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Assessing North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons Arsenal

North Korea’s nuclear weapons capability may be larger and advancing more rapidly than either the United States or China had estimated, according to Chinese experts cited in a US news report.

A report by the Wall Street Journal says Chinese specialists on North Korea who met with US officials in February told them “that North Korea may already have 20 warheads, as well as the capability of producing enough weapons-grade uranium to double its arsenal by next year.”

US officials have warned over the past year about the North’s progress in “miniaturizing” its nuclear arsenal to fit atop a missile, as well as its gains in three separate long-range rocket programs. One such rocket is an intercontinental missile designed to carry a payload more than 5,000 miles, theoretically putting it within range of California.

Recommended: Kim 101: How well do you know North Korea's leaders?

Sigfried Hecker, a Stanford professor who attended the meeting in February, confirmed the contents of the presentation. Pyongyang allowed Mr. Hecker to visit in 2010, when he reported seeing a large uranium-enrichment facility.

“Some eight, nine, or 10 years ago, they had the bomb but not much of a nuclear arsenal,” the Journal quoted Hecker as saying. “I had hoped they wouldn’t go in this direction, but that’s what happened in the past five years.”

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This Jan. 2, 2015, image provided by Airbus Defense and Space, Spot Image, and Pleiades - CNES via 3 …

The Chinese estimate of 20 nuclear devices, and the likelihood of more being produced, exceeds the Pentagon's previous estimates and underscores the threat to US military allies South Korea and Japan.

North Korea has repeatedly tried to test its nuclear arsenal, as Agence France Press reports.

A recent report by US researchers warned that North Korea appeared poised to expand its nuclear program over the next five years and, in a worst case scenario, could possess 100 atomic arms by 2020.

North Korea carried out nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013, and has an extremely active ballistic missile development programme, although expert opinion is split on how much progress it has made.

In 2012, Pyongyang demonstrated its rocket capabilities by sending a satellite into orbit, but it has yet to conduct a test that would show it had mastered the re-entry technology required for an inter-continental ballistic missile.

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In this Dec. 12, 2012 file image made from video, North Korea's Unha-3 rocket lifts off from the Soh …

In a story today the Voice of America quotes James Kim of the Asian Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul, asking why China was forthcoming with its intelligence on the North.

"China’s policy vis-à-vis North Korea has been changing for some time now. President Xi Jinping has yet to invite the North Korean head of state (Kim Jong-Un) for a summit meeting. Relations between China and North Korea have been cool for some time now," Kim said.

"But, the recent revelation has been somewhat of a surprise because it provides a rationale for the American allies now to bulk up their defenses vis-à-vis North Korea, and that’s now good news from China’s point of view," he said.

North Korea under the Kim dynasty has long cherished nuclear weapons as the ultimate defense and security bargaining chip. The Kim family claims a sovereign right to govern the Korean peninsula, including the South, and under its "Military First" policy pours a large part of its budget into defense.

In the 1970s, the North sought to obtain nuclear weapons from China and the Soviet Union. When that didn't happen, it developed its own program. For part of the 1990s and early 2000s, that program was subject to UN inspections, but after a series of confrontations with the Bush administration and the UN, then-dictator Kim Jong Il pulled out of the agreement. By 2006, the North had cut loose and successfully tested a nuclear device.

Kim Jong Un succeeded his late father in 2012 and immediately carried out a successful rocket test, after a series of failures, and then in early 2013 a successful third nuclear test.

Related stories

• Kim 101: How well do you know North Korea's leaders?
• US sanctions on North Korea may not touch Kim Jong-un
• North Korea chooses optimum moment to release Americans Bae and Miller
• North Korea's Internet down again. US spooks at work? (+video)

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Wrongful-death claim seeks unspecified punitive and compensatory damages

Former Officer Darren Wilson of the Ferguson, Mo., Police Department destroyed potentially crucial evidence shortly after fatally shooting Michael Brown, the slain teen’s family alleges in a lawsuit filed Thursday.

The unarmed 18-year-old was killed last August during a physical altercation with Wilson. A state investigation and a federal criminal civil rights probe resulted in no charges against Wilson.

But attorneys for the Brown family say the investigation was bungled from the beginning, when police supervisors allowed Wilson to leave the crime scene unescorted and return to the Ferguson Police Department, where he washed his hands and stored his weapon.

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Officer Darren Wilson's .40-caliber service weapon. (St. Louis Co. Prosecutor)

“Defendant Wilson returned to the police station and began destroying evidence and interfering with the investigation,” the lawsuit states.

According to his account, Wilson said he spotted blood on both hands while driving back and wanted to get clean it off for safety reasons.

