'Matter of time' before N Korea miniaturises nuke: report

Seoul’s Yonhap news agency, citing the state-run Korea Institute for Defence Analyses (KIDA), said Pyongyang developing the technology to achieve miniaturisation was inevitable.

“It is believed that North Korea has not completed the technology for the miniaturisation... of nuclear warheads,” KIDA said in a report to be issued in January, according to Yonhap.

But KIDA said it is “just a matter of time”, noting the country has a high-explosives test site and an estimated 3,000 nuclear scientists and researchers.
The North has 28 state organisations for nuclear development led by the powerful National Defence Commission and the ruling communist party, the KIDA report said, according to Yonhap. It has conducted nuclear tests twice — in October, 2006, and in May this year.

KIDA officials were not immediately available for comment.
The North quit six-party nuclear disarmament talks with the United States, China, South Korea, Russia and Japan in April, after the UN Security Council’s censure of its long-range rocket launch.