Can North Korea Attack the US Mainland?

U.S. citizens are now on high alert after tensions between President Donald Trump's administration and North Korea continue to escalate, more so as the socialist country is reportedly ramping up its nuclear and missile programs in order to target U.S. mainland.

South Korean officials reported that on Sunday, North Korea fired a missile, just a week after testing its new intermediate-range ballistic missile. The missile was launched in Pukchang, which is just northeast of the capital, Pyongyang, and was said to have flown for 310 miles before landing somewhere on North Korea's east coast.

U.S. Pacific Command was able to confirm that the launch did not pose any threat to North America. According to Yonhap News, South Korea's military also said that the missile would not be able to reach Guam, which serves as a refueling hub for U.S. military operations located in East Asia.

However, there are reports that suggest that North Korea is still capable of launching nuclear warheads that could cross the Pacific Ocean and reach the United States. As such, civilians are rightfully scared as diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the situation do not seem to be working.

"If this goes to a military solution, it's going to be tragic on an unbelievable scale. So our effort is to work with the U.N., work with China, work with Japan, work with South Korean to try to find a way out of this situation," U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Matthis said on Friday, according to Reuters.

In an interview with Associated Press, David Wright, senior scientist and co-director of the Global Security Program of the Union of Concerned Scientists, and Markus Schiller, an analyst from German-based ST Analytics, said things could progress at an alarming rate if North Korea does decide to launch an attack.

The most immediate impact would be on South Korea, potentially within zero to six minutes; followed by Tokyo, which could be hit in 10–11 minutes. As for the United States, missiles could potentially hit San Francisco in 30–34 minutes and Washington, D.C. in 30–39 minutes.

While there's still a chance that North Korea is not equipped with missiles that could reach the United States, it is still quite capable of waging war on its neighbors. In case that happens, the U.S. Army, Air Force, Marines and Navy will be ready to help South Korea with 28,500 troops already in the country. Also, within the first few hours, the United States is expected to deploy more troops from the mainland.