“I immediately go to the bathroom,” he told a grand jury in September. “Just from everything that we have always been taught about blood, you don’t want it on you, you don’t touch it, you don’t come in contact with it.”

No photographs were taken before he washed his hands twice.

A few minutes later, Wilson put on rubber gloves, removed the one bullet he hadn't fired at Brown from his gun and put the weapon in an evidence bag. Prosecutors overseeing the grand jury asked him why he wore gloves to store the gun.

“To preserve any evidence on there,” he testified. “I knew his DNA was on that gun.”

David Klinger, an expert on police shootings, told the Washington Post in November that time-tested investigative procedures were not followed in the critical moments following Brown’s death.

“An officer driving himself back? Wrong. An officer booking his own gun into evidence? Wrong,” said Klinger, a University of Missouri-St. Louis professor who is also a former police officer.

The Brown family's lawsuit alleges that Wilson’s actions amounted to tampering with “critical pieces of evidence by destroying potential gun residue on his hands, blood, and/or DNA evidence, as well as compromising the integrity of his weapon, which had significantly probative evidentiary value.”

The officer’s gun is crucial to the case. Wilson, 28, said that Brown punched him in the face and tried to take his gun during their altercation. Because of his testimony and physical evidence at his patrol car, two investigations concluded that the officer had been in reasonable fear of his life to use deadly force.

Click image to read entire lawsuit.

According to a Department of Justice report, autopsy results, bullet trajectory, skin from Brown’s palm on the outside of the SUV door and Brown’s DNA on the inside of the driver’s door corroborate Wilson’s account that during the struggle, Brown used his right hand to grab and attempt to control Wilson’s gun.

But the Brown family continues to maintain that Wilson was the agitator.

They allege that Wilson started the physical confrontation by grabbing Brown’s shirt and neck, and then drawing his gun and pointing it at Brown.

“[Michael Brown] desperately attempted to break free from Defendant Wilson’s unlawful encounter in an effort to protect himself from further physical force by Defendant Wilson, including being shot,” attorneys write in the lawsuit.

Two shots were fired from the patrol car, one grazing Brown’s hand. The teen then ran down the street, where Wilson fired 10 more times from outside the vehicle. Autopsies ruled that Brown, who died at the scene, was struck at least six times.

Once back at the police station, the lawsuit alleges, some of Wilson’s actions were observed by Officer Barbara Spradling, a former supervisor to whom he was engaged at the time of the shooting. The couple has since married.

The Brown attorneys fault the city of Ferguson for failing to conduct a proper, fair, and impartial investigation.

“Defendant City ratified Defendant Wilson’s misconduct by failing to reprimand him for (1) Interfering with an internal investigation, (2) tampering with evidence, and/or (3) destroying evidence, as well as not reprimanding his fiancé for failing to intervene due to her having witnessed the destruction of and/or tampering with physical evidence.”

The wrongful-death suit seeks unspecified punitive and compensatory damages, including medical treatment for psychological damages. It also asks the court to order the Ferguson police to quit using patrol techniques that allegedly demean black residents. In addition, the suit requests that the court appoint a compliance monitor to oversee the Police Department’s use-of-force practices for five years or until all officers are effectively trained in constitutional requirements.

“I don’t have any comment,” City Attorney Stephanie Karr said in an email to Yahoo News.

An attorney for Darren Wilson did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Former Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson, also a defendant, told the Associated Press that he had not had a chance to review the allegations.

Brown family attorney Benjamin Crump told reporters in St. Louis that new forensic evidence planned to be brought forth for the civil case would shed light on the controversial shooting.

“The narrative of the law enforcement all across the country for shooting unarmed people of color is the same: that they had no other choice,” Crump said. “But time and time again, the objective evidence contradicts the standard police narrative.”

Jason Sickles is a reporter for Yahoo News. Follow him on Twitter (@jasonsickles).

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A week before a closely watched U.S. Supreme Court hearing on the issue, public support for gay marriage reached a new high in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, with 61 percent of Americans – more than six in 10 for the first time – saying gays and lesbians should be allowed to marry legally.

Identical or similar majorities favor gay marriage on two key issues before the court: Sixty-one percent oppose allowing individual states to prohibit same-sex marriages. And 62 percent support requiring states to recognize gay marriages performed legally in other states.

See PDF with full results, charts and tables here.

These views extend a dramatic, decade-long evolution in public attitudes on gay marriage - one of the most remarkable re-evaluations of views on a basic social issue in more than 30 years of ABC/Post polling. As recently as June 2006, just 36 percent of Americans said it should be legal for gays and lesbians to marry. That advanced to 49 percent in 2009, reached a majority, 53 percent, in early 2011, and, as noted, 61 percent now.

