North Korea Missile Threat

The head of America's military intelligence says that North Korea has mastered the technology for arming its missiles with nuclear warheads.While Vice-Admiral Lowell Jacoby, the defense intelligence agency chief, told the Senate on Thursday that North Korea was judged to have the "capability" to top its missiles with nuclear warheads he stopped well short of saying it had done so.Even so, his assessment if correct could involve a threat to Japan and even the western US, and goes further than anything officials have previously declared publicly.President George Bush later admitted he was worried about the progress North Korea had made on its nuclear program under its leader, Kim Jong-il."There is concern about his capacity to deliver," Mr Bush said. "We don't know if he can or not, but I think it's best when dealing with a tyrant like Kim Jong-il to assume that he can."Intelligence agency officials meanwhile, sought to play down Admiral Jacoby's testimony by saying he had misspoken.They said the assessment by intelligence agencies of North Korea's nuclear missile capability had not changed.