”‘The combination of loose nukes and political conflict is a nightmare scenario for the world,’ said Danny Russel, vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute, who dealt with North Korea as a National Security Council director at the White House and an assistant secretary of state for Asia. ’Political turmoil could lead a faction or a commander to brandish or — God forbid — launch a nuclear-armed missile.’
“Mr. Russel said that in the event of a leadership struggle, Washington’s immediate priority would be to ensure ’the security of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and material.’ But its work would be ‘handicapped by the intelligence community’s uncertainty about their exact whereabouts — something the North Koreans have gone to great lengths to conceal,’ he said..”