North Korea says it has miniaturized nuclear warheads

Thomson Reuters

On the heels of last month's long-range rocket launch, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country has miniaturized nuclear warheads, North's KCNA news agency reported on Wednesday.

On February 7, the rogue regime fired a long-range rocket, which it defended as being used solely for its developing space program.

However, the launch is viewed by other nations, such as the US, Japan, and South Korea, as a front for testing an intercontinental ballistic missile, since the technology is the same.

"Our concern though is that they do a space-launch but really it's the same technology to develop ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles)," a US official told Reuters.

In short, the North proved it can develop and launch similar technology to ICBMs and now it claims they have nukes which can be mounted to those. 

Thomson Reuters

Under a UN Security Council resolution, North Korea is banned from developing any ballistic-missile technology.

Kim also inspected the nuclear warheads designed for thermo-nuclear reaction, KCNA said, referring to a hydrogen bomb that the country claimed to have tested in January.

North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test on January 6 and claimed it was a hydrogen bomb test, which was disputed by many experts and the governments of South Korea and the United States.

The UN Security Council imposed harsh new sanctions on the isolated state last week for the nuclear test, and Pyongyang has stepped up its belligerent rhetoric through state media.

Last week Kim ordered his country to be ready to use nuclear weapons at any time in the face of growing threats from enemies.

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