‘It won’t happen’: Donald Trump on North Korea missile reaching United States

[Hindustani78]

http://indianexpress.com/article/wo...-capable-of-reaching-us-donald-trump-4456552/

Analysts are divided over how close Pyongyang is to realising its full nuclear ambitions, especially as it has never successfully test-fired an ICBM.

By: AFP | Washington | Updated: January 3, 2017 3:47 pm

President-elect Donald Trump has taken to Twitter to promise North Korea would not develop a nuclear missile capable of reaching US territory. His comments come a day after the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Un, appeared to try to put pressure on Trump by announcing his country is in the ‘final stages’ of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).


“North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the US,” Trump tweeted last evening. “It won’t happen!” Although Washington has repeatedly vowed that it would never accept North Korea as a nuclear state, Trump has not previously clearly stated his policy on the isolated Stalinist state.

The US president-elect has not yet put out a policy on North Korea but during the election campaign he had indicated he would be willing to talk its leader, given the opportunity. Trump has also been critical of China over the issue.

The Republican billionaire has already upended precedent by routinely taking to Twitter since his election last month to lambast critics and issue statements — sometimes about the most serious national security issues — sending analysts scrambling to divine what they may mean for US policy once he takes office on January 20.

He launched a solo bid to restart the Cold War arms race last month, tweeting that the United States must “greatly strengthen and expand” its nuclear capabilities. He has also angered China by tweeting accusations of military expansionism and currency manipulation. But he will need Beijing, Pyongyang’s closest ally, to deal with North Korea’s mounting confrontation.

However, he appeared to complicate that prospect with his latest criticism last evening following his vow about North Korea. “China has been taking out massive amounts of money & wealth from the US in totally one-sided trade, but won’t help with North Korea,” he tweeted. “Nice!”

In a 30-minute televised New Year’s speech on Sunday, Kim said Pyongyang had “soared as a nuclear power,” adding that it is now a “military power of the East that cannot be touched by even the strongest enemy.” Although he did not make a specific reference to the incoming Trump administration, he called on Washington to make a “resolute decision to withdraw its anachronistic hostile North Korea policy.”

Analysts are divided over how close Pyongyang is to realising its full nuclear ambitions, especially as it has never successfully test-fired an ICBM. However, North Korea carried out two nuclear tests and numerous missile launches last year in pursuit of its oft-stated goal — developing a weapons system capable of hitting the US mainland with a nuclear warhead.

Thae Yong-Ho, North Korea’s former deputy ambassador to Britain who defected to the South in August, has said Kim was planning a ‘prime time’ nuclear weapons push in 2017 to take advantage of leadership transitions in Washington and Seoul.

(With inputs from Reuters)

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

ICBM's are 1960's tech. If they want them, they will get them eventually.

It ain't rocket science.

 

[Hamza913]

I'm hoping that when North Korea's ICBM come to fruition, we can use them for help in making our own. Although Pakistan doesn't seem interested in that right now though

 

[Mage]

Maybe not now but give them enough time they'll eventually have the capability to reach USA with their missiles.

 

[Hindustani78]

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) provides field guidance at the newly built National Space Development General Satellite Control and Command Centre in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang May 3, 2015. Reuters
http://www.businessinsider.com/pentagon-the-us-can-protect-its-allies-from-north-korean-nukes-2017-1
The US Defense Department, reacting to North Korea's statement that it plans to test an intercontinental ballistic missile, said on Tuesday it was confident in its ability to protect U.S. allies and the U.S. homeland from threats from Pyongyang.

"We have a ballistic missile defense ... umbrella that we're confident in for the region and to protect the United States homeland," Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told a news briefing two days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country was close to testing an ICBM.

ICBM's are 1960's tech. If they want them, they will get them eventually.

It ain't rocket science.

ICBM's with Nuclear or conventional warheads launching means open war .


http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-nuclear-weapons-expansion-risk-2017-1

"The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes," Trump posted to Twitter on December 22, 2016.

Trump is worried about the nuclear weapons modernization efforts of Russia, which in 2014 violated a key arms reduction treaty, plus the emerging threat of North Korea. His tough-guy attitude echoes Cold War-era logic: outmatch your adversaries, or risk a nation-destroying preemptive strike.

Russia currently possesses 7,300 nuclear weapons. The United States has 7,100. Together, these armaments comprise about 93% of all nuclear weapons on Earth. By contrast, China has about 260 warheads.

Less than a quarter of these weapons are actually deployed in the air, on land, or at sea — the so-called "triad" of defense. Also, an uncertain number are smaller, "tactical" devices meant for the battlefield. (Such devices are their own can of worms, as we'll show shortly.)

Most US and Russian arms are officially deemed as "strategic," such as the submarine-launched W88 thermonuclear warhead


2018 New START deployed strategic nuclear weapons limit of 1,550 as the total United States nuclear weapons inventory. In fact, the total of all U.S. nuclear weapons— deployed, in reserve, or awaiting dismantlement—is more than four times that total.Arms control agreements, meanwhile, have cut our deployed forces from over 12,000 nuclear weapons to the current level of 1,550.”total inventory is over 6,500 nuclear weapons.

Total stockpile: 1538 from the latest U.S. Department of State data plus 180 nonstrategic forces

Warheads on Deployed ICBMs, Deployed SLBMs, and Nuclear Warheads Counted for Deployed Heavy Bombers - 1538

Reserve Weapons (non-deployed) - 2680
Non-strategic, short range warheads stored in Europe - 180

Strategic, Non-strategic, and Reserve Weapons - 4398
Nuclear Weapons Awaiting Dismantlement - 2340

Deployed Strategic, Deployed Non-strategic, Non-deployed, Awaiting Dismantlement - 6738

Many strategic weapons, like Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) deployed across middle America, can't be disabled once they leave a silo.

The test launch of a Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile.

"[In 2014], almost a hundred Minuteman launch officers were disciplined for cheating on their proficiency exams. In 2015, three launch officers at Malmstrom Air Force Base, in Montana, were dismissed for using illegal drugs, including ecstasy, cocaine, and amphetamines. That same year, a launch officer at Minot Air Force Base, in North Dakota, was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for heading a violent street gang, distributing drugs, sexually assaulting a girl under the age of sixteen, and using psilocybin, a powerful hallucinogen. As the job title implies, launch officers are entrusted with the keys for launching intercontinental ballistic missiles."

US gets 30 minutes of warning with an ICBM launch. Russia's land-based radar systems, meanwhile, can give a few minutes' notice before a warhead lands.

The second — the US military's B61-12 gravity bomb design

The B61-12 will recycle four older-style bombs that simply fell to target with a precision of about 300-550 feet. The rebuilt bombs, however, will have new pop-out fins and thrusters to guide them to a target with a precision of less than 100 feet.

 

[KAL-EL]

Maybe not now but give them enough time they'll eventually have the capability to reach USA with their missiles.

I concur.. They will eventually have the capability. But the USA can easily reach them right back. And the regime knows that..

 

[Mage]

I concur.. They will eventually have the capability. But the USA can easily reach them right back. And the regime knows that..

With their missile system USA can anywhere in this planet. But that doesn't mean others should stop developing missile system just because USA might hit them.

North need to attain the ability to perform a second strike. North Korea and Iran are two countries made villain infront of rest of the world thanks to geopolitics. These two countries need sophisticated missile system the most.

 

[Solomon2]

I concur.. They will eventually have the capability...

I disagree. It's not a question of how recently the technology was developed elsewhere but of infrastructure within N.K. itself, or what others are willing to provide to them. Thus continuing restraint is possible and practical.