North Korea claims breakthrough on nuclear missile warheads

The reclusive country also cancelled a visit by UN chief Ban Ki-moon after he accused Pyongyang of fuelling regional tensions.

SEOUL // North Korea said on Wednesday it had perfected the technology to make nuclear warheads, soon after announcing it had launched a ballistic missile from a submarine.

It also cancelled a visit by UN chief Ban Ki-moon after he accused Pyongyang of fuelling regional tensions.

Earlier this week, US secretary of state John Kerry condemned the North’s “provocative, destabilising and repressive actions”.

In violation of a UN ban, North Korea has long been testing long-range missiles.

Nearly two weeks ago, the communist state said it had successfully test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM).

If confirmed, that would allow the deployment of nuclear weapons far beyond the Korean peninsula.

However, experts say, the hardest part of delivering a nuclear strike is shrinking a warhead to fit a missile.

Pyongyang’s powerful National Defence Commission (NDC) said it now had the means to do that, in an announcement certain to spark alarm not just in the US, South Korea and Japan, but also in China.

“It has been a long time since we began miniaturising and diversifying our means of nuclear strike,” the NDC said in a statement on the North’s official news agency.

“We have also reached the stage where the highest accuracy rate is guaranteed, not only for short- and medium-range missiles but long-range missiles as well.”

Some analysts were skeptical about the SLBM claim and cautious too about the miniaturisation announcement.

“There are differences between their statements and their actual operational reality,” Daniel Pinkston, a senior researcher of the International Crisis Group, said.

“Some of it is bluster or exaggeration and maybe for internal audiences, and some of it is probably also for external audiences in an effort to test and to see if they can use systems for blackmail or coercion,” he said.

Cho Han-bum, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said Pyongyang was “too cash-strapped” to perfect such intricate technology as miniaturising a warhead.

Mr Cho said North Korea’s young leader Kim, who chairs the NDC, may be having trouble keeping the military under control following the reported execution of his defence minister.

The NDC announcement came hours after Mr Ban said his invitation to visit the Kaesong industrial zone inside North Korea had been cancelled without explanation.

Had Thursday’s visit gone ahead, Mr Ban would have become the first UN secretary-general to set foot in the communist state for more than 20 years, since Boutros Boutros-Ghali in 1993.

“This decision by Pyongyang is deeply regrettable,” the UN chief, a former foreign minister of South Korea, said in Seoul.

“However, I as the secretary-general of the United Nations, will not spare any efforts to encourage the DPRK [North Korea] to work with the international community for peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and beyond.”

But Mr Kerry, visiting Seoul on Monday, warned that North Korea was doing everything to spurn such reconciliation as he condemned Mr Kim’s “egregious” leadership and “grotesque” executions of top officials.

“Instead, it continues to pursue nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, it continues to break promises and make threats, and it continues to show flagrant disregard for international laws,” he said.

US officials could not immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday’s announcement.

* Agence France-Presse