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A confidential Defense Intelligence Agency intelligence asessment has concluded that North Korea has miniaturized a nuclear warhead to make it capable of being launched by its ballistic missiles:
The analysis, completed last month by the Defense Intelligence Agency, comes on the heels of another intelligence assessment that sharply raises the official estimate for the total number of bombs in the communist country's atomic arsenal. The United States calculated last month that up to 60 nuclear weapons are now controlled by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Some independent experts think the number is much smaller.
[...] Although more than a decade has passed since North Korea's first nuclear detonation, many analysts thought it would be years before the country's weapons scientists could design a compact warhead that could be delivered by missile to distant targets. But the new assessment, a summary document dated July 28, concludes that this critical milestone has been reached.
"The IC [intelligence community] assesses North Korea has produced nuclear weapons for ballistic missile delivery, to include delivery by ICBM-class missiles," the assessment states, in an excerpt read to The Washington Post. Two U.S. officials familiar with the assessment verified its broad conclusions. It is not known whether the reclusive regime has successfully tested the smaller design, although North Korea officially claimed last year that it had done so.
Meanwhile, President Trump and Kim Jong Un have traded barbs:
President Donald Trump appears to have painted himself into a corner: He must now follow up on his pledge of hitting North Korea with "fire and fury," or he risks further blowing U.S. credibility.
Kim Jong-un's regime said late on Tuesday that it may strike Guam. That came shortly after Trump warned Pyongyang it would face "power, the likes of which this world has never seen before" if the renegade state continued to threaten the U.S.
"If the red line he drew today was 'North Korea cannot threaten the U.S. anymore,' that line was crossed within an hour of him making that statement," said John Delury, associate professor of Chinese studies at Seoul-based Yonsei University.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Thursday August 10 2017, @01:46PM (22 children)
On the one hand, Trump couldn't give a shit about "US credibility". That much is obvious. On the other hand, he does give very much of a shit about his own image. If he feels that his own pride is on the line, then anything's possible.
On the other other hand, it's not like Trump is known for his consistency. He regularly contradicts himself and flips his position on a whim. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest to see a tweet tomorrow morning saying that Kim is a smart cookie, a really great guy, and that the US media & courts could really take a lesson from their South Korean counterparts with regard to their government.
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Thursday August 10 2017, @01:54PM (4 children)
Make that North Korean. Oops.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Knowledge Troll on Thursday August 10 2017, @02:13PM (3 children)
Oh you shouldn't have owned up to the mistake! It was better when Trump couldn't tell the difference between the North and South.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 10 2017, @05:54PM
They wouldn't have voted Trump in in the first place :)
Fucking union pigdog, living off his daddy's wealth!
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Friday August 11 2017, @01:31AM (1 child)
Trust me, I know the difference. In South Korea they have many, many golf courses. I put my missiles on one of them. My THAAD missiles. Looking forward to teeing off there! In North Korea they have one course. They have Pyongyang Golf Course, and that's all. They eat the grass and the trees. No mowers on the fairway. It's incredible but it works! Beautiful fairway, beautiful grass on that one course they have. They need more courses. They have locations with great potential, but they need a developer. And the Trump Organization has what it takes. I am sitting in my office in Bedminster. I will be at my desk, pen in hand. I'm ready to make North Korea one of the world's great golfing destinations. And we can talk about the missiles.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 11 2017, @03:07AM
I think I've worked out your secret code -- when you say you are going to send "fire and fury", what you really mean is that you are going to send Dennis Rodman back to N Korea again.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 10 2017, @01:56PM (7 children)
Do you have anything besides adjectives?
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 10 2017, @02:12PM (6 children)
Not sure what you mean. GP gave me some helpful prepositions, dull but necessary articles, informative nouns (couple proper ones too along with other decent, hard-working words that are pro-noun), a nice assortment of good, simple verbs, and even a few basic adverbs.
Was honestly disappointed. Didn't find quite enough flavorful adjectives for my particular taste.
