WASHINGTON, April 29 (UPI) -- U.S. spy agencies are convinced that North Korea is now able to build missiles that can deliver nuclear weapons to targets in California.
Vice Adm. Lowell Jacoby, the Defense Intelligence Agency chief, told senators that he and other spy masters believe the communist nation has the "capability" to put a nuclear weapon atop its missiles, though he did not say it had done so or even made the hardware for such a weapon, the New York Times reported Friday.
Jacoby said U.S. intelligence agencies judged that a two-stage Taepo Dong could strike parts of the U.S. west coast and that a three-stage version could probably reach all of North America.
President Bush echoed his remarks later Thursday at a news conference.
"There is concern about his capacity to deliver," he 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."
