analysis us still does not have ability to counter north koreas nuclear and missile programs creditkorean central news agency via reutersmarch 4 2017washington three years ago president barack obama ordered pentagon officials to step up their cyber and electronic strikes against north koreas missile program in hopes of sabotaging test launches in their opening secondssoon a large number of the norths military rockets began to explode veer off course disintegrate in midair and plunge into the sea advocates of such efforts say they believe that targeted attacks have given american antimissile defenses a new edge and delayed by several years the day when north korea will be able to threaten american cities with nuclear weapons launched atop intercontinental ballistic missilesbut other experts have grown increasingly skeptical of the new approach arguing that manufacturing errors disgruntled insiders and sheer incompetence can also send missiles awry over the past eight months they note the north has managed to successfully launch three mediumrange rockets and kim jongun the north korean leader now claims his country is in the final stage in preparations for the inaugural test of his intercontinental missiles perhaps a bluff perhaps notan examination of the pentagons disruption effort based on interviews with officials of the obama and trump administrations as well as a review of extensive but obscure public records found that the united states still does not have the ability to effectively counter the north korean nuclear and missile programs those threats are far more resilient than many experts thought the new york timess reporting found and pose such a danger that mr obama as he left office warned president trump they were likely to be the most urgent problem he would confrontmr trump has signaled his preference to respond aggressively against the north korean threat in a twitter post after mr kim first issued his warning on new years day the president wrote it wont happen yet like mr obama before him mr trump is quickly discovering that he must choose from highly imperfect optionshe could order the escalation of the pentagons cyber and electronic warfare effort but that carries no guarantees he could open negotiations with the north to freeze its nuclear and missile programs but that would leave a looming threat in place he could prepare for direct missile strikes on the launch sites which mr obama also considered but there is little chance of hitting every target he could press the chinese to cut off trade and support but beijing has always stopped short of steps that could lead to the regimes collapsein two meetings of mr trumps national security deputies in the situation room the most recent on tuesday all those options were discussed along with the possibility of reintroducing nuclear weapons to south korea as a dramatic warning administration officials say those issues will soon go to mr trump and his top national security aidesthe decision to intensify the cyber and electronic strikes in early 2014 came after mr obama concluded that the