By Oh Young-jin
North Korea insists on demonstrating its capabilities to deliver a nuclear-tipped missile over the Pacific to the mainland of the United States. Friday's rocket test is one example.
The international community is concerned about Pyongyang getting close to succeeding at this but is not ready to take its word as true.
"Why don't we verify North Korea's claim?" Bruce Bennett, a Korea expert at the Rand Corp., the U.S. think tank, suggested as a way of finding a compromise between the ongoing tit-for-tat between the rogue state and other countries.
"North Korea would submit nuclear warheads to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for inspection," Bennett said in a telephone interview Saturday.
He has two reasons for this suggestion. First, as far as he is concerned, the North's claim of having developed a working inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) remains porous.
He had trouble believing that the North had developed a shield strong enough to protect its payload. Once, Kim Jong-un, the North's leader, had a crystal ball or the warhead with him in a photo release.
Bennett said that for that payload to hit the designated target, it would survive the stress of reentry into the atmosphere. After the Friday test, the North claimed that the payload not only survived reentry but traveled afterward to the designated target.
Although the North may have followed the trajectory from its control center, Bennett said that it requires checks with the debris _ especially how the shield bore the impact.
For that, the North should hurl a rocket with a payload over Japan into the Pacific east of the Japanese archipelago. "Such an attempt would make the U.S. and Japan very angry and may destroy airplanes or ships in the area," Bennett said. "Without it, the North's claim of having an ICBM is an unverified boast."
India and Pakistan got their status of undeclared nuclear weapons states without independent verification after their nuke abilities were talked about in the media.
Bennett dares the North to turn over nuclear devices if it wants that status. Bennett says that at least five devices should be inspected to tell for sure of Pyongyang's capacities. Pyongyang is estimated to have nuclear materials enough to make dozens of nuclear weapons.
Bennett fell short of saying that the North should be allowed to join the nuclear club, if it passes the IAEA inspection. But certainly his method could defuse tension on the Korean Peninsula due to Pyongyang's latest missile tests, one of the key purposes of which is it to prove its nuclear capability.
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| Bruce Bennett |
The international community is concerned about Pyongyang getting close to succeeding at this but is not ready to take its word as true.
"Why don't we verify North Korea's claim?" Bruce Bennett, a Korea expert at the Rand Corp., the U.S. think tank, suggested as a way of finding a compromise between the ongoing tit-for-tat between the rogue state and other countries.
"North Korea would submit nuclear warheads to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for inspection," Bennett said in a telephone interview Saturday.
He has two reasons for this suggestion. First, as far as he is concerned, the North's claim of having developed a working inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) remains porous.
He had trouble believing that the North had developed a shield strong enough to protect its payload. Once, Kim Jong-un, the North's leader, had a crystal ball or the warhead with him in a photo release.
Bennett said that for that payload to hit the designated target, it would survive the stress of reentry into the atmosphere. After the Friday test, the North claimed that the payload not only survived reentry but traveled afterward to the designated target.
Although the North may have followed the trajectory from its control center, Bennett said that it requires checks with the debris _ especially how the shield bore the impact.
For that, the North should hurl a rocket with a payload over Japan into the Pacific east of the Japanese archipelago. "Such an attempt would make the U.S. and Japan very angry and may destroy airplanes or ships in the area," Bennett said. "Without it, the North's claim of having an ICBM is an unverified boast."
India and Pakistan got their status of undeclared nuclear weapons states without independent verification after their nuke abilities were talked about in the media.
Bennett dares the North to turn over nuclear devices if it wants that status. Bennett says that at least five devices should be inspected to tell for sure of Pyongyang's capacities. Pyongyang is estimated to have nuclear materials enough to make dozens of nuclear weapons.
Bennett fell short of saying that the North should be allowed to join the nuclear club, if it passes the IAEA inspection. But certainly his method could defuse tension on the Korean Peninsula due to Pyongyang's latest missile tests, one of the key purposes of which is it to prove its nuclear capability.
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