You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
China-Japan-Koreas
N. Korea knows how to miniaturize nuclear bombs sez U.S.
2013-04-12
WASHINGTON -- A U.S. military intelligence agency believes that North Korea has learned how to mount nuclear bombs on ballistic missiles, a U.S. congressman said Thursday, citing a classified report.
Did their Chinese masters slip this to the Norks while making a show of disciplining them?
But the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) still questions whether the secretive nation has mastered the sophisticated technology, according to Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO). In a congressional hearing, he quoted the report as saying, "DIA assesses with moderate confidence the North currently has nuclear weapons capable of delivery by ballistic missiles; however the reliability will be low."

Both Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, refused to discuss the issue in the hearing, saying it is pertinent to a classified document.

The U.S. and its allies have paid keen attention to whether the North has succeeded in miniaturizing a nuclear bomb to be launched by missile. The DIA's evaluation, if confirmed, likely would further raise public concerns about North Korea's threats. The North has conducted three nuclear tests and carried out several ballistic missile launches.
Posted by:Steve White

#5  Look what former Shuttle Houston CapCom had to say about NKor rockets and min sized bombs:
Los Angeles is 9,580 air-kilometers from Pyongyang. Chicago is 10,464 km. But we're led to believe that Chicago is unreachable. Why?

Because, I believe, someone, unable to be certain of the actual range, picked 10,000 km as a theoretical range. And that was based on the now-debunked idea that NK would not have a light warhead.

Unha 3 weighed 91 tonnes at liftoff.

Thor-Able, first flown in 1958, weighed just under 52 tonnes and could boost a 318 kg test reentry vehicle (the RV part of which was so light that it had to carry ballast) to a range of 10,137 km. It became apparent to some that Thor-Able could be made into an ICBM with even longer range (they even named it "Thoric"), but USAF quashed that idea.

If the U.S. could do that with such a small rocket in 1958, there is no reason North Korea could not do it today with more mass to play with.

- Ed Kyle
Posted by: Water Modem   2013-04-12 20:23  

#4  Tweet by Tim Siedell:

Just pass a law saying you can't have nukes unless you pass a background check. North Korea problem solved.
Posted by: Matt   2013-04-12 15:26  

#3  ...as the Chinese have found out with contemporary jet engines.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2013-04-12 09:46  

#2  Knowing and doing are two different things, it must be noted...
Posted by: trailing wife   2013-04-12 06:37  

#1  I sure the armed forces of Cold War-era East Germany + other WARSAW PACT states possessed the local knowledge + proficiency to install + dev indigenous Nukes-WMDS.

THE ISSUE IS WHOM CONTROLS = PUSHES THE LAUNCH BUTTONS, WHICH WASN'T THE EAST GERMANS OR OTHER "PACT/SOVIET BLOC" GOVTS, MILITARY ORGS.

And so it is wid NORTH KOREA - the Top Eggs-in-charge are NOT Korean, BUT CHINESE PLA COMMANDERS WHOM TAKE THEIR ORDERS FROM BEIJING, NOT PYONGYANG OR THE KIM FAMILY.

Selective Autonomy = NOT the same as "Sovereign Control" when refeering to Communist systems.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2013-04-12 01:52  

00:00