Courtesy of Bill Clinton.
Via Daily Mail:
An American scientist who has seen the North Korean nuclear secrets claims Kim Jong-un is not bluffing and that the White House should be concerned.
Dr Sig Hecker, who was once in charge of designing nuclear weapons for the US, was shown around the hermit kingdom seven times and each time was given access to confidential information.
The doctor, who the North Koreans knew would feed the information back to his bosses in America, held plutonium extracted at a secret complex in Yongbyon.
Combined with the country’s massive stock of uranium, it is estimated Kim Jong-un’s army has between 30 and 60 nuclear weapons at its disposal, according to Hecker.
Experts now believe Pyongyang has a better understanding of Washington than the other way around, which could be a stumbling block for Donald Trump.
Hecker told CBS: ‘I was immensely surprised by how much they showed me and with the openness with which they showed and explained that to me.’
He had been director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory – more commonly known as the birthplace of the American atomic bomb – for 11 years.
In 2004, he was invited for his first tour of Yongbyon, and he has returned six times since.
It was here he was given North Korean plutonium to hold – a heavy, radioactive metal encased in a glass jar.
The moment Hecker physically testified to the isolated nation’s nuclear might, the balance in Washington shifted.
‘It changed from one of “we don’t know exactly what they have, if they have enough to make anything” to the fact that they actually could have four to six bombs,’ he said.
The complex continues to be monitored by satellites orbiting above the country, and 14 years later it is thought the number of weapons has increased by at least five-fold.