WASHINGTON — Although intelligence analysts are increasingly concerned that North Korea may be able to arm a missile with a nuclear warhead, U.S. spy agencies have not obtained evidence confirming that Pyongyang has developed that capability, intelligence officials and weapons proliferation experts said Friday.
The officials said assessments of North Korea's ability to devise a functional nuclear warhead are based largely on projections of its presumed progress toward that goal, not on any significant intelligence discoveries.
For that reason, several officials said, a senior Pentagon intelligence official might have overstated the position of analysts when he told a Senate committee Thursday that the U.S. believed North Korea had the ability to arm a missile with a nuclear device.
...
In a follow-up statement Friday evening, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said, "North Korea has a theoretical capability to produce a warhead and mate it with a missile, but we have no information to suggest they have done so."
...Di Rita declined to say whether Jacoby had misspoken.
"His words were what his words were," Di Rita said.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-norkor30apr30,1,6321646.story?coll=la-headlines-world
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