General Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – the US’s number 2 military official, said in an interview that, “Probably the only thing they’ve advanced is their understanding of mixing and fabrication of solid-rocket fuel,” which helps with more rapid reloading of mobile missiles.

A 2016 North Korean intermediate range ballistic missile test launch. Image source: KCNA via Reuters

Gen. Selva’s comments were in reference to North Korea’s controversial tests of short-range systems in May and and were made just ahead of China’s President Xi Jinping’s visit to Pyongyang to discussed the stalled nuclear issue with Kim Jong Un.

Per Bloomberg, Selva said that:

Short-range missile tests aren’t subjected to “the dynamic forces that are put on” a reentry vehicle that carries a warhead “over a longer distance.” He explained, “they’re going to have to launch one at some distance to actually get that kind of the heat and the twisting forces.”

He concluded that, “I have seen no indication that they’ve done that kind of work” — throwing cold water on Kim’s prior 2018 New Year speech claim that his rockets could strike “anywhere in the US”.

Despite no reported intercontinental ballistic missile test since November 2017, something the White House has cited as a success in its engagement efforts, a May 2018 report delivered to Congress by Pentagon leaders found that “North Korea is committed to developing a nuclear-armed ICBM that is capable of posing a direct threat to the United States.”

–Via Bloomberg

Meanwhile, President Xi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are meeting in Pyongyang Thursday after Xi became the first Chinese leader in 14 years to visit North Korea. And although nobody could say for sure what the two would be discussing, most believed that their mutual difficulties with Washington would likely be on the agenda.

Source: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-06-20/north-korea-missiles-lack-capability-strike-us-top-general-says

The post North Korea Missiles Lack Capability To Strike US, Top General Says first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – The rival Koreas announced Monday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in will meet in Pyongyang sometime in September, while their envoys also discussed Pyongyang’s nuclear disarmament efforts and international sanctions.

The push for what would be the leaders’ third summit since April comes amid renewed worries surrounding a nuclear standoff between Washington and Pyongyang.

The announcement released after nearly two hours of talks led by the rivals’ chiefs for inter-Korean affairs was remarkably thin on details. In a three-sentence joint statement, the two sides did not mention an exact date for the summit and provided no details on how to implement past agreements.

More: Amid heatwave, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un steps out in summer clothes, straw hat

More: Seoul: Rival Koreas to meet to prepare for leaders’ summit

Ri Son Gwon, the head of the North Korean delegation, told pool reporters at the end of the talks that officials agreed on a specific date for the summit in Pyongyang sometime within September, but he refused to share the date, saying he wanted to “keep reporters wondering.”

The South Korean unification minister, Cho Myoung-gyon, told reporters after the meeting that officials still had some work to do before agreeing on when exactly the summit would happen. He said the two sides will again discuss when the leaders would meet but didn’t say when.

It wasn’t clear why Ri and Cho differed on the issue of the date, and Cho wouldn’t answer a specific question about the discrepancy.

The meeting at a North Korea-controlled building in the border village of Panmunjom comes as the international community waits to see if North Korea will begin abandoning its nuclear weapons program, something officials suggested would happen after Kim’s summit with President Donald Trump in June in Singapore.

North Korea is thought to have a growing arsenal of nuclear bombs and long-range missiles and to be closing in on the ability to reliably target anywhere on the U.S. mainland. A string of North Korean weapons tests last year, during which Pyongyang claimed to have completed its nuclear arsenal, had many in Asia worried that Washington and Pyongyang were on the brink of war.

Cho, the chief of the South Korean delegation, said the two sides also “talked a lot” about international sanctions meant to punish the North for its development of nuclear weapons, but he didn’t elaborate.

Seoul has been preparing for possible economic collaboration with Pyongyang that could go ahead when sanctions are lifted. Pyongyang has urged Washington to ease the economic punishments, but the United States says that can’t happen until the North completely denuclearizes.

The South Korean envoy said he urged Pyongyang to accelerate its current nuclear negotiations with the United States. The North said it was making efforts to disarm, but Cho said there were no new details on those efforts.

Experts say there has been slow progress on those efforts since the Singapore summit.

Pyongyang has urged Washington to reciprocate its goodwill gestures, which include suspending missile and nuclear tests and returning the remains of Americans who fought in the Korean War. Washington, which cancelled an annual joint military exercise with South Korea that had taken place in August in previous years, has refused to ease sanctions until North Korea finally and fully denuclearizes.

Source: https://www.king5.com/article/news/nation-now/north-korean-leader-kim-jong-un-and-souths-president-moon-jae-in-to-meet-in-pyongyang-in-september/465-124c3a5e-ff74-4cab-b4bb-c0b709074396

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