Trump’s claim on North Korean nukes may underestimate programme

US president-elect Donald Trump took to Twitter to vow that North Korea won’t develop a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the United States. But it might already have done so.

Views vary, sometimes wildly, on the exact state of North Korea’s closely guarded nuclear and missile programs, but after five atomic test explosions and a rising number of ballistic missile test launches, some experts believe North Korea can arm short- and mid-range missiles with atomic warheads.

That would allow Pyongyang to threaten US forces stationed in Asia and add teeth to its threat last year to use nuclear weapons to “sweep Guam, the base of provocations, from the surface of the earth”.

Guam is a strategically important US territory in the Pacific. Some experts see the US mainland as potentially within reach in as little as five years if North Korea’s nuclear progress isn’t stopped.

Trump tweeted, “North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the US It won’t happen!”