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North Korea Missiles Still Lack Capabilities, U.S. General Says

North Korea Missiles Still Lack Capabilities, U.S. General Says

(Bloomberg) -- North Korea has made minimal advances in the capabilities needed for an effective nuclear missile that could reach the American mainland, according to the U.S.’s No. 2 military official.

“Probably the only thing they’ve advanced is their understanding of mixing and fabrication of solid-rocket fuel” after tests of short-range systems in May, General Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview. Solid fuel is more stable than liquid fuel and allows for faster reloading of mobile missiles.

North Korea Missiles Still Lack Capabilities, U.S. General Says

Selva’s comments came ahead of China President Xi Jinping’s arrival in Pyongyang for the first such visit in 14 years. Xi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un were expected to stake out common ground in nuclear talks, which have stalled since U.S. President Donald Trump walked out on a summit with Kim in February.

While Trump advisers said North Korea’s recent missile tests violated United Nations Security Council resolutions, the U.S. president tweeted that it “disturbed some of my people, but not me.” The regime hasn’t conducted the test of a potential intercontinental ballistic missile since November 2017, a moratorium that Trump has cited as a success of his efforts to reach an nuclear accord.

North Korea Missiles Still Lack Capabilities, U.S. General Says

The Defense Department said in a May 2018 report to Congress that “North Korea is committed to developing a nuclear-armed ICBM that is capable of posing a direct threat to the United States.” Selva said in the interview that North Korea hasn’t demonstrated that capability yet.

Short-range missile tests aren’t subjected to “the dynamic forces that are put on” a reentry vehicle that carries a warhead “over a longer distance,” Selva said. So “they’re going to have to launch one at some distance to actually get that kind of the heat and the twisting forces,” he said.

“I have seen no indication that they’ve done that kind of work,” Selva said.

North Korea Missiles Still Lack Capabilities, U.S. General Says

At the end of 2017, North Korea proclaimed that its nuclear program was complete, and Kim said in a 2018 New Year’s speech that he could now strike anywhere in the U.S.

Still, as of this week, Selva said, “I’ve seen no indication that they’ve improved the arming, firing and fusing equation” of a nuclear warhead that would allow it to detonate “or the actual” reentry vehicle that carries the nuclear warhead.

--With assistance from Adrian Leung.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tony Capaccio in Washington at acapaccio@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net, Larry Liebert, Brendan Scott

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