US Intelligence Agencies Underestimated North Korea's Nuclear Capabilities
US intelligence agencies have wildly underestimated North Korea's nuclear missile capabilities according to a scathing report by the New York Times. According to the publication, intelligence agencies told the new administration that while North Korea had built the bomb, there was still ample time – upwards of four years – to stop its development of a missile capable of hitting an American city.
Kim Jong Un, the current leader of the country is young and distrusted by the military, they assured the Trump administration. This gave them time to explore negotiations or pursue countermeasures, with one official involved early policy reviews revealed that estimates suggested the hermit kingdom will not be able to hit the continental US until 2020, perhaps even 2022.
Recent developments proved such claims to be false as the Kim regime continued to test missile after missile with South Korean officials suggesting that the only thing holding them back is a reliable reentry vehicle for nuclear warheads – something they are bound to acquire within the year.
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Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, Trump's national security adviser, acknowledged in an interview with the Times on Saturday that Kim's weapons programs development "has been quicker and the time timeline is a lot more compressed than most people believed." McMaster also argued that they are working with more urgency and are trying to resolve the issue before conflict erupts between the two nations.
A spokesman for the director of national intelligence told the Times that the intelligence community was not caught off guard by the accelerated pace of Kim's nuclear missile development. However, this doesn't change the fact that they gave the Trump administration a wildly optimistic assessment of the situation.
That being said, McMaster said that President Trump is not worried as he had anticipated that perfect intelligence about everything and is very comfortable with ambiguity. On Friday, Mr. Trump said he would be willing to talk to Kim on the phone but not with preconditions, a willingness that has yet to be reciprocated by the North Korean leader.
