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Daniel R DePetris also warned the so-called Hermit State would be effectively wiped off the map in any exchange between the two countries, with devastating consequences for the rest of the world. Mr DePetris, a fellow at US-based think tank Defense Priorities, made his remarks after Robert Carlin, a Nonresident Fellow at the Stimson Centre, suggested in a blog for the 38 North website that Kim was now “terrifying close” to developing devastatingly powerful long-range missiles equipped with thermonuclear warheads.

In an article for the National Interest website, Mr DePetris said: “In the crazy scenario whereby Kim Jong-un orders his nuclear forces to launch a nuclear-tipped ICBM towards an American city (one, by the way, that would rest on the supposition that Kim is a lunatic who believes Washington would back down after an attack), President Donald Trump wouldn’t hesitate to retaliate with the “fury and fury” of America’s nuclear weapons arsenal. “Pyongyang, the capital city where millions live, would be the obvious target for a retaliatory nuclear strike. “Kim Jong-un would likely be scurried away in a bunker somewhere with his sister and his senior generals long before Washington gave the order to the men and women who manage the US nuclear triad to execute a launch, but that wouldn’t really matter.

North Korea's Kim Jong un would be extremely foolish to attack the US, said Mr DePetris

North Korea have resumed missile launches

“The purpose of a US retaliatory attack would be to create so much destruction on North Korea’s military chain-of-command, its minuscule economy, its hereditary political system, and its physical existence as a nation that Kim Jong-un wouldn’t continue throwing nukes at the problem. Ideally, he wouldn’t have any more nukes to launch.” Mr DePetris he had used a website called NukeMap, designed by Alex Wellerstein, to determine the extent of destruction in terms of human casualties in the United States targeted the North Korean capital with one 750-kiloton device (the largest nuclear device the United States possesses in its arsenal is the B83 with a 1.2 megaton yield). He said the blast would more than 1.5 million people, almost six percent of the country’s total population of just over 25 million. DON'T MISS: 'Kim Jong-un horse stunt could signal further missile mayhem'

Kim Jong-un shakes hands with US President Donald Trump

Kim Jong-un strikes a dramatic pose on horseback

Kim Jong-un watches a recent missile launch

“The workers and visitors of the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum in northwest Pyongyang would have a 50 percent to 90 percent chance of dying within the first hours, days or weeks from the radiation exposure. “The thermal radiation radius, the outer ring of the yield, where people would be dealing with third degree burns requiring possible amputations, would extend 11.1 kilometres in all directions. “Pyongyang’s skyline wouldn’t really be a skyline anymore; all those fancy skyscrapers that Kim spent so much money on would be a wasted investment.

A timeline of North Korea's missile launches

“Nobody wants to see such a man-made disaster occur. “It would a terrible, terrible waste of human potential and a moral travesty. “Any nuclear attack anywhere in the world would expose the hollow progress of human civilisation, that despite all of the technology and medical advancements made over centuries, humans in the 21st century are as primitive as cavemen.

PyongYang is North Korea's capital city

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If it were irrational enough to send a nuke towards an American city, then it better anticipate its demise as a nation Daniel R DePetris