Intel chief: Getting N. Korea to give up nukes ‘lost cause’

WASHINGTON — National Intelligence director James Clapper said Tuesday the U.S. goal of persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons is probably a “lost cause” and the best hope is to cap its capability.

Clapper’s comments come amid mounting concern that the North is moving closer toward having a nuclear-tipped missile that could reach the American mainland. It has conducted two atomic test explosions this year and more than 20 ballistic missile tests.

The State Department said Tuesday there had been no change in policy. U.S. administrations have long demanded North Korea agree to denuclearization, although aid-for-disarmament negotiations have been stalled for years and sanctions have failed to stop the North’s weapons’ programs.

Clapper said that while North Korea has yet to test its KN-08 intercontinental ballistic missile, the U.S. already operates on the assumption that Pyongyang potentially has the capability to launch a missile that could reach parts of the United States, particularly Alaska and Hawaii.

“I think the notion of getting the North Koreans to denuclearize is probably a lost cause,” Clapper said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He added that the best the U.S. could probably get is some kind of a cap on North Korea’s nuclear capabilities.

“They are under siege and they are very paranoid, so the notion of giving up their nuclear capability, whatever it is, it is a nonstarter with them,” he said.

In the meantime, the Obama administration says it is intent on tightening sanctions on the government of young leader Kim Jong Un.