Doubt Stirred Up Over North Korean Possession of 700kg Nuclear Bomb

Doubt Stirred Up Over North Korean Possession of 700kg Nuclear Bomb. November. 26, 2003 23:03. parkwj@donga.com.

In a November 26 Seoul dispatch, Tokyo Shimbun reported that Korean intelligence agencies have obtained secret information that North Korea has secured a small nuclear bomb weighing about 700 kg.

If this piece of intelligence is true, it suggests that North Korea has succeeded in minimizing the size of its nuclear bombs. A Korean intelligence authority said, “If it weighs only 700 kg, North Korea’s scud rocket missiles could easily be equipped with it.” Military experts have assessed that if the warhead weighs only 700 kg, North Korean “Rodong” ballistics with a range of fire of 1300 km could be loaded with this bomb.

According to the paper, a Korean government official claimed that this piece of intelligence has not yet been confirmed, saying, “Nobody knows precisely the type and number of nuclear bombs North Korea has secured so far.”

Prior to this report, the Japanese dailies revealed that the Japanese government received intelligence from the U.S. administration that North Korea possessed several small nuclear bombs,