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North Korea is capable of arming its medium-range Nodong missile with a crude nuclear warhead, two US experts said in a report released Wednesday.
The report by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) also estimates that the communist state has separated enough plutonium to build about five to 12 nuclear weapons.
The North, which agreed in principle last week to disable its nuclear facilities, has been working to develop a nuclear warhead for the Nodong since at least 1994, say the report's authors, David Albright and Paul Brannan.
It is also suspected to have obtained warhead designs from Pakistan's rogue nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.
“North Korea is judged capable of putting a crude (nuclear) warhead on a Nodong missile,” says the report, which follows a visit by former UN nuclear inspector Albright and former State Department official Joel Wit to Pyongyang early this month.
The Nodong, a variant of the Soviet Scud with a potential range of 1,000-1,300 km (625-800 miles), could reach parts of Japan.
But the report says the warhead may not be reliable and may have a relatively low yield.
It estimates that North Korea, which conducted its first nuclear test last October, has an estimated plutonium stockpile of 46-64 kilograms (101-141 pounds) of plutonium, of which 28-50 kilograms are estimated to be in separated form and usable in nuclear weapons.
The vast majority of the separated plutonium, it says, has been produced since a 1994 deal with the United States to shut down the Yongbyon plutonium-producing reactor collapsed in late 2002.
The 1994 Agreed Framework collapsed when the United States accused the North of cheating on it by running a secret highly enriched uranium programme, something the North has publicly denied.
Under the new deal reached last week during six-nation talks in Beijing, the North agreed to disable its nuclear facilities in exchange for energy aid.
As a first step it will shut down and seal Yongbyon within 60 days, re-admit UN nuclear inspectors and receive 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid in return.
Action to permanently disable the nuclear facilities would be rewarded with up to 950,000 tons of heavy oil or other aid.
Critics say the deal does not immediately address either the North's existing nuclear weapons and plutonium stockpile or its suspected uranium-based programme. Supporters say it is a good first step.
