North Korea's Missiles

I just wanted to get the facts straight on this whole thing with North Korea and their missile(s). So, like any good researcher, I came up with some questions and tried to answer them using the news resources available on the web.
#1 How far can the Taepodong 2 travel?

• BBC says, "Alaska or Hawaii is within its reach and even the continental US if a lighter warhead were used."
• "Experts estimate it could potentially hit the mainland United States with a small payload. However, the missile is unlikely to be accurate."
• They actually have a lot more of these other missiles called Nodong missiles. "As many as 200 Nodong missiles are in North Korea's arsenal. With a range of about 620 miles, Japan is their most likely target."
  #2 Will they actually test the missile?
• "White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters it remained uncertain if North Korea actually planned to conduct a test-firing of the missile."
• They have done it before: "North Korea shocked the world in 1998 when it fired a missile, part of which flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific Ocean."
  #3 What can the US do to defend itself against North Korean missile attacks?
  The Good News:
• The United States has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on missile defense systems during the past few decades.
• AP says, "In Washington, a top Pentagon official said Thursday that a North Korean missile launch would be 'a provocation and a dangerous action' that would lead to the United States imposing 'some cost' on North Korea."
• "U.S. defense officials in Washington on Tuesday said the United States has activated its ground-based interceptor missile-defence system."

The Bad News:

• BBC says, "It is likely that the US has activated its still unproven and limited anti-missile defence systemhas which has so far failed to intercept a single missile in recent tests."
• BBC also says, "The US appears to be relying more on the hope that North Korea is bluffing."
• AP says, "U.S. missile-defense system under development has 'limited operational capability' to protect against weapons such as the long-range missile
  North Korea is said to be near firing."
• "The way out of this is for North Korea to decide not to test this missile," Hadley said.

Don't worry; South Korea plans to help:

• "South Korea, which has been slow to criticize North Korea in the past, has also threatened to withhold rice and fertilizer aid if a test goes ahead."
  

A little background on North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il. Time magazine says about him: " Evil? Yes. Genius? No." Many people must be jealous of this...wouldn't we all like to be evil non-geniuses?

Some of his accomplishments:
"Architect of a catastrophic famine that has killed hundreds of thousands—maybe millions—of his subjects since 1995."
"Virtuoso skills on the Internet" (Although none of North Korea's citizens are allowed to look at the internet.)
"Prone to egregious lapses of judgment, especially in a crunch. That is what makes the present crisis so very scary: not the high caliber of America's adversary, but precisely the opposite."
"Kim is said to be a film fan, owning a collection of some 20,000 video tapes, which Kim himself denies. In 1978, on the orders of Kim, the South Korean film director Shin Sang-ok and his actress wife Choe Eun-hui were kidnapped in order to build a North Korean film industry."
"He reportedly enjoys following National Basketball Association games. Madeleine Albright ended her summit with Kim by presenting him with a basketball signed by Michael Jordan."
"He sometimes wears lifts and platform shoes (he is 5 feet, 3 inches tall)."
"Kim is reported to have fathered thirteen illegitimate children."
"Before 1995, Kim Jong-il was frequently accused of dishonesty, drunkenness, sexual excess of various kinds and even insanity, particularly in the South Korean press."

So...knowing all of this, let me remind you of the United State's number one defense against this guy, "We don't know exactly what North Korea has in mind. ... We don't know what's under the nose cone of that missile, just for starters. I think it's appropriate to say ... 'don't go there,'" says U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton. Yeah, don't go there you platform shoe wearing, drunken, video loving, crazy guy. Just don't go there.