The United States says North Korea has started developing its own road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in his latest annual unclassified Worldwide Threat assessment, the missile, the K-N-0-8, could be capable of hitting parts of the continental U.S., although it remains untested.
Experts in the U.S. are divided on whether Clapper's claim gives weight to whether Pyongyang is inching closer to developing a fully operational I-C-B-M that can carry a miniaturized nuclear weapon.
Then-U.S. Forces Korea Commander Army General James Thurman said in October last year that North Korea's "continued desire to develop long-range missiles" is apparent in any case.
