Nuke strike on US mainland ‘inevitable’

WASHINGTON: The Defence Intelligence Agency chief has said it is “inevitable” that a nuclear weapon launched from North Korea would hit the US mainland.

Lt-Gen Vincent Stewart told the Senate armed services committee that the possibility of an attack is very real after a recent nuclear missile test conducted by Pyongyang.

He warned that if the isolated country and its leader Kim Jong-Un are left on the “current trajectory, the regime will ultimately succeed”.

However, Stewart said it was “nearly impossible to predict when” that would be.

He and director of national intelligence Dan Coates were pressed for a timeline repeatedly but refused to give a concrete answer out of fear that it may reveal what intelligence the US has been able to gather.

“We do not have constant, consistent (intelligence and surveillance) capabilities and so there are gaps, and the North Koreans know about these,” Coates said.

Coates also testified in the hearing that what makes North Korea a particularly “grave national security threat” is Kim’s “aggressive” leadership.

He seems determined to develop a nuclear missile capable of reaching the west coast of the US, called an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

Missile expert John Schilling, who is a contributing writer on North Korea analysis website 38 North, told Al-Jazeera that it would take Kim at least until 2020 to develop a functional ICBM.

Concerns over a US-reaching missile resurfaced when Donald Trump sent a fleet to the Sea of Japan after the North’s last nuclear missile test. – The Independent