The heat has just been cranked up dramatically between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea. The two sides have been trading threats for quite some time, and now Trump has vowed to rain down “fire and fury like the world has never seen” if the Asian nation keeps escalating its nuclear threats.
North Korea said to possess miniaturized nuclear warhead
The Washington Post reported today that North Korea has a mini nuclear warhead that was able to fit inside the ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) it has been testing. The Post cited a previously secret analysis from the Defense Intelligence Agency. The UN Security Council voted unanimously over the weekend to impose new sanctions on North Korea due to the testing of those ICBMs.
According to the Post, all these reports suggest that North Korea’s nuclear capabilities seem to be moving ahead much faster than the U.S. has previously thought they were. Having a miniaturized nuclear warhead that’s able to fit inside an ICBM would greatly increase the Asian nation’s ability to drop nuclear bombs on targets that are much further away than those it could previously reach.
It’s still unclear whether Pyongyang could hit the mainland U.S. with a nuclear warhead, although officials in the U.S. realized last month that North Korea’s efforts were moving forward much faster than expected. Trump and North Korea are apparently also moving closer and closer to a confrontation because of Pyongyang’s fast-advancing nuclear efforts.
Trump and North Korea
Earlier this year, Trump tweeted that North Korea won’t be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon that can reach parts of the U.S. Shortly after today’s report from The Washington Post, Trump held a press conference on his property in New Jersey and advised North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to “not make any more threats to the U.S.”
He added, “They will be met with fire and fury and frankly power the likes of which the world has never seen before,” reports The Independent.
Pyongyang may have as many as 60 nuclear weapons, according to the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency analysis. The ICBMs it tested last month were said to be able to reach the U.S. mainland, although they weren’t believed to be able to carry a nuclear warhead when those tests were revealed.
