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America no longer sees Kim Jong Un as a joke
[McKlatchy Report] WASHINGTON Commentators laughed last year when a photograph emerged of Kim Jong Un standing next to an orb, which a North Korean newspaper stated was a miniaturized nuclear weapon. "That’s a weird looking disco ball," joked one intelligence contractor on Twitter.Not many are laughing anymore. On Tuesday, the Washington Post reported that a U.S. intelligence assessment concluded North Korea has successfully produced a miniaturized nuclear warhead, a disclosure that rapidly intensified an already tense standoff with the rogue nation. Soon after the report, President Donald Trump warned Kim against making further threats, saying North Korea "will be met with the fire and the fury like the world has never seen." Whether Kim truly possesses the ability to miniaturize a nuclear warhead -- and successfully launch it on an intercontinental missile -- is unknown and remains hotly debated. Yet there is no doubt now that Kim has scored one major achievement: He is finally being taken seriously by the foreign policy establishment and intelligence agencies, evidenced by the latest assessment on his nuclear capabilities. Posted by: Besoeker 2017-08-09 |
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