U.S. says ready to defend against N. Korea’s possible nuclear attack

PanARMENIAN.Net - The U.S. government believes North Korea has the capability to launch a nuclear weapon against the U.S. homeland and stands ready to defend against any such attacks, a high-level U.S. military official said on Wednesday, October 7, according to Reuters.

Admiral Bill Gortney, commander of U.S. Northern Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, said he agreed with U.S. intelligence assessments that North Korea had nuclear weapons, as well as the ability to miniaturize them and put them on a rocket that could reach the United States.

"We assess that they have the capability to reach the homeland with a nuclear weapon from a rocket," Gortney told an event hosted by the Atlantic Council think tank.

Gortney said it was very difficult to predict the behavior of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un but the U.S. military was prepared to respond if he were to use a nuclear weapon.

"We’re ready for him, and we’re ready 24 hours a day if he should be dumb enough to shoot something at us," Gortney said.

"I'm pretty confident that we're going to knock down the numbers that are going to be shot."

North Korea's space agency said last month Pyongyang was building a new satellite and readying it for launch, with any use of a long-range rocket suggesting that the secretive state has made advances developing a ballistic missile.