REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, TOKYO -- The possibility North Korea has the capability to miniaturize nuclear warheads cannot be ruled out, according to a Japanese government official.

"North Korea is a very closed society and one cannot say for certain, but based on North Korea behavior and the nuclear test of Jan. 6, this is the government's judgment," said Akira Nagatsuma, a politician of the opposition's Democratic Party of Japan, quoted from UPI.

Yonhap reported Tokyo has made similar claims in the past, when tensions escalated due to North Korea provocations in 2013.

Miniaturizing a nuclear weapon is one key part of building a nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile. So far, only the United States and the Soviet Union/Russian Federation are known to have possessed nuclear weapons programs developed and funded well enough to manufacture miniaturized nuclear weapons.

Both the United States and the Soviet Union have acknowledged producing nuclear weapons small enough to be carried in specially-designed backpacks during the Cold War, but neither have ever made public the existence or development of weapons small enough to fit into a normal-sized suitcase or briefcase. It has also been reported that Israel has produced nuclear warheads small enough to fit into a suitcase.

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