What does a barely readable map on the desk of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in a propaganda photo say about Pyongyang's increasingly capable missile and nuclear weapons programs and how Japan fits into its military doctrine?
A lot, it turns out.
A new imagery analysis obtained exclusively by The Japan Times sheds some light on how the North views Japan and Tokyo's American protector as it seeks to master the technology needed to mount a nuclear warhead on a long-range missile capable of striking anywhere in the United States, a goal it inched closer to Friday with a second successful intercontinental ballistic missile test.