03/31/2017 / By Russel Davis
North Korea’s Kim Jong-un could easily wipe out 90 percent of the American population, two U.S. intelligence experts warned.
In a joint article, former CIA director Robert James Woolsey Jr and US Congressional EMP Task Force director Dr. Peter Vincent Pry refuted the mainstream media’s allegations that North Korea may not be able deliver on its repeated threats to launch a nuclear strike against the U.S. “False reassurance is given to the American people that North Korea has not ‘demonstrated’ that it can miniaturise a nuclear warhead small enough for missile delivery, or build a reentry vehicle for an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of penetrating the atmosphere to blast a US city,” Woolsey and Pry stated.
The two experts noted that technological dilemmas such as warhead miniaturization and reentry vehicle design would be simple enough matters to address for countries that have already developed nuclear weapons and long-range missiles like North Korea. In a photograph that circulated last year, the North Korean dictator can be seen inspecting an alleged nuclear warhead that was purportedly small enough to be mounted on ballistic missiles.
The experts have also confirmed that North Korea indeed has two classes of intercontinental ballistic missile — the road mobile KN-08 and KN-14 — both of which seemed to be equipped with cutting-edge reentry vehicles. The experts also warned that North Korea could still land a huge blow in the U.S. defense even if their alleged nuclear weapons are yet to materialize.
According to Woolsey and Pry, the country could easily deliver an atomic bomb concealed in a freighter going to the U.S., or hire terrorists to launch a nuclear suicide mission across the unguarded Mexican border, which may affect densely-populated port cities and areas closest to the border. The experts said detonating a Hiroshima-type A-bomb with a yield of 10-kilotons would result in about 200,000 casualties.The experts confirmed that North Korea has tested a nuclear weapon with estimated yields of 20 to 30 kilotons. According to the Defense Department, the country may have tested H-Bomb components in January last year. H-bombs are more powerful than A-bombs and may result in much larger casualties.
CIA’s top East Asia analyst publicly announced in 2008 that North Korea was successful in developing miniaturized nuclear warheads to be deployed on its Nodong medium-range missile. According to the analyst, the missile was able to strike Japan and South Korea, and may even reach the U.S. it delivered through a freighter.
In 2011, Lt. General Ronald Burgess, Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, testified that North Korea has already weaponized its nuclear devices into warheads. Burgess made his testimonies before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
In early 2015, former senior national security officials cautioned that North Korea might have the capacity to use satellites to launch a small nuclear warhead specifically developed to make a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse attack against the U.S. The Congressional EMP Commission warned that such an attack could potentially blackout the national electric grid and other infrastructures essential for sustaining life. This may result in subsequent societal collapse and starvation, which in turn may kill nine out of 10 Americans.
Two North Korean satellites — KMS-3 and KMS-4 — currently orbit over the U.S. These satellites’ trajectories appear consistent with surprise EMP attack, Woolsey and Pry said.
During a Pentagon press conference in April 2015, former North American Aerospace Defense commander Adm. William Gortney warned that North Korea’s KN-08 mobile ICBM also has the capacity to launch a nuclear warhead against the U.S. Gortney repeated this warning in October 2015 during an Atlantic Council event. “I agree with the intelligence community that we assess that they [North Koreans] have the ability, they have the weapons, and they have the ability to miniaturize those weapons, and they have the ability to put them on a rocket that can range the [U.S.] homeland,” Gortney said.
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North Korea, nuclear weapons, nukes
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