CIA officials and US generals are extremely concerned the hermit kingdom could set off a bomb, or at least test another missile over the next 24 hours.
They fear Kim Jong-un could either choose tonight as it is Columbus Day in the US, or tomorrow which is the founding anniversary of North Korea’s ruling Worker’s Party.
Russian lawmaker Anton Morozov, who returned from Pyongyang last week, warned the despot leader was preparing another launch “in the nearest future”.
He claimed on Friday to have seen calculations showing the missile could hit the US west coast.
The North Koreans claimed to have technology which would allow them to bring a nuclear warhead down to earth intact, he added
Kim usually uses national holidays, in the North and the US, to show off his military might and send out warning signals to the world.
On 4th of July this year he launched the country’s first Inter-Continental ballistic missile, calling it a “gift for the American b*******”.
North Korea has been suspiciously silent, in terms of missile tests and launches, since September 15, when Kim fired a missile over Japan.
Since then, the rhetoric between the US and the North has risen to “dangerous levels”, experts have said.
Fears a hydrogen bomb – or an H-bomb – could be launched over the Pacific by Kim were raised on September 22 when North Korea threatened it would.
If Pyongyang follows through with the threat, it would be the first nuclear weapon detonated in the atmosphere in decades.
The threat came after Donald Trump said he would “totally destroy” North Korea during a speech to the United Nations (UN).
Kim said the US would “pay dearly” and his country “will consider with seriousness exercising of a corresponding, highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history”.
Last Thursday, President Trump discussed the situation in North Korea with military leaders, saying it was “the calm before the storm”.
When asked what he meant, he said: “You’ll find out.”
Despite the continued threats of bombing the US, few international observers believe Kim would actually attack as there is no possibility it could win a war with America.
However, they do agree the North now has a missile, the Hwasong-14, capable of reaching the US.