Defence Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant-General Vincent Stewart (Gary Cameron/Reuters}
“If left on its current trajectory the regime will ultimately succeed in fielding a nuclear-armed missile capable of threatening the United States homeland. While nearly impossible to predict when this capability will be operational, the North Korean regime is committed and is on a pathway where this capability is inevitable.” DIA Director Vincent Stewart
(excerpted from Al Jazeera) US lawmakers at a Senate hearing on Tuesday pressed Stewart and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats to estimate how far away North Korea was from obtaining an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that could reach the United States.
John Schilling, a missile expert contributing to Washington’s 38 North think-tank, estimated it would take until at least 2020 for North Korea to be able to develop an ICBM capable of reaching the US mainland and until 2025 for one powered by solid fuel.
According to a transcript of a April 29 a telephone call, leaked by the Intercept, Trump told Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is a “madman with nuclear weapons. We can’t let a madman with nuclear weapons let on the loose like that. We have a lot of firepower, more than he has, times 20. But we don’t want to use it,” Trump also queried Duterte about whether he believed Kim was “stable or not stable”. The Philippine leader responded their North Korean counterpart’s “mind is not working and he might just go crazy one moment Kim has a “dangerous toy in his hands that could create so much agony and suffering for all mankind”, Duterte added.
Trump appeared reassured that North Korea’s recent missile tests had failed, saying “all his rockets are crashing. That’s the good news”.