SEOUL (AFP) — Intelligence agencies have information that North Korea has assembled several nuclear warheads for its medium-range Rodong missiles capable of targeting Japan, an analyst said Tuesday.
Daniel Pinkston, senior analyst with the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, said the agencies believe that probably five to eight warheads have been assembled.
"Intelligence agencies believe the North Koreans have assembled nuclear warheads for Rodong missiles, which are stored at underground facilities near the Rodong missile bases," Pinkston told AFP.
"It might be right, it might be wrong -- but if others believe it is true, it has implications for the psychological aspects of deterrence," he said, describing the assessment as "quite significant."
Pinkston declined to identify his sources and said they had not shared their own sources with him.
In public at least, intelligence officials have not previously said that the communist North -- which tested a nuclear weapon in 2006 -- is capable of manufacturing nuclear warheads.
The North is preparing to test-fire its longest-range missile, the Taepodong-2, within the next few days, but is not believed to have created any atomic warhead for this.
The Rodong bases are in Pyongan, Jagang and Yanggang provinces, Pinkston said.
The missile have a maximum range of 1,300 kilometres (800 miles), putting Japan within their reach. The North has some 200 of them.
South Korea's National Intelligence Service could not immediately comment.
Pinkston said it would take one or two days to assemble the warheads since the plutonium and the detonating devices are stored separately.
He said the North is believed to have put the operation and maintenance of its nuclear weapons under the control of an organ separate from the army and directly run by leader Kim Jong-Il.
Pinkston said further details would be given in an upcoming report from the International Crisis Group, an independent non-profit organisation committed to preventing and resolving conflicts worldwide.
US, South Korean and Japanese envoys to the North Korean nuclear disarmament talks have discussed how to "maintain close coordination" if Pyongyang test fires a missile, an official said Monday.
US envoys Stephen Bosworth and Sung Kim each held separate meetings on Friday with their counterparts Wi Sung-lac of South Korea and Akitaka Saiki of Japan, according to Gordon Duguid, a State Department spokesman.
"The discussions were constructive and substantive," Duguid said.
"The parties discussed how to maintain close coordination in the event of needing to respond to a North Korean missile test, and how to improve the six-party process to move forward," Duguid said.
The remaining parties in the six-party disarmament negotiations are China and Russia.
Kim, the representative to the six-party disarmament talks, also hosted an informal trilateral meeting with his two counterparts on Friday, Duguid added.
Duguid had no further details on the talks involving Kim and Bosworth, who is the US representative on overall North Korea policy.
Japan's parliament Tuesday made a formal protest against North Korean plans to launch a rocket as early as the weekend, condemning what it described as a threat to peace in northeast Asia.
The upper and lower houses of parliament both unanimously passed a resolution protesting against the scheduled April 4-8 launch.
Pyongyang has said it will launch a communications satellite over northern parts of Japan, while the United States and its Asian allies suspect the launch is a cover for a long-range ballistic missile test.
Launching the rocket "would threaten the peace of not only Japan but also the region of northeast Asia," said the resolution, adding that Japan would "strongly urge North Korea to refrain from launching" the rocket.
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