North Korea now able to miniaturise nuclear warheads – Japan defence report

Upcoming review out of Tokyo will reportedly say missile programme poses ‘serious and imminent threat’

Justin McCurry in Tokyo
Wed 21 Aug 2019 04.23 BST Last modified on Wed 21 Aug 2019 04.24 BST

Japan’s government will reportedly state that North Korea is capable of miniaturising nuclear warheads in a forthcoming defence report, it has emerged.

Tokyo will upgrade its estimate of the regime’s nuclear capability, having said last year only that the technical feat was a possibility, the conservative Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said on Wednesday, without citing sources.

The defence report will maintain Japan’s contention that North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes pose a “serious and imminent threat” to its security after recent meetings between Donald Trump and the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, failed to make progress on denuclearisation.

The report is expected to receive cabinet approval in mid-September, the Yomiuri said.

North Korea has conducted six rounds of short-range missile launches in recent weeks, in an apparent attempt to pressure Washington into making concessions in any future talks over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme.

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