North Korea's timeline to nuclear war: How Kim ignored world to build missiles programme
NORTH Korea sparked fears we are on the edge of World War 3 today with its latest missile test – and this timeline explains how and why Kim Jong-un came to threaten nuclear war.
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The secretive state has gone from signing a treaty championing peace to sabre-rattling the most powerful man in the world and putting humanity on the brink of nuclear war.
Time and time again the North Korean regime has ignored calls from across the world to openly bolster its nuclear capabilities.
And it would seem leader Kim Jong-un had already warned the world North Korea would be ready for war by the end of this year, during his 2017 New Year address.
He said: “We will continue to build up our self-defence capability, the pivot of which is the nuclear forces, and the capability for preemptive strike as long as the United States and its vassal forces keep on nuclear threat and blackmail and as long as they do not stop their war games they stage at our doorstep disguising them as annual events.
“We will defend peace and security of our state at all costs and by our own efforts, and make a positive contribution to safeguarding global peace and stability."
The crackpot despot is no doubt keen to fulfil his vow before this year is out.
And yesterday’s launch of the new Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) – North Korea’s farthest-reaching missile yet – showed attempts at dialogue between the country and the world’s superpowers have so far failed.
Timeline: North Korea’s path to death and destruction
1953 Kim’s late late father, Kim Il-sung attempts to rebuild his country after the 1950-53 Korean War.
1958 As American forces armed South Korea with nuclear weapons in, Kim II-sung embarked on a mission to strengthen the North, now one of the world’s most heavily fortified nations.
1976 North Korea began its missile development programme using Scud-B from the Soviet Union and a launchpad from Egypt.
1985 North Korea signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) - a treaty designed to stop the spread of a nuclear war.
1986 After seven years of construction, with Soviet help, the sick regime began the operation of a five-megawatt nuclear reactor.
1993 The North threatens to quit the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, but later suspends its withdrawal, after The International Atomic Energy Agency demanded inspectors gain access to two nuclear waste storage sites.
1994 In a major step North Korea and the US sign an agreement under which Pyongyang shuts down the plutonium-based Yongbyon nuclear reactor in exchange for help building two light-water nuclear reactors for producing electricity.
2002
January 29 US president, at the time, George W Bush brands North Korea, Iraq and Iran an “axis of evil”.
He said: “By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger.”
October 4 The Bush Administration reveals North Korea admitted it has been operating a secret nuclear weapons programme, which is a clear violation of their 1994 agreement.
2003
January 11 North Korea withdraws itself from the NPT.
February The US confirms the rogue state has reactivated its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, capable of producing plutonium-based weapons.
April The rogue state declares it has nuclear weapons.
2005 North Korea vows to give up its nuclear programme in exchange for energy assistance and economic cooperation from the US, Japan, Russia and China.
2006
July The UN Security Council demands North Korea suspend his nuclear programme after it fires long range missiles.
October 9 North Korea claims to have successfully tested its first nuclear weapon, prompting the UN to slap them with sanctions.
2007
February 13 North Korea promised to close down its main nuclear reactor in exchange for an aid package worth $400million.
September 30 The North signs an agreement promising to begin to disable its nuclear weapons facilities during six-party talks in Beijing.
December 31 North Korea ignores and misses the deadline to disable its weapons facilities by the end of the year.
2008
June 27 The rogue state destroys a water cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear site.
October 11 North Korea is removed the US lists of states that sponsor terrorism.
2009
May 25 North Korea boasts it has launched its second nuclear test.
June 12 The UN responds by slapping the sick regime with new sanctions.
2011 US officials meet with a North Korean delegation in Switzerland’s Geneva in a bid to restart six-party nuclear arms talks.
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2012 North Korea agrees to a moratorium on long-range missile launches and its nuclear programme in exchange for food aid.
2013 But in defiance to the US, North Korea’s Defence Commission vows to continue nuclear testing and long-range rockets.
February 12 The North launches its third nuclear test - the first under Kim Jong-un.
2015 North Korea signals a key developing in the building of nuclear missiles by warning it has the abloom to miniaturise nuclear weapons.
December 12 Kim’s state warns it has added a hydrogen bomb to its ever-growing arsenal following an alleged test, which was never confirmed.
2016
January North Korea says it successfully conducted a test of its hydrogen bomb.
September 9 Kim claims henchmen have detonated a nuclear warhead, which could fit on ballistic missiles.
November Donald Trump is elected as President of the United States
2017
January Warmongering Kim claims his nation could soon have the capability of testing an ICBM.
July 4 North Korea brags that it has conducted its first test of a ICBM that can “reach anywhere in the world”.
July 25 Kim begins to engage in a furious war of wards with Donald Trump as he warns of a nuclear strike on the “heart of the US”.
August 7 The UN slaps the North with more sanctions prompting Kim to accuse the US of truing to “drive the situation of the Korean peninsula to the brink of nuclear war”.
August 9 Kim’s henchmen threatened to strike areas around the US territory of Guam in retaliation to Trump who told the crazed dictator he would face “fire and fury like the world has never seen”.
September 3 North Korea carries out its sixth test of a nuclear test, stating it had tested a thermonuclear weapon - a hydrogen bomb.
November Donald Trump embarks on his five-nation tour of Asia in a bid to stem the threat of North Korea’s warmongering.
November 29 Kim launches ICBM with warning it could hit heart of US mainland and “everywhere in the world”.