North Korea has been described as an “extraordinary threat” to the U.S. in the 2019 Missile Defence Review (MDR) published by the U.S. Department of Defence (DOD) on Thursday.

U.S. President Donald Trump, since his historic summit with Kim Jong Un in 2018, had previously described progress with North Korea as very positive, going so far as saying that North Korea was “no longer a nuclear threat”.

However, few concrete steps have been taken by the DPRK towards denuclearization or a lessening of its missile capabilities including inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBM), which would be required to deliver a nuclear