North Korea closer to long-range nuke missile?

A top American general is warning that North Korea is capable of producing small nuclear warheads, moving the dictatorship one step closer to a long-range missile that could strike the U.S.

“Personally I think that they certainly have had the expertise in the past,” said Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, during a briefing at the Pentagon on Friday.

{mosads}“They’ve had the right connections, and so, I believe, have the capability to have miniaturized a device at this point, and they have the technology to potentially actually deliver what they say they have,” he added.

Pyongyang has tried for years to develop nuclear warheads and long–range rockets and use the sophisticated technologies to create a stockpile of weapons that could hit the U.S.

“We have not seen it tested,” Scaparrotti admitted. But he warned, “I don’t think as a commander we can afford the luxury of believing perhaps they haven’t gotten there.”

The four-star general said the regime may have picked up the technological know-how through its “proliferation relationships with other countries, Iran and Pakistan in particular.”

Despite his hunch, Scaparrotti said he was unsure if North Korea had figured out how to affix a small nuclear device atop a missile.

Scaparrotti added that until tested, it is unlikely that the missile could be an effective threat.

“For something that’s that complex, without it being tested, the probability of it being effective is pretty darn low.”

Later on Friday, Defense Department press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had “no reason to doubt” the general’s assessment that North Korea is advancing toward nuclear missile capability.

Hagel also agrees that “we don’t have a smoking gun piece of evidence that they are at that stage,” Kirby said during a press briefing.

He described the Stalinist regime in Pyongyang as “opaque” and said the Pentagon would monitor the reclusive state “as best we can.”