North Korea Pledges Nuclear Assault on USA

Does NK have the ability to hit them at all, and would the govt consider an attack on any of those islands an attack on the US itself?

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2012-12/why-north-korean-rocket-launch-does-not-spell-imminent-doom

So North Korea now has both nuclear warheads and the know-how to launch long-range rockets.
Not so fast. First, there is a difference between launching one tiny, primitive satellite into space and harboring an intercontinental nuclear launch threat.
"My opinion is that the threat is overblown, but it does relate to a threat that they’re trying to make us perceive that they have,” Hansen says. “[The rocket] is 100 feet tall. It’s liquid-fueled so you can’t keep it fueled for very long. There’s only two places in the country they can launch from, one in the east, one in the west. Is this a viable weapons program? I don’t think so.”
That's not to imply that this space launch doesn't mark a step toward a long-range, intercontinental ballistic missile threat. It does. But it's a very preliminary step--and the following steps aren’t even all about rocketry. One significant technological obstacle will be shrinking a nuclear warhead to fit the size and weight parameters of North Korea's rocket designs. Recall, those designs have blown up four times during launch and reached space successfully exactly once. Then there’s the problem of what-goes-up-must-come-down.
“One thing they haven’t demonstrated in the least is a re-entry vehicle,” Hansen says. And the ability to re-enter the atmosphere successfully, without burning up the payload, is key to any manned spaceflight or terrestrial payload delivery system like the kind that would deliver a warhead across the Pacific. That makes for two major technical hurdles between North Korea and a tactical intercontinental ballistic missile (or between North Korea and the United States, if you want to look at it grimly).
So there’s no need to panic?
That’s right. Relax. Enjoy your Christmas. Let death at the hands of a North Korean missile be the furthest thing from your mind. Congratulate the DPRK on their fantastic achievement in spaceflight capability (“Welcome to 1957, you guys.”). The world is a dangerous place, and it would be naive to say that this development isn’t troublesome. Just don’t take it out of the larger context. You are safe.
For now.

I have no idea what youre saying Bil

LOL so warhead throw weight of a given rocket is something you do not understand?

LOL so warhead throw weight of a given rocket is something you do not understand?

This oughta be interesting.

the long and the short of it is that North Korea is not able to threaten us with long range nuclear rockets in the real world and are many many years from being able to even start to do so.

throw weight

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/START_I

May, 1982,[2] and presented by President Ronald Reagan in Geneva on 29 June 1982. Reagan proposed a dramatic reduction in strategic forces in two phases, which he referred to as SALT III at the time.[3] The first phase would reduce overall warhead counts on any missile type to 5,000, with an additional limit of 2,500 on ICBMs. Additionally, a total of 850 ICBMs would be allowed, with a limit of 110 "heavy throw" missiles like the SS-18, with additional limits on the total "throw weight" of the missiles as well. The second phase introduced similar limits on heavy bombers and their warheads, and other strategic systems as well.

BILL--sorry, usually, when I use my techy terms, I provide a glossary or at least an explanation. You didnt

While I do believe the alphabet soup of intelligence agencies that say NK doesnt have the capability to hit the US, I do wonder about other places.
Guam, Hawaii...

...would the govt consider an attack on any of those islands an attack on the US itself?

oy. Instead of trying to learn to write more understandably, he argues that Im the fathead who cant understand his gibberish.