U.S. officials call for preparations for N. Korea’s ICMB capabilities

U.S. officials call for preparations for N. Korea’s ICMB capabilities. March. 12, 2016 07:07. by 워싱턴=이승헌 특파원ddr@donga.com. Adm. William Gortney, commander of the U.S. Northern Command, told a hearing at the Senate Committee on the Armed Services he assesses that Pyongyang has the ability to “put an ICBM in space and range the continental United States and Canada.” The remark strongly suggests the possibility that the North has secured the atmospheric re-entry technology, one of the core technologies for intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Gortney said, “It's the prudent decision on my part to assume that he has the capability to ... miniaturize a nuclear weapon and put it on an ICBM" and "range all of the states of the United States and Canada.” In October, he said he agreed to the analysis that Pyongyang was capable of making nuclear warheads small enough to be mounted on rockets to be delivered to the mainland U.S. Adm. Cecil Haney, head of the U.S. Strategic Command, also told the Congressional hearing that the U.S. should take such threats seriously as the North’s claims of nuclear development.

Gortney’s assessment has a different nuance from the comments by the South Korean and the U.S. military authorities following the North’s announcement on Wednesday of its “success” in miniaturizing nuclear warheads. “We have not seen North Korea test or demonstrate the ability to miniaturize a nuclear weapon and put it on an ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile),” Pentagon spokesman Bill Urban said Tuesday. “The U.S. government assessment has not changed.”

In fact, many people from inside and outside of the U.S. government say Washington should not underestimate the North’s ICBM capabilities. U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in his written report to Congress that Pyongyang “has already taken initial steps toward fielding this (KN-08) system, although the system has not been flight-tested.”

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told the Voice of America on Tuesday that it had yet to be confirmed whether Pyongyang has the ability to deploy a nuclear warhead on top of an ICBM but will have the capabilities in the future, considering its continued ICBM launches and nuclear tests.