North Korea’s quest for power is slowly coming to fruition. On March 6th, North Korea launched five ballistic missiles, four of which landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone. This military unit is said to be tasked with targeting U.S. bases in Japan, according to Korean Central News Agency. Kim Jung Un, the leader of North Korea, supervised the tests and was said to be pleased with the results. News reports also say that this test was seen as a surprise to U.S. intelligence.

These missiles were launched simultaneously for a reason. If an attack were to actually happen, launching multiple missiles on a single target would overwhelm a missile defense system and most likely still achieve its goal. A correspondent for CNN said in an interview, “They’re putting together salvos of missiles that may be harder to defeat, so three, four missiles going to the same place, maybe from different places. That’s the thing that’s going to be a little bit harder, not impossible, but a little bit harder to defeat.”

The missiles themselves were not very accurate missiles and also not nuclear capable. However, these missiles were not North Korea’s most advanced missiles. North Korea has been working up to long range missiles that could house nuclear capabilities and also reach the U.S. However, North Korea has been questionable in their effort to have those missiles survive the full flight of re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.

The new U.S. national security advisor, H.R. McMaster, has been said to be in contact with South Korean officials in an effort to increase pressure on North Korea and implement more effective sanctions. Former President Barrack Obama warned the then incoming president about what he thought was the largest foreign threat – North Korea. The Trump administration has said this is a “very serious threat” and has also said they are prepared to use “the full range of capabilities.” Thus still allowing the possibility of a military response.

North Korea only has the power to be at a full scale war for a very short amount of time. Approximately a week. If North Korea were to face a war with the U.S. and most likely also South Korea, they would lose almost instantly. This is why North Korea has been chasing after nuclear weapons for so long. The threat of nuclear war is something neither the U.S, South Korea or any country wants. This is where the MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) strategy comes into play. This is also the same strategy the U.S. and Russia used in the cold war. Essentially, if you fire nukes on us, we fire nukes on you, and we’re all dead.

It’s questionable what exactly could happen in the future. The only real attacks on North Korea by the U.S. have been cyber attacks. The U.S. has been reported to attempt hacks on North Korea in order to slow their missile progress until new political roles in the North take place. These hacks most likely had their start under Obama.