North Korea ‘still a year or two away’ from effective nuclear missile technology
Seoul/Beijing — North Korea still does not appear to have mastered missile re-entry technology and will take at least one or two more years to do so, although its ability to miniaturise a nuclear warhead is advancing quickly, South Korea’s vice-minister of defence said. Concern that North Korea is close to achieving its goal of putting mainland US within range of a nuclear weapon has underpinned a spike in tension in recent months. US President Donald Trump warned at the weekend that the US military was "locked and loaded" if North Korea acted unwisely, although top US officials said there was no imminent risk of a nuclear war. "Both the US and South Korea do not believe North Korea has yet completely gained re-entry technology in material engineering terms," Defence Vice-Minister Suh Choo-suk said in remarks televised on Sunday for a Korea Broadcasting System show. "We don’t feel they’ve reached that point yet but it’s true they are approaching it. We can’t pinpoint the exact timin...
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