Further, “strong” support for allowing gay marriage exceeds strong opposition by 15 percentage points in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, matching the largest pro-gay marriage margin in intensity of sentiment on record. In a similar question in 2004, by contrast, strong opposition exceeded strong support by 34 points.

Other attitudes have moved in tandem. In ABC/Post polls last year, 65 percent said that being gay or lesbian is the way people are rather than the way they choose to be, up 16 points from 1994. Sixty-one percent also supported allowing gay couples to adopt children, up from 29 percent in 1992, and 78 percent said gays “can be as good parents as straight people,” up by 21 points from 1996. Eighty-one percent said business should not be allowed to refuse service to gays and lesbians; 65 percent said so even if the business owners object on religious grounds. (At the same time fewer, 50 percent, saw gay marriage as a constitutional right; 43 percent did not, with the rest unsure.)

These trends have been associated with increased familiarity with gays and lesbians. In polling by Gallup in 1983, 24 percent of Americans reported having a friend or acquaintance who was homosexual. That’s risen to three-quarters now.

Same-sex marriage is legal in 36 states, up from six three years ago, largely as a result of court rulings striking down gay marriage bans. As noted, the Supreme Court’s hearing next Tuesday focuses on two critical issues: whether the 14th Amendment to the Constitution – providing equal protection under the law – forbids states from banning same-sex marriages, and requires them to recognize such marriages performed elsewhere.

GROUPS -- While attitudes about gay marriage have shifted across groups, there still are sharp divisions. Age, ideology and partisanship strongly influence views on the issue. Support peaks at 78 percent among adults younger than 30, and falls to 46 percent among seniors. Eighty-three percent of liberals support gay marriage, as do 69 percent of political moderates; that falls to 47 percent among Americans who call themselves “somewhat” conservative and 24 percent among those who are very conservative. And support ranges from 76 percent of Democrats and 66 percent of independents to just 34 percent among Republicans.

Among other groups, support peaks among higher-income and more educated adults, and in the Northeast and West compared with the Midwest and South – but it’s at clear majorities across income, education and regional groups regardless.

However, as noted, there are changes across groups, albeit to different extents in some cases. Compared with 2006, support for gay marriage is up by 16 points among Republicans, as well as by 32 points among Democrats; up by 20 points among conservatives, as well as by 31 points among moderates; and up by 24 points among young adults, but also by 32 points among seniors.

METHODOLOGY -- This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by landline and cell phone April 16-20, 2015, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 1,016 adults. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 points. The survey was produced for ABC News byLanger Research Associates of New York, N.Y.

Well, the Nasdaq finally did it. It has climbed all the way back to where it was at the peak of the dotcom bubble. Back in March 2000, the Nasdaq set an all-time record high of 5,048.62. On Thursday, after all these years, that all-time record was finally eclipsed. The Nasdaq closed at 5056.06, and Wall Street greatly rejoiced. So if you invested in the Nasdaq at the peak of the dotcom bubble, you are just finally breaking even 15 years later. Unfortunately, the truth is that stocks have not been soaring because the U.S. economy is fundamentally strong. Just like the last two times, what we are witnessing is an irrational financial bubble. Sometimes these irrational bubbles can last for a surprisingly long time, but in the end they always burst. And even now there are signs of economic trouble bubbling to the surface all around us. The following are 11 signs that we are entering the next phase of the global economic crisis…

#1 It is being projected that half of all fracking companies in the United States will be “dead or sold” by the end of this year.

#2 The rig count just continues to fall as the U.S. oil industry implodes. Incredibly, the number of rigs in operation in the United States has fallen for 19 weeks in a row.

#3 McDonald’s has announced that it will be closing 700 “poor performing” restaurants in 2015. Why would McDonald’s be doing this if the economy was actually getting better?

#4 As I wrote about the other day, we could be right on the verge of a Greek debt default. In fact, we learned on Thursday that the Greek government has been “running on empty” for months…

Greece warned it will go bankrupt next week after failing to stump up enough cash to pay millions of public sector workers and its international debts.

Deputy finance minister Dimitras Mardas set alarm bells ringing yesterday when he declared the country had been ‘running on empty’ since February.

With a debt repayment deadline looming on May 1, Greece faces the deeply damaging prospect of having to snub its own employees to make a €200m payment to the International Monetary Fund.

