NK may have developed nukes for missile payloads

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- North Korea may have already developed nuclear warheads that are small enough to be mounted on missiles and aircraft, a senior U.S. intelligence official said Thursday.

"The North may now have several plutonium-based nuclear warheads that it can deliver by ballistic missiles and aircraft as well as by conventional means," Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. "We expect the North will continue to test-launch missiles, including the TD-2 ICBM/SLV to refine their performance. With further TD-2 tests, North Korea may develop an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland."

North Korea detonated nuclear devices in 2006 and 2009, and conducted long-range missile tests three times -- in 1998, 2006 and 2009 -- which were seen as a partial success.

Reports said that North Korea is digging a new tunnel to prepare for a third nuclear test and has completed construction of a sophisticated launch site on its western coast to test-fire a ballistic missile that can reach the mainland U.S.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in January that North Korea's missiles and nuclear weapons will pose a threat to the U.S. within five years, with some experts saying Pyongyang may have already developed nuclear warheads small enough for missile payloads.

Burgess said North Korea will not easily abandon its nuclear arsenal despite international efforts to denuclearize the impoverished, but nuclear-armed communist state.

"While North Korea may be willing to abandon portions of its nuclear program in exchange for improved relations with the United States, Pyongyang is unlikely to eliminate its nuclear weapons," he said. "The DPRK will try to keep its nuclear weapons and gain international recognition as a nuclear state together with security guarantees from Washington and expanded economic assistance."

The six-party talks on the North's nuclear dismantlement have been deadlocked over U.N. sanctions for Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests in early 2009, and most recently the North's torpedoing of a South Korean warship and shelling of a South Korean border island last year.

North Korea last year attacked the warship Cheonan and Yeonpyeong Island, killing 50 people, chilling inter-Korean ties to the lowest level since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

North Korea refused to apologize for the provocations and walked out of a rare inter-Korean dialogue last month, thwarting hopes for the resumption of the six-party talks.

Washington has called on Pyongyang to address Seoul's grievances over the deadly attacks before moving on to a new round of the multilateral denuclearization-for-aid talks.