♤ North Korea’s isolated dictators have long believed that nuclear weapons will ensure

regime survival against U.S. military power, enabling it to unite the Korean Peninsula on its

terms. Successive U.S. Administrations have tried various strategies to thwart the dangerous trajectory of the regime.

♤ North Korea has made development, deployment and the capability to deliver nuclear weapons a national aspiration. With its accelerating intercontinental ballistic missile program, it has made clear that it seeks a capacity to strike targets far from the Korean Peninsula, namely the continental U.S.

♤ In the region South Korea and Japan are wary of growing belligerence of North Korea, both these countries are allies of the United States.