#5 Coal accounts for approximately 40 percent of all electrical generation on the entire planet. When the price of coal starts to drop, that is a sign that economic activity is slowing down. Just prior to the last financial crisis in 2008, the price of coal shot up dramatically and then crashed really hard. Well, guess what? The price of coal has been crashing again, and it is already lower than it was at any point during the last recession.

#6 The price of iron ore has been crashing as well. It is down 35 percent in the last nine months, and David Stockman believes that this is because of a major deflationary crisis that is brewing in China…

There is no better measure of the true contraction underway in China than the price of iron ore. The Wall Street stock peddlers will tell you not to be troubled by the 70% plunge from the 2012 highs and the 35% drop just in the last nine months. According to them, its all the fault of the big global miners who went overboard opening up massive new iron ore pits and mining infrastructure.

#7 At this point, China accounts for more total global trade than anyone else in the world. That is why it is so alarming that Chinese imports and exports are both absolutely collapsing…

China’s monthly trade data shows exports fell in March from a year ago by 14.6% in yuan terms, compared to expectations for a rise of more than 8%.

Imports meanwhile fell 12.3% in yuan terms compared to forecasts for a fall of more than 11%.

#8 The number of publicly traded companies in the United States that filed for bankruptcy during the first quarter of 2015 was more than double the number that filed for bankruptcy during the first quarter of 2014.

#9 New home sales in the United States just declined at their fastest pace in almost two years.

#10 U.S. manufacturing data has been shockingly weak lately…

On the heels of weak PMIs from Europe and Asia, Markit’s US Manufacturing PMI plunged to 54.2 in April (from 55.7). Against expectations of a rise to 55.6, this is the biggest miss on record. Of course, this is ‘post-weather’ so talking-heads will need to find another excuse as New Orders declined for the first time since Nov 2014.

#11 When priced according to “the average blue-collar hourly wage“, U.S. stocks are the most expensive that they have ever been in history right now. To say that this financial bubble is overdue to burst is a massive understatement.

For a long time, I have been pointing to 2015 as a major “turning point” for the global financial system, and I still feel that way.

But for the first four months of this year, things have been surprisingly quiet – at least on the surface.

So what is going on?

Well, I believe that what we are experiencing right now is the proverbial “calm before the storm”. There is all sorts of turmoil brewing just beneath the surface, but for the moment things seem like they are running along just fine to most people. Unfortunately, this period of quiet is not going to last much longer.

And those that are “in the know” are already moving their money in anticipation of what is coming. For example, consider the words of Snapchat founder and CEO Evan Spiegel…

Fed has created abnormal market conditions by printing money and keeping interest rates low. Investors are looking for growth anywhere they can find it and tech companies are good targets – at these values, however, all tech stocks are expensive – even looking at 5+ years of revenue growth down the road. This means that most value-driven investors have left the market and the remaining 5-10%+ increase in market value will be driven by momentum investors. At some point there won’t be any momentum investors left buying at higher prices, and the market begins to tumble. May be 10-20% correction or something more significant, especially in tech stocks.

It may not happen next week, or even next month, but big financial trouble is coming.

And when it finally arrives, it is going to shock the world, even though anyone with any sense can see the coming crisis approaching from a mile away.

Associated Press Videos
Raw: Protesters Demand Justice for Maryland Man

BALTIMORE (AP) — No video captured what happened to Freddie Gray inside the police van where officers heaved him into a metal compartment after pinning him to a sidewalk. The cause of his fatal spine injury has not been revealed.

But a troubling detail emerged as hundreds of protesters converged on City Hall again Thursday: He was not only handcuffed and put in leg irons, but left without a seat belt during his trip to the station.

Unbelted detainees have been paralyzed and even killed by rough rides in police vans." It even has a name: "nickel rides," referring to cheap amusement park thrills.

Police brutality against prisoners being transported was addressed just six months ago in a plan released by Baltimore officials to reduce this misconduct. Department rules updated nine days before Gray's arrest clearly state that all detainees shall be strapped in by seat belts or "other authorized restraining devices" for their own safety after being arrested.

Gray was not belted in, said attorney Michael Davey, who represents at least one of the officers under investigation.

But he took issue with the rules.

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Protesters stand outside the Baltimore Police Department's Western District police station at th …

"Policy is policy, practice is something else," particularly if a prisoner is combative, Davey told The Associated Press. "It is not always possible or safe for officers to enter the rear of those transport vans that are very small, and this one was very small."

Commissioner Anthony Batts said there are no circumstances under which a prisoner should not be wearing a seatbelt during transport.

"He wasn't wearing a seatbelt and that's part of our investigation," Batts told The Associated Press on Thursday. "It's our responsibility to make sure people are safely transported, especially if their hands are behind their back."

