{"id":1417,"date":"2016-12-10T10:45:29","date_gmt":"2016-12-10T10:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/?p=1417"},"modified":"2016-12-10T10:45:29","modified_gmt":"2016-12-10T10:45:29","slug":"north-korea-can-mount-a-nuclear-warhead-on-a-ballistic-missile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/2016\/12\/10\/north-korea-can-mount-a-nuclear-warhead-on-a-ballistic-missile\/","title":{"rendered":"NORTH KOREA CAN MOUNT A NUCLEAR WARHEAD ON A BALLISTIC MISSILE"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NORTH<\/a><\/p>\n

Sourced : CBS<\/p>\n

North Korea now has the capability to launch a nuclear weapon, a senior U.S. military official said Thursday, adding that while the U.S. believes Pyongyang can mount a warhead on a missile, it\u2019s not clear that it can hit a target.<\/p>\n

The official said it appears that North Korea can mount a nuclear warhead on a missile, but may not have the re-entry capabilities for a strategic strike. That would include the ability of the weapon to get back through the atmosphere without burning up and the ability to hit the intended target. The official said North Korea continues to try and overcome those limitations.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon continues to revise itscontingency plans regarding a North Korean strike, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity. The military routinely develops plans for all threat possibilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the threat that keeps me awake at night,\u201d the official said, \u201cprimarily because we don\u2019t know what the dear leader in North Korea really is after. Truthfully, they have the capability, right now, to be able to deliver a nuclear weapon. They\u2019re just not sure about re-entry and that\u2019s why they continue to test their systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. officials have steadily expanded their assessments of Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear abilities. Adm. William Gortney, then-head of U.S. Northern Command, said in March that Pyongyang may have figured out how to make a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on a long-range missile.<\/p>\n

Under Kim Jong Un, who rose to power following his father\u2019s death in 2011, North Korea has seen steady progress in its nuclear and missile programs, including two nuclear tests this year.<\/p>\n

The country recently claimed a series of technical breakthroughs in its goal of developing a long-range nuclear missile capable of reaching the continental United States.<\/p>\n

North Korea is now \u201cfully equipped with nuclear attack capability,\u201d leader Kim announced proudly after the August launch of a submarine-launched missile.<\/p>\n

He was exaggerating, but the strings of tests indicate that North Korea may have medium-range missiles capable of striking American military bases in the Pacific in the next couple years, experts say. Some believe Pyongyang may be able to hit the western United States as early as 2020.<\/p>\n

South Korean defense officials say North Korea doesn\u2019t yet have such a weapon, but some civilian experts have said they believe the North has the technology to mount warheads on shorter-range Rodong and Scud missiles that can strike South Korea and Japan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that they\u2019re struggling with getting the (intercontinental ballistic missile) program up and operational,\u201d U.S. Gen. Vincent Brooks, the head of U.S. forces in Korea, said in Senate hearings earlier this year. But \u201cover time, I believe we\u2019re going to see them acquire these capabilities if they\u2019re not stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we are in a very tenuous situation, with not a lot of leverage, not a lot of initiative in terms of negotiations,\u201d the official who briefed Pentagon reporters said Thursday. \u201cAs you might imagine we\u2019re preparing for contingency operations at the degree we need to.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sourced : CBS North Korea now has the capability to launch a nuclear weapon, a senior U.S. military official said Thursday, adding that while the U.S. believes Pyongyang can mount a warhead on a missile, it\u2019s not clear that it can hit a target. The official said it appears that North Korea can mount a… Continue reading NORTH KOREA CAN MOUNT A NUCLEAR WARHEAD ON A BALLISTIC MISSILE<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1134,926,1133,636,499,637,639,98],"class_list":["post-1417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-defence-industry","tag-intercontinental-ballistic-missile","tag-japan","tag-korea","tag-north-korea","tag-pentagon","tag-pyongyang","tag-south-korea","tag-u-s","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1417"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1418,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1417\/revisions\/1418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}