A Department of State spokeswoman suggested Sunday that North Korea has yet to develop nuclear capabilities, ignoring the regime’s nuclear testing history.
There is a strong tendency to deny North Korea’s capabilities, but spokeswoman Heather Nauert took it to a new level with a rather surprising weekend tweet.
#DPRK will not obtain a nuclear capability. Whether through diplomacy or force is up to the regime @StateDept
— Heather Nauert (@statedeptspox) October 1, 2017
It appears that she intended to send a tough message to North Korea, but the issue is that the rogue North Korean regime has conducted six nuclear tests since 2006. During the Sept. 3 test, North Korea tested a staged thermonuclear bomb with an explosive yield far more powerful than anything the country has previously detonated.
The most recent test shook the earth and reshaped the mountains surrounding North Korea’s nuclear test site. (RELATED: North Korea’s Sixth Nuclear Test Literally Moved Mountains).
The intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-14 is seen during its test in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang, July 5 2017. KCNA/via REUTERS
North Korea tested its new Hwasong-14 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICMB) twice successfully in July, demonstrating a theoretical ability to deliver a nuclear payload to targets across parts, if not most, of the continental U.S.
The North asserted after its most recent nuclear test that it intends to mount its new hydrogen bomb on its ICBM. North Korea actually released images of the warhead.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un provides guidance with Ri Hong Sop (2nd L) and Hong Sung Mu (R) on a nuclear weapons program in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang September 3, 2017. KCNA via REUTERS
“We should assume today that North Korea has that capability and has the will to use that capability.” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford told Congress last week, referring to the ability to hit the U.S. with a nuclear-tipped missile.
Nuclear and North Korea experts were extremely critical of Nauert’s tweet, with one renowned arms expert commenting that statements like this are “why North Korea talks about arming a missile with nuclear weapon & launching it into the Pacific.”
“I think the main problem is that we don’t know what to do,” Jeffrey Lewis, the director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program in the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, recently explained to The Daily Caller News Foundation. “So, rather than admit that our policy has failed and we don’t have a plan, we pretend that we still have time to figure this out.”
Nauert’s motivations are unknown, but all evidence suggests that North Korea is already a nuclear-armed state. The failures of past administrations to resolve this problem has created a new situation, one in which the U.S. is trying to take nuclear weapons away from North Korea, not prevent the regime from developing nuclear weapons.
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