North Korea Handful of Month from Being Able to Hit US with Nuclear Weapon

"Here's what we can say. We can always identify that the program is continuing. … We'll never know the exact nature of what's taking place. We'll never know the exact moment that they're going to continue," Pompeo said in an interview with CBS.

"But the core risk that the policymakers needed to know was that North Korea's nuclear weapons program is continuing to expand, advance, become more powerful, more capable, more reliable. Each of those things had been shared with policymakers," he added.

When asked how long it would be until North Korea would be able to hit the mainland US with a nuke, Pompeo stressed that "A handful of months".

Norah O'Donnell pressed Pompeo on this assertion, citing the fact he used similar phrasing just months ago, and Pompeo replied "It's true. I hope to be able to say it a year from now as well. … The United States government is working diligently to extend that timeline."

Tensions have been building on the peninsula following a series of nuclear and missile tests by Pyongyang as well as threats of war and personal insults traded between US President Donald Trump and the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Trump and Kim have exchanged a series of personal insults, with Trump calling Kim a "little rocket man" and "mad man" and Pyongyang calling the US president a "mentally deranged dotard" and "old lunatic".

In 2017, North Korea carried out 20 ballistic missile launches, while the United States and its allies, for their part, are constantly conducting far-reaching sea drills in the region. The parties are exchanging tough rhetoric and admit that any scenario - including military action - is possible.

Pyongyang has also fired a ballistic missile which splashed down in the Sea of Japan. North Korean leader personally oversaw the launch of the ICBM, which Pyongyang claims is a Hwasong-15, tipped with super-large heavy warhead and capable of hitting the whole mainland of the US.

Pyongyang has firmly defended its military program as a deterrent against the hostile policies of the US and its regional allies, including South Korea and Japan. North Korean officials have time and again accused their American counterparts of seeking regime change in their country.

Washington’s decades-long military presence in and around the Korean Peninsula has forced Pyongyang to develop its ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons as a deterrent against Washington's aggression.

Washington, Tokyo and Seoul have also held a series of high-profile war games near the Korean Peninsula over the past months, amid an ongoing standoff over Pyongyang's development of ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads, as both South Korea and Japan – despite tense relations amid disputes over history and territory – are allies and look to the US for their security.

The United States has thousands of troops in the region, partially in South Korea and Japan, and routinely threatens the North with military action to stop its weapons program.