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Subscribe to RSSChina has offered a rare criticism of Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, after the country fired a long-range rocket that has been described by U.S. officials as a weapons test. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
North Korea does not appear to be making preparations for a nuclear weapons test following Tuesday’s test of a space launch vehicle, which was believed to be cover for a long-range missile test, U.S. intelligence analysts told NBC News.
South Korean and Japanese officials had feared that a nuclear weapons test — its third after previous detonations in in October 2006 and May 2009 — would quickly follow the launch.
But word that the North isn’t thought to be preparing for a test is providing little solace for Seoul or Tokyo, mainly because recent intelligence suggests that the North has made significant advances in its nuclear weapons program.
According to a recent analysis, North Korea has a weapon stockpile that could threaten both countries and, in longer term, the United States. Some of the weapons have already been deployed, say U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity. Moreover, the North has begun research into more advanced and dangerous weapons, possibly even thermonuclear weapons, they say.
At the high end of the stockpile range, U.S. officials and other researchers said North Korea may already have up to "a few dozen" nuclear weapons that could be fitted atop its vast fleet of ballistic missiles. Those missiles are limited to an intermediate range, capable of hitting targets in Japan, South Korea or elsewhere in the northern Pacific, including U.S. military bases as far south as Guam, the officials believe.
South Korean Defense Ministry / Yonhap via AP
South Korean navy sailors carry debris from a rocket launched by North Korea, in the Yellow Sea, off Gunsan, South Korea on Wednesday. The debris is believed to be a fuel container of the first stage rocket. Defense officials said South Korea has no plans to return it to North Korea because the launch violated U.N. council resolutions.
'Highly provocative'
The U.S. believes the space launch test is part of a development plan for an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching the continental United States with a payload of several hundred kilotons — 10 to 20 times the size of the bombs that destroyed the Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland hinted about that Wednesday, calling the launch "highly provocative" and a "threat" to regional security. The U.S. is "concerned that all of this launching is about a weapons program and is not about peaceful uses of space," she added.
More North Korea coverage from NBC News
For the past several years, the U.S. also has been monitoring North Korean research into thermonuclear weapons — hydrogen bombs and bombs known as boosted fission weapons, in which plutonium and uranium are combined for a higher energy yield. (The problem is that if the North conducted a test and claimed that it was thermonuclear, the U.S. would have difficulty determining if the North was telling the truth. The test site at Kilchu is far enough inland that the U.S. would not have access to the particulate matter needed to make an accurate determination, experts say. )
David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, or ISIS, a nonpartisan nuclear arms research group, said earlier this year that any tests in the future may also be about ensuring the reliability of North Korea's current weapons design.
There was anger, dismay and some surprise as North Korea launched a rocket in defiance of its critics abroad. NBC's Ian Williams reports from Beijing.
"Once you get beyond a dozen, it makes sense to test type and reliability of your weapons," he said. Albright said then that his group's estimate of North Korea's weapons stockpile is a bit less than those provided by the U.S. officials, but that ISIS, too, believes Pyongyang has "missile-deliverable weapons."
The design of the weapons is believed to be based on Chinese models (as were the first generation Pakistani nuclear weapons). The design is basic, and was developed in the 1960s with help from the Soviet Union, which used it to produce a whole line of nuclear warheads.
ANALYSIS: 'Spoiled child' North Korea snubs key ally China with rocket test
While some analysts suggest that the North is using its space rocket launch to gain attention ahead of next week’s presidential election in South Korea -- and possibly to force talks with the U.S. — some in the U.S. non-proliferation community think otherwise. They expect that once the North feels comfortable with its ICBM technology, it will deploy the missiles. They point to the Musudan intermediate range missile which was tested in middle of the last decade, then deployed — presumably with nuclear warheads — and aimed at Japan.
Once the North has confidence in the long-range missile based on the space rocket, U.S. officials believe they will deploy it as well, making North Korea the third nation to have nuclear weapons targeted at the United States, after Russia and China.
Many in the Obama administration see that as a more frightening prospect than Iran gaining nuclear weapons, believing that Tehran is a rational actor that will serve its own national interest and preserve the regime, compared to successive generations of North Korean leaders who have shown that they are unpredictable and erratic.
David Guttenfelder / AP
In this March 9, 2011 photo, a girl plays the piano inside the Changgwang Elementary School in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
But would it force the U.S. turn to conduct face-to-face talks with the North? Nuland said Wednesday that the North has a better option.
Speaking of the North’s 27-year-old leader Kim Jong Un, Nuland said: "He can plot a way forward that ends the isolation, that brings relief and a different way of life and progress to his people, or he can further isolate them with steps like this. He can spend his time and his money shooting off missiles, or he can feed his people, but he can't have both."
Robert Windrem is a senior investigative producer for NBC News.
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Oh come on now. Are we really concerned about this? All our wonderful President has to do is give them one of his stern warnings and they will cower in their rice right after he bows to them.
I'm confused . . . you know your son is distrubed . . .
you have plenty of money to get care or treatment, yet you do nothing! Why? She paid for that with her life!
Which doesn't surprise me. You intentionally, trained a disturbed person how to shoot weapons !
