{{The Defense Intelligence Agency has concluded with “moderate confidence” that North Korea might have a nuclear weapon that’s small enough to be placed on a ballistic missile. }}
But the DIA also says that if that is the case, the reliability of the missile would be low.
The alarming assessment came as North Korea has been issuing threats that range from testing a new missile to nuclear war against the U.S. and South Korea.
It was made public near the end of a House Armed Services Committee in which Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey were testifying about the proposed Pentagon budget.
Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., asked Dempsey if he agreed with a recent classified DIA report that contained an unclassified section that said, “DIA assesses with moderate confidence the North currently has nuclear weapons capable of delivery by ballistic missiles.
However, the reliability will be low.” Dempsey eventually admitted he had not seen this report so he couldn’t answer the congressman’s question.
“Moderate confidence” is an intelligence term that signals plausibility. The 2007 National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s nuclear capabilities defined it as “generally [meaning] credibly sourced and plausible information, but not of sufficient quality or corroboration to warrant a higher level of confidence.”
Tonight Director of National Intelligence James Clapper downplayed the DIA assessment, saying that “North Korea has not yet demonstrated the full range of capabilities necessary for a nuclear armed missile.”
He also emphasized that the assessment was not the intelligence community’s assessment.
“I concur with the earlier Department of Defense statement that ‘it would be inaccurate to suggest that the North Korean regime has fully developed and tested the kinds of nuclear weapons referenced in the passage.’”
The earlier statement that Clapper referenced was by Pentagon press secretary George Little, who also said, “The United States continues to closely monitor the North Korean nuclear program and calls upon North Korea to honor its international obligations.”
The DIA is one of 17 intelligence agencies in the federal government that independently do their own assessments on specific topics of interest.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) is tasked with developing a consensus intelligence assessment that helps policy makers make national security decisions.
That can prove difficult when different agencies arrive at different conclusions on the same topic.
The assessment may have never been intended to be made public, said a U.S. official, adding that it may have been erroneously labeled as unclassified in what remains a mostly classified report.
According to intelligence officials, such a key assessment is almost always listed as classified.
Leave a Reply