Reuters reports that North Korea has a large stockpile of short-range missiles and is developing long-range and intercontinental missiles.
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Seoul and Washington kicked off the annual Key Resolve and Foal Eagle drills for a weeks-long run on Monday, mobilizing the largest number of South Korean and American troops and military assets ever.
On the heels of last month’s long-range rocket launch, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country has miniaturized nuclear warheads, North’s KCNA news agency reported on Wednesday.
Tensions have risen further this week with the launch of large-scale South Korean-US military exercises that Pyongyang responded to with threats of a pre-emptive nuclear attack.
“South Korean Defense Ministry assesses North Korea, at this point, has not secured the capability of miniaturizing a nuclear warhead nor does it have actual combat capability of KN-08”, the ministry said.
The South Korean Ministry of Defense was skeptical, saying its own assessment was that North Korea had “not yet secured miniaturized nuclear warheads”.
It is also angry over tough United Nations sanctions following its recent nuclear test and long range rocket launch.
In 2015, North Korea publicly announced that it has this capability.
The statement Thursday follows the North’s firing of short-range missiles, likely in anger over U.S.-South Korean war games.
Lee said there is a high possibility that the North will engage in additional surprise provocations to bring about a new turn in the current state of affairs on the peninsula.
The round object shown in the photos appears to be a model of a warhead trigger device which would contain uranium or plutonium, according to nuclear expert Whang Joo-ho of Kyung Hee University in South Korea. The new sanctions, while effectively hindering the nuclear program as a response to North Korea’s January testing, will directly target those Chinese companies that supply North Korea, throwing the nation’s auto industry, which just started to see signs of growth, into jeopardy. The pariah state carried out its fourth nuclear test in January and launched a rocket in violation of worldwide sanctions in February.
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The North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, which handles inter-Korea affairs, also threatened unspecified actions that it said would deal “a devastating end to Park Geun-hye and her party”, referring to the South’s leader.
