North Korea capable of launching nuclear weapons: US

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) attends an intensive drill of KPA artillery units on December 2, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

North Korea has become capable of launching nuclear weapons, a US military official says, noting that the secretive regime does not seem to have acquired the technology to control the weapon after it is launched.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said Friday that Pyongyang had the ability to mount a nuclear warhead on a series of its Ballistic missiles, but probably lacked the know-how to deliver a re-entry vehicle onto the designated target.

According to the official, North Korean researchers were trying to overcome a series of limitations in this regard, including the weapon’s ability to get back to the Earth’s atmosphere without burning up.

He said the threat from North Korea’s nuclear arsenal is so serious that the Pentagon has been continuously revising its contingency plans for a possible attack.

“It is the threat that keeps me awake at night, primarily because we don’t know what the dear leader in North Korea really is after,” he said.

“Truthfully, they have the capability, right now, to be able to deliver a nuclear weapon. They’re just not sure about re-entry and that’s why they continue to test their systems,” the official added.

In March, Admiral William Gortney, the then head of US Northern Command, said that the North had learned how to make a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on a long-range missile.

After a successful launch of a submarine-launched missile in August, North Korea leader Kim Jong-un declared his country a nuclear power fully equipped “with nuclear attack capability.”

According to the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, North Korea’s successful launches of two Musudan mid-range ballistic missiles provide Pyongyang with the technology to develop intercontinental missiles by 2020.

The missiles have a theoretical range of between 2,500 and 4,000 kilometers, making them capable of reaching any part of South Korea, Japan and the US territory of Guam in the northwestern Pacific Ocean.

North Korea, which is under harsh UN sanctions over its nuclear tests and missiles launches, says it will not give up on its nuclear deterrence unless Washington ends its hostile policy toward Pyongyang and dissolves the US-led UN command in South Korea.