(Score: 4, Funny) by JNCF on Thursday August 10 2017, @02:16PM (1 child)
Adjectives are useless.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Thursday August 10 2017, @09:02PM
No, you are:
mammoth
giant
spotty
boundless
thoughtful
barbarous
languid
chunky
dizzy
unsightly
sore
fallacious
erserk
wealthy
chemical
utopian
waggish
cool
bright
dear
glib
standing
vacuous
precious
versed
disgusted
inconclusive
abounding
abashed
future
disillusioned
comfortable
descriptive
wandering
confused
satisfying
tenuous
chief
earthy
energetic
difficult
flashy
nine
shut
thundering
lavish
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 10 2017, @03:36PM (3 children)
I'm not happy unless I get at least two gerunds.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Phoenix666 on Thursday August 10 2017, @06:10PM (2 children)
I'm partial to dangling participles, myself. They're the naughty bits of grammar.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 4, Funny) by fyngyrz on Thursday August 10 2017, @08:25PM
I like the view when you tell 'em to turn over and you can look at their puns. Gets me going every time.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Thursday August 10 2017, @09:11PM
Just don't end your sentence in a preposition, bastard. [youtube.com]
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 10 2017, @03:24PM
Surely you mean on the gripping hand [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 5, Interesting) by number6x on Thursday August 10 2017, @04:03PM (2 children)
Kim is a smart cookie, or at least North Korea is playing it pretty smart.
Does anyone remember "The Axis of Evil [wikipedia.org]"? There were three countries that made up this group Iran, Iraq, and North Korea.
One of the three complied with all requests made by America. They let arms inspectors in. They shut down weapons programs. They went to the negotiating table. This one member of the Axis of Evil bent over backwards to please their former masters, the United States of America. What did the USA do in response? It invaded and overthrew the government in Operation Iraqi Freedom [wikipedia.org] in 2003.
North Korea saw Iraq complying with the requests of the US, and saw what this got Iraq in return. The United States taught North Korea, and every other rogue nation on Earth, that complying and working with the USA is a path to destruction. So North Korea does the opposite. The US has pretty much begged North Korea to come to the bargaining table [forbes.com]. We have made offers of assistance, and lifting of sanctions just for them to sit down and talk. Not really change anything, just to talk.
Acting tough with Iraq, when Iraq was bending over backwards to please us, backed the US into a corner back in 2003. If doing what the US asks you to do gets you invaded, why would any country at odds with the US comply with the US?
Trump is just stuck in the same corner we painted ourselves into back in 2003.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 10 2017, @07:03PM
> What did the USA do in response? It invaded...
Maybe. Not sure I'm going to accept your line of reasoning. I thought we went into Iraq because Bush-2 thought Saddam was after his Daddy. And for the oil.
No oil in N. Korea (maybe some coal--do you think Trump will be interested in non-USA coal??)
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Thursday August 10 2017, @11:38PM
NK wants the US military the hell away from its borders. Until then, they face a threat that is much more real than the threat that the US supposedly faces by NK being able to deliver one missle to one US territory. As long as the US has no interest in negotiating this point, their gestures toward diplomacy are meaningless.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 10 2017, @05:44PM (3 children)
Trump likes to negotiate from a strong position.
If you come to the table with: "Stop the threats or face hell fire, we're getting everyone on our side so we won't have any fear of retaliation." then you're in a MUCH better position to negotiate than if you come to the table with, "I really wish you'd stop threatening USA, how can we get you to stop?"
All the pundits are morons who haven't read any of Trump's books.
(Score: 5, Funny) by janrinok on Thursday August 10 2017, @06:49PM
I bought one of Trump's books from a second-hand stall - but the previous owner had already coloured it in.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 10 2017, @07:06PM
> All the pundits are morons who haven't read any of Trump's books.
Just so we are clear on this, Trump hasn't read Trumps book(s) either -- see,
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/donald-trumps-ghostwriter-tells-all [newyorker.com]
For the tell-all by the ghostwriter.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Friday August 11 2017, @12:41AM
If Mr. Trump thinks antagonising China is going to help his negotiating position with North Korea, then he understands the situation about as well as I thought he did.
No real surprises there then.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday August 11 2017, @03:11AM
So, scary as this sounds, I might foresee it playing like this: N Korea actually is insane/delusional enough to think that nuking Guam will improve its standing in the international community. Trump seems like just the guy to take the political hit for nuking N Korea's nuclear weapons manufacturing centers. Even if they're in hardened underground bunkers, glassing over the entrances and exits and making a 20km radius around them glow hard enough to require heavy shielding to enter/exit will certainly slow down progress inside. Then both sides will have gotten it out of their systems, the world can condemn the US for ever electing Trump, we can replace him with a fuzzy bunny in 2020 and get on with life?
It might even be enough to trigger a revolution in N Korea that would ultimately benefit their people greatly by ending global economic sanctions... sucks to be near the glow-zone, but that's actually a tiny part of the country, much less important to the (remaining) people than free trade with the world.
🌻🌻 [google.com]