North Korea is believed to have several nuclear warheads that could be mounted on a missile, an international security expert said Tuesday ahead of a rocket launch that regional powers suspect will test weapon delivery technology.
But Daniel Pinkston, a Seoul-based North Korea expert for the International Crisis Group, stressed it is unclear if the communist nation has mastered the technology necessary to miniaturize the warheads and put them on Rodong missiles, which have a range of 620 to 930 miles (1,000 to 1,500 kilometers). The North is believed to have five to eight warheads, he said.
We've talked and talked, and still they get closer to having nuclear weapons. On the bright side, we've squeezed North Korea so much that they are weakening daily. They might implode before they get nuclear missiles.
Actually, North Korea's nuclear programs could push South Korea closer to America and Japan and align our goals. Up until now, America and Japan have been the real targets of North Kroean nukes since South Korea was already under threat by the North Korean army. Really, as long as Seoul could be devastated by a conventional North Korean invasion, South Korea had no interest in provoking Pyongyang by helping America and Japan avoid coming within range of North Korean nuclear missiles.
But as North Korea's conventional military has rotted, making it increasingly likely that South Korea could push into North Korea should it come to war, the nukes that were once only a real threat to Japan and America become a threat to Seoul, as well.
It might now be in Seoul's interest to pressure North Korea and risk a North Korean collapse in order to stop North Korea from getting nuclear weapons.
