Wed December 12, 2012 What North Korea's Rocket Launch Means —
And What It Doesn't Originally published on Wed December 12,
2012 3:31 pm North Korea's successful rocket launch may conjure
up visions of nuclear missiles in the hands of one of the
planet's least predictable regimes. But building a satellite
launch vehicle doesn't directly translate into an ability to
rain warheads on distant enemies. Pyongyang still faces major
obstacles before it can claim to possess reliable, nuclear-
tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of hitting
its Asian neighborhood and much of the Pacific basin, including
Alaska. By launching the three-stage Unha-3 rocket into orbit
Wednesday, "the North has crossed a major threshold in terms of
mating an ICBM with a nuclear weapon," Victor Cha, who holds the
Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International
Studies, writes in a Q&A for the think tank. Cha says the Unha-3
has a range of possibly 4,000 to 6,000 kilometers. Some
estimates put it closer to 10,000 kilom