Washington tries to calm concerns over N. Korea nuke abilities

White House says Pyongyang has not yet demonstrated capacity to launch nuclear-tipped missile

12 April 2013, 9:50 pm

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Illustrative: North Korea's Unha-3 rocket lifts off from the Sohae launch pad in Tongchang-ri, North Korea, in 2012. (AP/KCNA, File)

The White House on Friday sought to tamp down concern over a new intelligence report showing North Korea could arm a ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Pyongyang had not demonstrated the capability to launch such a nuclear armed missile. He said it “is not simple” to take that step.

However, Carney said North Korea continues to express a desire to seek nuclear weapons capabilities. That was a “matter of concern” for the United States.

A US intelligence report concluded that North Korea has advanced its nuclear knowhow to the point that it could arm a ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead, a jarring revelation in the midst of bellicose threats from the unpredictable communist regime.

US President Barack Obama urged calm Thursday, calling on Pyongyang to end its saber-rattling while sternly warning that he would “take all necessary steps” to protect American citizens.

The new American intelligence analysis, disclosed Thursday at a congressional hearing, says the Pentagon’s intelligence wing has “moderate confidence” that North Korea has nuclear weapons capable of delivery by ballistic missiles but that the weapon was unreliable.

US Secretary of State John Kerry delivered a stark warning to North Korea earlier on Friday not to test-fire a mid-range missile, while tamping down anxiety caused by a new US intelligence report suggesting significant progress in the communist regime’s nuclear weapons program.

Kicking off four days of talks in an East Asia beset by increasing North Korean threats, Kerry told reporters in Seoul that Pyongyang and its enigmatic young leader would only increase their isolation if they launched the missile that American officials believe has a range of some 2,500 miles — or enough to reach the US territory of Guam.

“If Kim Jong Un decides to launch a missile, whether it’s across the Sea of Japan or some other direction, he will be choosing willfully to ignore the entire international community,” Kerry told reporters. “And it will be a provocation and unwanted act that will raise people’s temperatures.”