Batts also said another man who was in the van during the tail end of Gray's ride told investigators that Gray was "was still moving around, that he was kicking and making noises" up until the van arrived at the station.

But Batts was careful to say that the investigation includes "everything the officers did that day."

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Protestors march for Freddie Gray through downtown Baltimore, Thursday, April 23, 2015. Gray died fr …

The Gray family's lawyer, Billy Murphy, said "his spine was 80 percent severed" while in custody. It's not clear whether he was injured by officers in the street or while being carried alone in the van's compartment.

But if it happened on the way to the station, it wouldn't be the first such injury in Baltimore: Dondi Johnson died of a fractured spine in 2005 after he was arrested for urinating in public and transported without a seat belt, with his hands cuffed behind his back.

"We argued they gave him what we call a 'rough ride,'" at high speed with hard cornering, said Attorney Kerry D. Staton. "He was thrown from one seat into the opposite wall, and that's how he broke his neck."

Staton obtained a $7.4 million judgment for the family, later reduced to the legal cap of $200,000.

It also has happened in Philadelphia, where police in 2001 barred transportation of prisoners without padding or belts after The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the city had paid $2.3 million to settle lawsuits over intentionally rough rides, which permanently paralyzed two people.

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Protestors march for Freddie Gray through downtown Baltimore, Thursday, April 23, 2015. Gray died fr …

Gray fled on foot and was captured on April 12 after an officer "made eye contact" with him outside a public housing complex, police said. Videos show Gray screaming on the ground before being dragged, his legs limp, into a van. Witnesses said he was crying out in pain.

Kevin Moore, a friend of Freddie Gray's who recorded video of his arrest, told The Baltimore Sun that police had Gray's legs bent "like he was a crab or a piece of origami."

Police procedures require officers to get immediate medical help if detainees need it, and to avoid aggravating any injury.

In Gray's case, he repeatedly asked for help during the trip, but the driver instead diverted to another location to pick up another prisoner.

For the first time, the fire department released a timeline for paramedics' response. Gray was arrested at 8:42 a.m. Paramedics received a call for an unconscious male at 9:26 a.m., Baltimore City Fire Department spokesman Captain Roman Clark said.

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Protestors gather outside of Baltimore's City Hall before a march for Freddie Gray, Thursday, Ap …

Medics arrived at the police station at 9:33 a.m., but didn't leave for the hospital until 9:54, arriving roughly an hour and 20 minutes after his arrest. Clark didn't say why it took more than 20 minutes to leave for the hospital once paramedics arrived.

"How did his injuries occur?" said Robert Stewart, a former chief who consults with police and the Justice Department on use of force. "These guys are picking up someone who is obviously injured."

The driver also has a responsibility to refuse to take a seriously injured prisoner to the station if he belongs in a hospital, Stewart said.

"If I'm the officer in the wagon, if the guy's hurt, I'm not taking him," he explained.

All six officers involved in Gray's arrest have been suspended with pay while under criminal investigation. Davey, whose firm is on contract with the Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3, said five of the six officers gave voluntary statements the day of Gray's arrest, and one — he didn't say who — declined to speak with investigators.

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Angela Hazel reacts during a moment of silence before a protest march for Freddie Gray, Thursday, Ap …

It's quite common for prisoners to yell and complain, saying they've been injured or feel sick or that their handcuffs are too tight.

"You have to make a judgment call: is this a tactic, something to distract me?" said Lt. Luis Fuste of the Miami-Dade Police Department. "You're taught that these things are often done with an ulterior motive."

Yet Fuste and other law enforcement experts say rough rides aren't typical, and aren't worth the trouble to officers.

"Once he is a prisoner he is absolutely your responsibility," said Peter Moskos, a former Baltimore officer who teaches law and police science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. "Even if there was no malign intent, even if there was no assault, he's your prisoner. He goes into the wagon alive, he can't come out dead."

The Department of Justice is investigating whether Gray's civil rights were violated, and an internal police investigation will be delivered by May 1 to the state's attorney's office, which will consider filing any criminal charges.

But some details have already been made public as authorities try to restore trust with a community demanding transparency and justice.

Commissioner Anthony Batts said Monday that officers repeatedly ignored Gray's requests for medical attention before he was hospitalized in critical condition. "He asked for an inhaler, and at one or two of the stops it was noticed that he was having trouble breathing," Batts said. "We probably should have asked for paramedics."

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Associated Press Writers Dave Dishneau and Jeff Horwitz contributed to this story from Baltimore. Anderson reported from Miami. They can be reached at http://twitter.com/Miamicurt, http://twitter.com/ddishneau and http://twitter.com/JulietLinderman