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North Korea Can Arm Missile With Nuclear Warhead, U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency Chief Says
North Korea has developed the capability to arm a missile with a nuclear weapon, a top U.S. intelligence official said yesterday (see GSN, April 27). In response to a question from Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) asking whether “North Korea has the ability to arm a missile with a nuclear device,” Vice Adm. Lowell Jacoby, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, replied, “The assessment is that they have the capability to do that.” This was the first time a U.S. official had indicated that North Korea possessed such a capability, the Washington Post reported (Graham/Kessler, Washington Post, April 29). Clinton further asked, “Do you assess that North Korea has the ability to deploy a two-stage intercontinental nuclear missile that could successfully hit U.S. territory?” “Yes, the assessment on a two-stage missile would give capability to reach portions of U.S. territory and the projection on a three-stage missile would be that it would be able to reach most of the continental United States. That still is a theoretical capability in a sense that those missiles have not been tested,” Jacoby said (John Lumpkin, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, April 29). The agency later issued a statement portraying the testimony as old hat, according to the Post. Some DIA and CIA officials suggested that Jacoby misspoke. Several Senate aides who witnessed the testimony and have access to U.S. intelligence, however, indicated that Jacoby’s comments corresponded to some recent intelligence. “He may not have meant to say it in a public forum,” said one staffer. Another Senate official familiar with the intelligence said it is possible that North Korea may have miniaturized a nuclear warhead for a missile. He added, however, that the information he had seen was inconclusive. “There is a difference between believing something is true and having evidence that something is true,” he said. Senators Clinton and Carl Levin (D-Mich.), meanwhile, urged Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a letter “to engage in bilateral diplomatic efforts with North Korea to address this serious threat” (Graham/Kessler Washington Post, April 29). Elsewhere, Japan wants the U.N. Security Council to consider a resolution urging Pyongyang to resume six-party negotiations, but is not yet willing to push for a debate on sanctions, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported yesterday. Japan, the United States and South Korea are set to hold a high-level meeting next month over the process of referring North Korea’s case to the United Nations., according to the Yomiuri. Japanese Foreign Ministry official Kenichiro Sasae and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill agreed Wednesday on the need to consider an “alternative” to talks if Pyongyang remains opposed to resuming negotiations, the Yomiuri reported (Yomiuri Shimbun/Daily Yomiuri, April 29). Hill today called “troubling” the possibility that North Korea may be removing spent fuel for a nuclear weapon from its Yongbyon reactor and preparing for a nuclear weapon test, Reuters reported. “To go ahead and have a nuclear test at a time the six-party talks are in abeyance I think would be very troubling for the talks,” he said. “Efforts to harvest plutonium at a time the North Korean side is simply boycotting the talks would also be very problematic for the talks,” he said (Jon Herskovitz, Reuters, April 29). South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun is expected to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao in May in Moscow to discuss North Korea’s nuclear arms program, Roh’s office announced today (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, April 29).
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