S. Korea: North pushing for nuke warhead (miniaturized missile- capable: chairman of JCS)

CNN ^ | 10/08/08

[TigerLikesRooster]

/snip

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Kim Tae-young told a parliamentary committee Wednesday that he believes the North "has been pushing to develop a small warhead to be mounted on a missile."

Kim was quoted as saying by his office that it is unclear whether the North has already manufactured such a small nuclear warhead.

North Korea, which conducted an underground nuclear test in 2006, maintains a stockpile of plutonium believed to be sufficient to produce about a half dozen bombs.

/snip

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[edpc]

Of course they are. They and the Iranians have been working on joint projects for quite some time.

[Dallas59]

Since we aren’t doing anything right now, nor will we ever...why don’t we stop all this pussy footing around and just give Kim one and call it even?

[cripplecreek]

What do they mean by small? Micro nukes are theoretically impossible since a nuke requires a certain amount of mass to achieve critical mass.

[TigerLikesRooster]

small enough to fit into a missile. Should be plutonium-based. The plutonium core has the size of grape fruit. The core and other parts should fit in the small space of the missile cone. It requires more sophisticated technology to detonate reliably.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Thank you.