Experts Say N Korea Needs More Tests To Develop Nuclear Missile

Experts Say N Korea Needs More Tests To Develop Nuclear Missile

Siegfried Hecker, a United States scientist and Stanford University professor said that N Korea needs at least one more test before they can develop a truly functional nuclear missile.

Professor Hecker was the last westerner to visit North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear complex in 2010. He said that the small Asian country needs at least one more test and probably several more to be able to manufacture nuclear devices.

The North Korean dictatorial regime has threatened a nuclear attack numerous times on countries like South Korea, Japan and The United States.

The need for more tests, said the Stanford professor, is to miniaturize the war head enough to fit a missile while being sure that it will still function.

He added that the immediate threat is that a functional nuclear device can be delivered by alternative means, like by car or by boat, but that most probably North Korea has a lot of experimenting to do before either are possible.

With tensions high in the Korean peninsula, the North Korean government said that they are willing to have talks but only if the economic sanctions put in place as a response to their nuclear program are lifted.

The United States has also offered talks but only on the condition that they lead to N Korea dropping its nuclear program.

Posted by James Fried on Friday April 19 2013, 7:52 AM EST. Ref: VoA. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0