North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivers a statement in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's speech. Photo / AP
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivers a statement in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's speech. Photo / AP
Major cities, military bases and the White House are among the top potential targets in a North Korean nuclear strike, an eye-opening report has revealed.
The United States mainland is the top target listed in the new report by the European Council on Foreign Relations, which paints a grim picture of North Korea's nuclear potential.
North Korea has not released an official list of targets.
The European think tank has instead collated the list based on material published on the secretive regime's propaganda channels.
The report, Pre-empting defeat: In search of North Korea's nuclear doctrine, goes on to suggest how North Korea would use its nuclear weapons in a conflict situation.
It aims to "predict Pyongyang's response to different scenarios, and to avoid war, the international community needs to understand how the regime sees its nuclear weapons, and when it would use them".
It also warns Pyongyang's weapons program is here to stay.
"European policymakers must accept the fact that Pyongyang is a rational actor and that there is no prospect of talks on unilateral disarmament," the report states.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, celebrates what was said to be a missile test launch. Photo / AP
Kim Jong-un sees nuclear weapons as vital to ensuring the survival of his regime,
"Without certainty that its arsenal could survive a first strike by its enemies, Pyongyang's deterrence relies on the threat of launching the first strike itself," it states.
The rogue state also wants to ensure there is no doubt it will use such weapons if a strike was carried out against its missile or nuclear sites.
TARGET LIST
The targets may not come as a surprise given the North has been engaged in a public war of words with US President Donald Trump.
In August, Mr Trump's "fire and fury" threat exacerbated tensions between the US and North Korea, sparking a diplomatic firestorm and causing North Korea to threaten that it would fire missiles into waters around Guam if the US struck first.
"North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen," Mr Trump said.
Guam was just one of the targets mentioned in the report which details how Pyongyang regards military and civilian targets in equal measure.
Major US cities, the island of Manhattan, the White House, and the Pentagon remain big targets while Guam and military targets were next.
South Korea also makes the list with military bases and Pyeongtoek, the commercial area near Camp Humphreys coming ahead of Seoul as another potential target.
Military bases in Japan, including Okinawa, are also a target as is the capital Tokyo.
North Korea has sparked international condemnation with a series of ballistic missile tests and its sixth and most powerful nuclear test in September.
The blast generated a seismic magnitude of 6.1 and a blast yield of 160 kilotons.
The report comes as the US said it was redesignating North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism, nine years after it was removed from the list.
Professor of International Security & Intelligence Studies Director at ANU, John Blaxland told news.com.au, "It is a predictable list that could have been compiled by any reasonably informed undergraduate student in our bachelor of international security studies program here at the ANU.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson listens as President Donald Trump announces that the United States will designate North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism during a cabinet meeting. Photo / AP
"The target list includes known US facilities in the Pacific as well as the same ones that Sl Wards sought to target back on 9/11, 2001."
US officials cited the killing of North Korean leader Kim's estranged half-brother Kim Jong-nam in a Malaysian airport earlier this year as an act of terrorism.
Mr Trump said the move long was overdue and formed part of the US "maximum pressure campaign" against the rogue nuclear regime.
North Korea called Mr Trump's decision a "serious provocation" that justified its development of nuclear weapons.
Prof Blaxland said, "The absence of any focus on Trump appears to point to the White Paper's assessment that the Trump phenomenon is not necessarily an aberration, but indicative instead of a broader and perhaps long-lasting phenomenon.
"The paper reflects concern over the American president's transactional approach to international relations, his distancing from multilateral trade arrangements like the TPP and his inconsistencies over regional security crises and arrangements.
"The combination of factors makes the Foreign Policy pronouncements all the more important. It reflects the passing of the unipolar moment of US hegemony and the emergence of a more unsettled era wherein Australia has to work considerably harder to build relationships and mechanisms that will bolster security and stability and, in turn, provide further opportunities for boosting our economic prospects."
TARGETS NOT MENTIONED
Nuclear disarmament campaigner John Hallam questioned the solid evidence behind the full list of North Korea's potential targets.
Mr Hallam said most of the list of references at the back of the report for the target list were mostly sourced from KCNA and Rodong, the official news and propaganda arms of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
He also said North Korea was highly unlikely to advertise its nuclear target list.
People watch a TV screen showing file footage of North Korea's missile launch at Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea. Photo / AP
"While obviously some information can be garnered therefrom, precisely because these are more or less official sources, they may not tell us everything because the DPRK may not want us to know everything," Mr Hallam said.
"After all, target lists in the US, Russia and China are all highly classified."
Mr Hallam said the list was credible but he was surprised it didn't include submarine bases such as Stratcom, which if attacked could paralyse US retaliatory capability.
He said it was also important to remember the report strongly emphasised the need for the DPRK to strike first.
The omission of key targets here in Australia was also a concern.
"Outside the US the two most critical targets would have to be Pine Gap and NW Cape — both here in Australia — I don't understand their absence," Mr Hallam said.
North Korean soldiers salute at Munsu Hill in Pyongyang, North Korea. Photo / AP
"They are absolutely critical to US command and control capabilities. NW Cape transmits targeting information to US nuclear submarines via very low frequency radio waves and would have to be a critical priority nuclear target especially for anything like a pre-pre-emptive strike."
Mr Hallam said he remained sceptical of their absence because, while nothing to do with a part Australia may or may not play in a conflict, they were "too important" not to be included.
