Sankei Shimbun Says N. Korea has “Several Nuclear Warheads”

The U.S. government has unofficially told Japan on March that North Korea already possesses several small nuclear warheads that could be carried by ballistic missiles, Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun said on Friday.

The number of nuclear warheads that North Korea has is "not just one or two," the paper suggested that North has more than two nuclear warheads, citing related Japan officials and U.S. officials.

According to Japanese military sources, the nuclear warheads that North Korea possesses can be loaded in Daepodong-1 and Daepodong-2 and they are small warheads weighing about 750 kg to 1,000 kg each. .

However, as it is not clear how the United States obtained the information, so reliability of the information is still doubtful, the Sankei said.

On this report, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said “although there are various types of information coming, I can not say anything definite yet."

Shigeru Ishiba, head of the Japan Defense Agency, also said that "it is not a quite convincing to believe (that North possesses them considering the level of North`s technical capability), but it was not entirely impossible for North to possess nuclear arms.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last year that North Korea is likely to already have one or two nuclear weapons, but he did not say the details such as if it can be loaded by missiles, or what stage of development they were at.

Hun-Joo Cho hanscho@donga.com