Their air force is practically a non-entity at this point.
Their infrastructure is not even comparable to South Korea, let alone the US. Even when it comes to producing nukes. North Korea only has one reactor at Youngbyon. By all accounts it is a Chernobyl in waiting. South Korea has 23 reactors.
“Caught up” at this stage really means, “can cause a lot of mayhem before finally going up in smoke”.
