North Korea is directly threatening the US by developing long-range missiles that could carry nuclear warheads, Robert Gates, the defence secretary, said in comments that raise the stakes in the dispute on the Korean peninsula.
Mr Gates said he believed Pyongyang could develop an intercontinental ballistic missile within five years, and described returning to international six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear programme as a matter of urgency. But he added that the Stalinist regime had first to take concrete action, such as a moratorium on nuclear or missile tests.
“With the North Koreans’ continuing development of nuclear weapons and their development of intercontinental ballistic missiles, North Korea is becoming a direct threat to the US and we have to take that into account,” Mr Gates said. “I don’t think it is an immediate threat but, on the other hand, I don’t think it is a five-year threat.”