‘EXISTENTIAL THREAT’ POSED: U.S. INTEL CHIEF

WASHINGTON North Korea’s nuclear weapons program poses a potentially “existential” threat to the United States, the national intelligence director said in a bleak appraisal to Congress on Thursday. He wouldn’t say how close Pyongyang is to being able to strike the U.S. mainland.

Dan Coats said the unprecedented nuclear and missile testing last year indicates leader Kim Jong Un is intent on proving North Korea’s capability. The North’s public claims suggest it could conduct its first flight of an intercontinental ballistic missile this year.

And Pyongyang’s statements that it needs nuclear weapons to survive suggest Kim “does not intend to negotiate them away at any price,” Coats added at a Senate intelligence hearing on worldwide threats.

The heads of six U.S. intelligence agencies reviewed a slew of national security challenges facing the United States, warning about deteriorating security in Afghanistan, China’s rising challenge, and Russian and other countries’ use of cyberspace to target the U.S. and its allies.

At the hearing, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein said “It’s time for the American people to understand” when such a strike could occur.