Leon Panetta, current Director of the CIA and the Obama administration\u2019s pick for Secretary of Defense, believes that North Korea\u2019s ballistic missile program, uranium enrichment and one million-strong military poses a \u201cgrowing and direct threat\u201d to the United States. <\/p>\n
In response to written questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday, Panetta also wrote, \u201cI intend to monitor the security situation closely and maintain the capabilities necessary to protect our interests, defend our allies, and deter North Korea.\u201d<\/p>\n
Panetta added that there is a need for the United States to watch very carefully the development of North Korea\u2019s weapons of mass destruction, and that he would work closely with America\u2019s allies to do so.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the US State Department has called for North Korea to show restraint amid South Korean intelligence reports that it tested a KN-06 missile last week. <\/p>\n
Mark Toner, spokesman for the US State Department, said that the United States has not yet confirmed the missile test, adding, however, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t read too much into these kinds of tests. We\u2019ve seen these kinds of tests before.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Leon Panetta, current Director of the CIA and the Obama administration\u2019s pick for Secretary of Defense, believes that North Korea\u2019s ballistic missile program, uranium enrichment and one million-strong military poses a \u201cgrowing and direct threat\u201d to the United States. In response to written questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday, Panetta also wrote, \u201cI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":150,"featured_media":15629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n