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posted by martyb on Thursday August 10 2017, @01:25PM   Printer-friendly
from the what-would-YOU-do? dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 10 2017, @08:19PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 10 2017, @08:19PM (#551845)

    This is just usual stuff that has been going on pretty much my whole life, I'm not sure why you think this is new?

    CLINTON'S WARNING IRKS NORTH KOREA
    Published: July 13, 1993

    TOKYO, July 12— The North Korean Government accused President Clinton today of provoking it with threats of war after he warned that the United States would retaliate if North Korea developed nuclear arms.

    The statement by the Communist Government of Kim Il Sung came just hours after it handed over what it said were remains of 17 American soldiers killed in the Korean War.

    On his weekend visit to South Korea, President Clinton warned that if North Korea developed and used an atomic weapon, "we would quickly and overwhelmingly retaliate."

    "It would mean the end of their country as they know it," he said. 'Rash Act' by U.S.

    The North Korean Government lashed back today through its Korean Central News Agency, monitored in Tokyo.

    "The United States must ponder over the fatal consequences that might arise from its rash act," the statement said. "If anyone dares to provoke us, we will immediately show him in practice what our bold decision is."

    North Korea has denied that it is developing nuclear weapons but has banned inspections of two sites suspected of being nuclear installations. Last month, North Korea backed off from its decision to drop out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, but the issue of site inspections was left unresolved. Further talks on the matter are to begin Wednesday in Geneva, where Washington is expected to press North Korea to accept inspections or face consequences that could include economic sanctions.

    The United States has made the return of war dead and the resolution of nuclear issues conditions of improving ties between the two nations. So far, bones said to belong to only 45 of more than 8,000 missing troops have been returned, and United States officials said not all of those remains were human. Japan Accused, Too

    North Korea also accused Japan of planning its own nuclear arsenal.

    At the meeting of major industrialized nations in Tokyo last week, Japan was the only one to refuse to endorse an indefinite extension of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

    Japan's objection "revealed the intention of the Japanese Government of arming Japan with nuclear weapons at any cost," said a North Korean Foreign Ministry official quoted by the Korean press agency.

    http://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/13/world/clinton-s-warning-irks-north-korea.html [nytimes.com]

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