Britain's defense secretary just revealed something scary about North Korea's missile program
by Tom Rogan | Sep 11, 2017, 8:59 AM
Britain's secretary of defense, Michael Fallon, spoke on the BBC's primary Sunday morning show about Hurricane Irma, ZAPAD 17, Brexit, and North Korea. But Fallon's most revealing — and concerning — comment came when host Andrew Marr asked him about North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile capabilities: "Do you believe that North Korea has a ballistic missile capable of hitting London?"
Fallon responded, "Not yet, but they are clearly accelerating their missile program, the range is getting longer and longer."
The declarative nature of that statement: "not yet" and "longer and longer," its framing (short and precise phrasing), and source (the defense secretary), mean Fallon's comments offer a window into U.S. intelligence assessments. Because the U.K. has limited intelligence collection on North Korea (aside from human intelligence opportunities at its Pyongyang Embassy), we can be confident that Fallon's comments represent U.S. assessments rather than British. Deep U.S.-U.K. intelligence sharing means that Fallon would be given U.S. material.
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http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/britains-defense-secretary-just-revealed-something-scary-about-north-koreas-missile-program/article/2633987
