Syndicated Investigative Reporter Michael Webster
Lord Howe British Defense Minister warned British lawmakers that North Korea could have the technology to launch a nuclear strike against the U.S. by early summer of this year. This critical report containing this vital assessments was released recently. British military official said that he stands by the assessment.
The assessment was made public as President Donald Trump prepares to speak with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un in May. It is unclear exactly what will come out of the meetings. Trump’s stated aim is that North Korea denuclearize entirely, a goal many experts believe will be almost impossible to achieve.
Pyongyang’s nuclear program offers the rogue regime leverage with which to negotiate, experts note.One of the clear reasons North Korea wants to talk to America now is that it feels it is working from a position of strength. Kim has declared Pyongyang's nuclear program as 'complete' which could mean that the north has all of the necessary components, at least on paper, to hit the U.S. with a nuclear weapon in a very crude format,” Harry Kazianis, director of defense studies at the Center for the National Interest, a public policy think tank in Washington, D.C., said, “If that is the case, it would make sense why Kim is offering talks now--and why he will drive for a very, very hard bargain--if talks even happen in the first place,” Kazianis added.
Last year, as rhetoric between Trump and Kim grew more threatening and bellicose, North Korea tested nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles. Experts have warned that a North Korean missile could likely hit the U.S., but that Pyongyang had not yet developed the technology that would allow it to attach a nuclear warhead to such a missile.
Britain has only a limited missile defence system if an attack was launched, according to a report by the Commons Defence Select Committee.
"It is a reasonable assumption that North Korea can already reach the UK with ballistic missiles which could potentially carry nuclear warheads," the report says.
"In any case, it is almost certain to be able to do so within the next six to 18 months if it continues its programme at the current rate of development.
"The UK has only a limited ballistic missile defence (BMD) capability, however, if North Korea decided to launch a missile at the UK."
North Korea has yet to demonstrate it can arm intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads but it has made "significant advances" in its weapons programme in the last two years, the cross-party committee said.
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