North Korea’s Latest Missile Test was a Warning, Not a Failure

Last week’s dramatic congressional briefings on the threat from North Korea apparently failed to address its single most worrisome feature. That serious oversight was highlighted, though, by the North’s missile test on Saturday, in which a ballistic missile flew to an altitude of 71 kilometers, then exploded.

Initially, the test was depicted as yet-another in a long line of failures. But it actually demonstrated the North’s capability to use a single nuclear warhead to unleash a devastating electromagnetic pulse (or EMP) attack against our friends and forces in South Korea, destroying unprotected electric grids and electronic devices.

Experts have long warned against such an attack against our country, too – perhaps launched from a tramp steamer off our coast or an orbiting satellite. We must protect our grid against such threats – and the world against the North’s pathological despot, Kim Jong-Un.