Over the past 10 months, the young ruler of North Korea has ordered an unprecedented torrent of weapons tests, forging an increasingly sophisticated arsenal. There have been truck-launched missile tests, two nuclear explosions, experiments with powerful rocket engines and more than a dozen other major missile trials.
But why the rush now, after so many years of a North Korean weapons program that progressed relatively slowlyIJ
It's all about November 8, and the US presidential elections, according to a growing number of experts who study North Korea.
“It's clearly targeted toward the next administration+ , and wanting to demonstrate they are a nuclear weapons state to the new president,” said Victor Cha, the head of Asian affairs at the National Security Council during the George W Bush administration, and now a professor at Georgetown University.