Book review: North Korean Nuclear Operationality, edited by Gregory Moore
That Pyongyang has the ability to build and detonate nuclear warheads is no longer in question.
edited by Gregory Moore
Johns Hopkins University Press
3 stars
Julian Ryall
That Pyongyang has the ability to build and detonate nuclear warheads is no longer in question.
With the international community's failure to stop the late Kim Jong-il achieving that aim, the focus has now switched to ensuring his son and heir, Kim Jong-un, does not take the next step: marry a warhead to a viable delivery system.
Unfortunately, the experts agree, it is only a matter of time before North Korean scientists make that breakthrough.
The threat the regime poses to international efforts to stop another nuclear device being detonated in anger is ratcheted up given Pyongyang has shown it is perfectly happy to share its nuclear technology with Syria and Iran. Would it draw the line at al-Qaeda?
North Korean Nuclear Operationality: Regional Security and Nonproliferation brings together some of the most well-respected analysts of the North Korean nuclear situation and offers some timely insight - especially if South Korean intelligence estimates that the North is planning a fourth underground nuclear test as it hones its ability to miniaturise a warhead are correct.