Of course NK got it first, nobody was bombing their facilities at at regular intervals. You can make faster progress when you don't have to rebuild your entire program, including replacing all your dead scientists, every few years.

And so we did it in the 4Os, so what? Nuclear weaponry is still considered among the highest tech, and extremely dangerous, which is exactly why they wanted to bomb it.

They also have cool enough drone tech that they regularly get past Israel's impenetrable Iron Dome defense.

It kind of defeats your argument that they are technologically weak, when we are bombing them because we fear their technological strength.

Underestimating your opponent is one of the most classic moron military moves, and one America enthusiastically engages in, which is why we've lost most of the wars we've fought since WW2. When you don't take your enemy seriously, you don't fight them hard enough offensively or defensively, and you eventually lose.