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North Korea Now Making Missile-Ready Nuclear Weapons, US Analysts Say (washingtonpost.com)
schwit1 shares a report from The Washington Post: North Korea has successfully produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead that can fit inside its missiles, crossing a key threshold on the path to becoming a full-fledged nuclear power, U.S. intelligence officials have concluded in a confidential assessment. The new analysis completed last month by the Defense Intelligence Agency comes on the heels of another intelligence assessment that sharply raises the official estimate for the total number of bombs in the communist country's atomic arsenal. The U.S. calculated last month that up to 60 nuclear weapons are now controlled by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Some independent experts believe the number of bombs is much smaller. "The IC [intelligence community] assesses North Korea has produced nuclear weapons for ballistic missile delivery, to include delivery by ICBM-class missiles," the assessment states, in an excerpt read to The Washington Post. "It is not yet known whether the reclusive regime has successfully tested the smaller design, although North Korea officially last year claimed to have done so," reports The Washington Post.
Have they? I see these map graphs with range circles associated with certain missiles
NK's launch last month reached an altitude of 2700 km. That means it had enough velocity to reach either Anchorage or Oahu if it was in a flatter trajectory. They kept it in a near vertical trajectory to make it easier to monitor.
if they can figure out how to design the missile to withstand reentry
The missile doesn't have to reenter, only the warhead does. They can accomplish that by wrapping in a bundle of asbestos ... or they could skip the reentry and do an EMP burst 200 km above Honolulu / Pearl Harbor.
if they can perfect complex gyros and navigational hardware / software
They kept it in a clean vertical trajectory for 2700 km, so they have already accomplished all of this. Btw, there is a 3 axis "complex gyro" chip in your cellphone. This isn't the 1950s.
if they can figure out how to insure it does not explode on launch or break up in flight...
They have already done this repeatedly.
The problem of making an atmospheric reenter vehicle for the warhead is trivial in comparison to making a multi-stage rocket. Or the nuclear device itself.
We've been getting threats from the Kim family forever. That's what they do. It's all internal politics to get North Koreans to forget about how shitty their lives are. In the same manner, Trump has always made threats, from lawsuits against people who don't like him to "fire and fury" against North Korea today. It's what he does. And in the same manner, it's to get people to forget how shitty he is.
Russia has literally thousands of ICBMs pointed at US targets, but anyone who points out their behavior, whether in Ukraine or in messing with US elections via propaganda. is painted as someone who has succumbed to the "Red Scare". Yet we have Kim, who we are told could someday have an ICBM pointed at Alaska and those same people will try to tell you he is an existential threat to the United States. Not long ago, Iran was the existential threat. Or China was the existential threat. Or refugees. Or Mexicans coming to pick vegetables. Or gay people getting married. Or transsexuals. Or college students. Or Obama coming to take yer guns away.
And all of it is theater to get people to forget shitty lives and/or shitty leaders.
You are welcome on my lawn.
exactly. It's a deterrent, they don't threaten to nuke the arab world...but if they get aggressive, there are a few subs out there that would finish any job....