By Jun Ji-hye
North Korea has attained the “considerable” level of technology needed to miniaturize a nuclear warhead, according to the 2014 Defense White Paper Tuesday.
This analysis means Pyongyang is ever closer to developing a long-range nuclear missile capable of reaching as far as the United States.
“The North is believed to have secured some 40 kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium by reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods multiple times, the paper added.
As a result, the United States is expected to put more pressure on Seoul to adopt its missile defense (MD) system at the risk of angering China.
The biennial analysis concluded that the North’s third nuclear test conducted in February, 2013, accelerated efforts to make a warhead small enough to place at the tip of a missile.
The assessment in the 2012 version stated that the North carried out nuclear tests twice in October 2006 and May 2009.
Pyongyang has yet to demonstrate its miniaturization capability publically, officials and experts said.
“The assessment regarding its capability for small nuclear warheads comes in consideration of the fact that acquiring such technology takes around two to seven years in general, and eight years have passed since it conducted its first nuclear test,” a ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
It also stated that the North may have established the capability to threaten the U.S. mainland, as it has already launched long-range missiles five times.
Two years ago, the ministry wrote that the North tried to launch long-range missiles in April 2009 and April 2012, but these attempts were not successful.
“The evaluation was based upon the North’s successful sending of a satellite into orbit on an Unha-3 long-range rocket in December 2012,” the official said.
He said that Pyongyang’s Taepodong-2 long-range rockets are believed to have a range of 10,000 kilometers, not 6,700 kilometers as originally stated in the 2012 paper.
“Despite Pyongyang’s push to develop long-range missiles, no signs have been detected it has put them into service,” he noted.
The official added, however, that the ministry believes the North’s capability has yet to reach the level of loading a nuclear warhead onto a long-range missile.
The white paper also stated that North Korea had 1.2 million troops as of October 2014, some 10,000 more than two years ago, while the South has around 630,000 service members.
It also said the North has secured more armored vehicles, rocket launchers and warships, and is presumed to be building new types of submarines capable of firing ballistic missiles.
In the face of such growing threats from the secretive state, the ministry defined the North Korean regime and its military as Seoul’s “enemy” in the paper.
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