The Washington Post said Tuesday that U.S. intelligence authorities concluded last month that North Korea has mastered the technology for a miniaturized nuclear warhead that could fit on an intercontinental ballistic missile(ICBM).
 
The U.S. daily said if the assessment is true, it would mean that the North has crossed a key threshold on the path to becoming a full-fledged nuclear power.
 
The paper said that the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency(DIA) reached the assessment through a confidential report on the North’s nuclear weapons development program.
 
The report quoted the summary of the DIA report as saying that the intelligence community “assesses North Korea has produced nuclear weapons for ballistic missile delivery, to include delivery by ICBM-class missiles.”
 
The daily said that the assessment was confirmed by two U.S. government officials familiar with the confidential report. However, the paper said it is unclear whether the North succeeded in testing the miniaturized nuclear warhead.
 
The paper also said that the intelligence community believes that the North has 30 nuclear weapons as of the end of last year and will have 60 such weapons by 2020.
 

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