NK nuclear warhead attachment on missiles possible

By Lee Kyung-min

North Korea is capable of attaching nuclear warheads to fit on its ballistic missiles, experts said.

“It is highly likely that North Korean missile Rodong, which has target range of 400-1,300 km, might have nuclear device on it,” said Ham Hyung-pil, an active Lt. Colonel, with a nuclear engineering Ph.D. at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Thursday at a forum “With nuclear risk, for sustainable peace.”

He is a researcher at the Center for Security and Strategy under the umbrella of Korea Institute for Defense Analysis (KIDA).

He said North Korea is strategizing its nuclear weapon.

“The second and third nuclear tests were both successful. They conducted more than 100 experiments since 1980. It may well have succeeded in miniaturizing the size of the warhead.

“Making it lighter, smaller is all within their ability. It seems that they have already strategized the whole system,” Ham added.

David Albright from Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) made a similar argument February.

“Judging from the history of their nuclear weapon development, it is reasonable to think that they have the ability, and there are several evidences that lead to the conclusion that North Korea can miniaturize sufficiently for Rodong missile delivery,”

he wrote in 38north, a online magazine published by U.S.-Korea Institute at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University in Marylands.

Despite the effort to nuclear capability deterrence by the South, certain degree of U.S. dependence is unavoidable, Ham said.