic bombs that actually work. The second is that he has developed a ballistic missile that can not only reach the continental US, the shortish despot can send one into our nation’s capital.

If the missile had flown on a standard trajectory designed to maximize its reach, it would have had a range of more than 8,100 miles, said David Wright, co-director of the global security program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“Such a missile would have more than enough range to reach Washington, D.C.,” Wright said.

The U.S. capital is 6,850 miles from Pyongyang. The previous intercontinental ballistic missile tested, the Hwasong-14 tested on July 28, was in the air for 47 minutes and could have flown 6,500 miles were it on a normal trajectory. Hwasong means “Mars” in Korean.

This means that all that’s left for the regime is to successfully attach a nuclear warhead to the missile. When that occurs–and I do mean when–Bad Haircut’s constant threats are no longer hollow. They have to be taken seriously. The DDID throws a small bone.

However, there was a still a question mark over whether North Korea could reliably and accurately deliver a nuclear warhead to a target, she said.

That is small comfort. Let’s say that Short Round, after reading a series of unhinged, threatening tweets from Trump, preemptively (in his mind) launches three nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles at Washington DC, one at the White House, one at the Pentagon and the last at the US Capitol. Two of them fail (either by our defense shield or by technical failure) but the third misses the target by five miles. Even with an an attack that much botched, how many thousands or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands would still die? Perhaps that is why UN Ambassador Haley spoke so ominously earlier today.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said Wednesday that North Korea’s launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile — which some observers believe could reach the Eastern U.S. — “brings us closer” to a war the U.S. isn’t seeking.

Nikki Haley, speaking at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council, said that if war comes as a result of further acts of “aggression” like the latest launch, “make no mistake the North Korean regime will be utterly destroyed.”

“The dictator of North Korea made a decision yesterday that brings us closer to war, not farther from it,” Haley said. “We have never sought war with North Korea and still today we do not seek it.”

From the perspective of a couple of journalists who spent some time there, the risk of war may be greater than the public appreciates. I hope they’re wrong.