Obama Urges N Korea to Stop Belligerent Approach

The US slammed North Korea’s belligerence Thursday and pressed China to rein in its ally, as US officials downplayed a chilling spy agency report that Pyongyang has a nuclear-armed missile.

The alarming assessment of the North’s nuclear capabilities, revealed by a US lawmaker at a congressional hearing, came as tensions on the Korean peninsula mounted over an expected missile launch by Pyongyang.

A senior official traveling with US Secretary of State John Kerry to Seoul, where he was due on Friday, again pressed China to encourage its wayward ally to stop its destabilizing nuclear activities and threats to the region.
US President Barack Obama said “nobody wants to see a conflict,” but claimed that his country was ready to take “all necessary steps to protect its people” and defend its allies in the region.
“We both agree that now is the time for North Korea to end the kind of belligerent approach that they’ve been taking,” Obama said after talks in the Oval Office with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
“It’s important for North Korea, like every other country in the world, to observe basic rules and norms.”

The top US official traveling with Kerry, who will also visit Beijing and Tokyo during his trip to Asia, said China had a key role to play in the crisis.
“China has a huge stake in stability, and the continued North Korean pursuit of a nuclear-armed missile capability is the enemy of stability,” the official said.
In Washington, Congressman Doug Lamborn, reading from an unclassified portion of a War Intelligence Agency report, said Pyongyang could be capable of launching a nuclear warhead, albeit an unpredictable one.
“DIA assesses with moderate confidence the North currently has nuclear weapons capable of delivery by ballistic missiles,” said the report, according to the Republican lawmaker. “However, the reliability will be low.”
But the Pentagon and the director of national intelligence quickly threw cold water on the assessment.
Pentagon spokesman George Little said it would be “inaccurate” to suggest North Korea had demonstrated the capabilities referenced by Lamborn — a remark echoed by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

South Korea was skeptical, with Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-Seok saying it was “still doubtful” that the North had produced a warhead small enough to fit on a missile.
Pyongyang has not officially announced a launch, but a state body in charge of inter-Korean exchanges stressed Thursday that “powerful strike means” had been put in place.