The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence organized a Congressional hearing to assess worldwide threats to America’s national security. Dan Coats, the Director of National Intelligence informed the committee that Pakistan is developing new nuclear weapons including the short-range tactical types that will primarily threaten the Pakistani region.
Pakistan was in the headlines recently after a group of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists attacked the Sunjuwan Military Camp in Jammu on Saturday causing seven fatalities. The US has also been vocal about Pakistan’s commitment to fighting terror. It accuses Pakistan of protecting and funding terror groups while it has given the nation military aid. The US withdrew it’s $255 billion military aid as a measure to pressure Pakistan to take action against terror groups in its jurisdiction.
India is also suffering because of Pakistan’s transgressions. It accuses the troubled country of issuing military aid and intelligence to terrorists who attack India in Jammu and Kashmir.
Dan Coats’ Findings
The National Intelligence Director unveiled new intelligence to the Senate Select Intelligence Committee implicating Pakistan’s position on nuclear weapons. He warned that Pakistan is now arming itself with short-range tactical weapons, air-launched and sea-based cruise missiles and longer-range ballistic missiles. Coat added that the new range of Pakistan’s arsenal will introduce new risks in the region. The risks may escalate insecurity and its dynamics in the region.
Besides Pakistan, Coats remarked that North Korea is among the top and most volatile nuclear threat to the US and its allies. He stated that North Korea possesses confrontational nuclear weapons of mass destruction putting them at the top of US’s threat list.
Donald Trump’s strategy to counter the North Korea threat is to pressure it into stopping its nuclear program. Some of these strategies are to effect economic sanctions on the country or rallying North Koreas neighbors and trading countries to stop dealing with the country.
US National Intelligence Analysis
North Korea is America’s greatest nuclear threat because of its history of exporting dangerous technology to foreign countries. North Korea has exported ballistic missile technology to countries like Syria and Iran. It has also assisted Syria to build a nuclear reactor which was destroyed in 2007. The prior information implies that North Korea could share the new technology it acquired in 2017 with other interested countries.
North Korea has been building and testing ballistic missiles since 2016. In its commitment to developing long-range nuclear-armed missiles that are capable of reaching the US, it tested its first Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles in 2017.
