Posted on 02/03/2011 9:33:13 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
North Korea will likely develop intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads within the coming decade, the chief U.S. military officer said Thursday.
"There's little doubt in my mind, unless North Korea is deterred, that sometime in the next, I'm not sure but, five to 10 years, the provocations ... will continue at a much higher threat level, which could include a nuclear-capable ICBM," Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview with Financial Times, according to a transcript released by the Pentagon. "That's what I believe we're looking at. I can't be precise about the time and say it's exactly here but clearly there is evolution going on there where the threat becomes much more serious."
Mullen's statement is in tune with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who said earlier this month that North Korea's missiles and nuclear weapons will pose a threat to the U.S. within five years. Gates also urged North Korea to impose a moratorium on nuclear and missile testing to help revive the six-party nuclear talks.
(Excerpt) Read more at english.yonhapnews.co.kr ...
OK...to some extent. I’m certain they can engineer a missile that is theoretically capable of lofting such and so of a weight for so many thousand miles.
Actually doing it is quite another thing.
Actually engineering a warhead that can survive to detonation is yet another.
Actually engineering an operable MIRV system is yet another.
Besides, have the NORKS successfully demonstrated a multi-stage rocket yet? I’m pretty sure every launch to date has failed in one way or another.
Mullen may be good on the theoretical end of things but he is not a Combat officer and I take his pronouncements with a very large grain of salt.
Mullen may be good on the theoretical end of things but he is not a Combat officer and I take his pronouncements with a very large grain of salt.
Like so many of our Admirals and Generals today, Mullen is more politician than he should be.
I agree with you at every point. I do not think that North Korea will exist as a state within the next 24-36 months. They have agreed to military talks with South Korea.
Keeping America out of space, where we could have defended ourselves from all this, is Obama’s greatest treason.
Secret arrangement has been made for the first test shot to hit the Honolulu Vital Records Office as the quid pro quo for the technology :)
LOL
All your points, plus what is the chance that the DPRK will even exist 10 years hence? I was “in charge” of intelligence for the DMZ the night that ROK president Park Chung Hee was assassinated by his own KCIA chief. I could see the generals in the North replicating that. During my two tours in Korea, we “joked” that we were there to keep the ROKs from going North. I was last there in 1982. Unless the PRC is giving the DPRK MIRV technology, it ain’t gonna happen. I won’t even comment on Admiral Mullen.
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