The Institute for Science and International Security, founded by former United Nations IAEA nuclear inspector David Albright, released a report today warning that North Korea has “moved beyond laboratory-scale work” and now has the “capability to build” a highly enriched uranium-producing centrifuge plant. The report says North Korea’s centrifuge capabilities makes them “both a horizontal and a vertical proliferation threat.”
The Washington Post further reports that the study “comes as a senior South Korean official warned that North Korea’s nuclear program is ‘evolving even now at a very fast pace,'” and that ” that the danger from the North’s nuclear program is now at an ‘alarming’ level.”
North Korea’s nuclear program is just half of the growing threat emanating from Pyongyang. North Korea has also established an independent military division responsible for controlling and deploying its intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs). Known as the Musudan, these missiles are believed to have a range of 1,800 to 3,000 miles–capable of targeting U.S. military bases in Japan, Okinawa and Guam.
Instead of increasing our military capacity to meet this threat, President Barack Obama has slashed missile defense programs and signed the New START agreement witch Russia that limits our future missile defense capabilities.
You can find more Heritage Foundation research on missile defense at 33 Minutes.
