The Korea Times:
North Korea’s claims of nuclear missile capabilities have not been proven, but the United States is prepared for the worst, the Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un claimed earlier Tuesday that the country has acquired the technology to make a missile strong enough to withstand extreme heat and other challenges involved in re-entering the atmosphere from space, a key hurdle in developing an intercontinental ballistic missile.
The remark was a threat that the communist nation can strike the U.S. with nuclear missiles. The North’s leader also said that a new “nuclear warhead explosion test” and ballistic missile tests will be conducted “in a short time,” according to state media.
“We have not seen North Korea demonstrate capability to miniaturize a nuclear weapon and again, put it on a ballistic missile,” Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said at a briefing. “We don’t assess that that’s a capability they’re demonstrated at this point.”
The spokesman said, however, that the U.S. is prepared to cope with all threats from the North.
“We are doing everything that we can, as the American people would expect, to prepare, just in case North Korea’s words turn into something else,” Cook said.
The U.S. is also taking steps to “shore up our alliance partner, South Korea, our alliance with Japan in the region, other partners in the region who have to address that threat more immediately than we do,” he said.
Last week, U.S. Northern Commander Adm. William Gortney said that the North can “range the continental United States” with an intercontinental ballistic missile and it would be prudent to assume Pyongyang can also miniaturize a nuclear warhead to put on an ICBM.
North Korea has sharply ratcheted up tensions with nuclear and missile threats as South Korea and the United States have been conducting annual joint military exercises that Pyongyang has branded preparation for a northward invasion.
The threats are believed to show the outside world that the regime remains unfazed by the new U.N. sanctions imposed for its nuclear and missile tests, and to assert Kim Jong-un’s leadership in the lead-up to a key Workers’ Party Congress in May.
Michael Elleman, a senior follow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said that the North’s claims of acquiring the reentry technology could mean that “engineers tested some heat-resistant materials in the laboratory to determine performance and reliability.”
“This would be a standard first step in perfecting the creation of a heat shield for a long-range missile re-entry system,” he said. “Regardless, to establish a reliable thermal protection coating, at least one successful flight test on a long-range rocket would be prudent.”
As an alternative to flying a missile to full range, the North could use a shorter-range missile, but in that case, a small second stage would be added and the missile would fly straight up, and once it began descending into the atmosphere, the second stage would further accelerate the re-entry body downward to simulate the velocity experience on a long-range missile, he said, adding that the U.S. used the technique in the early 1960s. (Yonhap)
