WASHINGTON \u2014 CIA Director Mike Pompeo said Tuesday that North Korea is moving \u201cever closer\u201d to putting Americans at risk and that he believes leader Kim Jong Un won\u2019t rest until he\u2019s able to threaten multiple nuclear attacks against the U.S. at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNorth Korea is ever closer to being able to hold America at risk.\u201d Pompeo said at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank in Washington. \u201cI want everyone to understand that we are working diligently to make sure that a year from now I can still tell you that they are several months away from having that capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking after one year on the job, Pompeo also said the CIA believes Kim would not only use nuclear weapons to stay in power, but to threaten to reunify the divided Korean Peninsula under his totalitarian regime. The quest for reunification is disputed by some North Korean experts who see Kim\u2019s nuclear program as primarily a means of retaining power and don\u2019t think he would threaten or forcibly try to take over South Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pompeo said North Korea\u2019s nuclear weapons program has developed at a \u201cvery rapid clip,\u201d but that Kim is hoping for an arsenal of nuclear weapons \u2014 \u201cnot one, not a showpiece, not something to drive on a parade route.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He wants the ability to deliver nuclear weapons from multiple missiles fired simultaneously. \u201cThat increases the risk to America,\u201d Pompeo said. It\u2019s unclear how well the United States could defend against multiple missiles fired from North Korea at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite his warning, Pompeo doesn\u2019t think a North Korean attack on the United States is imminent. He said the Trump administration is \u201claser-focused\u201d on achieving a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Americans should know that it is working to prepare a series of options so the president has the \u201cfull range of possibilities\u201d to address the threat. He wouldn\u2019t address the question of whether there are military options available to the U.S. that don\u2019t risk an escalation into nuclear war with North Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere is much effort all across the U.S. government to ensure that Americans don\u2019t have to feel at risk,\u201d Pompeo said. \u201cWe saw what happened in Hawaii. It is an imperative \u2014 an American, national imperative \u2014 that we as an intelligence agency deliver the information to our senior leaders such that they can resolve this issue in a way that works for the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier this month, a false alarm that a ballistic missile was headed for Hawaii sent the islands into a panic, with people abandoning cars and preparing to flee their homes until officials said the cellphone alert was a mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Associated Press writer Matt Pennington in Washington contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CIA Director Mike Pompeo said Tuesday that North Korea is moving \u201cever closer\u201d to putting Americans at risk and that he believes leader Kim Jong Un won\u2019t rest until he\u2019s able to threaten multiple nuclear attacks against the U.S. at the same time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":38288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,8,12,26,62],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3065],"class_list":["post-16397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-flashpoints","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"2ZJYKR7GJNEI7IAI2IGM4PNXQM","arc_canonical_url":"\/flashpoints\/2018\/01\/23\/cia-north-korea-moving-ever-closer-to-putting-us-at-risk\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n