Press. voanews.com
While North
Korea’s recent claim of an imminent intercontinental ballistic missile test is
spreading alarm globally, U.S. experts see it as a bid for attention and a
gambit to intimidate the incoming U.S. administration. On Sunday, the North’s
state-run news agency, KCNA, reported that the country can fire off an ICBM
“anytime and anywhere,” reiterating the position that the communist state is
bolstering nuclear arms capabilities for “self-defense” against the U.S.
The announcement
was met with sharp criticism from the U.S. State Department, which said the
U.S. military retains substantial capability to defend the U.S. and its allies,
and it is “prepared to use that capability when necessary.” “I think it’s just
a statement of fact that we can launch it anytime rather than a threat of
imminent activity,” said Bruce Klinger, senior research fellow for Northeast
Asia at The Heritage Foundation’s Asia Studies Center.
Pressure against
Trump
Klinger, who
spent almost two decades in the U.S. intelligence community, said the latest
saber rattling from Pyongyang appears to be an attempt to push President-elect
Donald Trump and his national security team, whose policy toward North Korea
still remains under wraps, to comply with its own terms.
Pyongyang has
long urged Washington to accept the country as a nuclear state, abandon the strategic
alliance with South Korea, and pull U.S. troops out of the Western Pacific
region. “They are trying to influence the incoming administration just like
they’ve tried to influence the past several administrations,” Klinger said.
“It’s the same game plan that Pyongyang has been pursuing for quite some time.”
Bruce Bennett,
senior defense analyst with the RAND Corporation, said the regime’s intention
is not only to grab the media’s attention, but also to appeal to Trump that
North Korea is a current threat that needs to be ranked at the top of the U.S.
security agenda. “He [Kim] also wants the American people to know he’s very
strong and he poses a threat potentially, even though he hasn’t demonstrated he
can yet,” Bennett said. “He wants to create that image so that we treat him as
someone who’s important.” Despite North Korea’s claimed ICBM capability, it is
unclear where Pyongyang stands on the ability.
Capability
unknown
The U.S. State
Department said last week the North has yet to acquire the ability to outfit an
intercontinental ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead. In an email sent to
VOA this week, Justin Higgins, State Department EAP Press Office Director,
stressed that the U.S. is determined to improve its missile defense capability.
Robert Manning,
senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International
Security, is doubtful that Pyongyang can pull off a successful ICBM test at the
moment.
“Getting an ICBM
to work, getting re-entry vehicle to land and hit a target with a nuclear
warhead on it is a very difficult idea, and in order to achieve that you have
to do a lot of testing,” said Manning. He added that it will take North Korea
at least four or five years to acquire the capability.
Ambassador
Joseph DeTrani, former U.S. special envoy for negotiations with North Korea,
however, warned the North Korean threat is impending. “They are talking about
test-launching an ICBM, which is a real possibility in 2017,” DeTrani said.
“It’s a threat to the region and to the United States also, given the fact that
it could deliver a nuclear weapon.”
Increased
sanctions
Recently, the
U.S. has been upping pressure on the North in coordination with South Korea and
Japan, in hopes of disarming the regime and bringing it back to negotiations. “[We]
sent a very clear message that the international community will not tolerate a
nuclear North Korea and that the Kim regime will face ever-increasing
consequences for its callous and reckless nuclear and missile pursuits,” said
Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken at deputy-level trilateral talks with
Seoul and Tokyo last week. The statement was made in reference to the latest
U.N. resolution adopted last November.
On Tuesday, the
State Department said Washington is still hoping the six-party talks,
multi-state nuclear talks that have been stalled since late 2008, are “a
mechanism that could potentially bring” Pyongyang back into discussions about
its nuclear weapons program.
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