America needs to adopt a Dr. Strangelove doctrine. If North Korea, Iran or terrorists attack America or any of it's allies with nuclear weapons EVERYONE on Earth will die. Only then will China and Russia cooperate to contain nuclear weapons.
It appears the the NK's are pretty ballsy to violate a UN resolution. Gee, I did not think anyone would do that being as the UN is so formidable. The only thing funnier is the US sanction on Iran. Wait for the headline that the "US is rattled by Irans ability to launch a nuke across the pond". All the dip@!$%#s in Washington will be wringing their hands and trying to explain this should not have happened because we had sanctions on them.
West coast,, you guys need to move in a little, it's falling off anyway.
The most important question is what can anyone do to stop NK outside of a pre-emptive strike?
Greyfox II, you are an idiot.
I say we ban UN?
Well there you go Obama and the rest of you liberal jackasses. Your attitude of denial has allowed these radical race of tyrants to achieve exactly what they want, ability to strike the US and its allies. Why don't we just keep denying the abilities of Iran as well. Lets just put our sorry ass heads in the ground until we get hit, then it is too late. But of course our beloved idiot will just apologize for the US being so mean and blame everything on Bush. President Bush was truly not the smartest but this moron is truly the most arrogant jack ass we have ever had. What a total disgrace you all are.
?!? Your such a retard. Not kidding either.
Hey Kim, how does it feel knowing the whole world thinks your a SAD joke. Your one of the most laughable freaks that has ever been. Pull your balls out of your purse and start something. Just do it, loser. Sick and tired of the oxygen your country uses, time to clean out the child leader.
Please...*Chuckling* If North Korea launches nukes at Japan or South Korea, the U.S. will use 1970 style A.B.M's (anti-ballistic missiles) to shoot down their 20th century rockets. Come on, they don't even have MIRV's yet and if they shoot one at a U.S. base not in a state of warfare, you might as well say Middle-East vs. rest of the world in WW3 and ain't nobody from the middle east surviving that. Come on... I'm only 15 and a half and have more knowledge than the North Korea "God". BTW he is mortal, it will take only one nuke to kill that "God". #Jesus is my lord
China could definitely bring all this NK bluster to a speedy end. But I think China is probably trying to negotiate some back door, lucrative trade agreements with the U.S. and is waiting to see how they, too, can put pressure on the U.S. I think we should put it to the Chinese instead. Either they put a sock in this guy's mouth or we reevaluate ALL of our trade agreements with the Chinese. They created this little monster, they need to now muzzle it.
While Obama has been campaigning and vacationing for the past 5 years, North Korea and Iran have been getting nucular capabilities. And what will the stupid Americans say when those idiots sell nukes to the Muslim terrorists... it was George Bush's fault.
Obama is NEVER held accountable for anything... where is the press in America?
It seems that the Obama haters have found an outlet, of course it is all his fault, what was I thinking!!!! However if it was discovered that liquid detergent caused cancer I am sure they would blame Obama as well.
I wonder if Obamas problem is that he is a democrat or something else. Time to get over it. If the Republicans had not had a massive split in the party and not nominated who they did, prehaps they might have won the election. If the GOP is supposed to be the Party of Lincoln and the Big Tent then they need to get busy and become what they so dearly speak of as gospel.
Time for the US to quietly take care of the problem so we are not aggrivated any more, but we must remember there are enemies of the US out there who would be happy to tangle with us, while thinking we are a weak nation and will discover we are not. Are we ready to start another regime change after what we have been through, had many of our men die, only to still have Iraq erupt in violence on a weekly basis.
I am not against war, and served proudly in the Navy on the USS Independence CVA-62, but we need to fight the right war at the right time.
Yeah...almost reminds you of everything being blamed on Bush, doesn't it? Yeah, time for obama to do something. Don't hold your breath.
Now that you've gutted the CIA and gotten seals killed...where is your military (or any) intelligence, Obrainless?
I seriously doubt that N. Korea's east coast deployed missile pair has anything but a dummy warhead installed. Their last attempt broke apart during staging. They are not going to risk a real payload until they can be sure of it's delivery. Accidentally hitting China with their nuke would get them all killed just as quickly if they hit our west coast. The more war rhetoric they make the more we and other countries pay attention so when they go to test a new missile all of our tracking assets are literally helping them gauge their relative success/failure. Our news media then helps to sell their technology to Iran and other rogue states by making the test of their missile more widely known. Obama should be and is doing as little as possible (something he's good at) to not further inflame the situation. Besides our President is more concerned about small (scope) arms than nuclear missiles. I guess that's something you pick up as a community organizer.
''but he can't have both." & neither can you Pigtoria FUland.
Ok, once again we here that Korea is threatening us with nukes. People this is the little kid in the yard being blustery He wants to make a name for himself because he doesn't have any friends. So., he attacks the biggest kid to show how big he is. The only problem is all he can only promise is to hurt people no bigger than he. He won't hurt S Korea. It's the only friend he has that's his size. I know, I know but in a strange way they are friends. It,s quite dysfunctional This is his own way of saying "I want to be friends." to South Korea. Actually it is North Korea's beg for a friend. We have to say, "We will be a friend, but you have to play by the rules. No more tantrums, no more screaming, no more showing your a#$ just because you want something. Here's an idea, try asking.