PASADENA, May 2- The North
Koreans may have the capacity to
strike the west coast of the US
with a nuclear-tipped missile
"right now," according to at
least one expert, and many more
believe that the so-called 
"rouge state" has far more
nukes and strategic missiles
than official Washington is 
prepared to admit to.

"Enough nukes to turn Tokyo to 
ashes," said Roddy Verchenko,
Special Projects Director of the
Kiev-based Plutonium Institute.
"Yes, we are talking here of 
total incineration in a matter
of minutes," he continued. 

Despite the secrecy of
Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons
program, a certain outline has
begun to emerge over the past
three months.

Experts now largely agree that 
the secret government program 
never stopped functioning, 
despite early 90’s international 
agreements to that effect.

According to Verchenko, "Since
the alleged shut down deal with
Clinton, in actuallity it's been
full steam ahead."

As a result, "the North has a
ton more of this bad stuff then
we knew about even as late as
last fall," says Verchenko.

Even more revealing of
intelligence failure, according
to the private experts, is the
size and sophistication of
Pyongyang’s missile program.

"Right today, if availible
indications are not decieving us
again, North Korea has a very
significant real time force
capability. Far greater than
previously realized," said Curly
Horvath, Chief of Research for
the World ICBM Inventory,
prestigious report which is 
produced every two years by the
Vulcan center, a leading private
launch-system watchdog group 
based here in Pasadena.
  
"The range and strength of their
program really jumped out at us
this time around," Horvath said.
 
"I guess we kind of missed a big
one here the last few reporting
cycles," he conceded.

Asked what the system in place 
might be able to do, Horvath
responded, "As to distance,
surely they have at least 3 to 5
launch-ready systems that could,
with too little warning, hit us 
right here in Southern Cal even
as we are speaking."

"That's a bit creepy to
contemplate, isn’t it?" he added.

Given the obvious shock of the
news, most researchers are now
hastening to prevent a swing from
complacence to overreaction.

Several experts were in essential
agreement with Verchenko’s
assessment that despite these
startling revealations, 
North Korea is "hardly ten feet
tall."
 
According to Verchenko, much of
what they have was purchased "off
the shelf on black markets."

Also, "it's not exactly 
world-class stuff," says Horvath.
He sites as an example the
accuracy of their hitherto totally
unknown transpacific missiles. 

"Hey, listen here, about their 
accuracy, that's a whole different
story," he said. "Today, if
someone hired them to, let us
say...take out the Jay Leno Show.
Well, maybe they’d end up blowing
away Merle Haggart's birthplace 
over there in Bakersfield
instead."