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The intercontinental ballistic missiles are the a.b.a. system. we're not there yet. the technology isn't there. calculations so fast. it's like a bullet hitting a bullet. we feel confident in our ability to defend south korea and japan using the t.h.a.d. system. once you get beyond that, then the numbers don't look very good at all. if you look at the missile tests, the antiballistic missile tests it's about i think half of the tests are successful and they aren't. half is not good enough. talking launching nuclear weapons you need to be 100% sure you can do this. this is what's going towards ...

U.s. decision cycle down to almost nothing. everybody was hoping that these two technologies of the north koreans worked on, the missile technology, we could observe closely. we gather information on the capability. more difficult, assess the capability to develop this miniaturized nuclear warhead, which is the second piece of it. when you marry those two technologies, then you have a real capability. it appears that if this is true, the north koreans have achieved that capability. whereas, we thought in the past we had some time to let diplomacy work and the economic sanctions work. that deci...

Nuclear weapons. immediately going to our pentagon correspondent barbara starr. barbara, this would be a major, major breakthrough in north korea's nuclear capability if they had miniaturized these nuclear bombs so they could fit on these intercontinental ballistic missiles? >> reporter: that is absolutely right, wolf. the "washington post" reporting a short time ago, and let me quote from them -- north korea "has successfully produce add miniaturized nuclear warhead that can fit inside its missiles." so why is this so important? because this is one of the key steps that north korea's been try...

Is true, it seems like the north korean military kim jong-un's regime moved very, very quickly to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile with a miniaturized nuclear warhead and may already have according to the "washington post" as many as 60 nuclear bombs? >> yes, wolf. let's make a couple of assumptions here. number one, that the report is accurate. that the number of weapons that they have is accurate as well. but also bear in mind that # these estimates are essentially that. that they are estimates, but you have as barbara indicated, you have to plan for the very, very worst in this...

That's required to protect that nuclear warhead and when it reenters. you know, and the north koreans are good engineers. they'll figure this out. so i think we would be foolish to underestimate them. and i think we've all been taken a little by surprise been how fast and how effective this program has been, and i do agree with cedric, that no matter what we promise the north koreans, they're not going to give up this program. this is their ace in the hole. this is their deterrent capability. this makes them not just a third world country. >> yeah, it gives them the protection, the insurance t...