Kim Jong-un speaks to the central committee of the Workers' Party of Korea in Pyongyang on Oct. 7. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
"[A]nalysts ... see signs that Mount Mantap, the 7,200-foot-high peak under which North Korea detonates its nuclear bombs, is suffering from 'tired mountain syndrome,'" the WashPost reports on A1:
Why it matters: "Chinese scientists ... have warned that further nuclear tests [by North Korea] could cause the mountain to collapse and release the radiation from the blast."
P.S. CIA Director Mike Pompeo said Thursday a Foundation for Defense of Democracies forum that North Korea is months away from perfecting its nuclear weapons capabilities, AP reports:
- Pompeo: "They are close enough now in their capabilities that from a U.S. policy perspective we ought to behave as if we are on the cusp of them achieving" their objective of being able to strike the United States.
- John Brennan, Pompeo's predecessor as CIA director, said at Fordham University in New York on Wednesday that the prospects of a military conflict on the Korean Peninsula "are greater than they have been in several decades": "I don't think it's likely or probable, but if it's a 1-in-4 or 1-in-5 chance, that's too high."