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Article snippet: WASHINGTON — American intelligence agencies have shortened their estimate — to one year — of how long it is likely to take North Korea to put the finishing touches on a missile that can reach the continental United States, according to several administration officials briefed on the new assessment. Until a few weeks ago, the official estimate was that it would take roughly four years, give or take 12 months, for North Korea to develop a missile that could carry a nuclear weapon small enough to fit into the missile’s warhead and capable of surviving the stresses of re-entry and deliver it to the United States. But the realities of the past few months, especially a July 4 test that crossed a major threshold — if just barely — has forced intelligence experts to conclude that their estimates have been too conservative. In the test this month, a missile carried a warhead 1,700 miles into space, and returned it at high speed in a sharp parabola. If the trajectory was flattened out, the missile could strike Alaska. That forced government experts, reflexively cautious after overestimating Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction 14 years ago, back to the drawing board. Behind the new assessment, officials said, was a growing recognition that they underestimated the determination of Kim Jung-un, North Korea’s leader, to race ahead with a weapon that could reach American soil, even if it is crudely engineered and inaccurate. General Paul Selva, the vice chairman of the Joint Chi... Link to the full article to read more