North Korea 'Could Fire Nuclear Missile'

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North Korea's ambassador to the UK has told Sky News that his country could fire a nuclear missile "anytime".

This is a big deal and a frightening prospect - if it's true.

Ambassador Hyun Hak-bong made the claim in an interview with Sky's Defence Correspondent Alistair Bunkall from the country's London embassy.

"We are prepared," the ambassador said. "That is why I say if a sparkle of a fire is made on the Korean peninsula, it will lead to a nuclear war.

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"We don't say empty words. We mean what we mean. It is not the United States that has a monopoly on nuclear weapons strikes."

Bunkall sought clarification: "So can I just be clear: you are telling me that the North Korea has the ability now to fire a nuclear missile?

"Anytime, anytime, yes." the ambassador said.

It is widely accepted that North Korea has "the bomb". But possessing a nuclear bomb is one thing; having the ability to deploy it on a missile is quite another. That is what the ambassador seems to be claiming North Korea can now do.

For years, North Korea has been trying to marry two distinct technologies: it wants to bring together its ballistic missile programme (which it often claims is part of its project to put satellites into orbit) with its nuclear weapon programme.

To deploy a nuclear weapon, North Korea needs to make its nuclear devices "small" enough to fit in the tip of its ballistic missiles - it needs to "miniaturise" them. That's the tricky bit.

The country's nuclear weapons programme itself appears to be successful. It carried out apparently successful underground nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013. Analysts believe that the country could have enough weapons-grade plutonium for at least six bombs.

Shortly after the 2013 test, North Korea claimed its scientists had used a miniaturised nuclear device. No proof was provided but, nonetheless, it prompted the alarm bells in Washington DC and Seoul, South Korea.

Recently, American military sources have said North Korea has probably managed some form of miniaturisation. Sources have told Sky News that China, the country with the closest ties to North Korea, holds similar views.

The ambassador's comments to Sky News would, on the face of it, confirm that they have successfully miniaturised their weapons. However, they come at a time when North Korean nuclear or missile tests have been unnervingly absent.

The last flight test of a long range rocket was in December 2012. In July 2013, Sky News was in Pyongyang to see the country's Musudan and KN-08 missiles being paraded through the streets. They have not been seen since.

But a lack of a headline grabbing fourth nuclear test or missile launch could mask quiet activity. Those who study satellite images of North Korea's known missile launch sites have reported expansion and infrastructure construction.

"I'd say there is a consensus forming that North Korea has miniaturised and weaponised at some basic level," Professor John Delury, senior fellow at the US-China Centre in Seoul, told Sky News.

"There's always room for improvement, of course," he said.

And that's the point: whether or not the ambassador was telling the truth about the ability to fire a nuclear missile, we know that they are trying desperately hard to achieve the capability to do so. The Korean peninsula is already a dangerous place.

Unless North Korea can be brought back to the "Six Party" denuclearisation talks, things could be about to become far less predictable and considerably more dangerous.

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