Tick...tick...tick...  North Korea is a step closer to having an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear attack on American cities, a weapon it may well use, or sell to Iran, a nation that sees Armageddon as a religious destiny it should hasten.  North Korea now claims that it has successfully launched a ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear payload.

Fox News reports:

North Korea said Monday that the medium-range strategic missile it tested over the weekend is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. 

The communist dictatorship's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said the Hwasong-12, launched early Sunday Korea time, was "capable of carrying a large-size heavy nuclear warhead." North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un was said to have witnessed the test and "hugged officials in the field of rocket research, saying that they worked hard to achieve a great thing," according to KCNA.

North Korean propaganda must be considered with wariness, but if confirmed, the claim marks another big step forward in the country's escalating efforts to field a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. Outside experts don't believe the North can do that yet, but each new test pushes them closer to the goal.

Earlier Sunday, officials told Fox News that the U.S. military believes Pyongyang launched a KN-17 medium-range ballistic missile – the first successful test in four attempts for the Pyongyang regime.

North Korea made three attempts last month to launch the KN-17, but failed each time. Officials believe North Korea aspires to use the missile to target ships.

The missile flew for half an hour and reached an unusually high altitude before landing in the Sea of Japan, the South Korean, Japanese and U.S. militaries said.

2016 propaganda video from North Korea depicted a nuclear attack on Washington, D.C.

Make no mistake: North Korea's flourishing nuclear missile program would not exist in its threatening form without Bill Clinton's asinine nuclear deal with North Korea enabling its progress.  Lifezette reminds us of the disgraceful history:

On Oct. 18, 1994, Clinton approved a plan to arrange more than $4 billion in energy aid to North Korea over the course of a decade, in return for a commitment from the country's Communist leadership to freeze and gradually dismantle its nuclear weapons development program, according to The New York Times.

The "complex" deal was to de-escalate the situation on the Korean peninsula, where the two Korean nations never negotiated a peace treaty after the Korean War ended in armistice in 1953.

"This agreement is good for the United States, good for our allies, and good for the safety of the entire world," said Clinton in 1994. "It's a crucial step toward drawing North Korea into the global community."

The drawing-in never happened. North Korea has become more isolated and dangerous. And after years of furtive activity in North Korea, attempts to placate the Communist state seem to have only encouraged its dangerous leaders.

"The North Korean deal of 1994 is the prototype for why open societies should not negotiate arms control agreements with rogue regimes," said Robert Kaufman, professor of public policy at Pepperdine University. "The North Koreans duped Jimmy Carter – an emissary of Clinton – and the Clinton administration to subsidize the North Korean nuclear program in exchange for the counterfeit promise that North Korea would limit itself to civilian nuclear power."

Kaufman said the agreement tranquilized the West while the North Koreans proceeded to cross the nuclear threshold, which they announced in 2002 after pocketing billions from the West.

The most charitable interpretation is that Clinton and his SecState Madeleine Albright were duped by the NoKo commies.  They bet on the trustworthiness of a hereditary communist dictatorship.  We all must live with the consequences and try to clean up their mess before it destroys us.