SEOUL, South Korea—North Korea’s latest belligerent declaration—that it successfully tested a new long-range rocket engine that could allow nuclear strikes on the U.S. mainland—leaves outsiders in a familiar predicament.
With only a few details and no independent confirmation of what happened, there’s the usual skepticism. But if even only part of the long list of nuclear and missile work that the North has boasted of successfully completing since its fourth nuclear test in January is true, Pyongyang would seem to be barreling ahead toward its goal of nuclear-armed long-range missiles.
The problem, as always, is that nothing has come close to checking North Korea's advance.
