North Korea is on the verge of obtaining a ballistic missile made by China that can reach Alaska, a senior nuclear analyst told government and military officials Friday morning during a discussion about China’s nuclear prowess.
"North Korea either has or soon will have a nuclear-armed [intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)] that can reach Anchorage," said Richard D. Fisher, a senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center (IASC), a national security think tank.
The missiles were "made in China [and] given to North Korea," Fisher told attendees. "And I’m very, very sad to say our administration has said nothing publicly about this enabling of a direct threat to the U.S."
"China is in the process of making North Korea a nuclear ICBM state," Fisher said. "But our administration has said nothing about this."
However, a nuclear-armed North Korea may not be America’s most pressing problem, according to Fisher and other experts at the event, which was organized by the Air Force Association (AFA).
China may have more than double the amount of nuclear materials than previously estimated by the U.S. government, Fisher said.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could have anywhere from 200 to 400 nuclear warheads, based on conventional estimates by Western entities. The Pentagon estimates that the PLA has anywhere from 50 to 75 land-based ICBMs.
However, more recent investigate reports put this number at anywhere from 1,600 to 1,800 nuclear warheads, according to a recent investigation by retired Russian colonel general Viktor Yesin and reported on by the Free Beacon.
Yesin has reported that the PLA has up to 10 tons of plutonium and could produce up to 3,600 nuclear warheads.
Other experts dispute Yesin’s claims.
The PLA is additionally "working on a ballistic missile defense system" to combat possible Western attacks, according to Fisher, who said the system has been tested at least two times.
At the same time that China is engaging in a massive military buildup, its communist political system is disintegrating, according to Gordon Chang, author of The Coming Collapse of China.
"Today, senior leaders of the PLA are talking war [and about] fighting against us, and they may even use nuclear weapons," Chang warned.
The PLA is becoming less submissive to Communist party leaders, and even supplanting them, Chang said.
"This process of the remilitarization of politics and policy has gone so far that the PLA may be the most powerful faction inside the party," Chang said.
As the PLA gains power, it is becoming increasingly aggressive.
"As the military is becoming more powerful, it is pushing the country down a path of high force projection," Chang said, referring to recent regional land grabs by China.
"Beijing is bringing China into conflict with the U.S." through its behavior, he said.
Chang went on to criticize the Obama administration for capitulating to the PLA, and not issuing a public warning to China.
"Today we’re hearing war talk from the Chinese capital and today the country is an unappeasable state," Chang said. "Nobody in the White House wanted to confront the Chinese."
"Today," Chang added, "the Chinese are just like the Germans and are going to laugh at us when we draw a line because the Chinese don’t take us seriously and have pushed us around."
The White House’s silence only emboldens hard-line Chinese leaders.
"The PLA might think it might be able to get away with the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons," Chang said. We cannot give the Chinese the impression hat nuclear adventurism might work."