U.S. intelligence believes North Korea's ability to reach the United States with an intercontinental ballistic missile is low, but its capabilities will increase, making continued investment in missile defence essential, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.
North Korea leader Kim Jong Un smiles as he visits Sohae Space Center for the testing of a new engine for an ICBM
WASHINGTON: U.S. intelligence believes North Korea's ability
to reach the United States with an intercontinental ballistic missile
is low, but its capabilities will increase, making continued investment
in missile defence essential, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.
North Korea has publicised a series of tests of its weapons
technology since detonating its fourth nuclear bomb on Jan. 6,
showcasing its push to develop long-range nuclear missiles despite
international sanctions.
Brian McKeon, U.S. principal deputy undersecretary of
defence for policy, told a U.S. Senate hearing that North Korea's
nuclear and missile programme posed a growing threat to the United
States and its allies in East Asia.
He said North Korea was seeking to develop longer-range
nuclear ballistic missiles capable of hitting the United States and was
working to make its KN-08 road-mobile ICBM operational.
"Although the reliability of an untested North Korean ICBM
is likely to be very low, North Korea has used its Taepodong-2 launch
vehicle to put a satellite into orbit, thus demonstrating technologies
applicable to a long-range missile," he said, referring to a North
Korean rocket launch last month.
Admiral Bill Gortney, the officer responsible for defending
U.S. air space, told the same hearing that while U.S. intelligence
assessments were that North Korea's ability to hit the United States was
low, it was prudent to assume it had the capability.
"We don't base our readiness levels on that low probability ... We are prepared to engage that particular threat," he said.
"Eventually, we assess that this low probability will
increase, that's why the investment to have us outpace that technology
is absolutely critical."
Gortney said he agreed with a South Korean assessment that
North Korea was capable of putting a nuclear warhead on a medium-range
missile that would reach all of South Korea and most of Japan.
He also said he thought it "safe to say" that North Korea's
neighbour and traditional ally, China, no longer exerted the level of
potential controlling influence it once had now that current North
Korean leader Kim Jong Un was in power.
Gortney said the U.S. ICBM assessment was based on the fact that no tests had been observed of such a missile.
"However ... the (Taepodong-2) shows that they have the
capability and so you put that capability with the road-mobile
capability, with the right engines, with a design of a re-entry vehicle,
with a nuclear weapon, and a miniaturization; it's only a matter of
time before they put it together."
On Saturday, North Korea said it had carried out a
successful test of a new ICBM engine and there is an increasing feeling
among international arms experts that the country's missile technology
may be more advanced than previously thought.
A U.S. government source told Reuters this week North Korea could have a primitive but operable ICBM "later this decade."(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by James Dalgleish)
- Reuters
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