America’s Five-Year Flip-Flop on North Korea’s Missiles

Scott A. Snyder

Security,

North Korea announced that it successfully launched the Kwangmyongsong-4 satellite at 9:30 am on February 7, 2016.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) announced that it successfully launched the Kwangmyongsong-4 satellite at 9:30 am on February 7, 2016. But the United States regards DPRK satellite launches as thinly-veiled efforts to advance its long-range ballistic missile capabilities. Secretary of State John Kerry condemned the latest launch as “a flagrant violation of UN Security Council Resolutions related to the DPRK use of ballistic missile technology.”

This compilation of statements by U.S. government officials over the past five years shows U.S. assessments regarding North Korea’s ballistic missile capabilities.

January 11, 2011: Then-U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says during a visit to Beijing that North Korea could have the ability to hit the continental United States with a ballistic missile in five years. [New York Times]

January 27, 2011: Then-Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen says in an interview to the Financial Times: “There’s little doubt in my mind, unless North Korea is deterred, that sometime in the next, I’m not sure but, five to ten years, the provocations. . . will continue at a much higher threat level, which could include a nuclear-capable ICBM.” [Yonhap]

March 11, 2011: Then-U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Ronald Burgess says: “The North may now have several plutonium-based nuclear warheads that it can deliver by ballistic missiles and aircraft as well as by conventional means.” [Yonhap]