North Korea will continue missile force modernisation, warns DIA chief

摘要

Despite international sanctions North Korea will continue to modernise and increase the survivability, lethality, and diversification of its missile force, US Army Lieutenant General Scott Berrier, the director of the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), said on 29 April. In a written statement to the US Senate Armed Services Committee, the DIA chief assessed that Pyongyang will continue its "nuclear, missile, and military modernisation efforts" this year, shifting to solid-propellant missile systems that can be prepared for launch more rapidly than its existing liquid-propellant systems. The lieutenant general said that North Korea's advances in missile technology, particularly in short- and medium-range systems "increasingly designed to evade missile defences", have already increased the threat posed to Japan and US forces deployed there, prompting Tokyo to respond with plans to bolster its sea-based missile defences and acquire stand-off capabilities.