It would take just 72 minutes for the world to be wiped out by a series of events triggered by a North Korean nuclear missile.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Annie Jacobsen claimed the fate of the world rests in the hands of Kim Jong-un as the DPRK dictator could trigger the end of civilization if he aimed his missiles at one country in particular.
Whether the tubby tyrant has what it takes to fire a weapon of mass destruction at the United States is yet to be seen but Jacobsen's upcoming book, Nuclear War: A Scenario, suggests the Pentagon in Washington D.C. and a nuclear reactor in California would be the first targets in a 72-minute world-ending war.
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Should the despot fire his missiles at the Department of Defence offices and the nuclear base in Diablo Canyon, he would cause complete carnage for top brass and a frenzied response from the president.
The sitting POTUS would have just six minutes to react to news of a missile headed towards the US and would likely be under pressure from his military advisors to launch a retaliatory strike.
Whatever the decision it comes down to the president alone to press the big red button as Jacobsen says a "volatile" commander in chief would be fatal for the rest of the world. She said: "You would want to have a commander-in-chief who is of sound mind, who is fully in control of his mental capacity, who is not volatile, who is not subject to anger.
"These are significant character qualities that should be thought about when people vote for president, for the simple reason that the president has sole authority to launch nuclear weapons."
The likes of Russia, the UK and France would likely be swept up in the ongoing nuclear conflict, which experts have feared is on the table since as early as 2018. One expert speaking to Vox says the trouble is reading whether Kim Jong-un has an "incentive" to fire his weapons of mass destruction.
Former Pentagon defence policy advisor to Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, Michèle Flournoy, said: "It’s not that the North Korean military is so good. It’s that North Korea has nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction — and is now in a situation where they might have real incentives to use them."
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