Intel chief testifies about North Korean nukes

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s intelligence chief says North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons poses a potentially existential threat to the United States.

Dan Coats says North Korean leader Kim Jong Un also views any U.S. attack or effort to force him to give up his nukes as an existential threat to his own leadership. Coats expressed concern that North Korean decisionmaking is heavily centred on Kim.

Coats was speaking Tuesday at a congressional hearing on worldwide threats. He said the U.S. has adopted a policy of “maximum pressure’’ and seeks a peaceful settlement with North Korea.

But CIA director Mike Pompeo said the U.S. intelligence community has assessed how the North would react to a U.S. military attack. He declined to discuss the content of that assessment publicly.